south east latic

Gardner made lots of stupid errors last night but his endeavour and dynamism means he’s fairly irreplaceable with what we’ve got. Take him out and that central midfield will be completely toothless. He’s as frustrating as they come, which is probably where lots of the stick comes from, but take him out and we really would struggle in the middle of the park.

Fundamentally it comes down to a lack of squad depth and quality. The intent was there last night and the set up was correct with the tools that Frankie has at his disposal. The one thing he can’t do is put it in the net for them. We’ve been dealt a shit hand by our owner who hasn’t got a proverbial pot and who said us up for failure by cobbling together a squad on peanuts. Our options up front without Surridge are embarrassing. Last night I was willing Frankie to make a sub and freshen things up but there was no one (no, not even Jose) who was going to be an improvement on what we had out on the pitch which says a lot.

Notts 3-1 Latics (1-0) Miller 4,895

Stevenage 1-0 Latics (0-0) 2,251

Northampton 2-0 Latics (0-0) 5,189

Latics 1-0 (0-0) Clarke 3,626

Latics 2-0 (0-0 Surridge 4,438

Nixon gets most of what he posts right. The only thing I recall him getting wrong was saying Doyle wouldn’t be joining. Even then, Doyle may not have been signing at the time of writing before circumstances changed.

Gerrard may or may not be right about the state of the club but the way he went about it stinks and abusing fans is inexcusable. He’s a tit. Very much hoping his over-inflated ego takes a hit today but fear that we need Surridge in order for that to happen.

Latics 2-0 Carlisle (1-0) Surridge 4,875

On paper, yesterday’s point was a good one - away at a decent side who just stuck four past their last opponents on Saturday. But unfortunately there has to be some form of entertainment value too or you just can’t expect people to show up. I understand setting up with a defensive mindset but playing Miller and O’Grady together means you’re going to be constantly under pressure as neither hold the ball up well enough and neither run the channel. At least when Baxter came on he got closer to them to try and pick up any scraps. I’d have been well pissed off had I gone last night and watched our non performance despite a point being a decent result. In response to some of the posts on here, Frankie clearly has some idea of what he’s doing or we wouldn’t be 8th but he has got to learn a few lessons - one of which is that fans can’t be expected to turn up when the team is set up so poorly.

Good stat, but for context most of Baxter's minutes have come in the final 1/3 of games when 41.4% of goals have been scored in the league so far this season. Ie whilst undoubtedly Baxter has a positive attacking impact, he's also played most of his minutes in the most 'open' periods of games. He's definitely not had the impact I'd have hoped for so far and he definitely doesn't look 100% yet. Having said that, his vision and touch as soon as soon as he gets the ball sets him above everyone else on the pitch at this level and if we can get 90 mins out of him consistently he'll have a massive part to play this season.

Mansfield 1-1 Latics (0-0) Clarke 3,894

Swindon 2-1 Latics HT 1-0 Gardner 6,252

Latics 1-1 Col U (0-1) 4,249 Surridge

I can also confirm the £2.50 fish and chips. Quality.

Loved today. We were pretty rank in the first half but at this level in particular it seems to be all about taking your chances and in Surridge we have someone who will do that. Grimsby were very poor but we can only beat what’s in front of us. Iverson, Clarke, George, Hunt and Surridge stood out for me today. I know it’s not cool to say it but our support again was fantastic. Vocal throughout. Enjoying being at the right end of the table for a change.

Grimsby 0-1 Latics HT 0-0 Surridge 5,601

Latics 1-1 Newport HT 0-1 Surridge 4,507

Latics 1-0 Crawley HT 0-0 Surridge 3,951

Hoping for 7-9 but expecting 4-5. Think we’ve been a little fortunate so far that we’ve come up against a couple of the poorest teams in the league and whilst none of the next three are world beaters, they will provide more of a challenge. That being said, if we can bring in a couple of additions this week we won’t be far off being a decent team ourselves.

Morecambe 0-2 Latics HT 0-1 Baxter 3,051

Yeovil 0-1 Latics (0-1) Surridge 2,326

Latics 1-0 Macc HT 1-0 Lang 4250

I’ve been fairly critical of AL up until now as, whilst the odd token gesture like a free scarf and cheaper match day prices are nice, there has been too much going wrong both on and off the pitch if rumours are to be believed. Crazy wages on poor players, the disappearance/sackings of members of staff, late payments etc don’t point towards a successful ownership. I’ve been equally critical of our transfer window this summer as we’ve not strengthened in any way. However, if he’s to be believed here and he’s had to spend vast sums to get us out of the shite left by his predecessor, it’s no surprise that the playing side of things has had to take a back seat. It sounds as though he’s finally got us back to a place where he’s not spending money ‘catching up’ but is now able to spend in a progressive way - hopefully that includes on the pitch. Based on this, I’m willing to be a bit patient and see what happens in the next 18 months. He’s admitted he’s made mistakes, now let’s see if he’s learned from them. We don’t have much choice but to give him our backing and if his statement is true, he’s pumped enough money in to justify that in the short term.