Steve_R

I think you could be spot on there. I’m sure Nuttall will start, and as Norwood has been playing and scoring for Barnsley pre season and apparently training here this week he obviously fit enough to start. I don’t think Dickinson played much last season (if at all) so he’ll probably have to bide his time, so think Ward will stay on the left for now. I’d probably start with Fondop and Norwood up front, but I’m sure Unsworth knows a lot more than me so I’ll leave it to him.

I’ve not seen enough of Willoughby to be demanding he starts, and think Unsworth’s getting some unfair stick here. All this ‘why sign him and not play him’ seems over the top to me. The season hasn’t even started yet so let’s see how it unfolds. As we have four strikers one of them is going to be fourth choice, and as Unsworth signed three of them there’s a fair chance he’ll have ‘chased’ whoever it is. It looks like it’s Willoughby at the moment but let’s see what happens first before condemning him for not picking him.

I’ve no idea what you’re on about, but I expect us to win on Saturday and am confident we will. It seem that if anyone expects us to challenge at the top of the table this season and thinks that we will, then apparently they don’t really think that. They’re setting the bar too high so they can have a right good moan when we’re underneath it. The ones who feel positive are really the negative ones it would appear.

A lot (like me) will have snapped them up straight away to make sure we got one given the short notice of the go ahead for the game. Unless we sell them all and they give us more we’ll never know how many we would have sold. If they don’t then we can all make up numbers and have that smugness about our great away support that we do better than most.

Exactly. Despite the fact that they’ve been under a transfer embargo for twelve months, lost plenty of players in that time without being able to replace them, had no pre season as such, they ‘re hanging by a thread and their owner is still their ripping the heart and soul out of the club and have only 14 registered players, they’ve no excuses.

It baffles mean when people moan about people moaning about the season ahead, when it hasn’t even started yet. it’s almost like they want it to happen so they can moan about the moaners

You can play good football this level, it doesn’t have to be grim. Wealdstone and Gateshead knocked it about really well against us, and we couldn’t beat either of them. Ok, we finished above both of them (as we should), but Gateshead’s record in the second half of the season was almost identical to ours, and that was the only part of the season that counted apparently

The season started in August, not January

Maybe if you’ve prepared to pay someone to do it, but the reason it’s in that state in the first place is because they haven’t been. I really hope to be going there on Saturday, but in reality the main thing is they survive as a club and get rid of their toxic owner.

He didn’t have to mention him at all. He could have just said we have options for that position

It is surprising we haven’t signed a right back, as it was glaringly obvious all last season that we needed one. In a recent interview Unsworth didn’t seem overly concerned about it, saying he was more than happy to play Sutton there, then not doing so. I do agree that we need to sign the right one, not just plug the gap with somehow has played there, and as there is no transfer window we can take our time. With the season almost upon us though we’ll have to pay good money to get one in now, and if our target starts the season well that fee will only increase.

The midfield is still the problem. I really hope Lundstram is as good as everyone thinks he is, because we need some drive and energy to spur the side on. I don’t know what Ward’s best position is but if it’s left midfield I hope he’s better at it than he showed yesterday. Contrary to popular opinion I thought Fondop and Nuttall did ok, but overall the side looked unbalanced. I read the arguments about what formation we played, and I could really work it out myself. More worryingly, it appeared neither could Hobson or Green, who both seem to get caught in between two positions. Overall though a good workout against a decent team. Despite not scoring we created a good few chances, and Raglan looks like he’ll be a class act at this level. Some good points, some ‘same old’ problems, but it’s on to the real stuff next week now.

Why should anybody stop saying he was our top scorer when he was our top scorer

Can’t say I’m Nuttall’s biggest fan but thought he did ok today, and thought him and Fondop looked lively and pressed well. The striker who disappointed me most today was Reid, who missed and absolute sitter and didn’t contribute much else, and he’s probably my favourite of the lot. The midfield still worries me. Keillor Dunn was buzzing about all over the place for them, whereas ours were far too static and poor in possession. Overall though, if the manager is happy and learned a bit more about the squad, and the players know more about what he wants and feel a lot better with the games in their legs, then pre season has done its job. We’ll find out how good a job once the season get’s going

I thought the recruitment committee assembled the squad, or that’s what the podcast lads say

Looking at the fixtures I’ll be well pissed off if we’re not heading to Chesterfield with three wins out of three

Did he give any reason why the B team has been binned off, as that was one of the first thing he mentioned he was going to introduce when he got here

I’m no expert in how bookies work out their odds, but any team that finishes third, loses the playoff final on penalties and keeps hold of all it’s best players, is more than likely to start the next season as favourites

Was he the player with the big Affro who played in the covid season under Kewell?

It seems every game, no matter what happened in it, ends up in a Nuttall’s shit/No he isn’t debate.

Obviously. A good work out today though. I’ve no idea how good Curzon are but it’s another game in the payers legs and they’re looking sharper, which is all pre season is about

Signed part way through the season, a decent defender from memory. It was a long time ago though

What’s happened with him? Not figuring pre season, not gone anywhere else and now not even training with the first team apparently. I thought the days of freezing players out were over.

And secretly, and not so secretly in some cases, we all love a good moan.

I think we need to see what team Unsworth starts the season with instead of condemning him for going with Nuttall before he’s even done it