south east latic

Northampton wasn’t it? But yes, some captain that.

First 15 was good, then we fell into our usual habits of pumping it long fairly aimlessly. That being said, Bromley are clearly a decent side and a point in isolation isn’t a bad result. In terms of style of play, we really all just need to get used to it for now. Whether it’s Mellonball or Mellon making the most out of what he has, I don’t think we have the players to effectively play any other way. None of our midfielders have shown they’re capable of dictating a game and we have no one in the team with pace who wants to take the ball on the half turn and run at the opposition (Green the exception if we’re being generous, but he’s injured). What’s most frustrating for me is we have the best set of strikers for the level we’re at that I can remember yet we’re so poor in wide/creative areas that they hardly have a sniff. Think last night also showed the importance of Hammond as the only midfielder willing to break opposition lines, even if his end product is questionable.

In the context of the 90 mins, today was a car crash. Players looked leggy from minute 1 and everything that was good about Tuesday wasn’t there today. I’m not sure anyone really comes out of that with any credit and with a good, boisterous crowd it’s a missed opportunity to accelerate the feel good factor. In the broader context, it’s another blip in a frustratingly inconsistent season. I think we’ll finish in the top 7 and we can expect improvements from Conlon and Dallas in particular as they get sharper but it doesn’t make today any less disappointing.

I’m in the camp of not really caring about the FA Trophy. Even if we did make it to the final, it’s that weird non-league day set up where they have the Vase final followed by the Trophy final. A number of people in the ground are neutrals and I imagine it’s a very strange atmosphere. It’s certainly not what I have in mind when I think about roaring latics on in a big game at Wembley. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be looking at winning every game but I’d have done exactly what Mellon did yesterday in terms of giving the squad players a game. If they can’t beat Hendon, they can’t be relied upon in the run-in. Resting the better players in these games lessens the chance of needing to rely on the squad players later on. It is yet another embarrassment at the foot of some our ‘professionals’.

Mellon being one of them I’d imagine. It’s possible to be delighted with the result and what it does to our league position whilst thinking it was a poor performance today.

No doubt it’s a stupid thing to post but I also don’t get what they’re moaning for - being in on for a couple hours on Christmas Day is pretty standard in professional football. They’d have as much leeway as they wanted if they’d been even half competent this season but given how they’ve performed, they’re lucky if they’re not in all day. Think fans have a right to be miffed though I can’t say their attitude surprises me.

Yes, I wouldn’t have posted it if not. There were comments questioning the line up, criticising him for dropping certain players, comments that only Mellon can’t see that Norwood feels he’s untouchable, comments suggesting he couldn’t deliver a ‘rocket’ because of his demeanour, comments about his management style being slow and pedestrian etc etc. No problem calling a spade a spade, the first half was crap. But we’ve finally got a proven winner in charge, just let him get on with it rather than looking for faults is my point. Ultimately the line up he picked and the rocket he presumably delivered won the game.

It wasn’t great and the goal we conceded was amateur but that was about the only thing Solihull created too, it was just a poor game. Not for the first time Mellon found a way of turning it around which is why it’s not worth getting hysterical until the game is done. I don’t know how to quote the posts in a reply but there’s at least 3 calling Mellon out for something. Not sure why you took my post so personally…

Some properly embarrassing posts during the first half in this thread calling out Mellon. First half was crap but these players have proven time and again that, as a collective, they aren’t up to it consistently. Second half was so much better and whatever Mellon said to them worked. 5 promotions is it he’s won? More promotions on his CV than we’ve had in best part of 70 years. Let him crack on ffs. It won’t get fundamentally better until we’ve undone some of the recruitment mess of the past 18 months but Mellon’s already shown enough to earn time from us fans without people getting on his back

I see it another way that they were poor from defence upwards because we kept them at arms length. The sideways and backwards football is one way of stopping the opposition from attacking and I think contributed to an improved defensive performance. What we now need to get better at is the killer ball and taking the opposition on; I just don’t think we have the players in the squad to do it. That being said, we should have scored at least 3 on Saturday.

We were extremely unlucky not to keep a clean sheet on Saturday for my money. Did Hudson have a save to make other than the penalty? I don’t think an opposition team have created less against us than that this season

Maybe, but I wasn’t very patient under Unsworth because from what I could see, there was never any discernible progress on the pitch. What I’ve seen over the last couple of games (excluding Newport as can’t comment on that) is better on the whole than what we’ve produced since we were relegated. I am happy (well, not happy but you know what I mean) to be patient if I can see progress. I’m also happier to be patient now we have someone who has the credentials to sort things out and seems to see what I see. I don’t think we have much choice but to be patient until the opportunity arises to make some additions to the squad.

I agree, feels like the pod has swung the other way since the Mellon appointment and become possibly a little more negative in its view. The Eastleigh game for me was a slight evolution on the Altrincham game before it in the sense that while there was still a lot of predictable, slow backwards and sideways passing (particularly in the first half), we created a lot more and really should have run out comfortable winners. We are hamstrung at the moment by the complete lack of pace and guile in attacking areas coupled with having no one in midfield willing or able to carry the ball forward. Kitching and Lundstram are the only two remotely capable of that. It will require personnel changes for us to become more dynamic. Until that point, incremental improvements are about as good as it’s going to get and if we play like we did second half for 90 mins, I think we win most games still at this level.

Some comments on here after Rochdale suggesting we’d go unbeaten for the rest of the season were laughable. We still have the same deficiencies in the squad thanks to Unsy and our wonderful recruitment team and until they’re addressed, we’re going nowhere. Deficiencies combined with the lack of effort on show last night is a recipe for disaster. Last night was probably the worst performance I’ve ever seen and some of Mellon’s decisions were definitely questionable. But he’s two games in and, as above, it might be no bad thing that he’s got to witness that horror show first thing early doors. I’m resigned to the best we can hope for this season being sneaking into the play offs which is far from good enough but ultimately where we’re at.

A very disappointing evening. Low crowd, flat atmosphere (again) and the third poor performance on the bounce. 13 points from these 5 games would have been a fair target given the opposition and we’ve now fallen short of that. The squad is unbalanced, the players look unfit and we’re still unable to look after the football and create opportunities going forwards. Thankfully we have Hobson at the back who has prevented a few goals in recent games. We looked composed against York, decent for 45 mins against Oxford and have been crap since. It’s disappointing that we’re still churning out such abject performances given the investment in the squad. I think we’re at the stage where the manager decision needs to be made so we can crack on with getting a couple of players in key positions in. Thompson’s steadied the ship but he either needs backing or we need to get a new man in (which would be my preference).