Hands on

The All Blacks are a team with history and pride. Black, as opposed to drab blue, is also another aggressive colour. Lactics are a collection of footballers pulled together each season with, it seems, no sense of the clubs history or any pride. The kit looks very nice when hanging in the shop but it does nothing for the players. At least with the Zen advert they don't disappear into the background at the Chadddy end. How anyone can have gone to the Walsall and Stevenage games and not seen the impact of the different kits is beyond me. The red stood out and the drab blue did not. British cycling is so good because they look into every aspect of performance/training and kit - just small incremental changes but so many of them. I have just witnessed another significant slump in support - fewer people on a Saturday than the previous Tuesday game. 6,500 to 3100 in a decade. God help us!

Interesting how little some of you understand psychology. The problem on the pitch is not simply the quality of the players - he has got them all looking over their shoulders, lacking confidence and self belief and all after such a good pre season. And so to colours - IT DOES MATTER For example: "The colour red is usually associated with dominance and importance. Evolutionary anthropologist Russell Hill at the University of Durham, explored whether athletes wearing red might outperform others. Hill analysed the results from Olympic boxers and wrestlers who had been randomly assigned red or blue outfits, and again the results were remarkable. Across both sports there was a clear trend – winners wear red. Just search the web. Ask yourself why do most goalkeepers wear bright colours and not pale blue? Use your brains!

It was clear evidence that PD feels he is under pressure. The 4 1 4 1 line up at home was inexcusable. It is almost as if he no longer has the stomach to fight on and wants to be sacked. He changed to 4 4 2 with Smith but should have put Taylor on as well. PD was booed at half time not the team.

Couldn't understand the colour change pre season and now It looks much worse. We have a 6'3" goal keeper in pale blue and the rest in a drab blue. Walsall in red and Stevenage in red and white were bigger but the brighter more aggressive colour makes then appear bigger still.

Started 4 1 4 1 and played badly with Simpson completely ineffective. Confidence has gone. Gave away another goal. PD was booed at half time not the team. Somebody must have told PD to change things and Smith came on into a 4 4 2. Looked much better. Tarky made another bad error and was taken off - PD ignored him as he walked by. Defence looked even better and we could have won the game had we seen 45 more minutes of this.

If a dog is badly behaved you blame the owner. If a football team, by inference, continues week in week out to ignore the manager you don't blame the football team. It is this that worries me. However, all this carping is counter productive because if there is so little money for the team then where would the money come from to sack PD and pay another manager. The Prozac stats suggest that we should judge PD on his performance this season. After two years of finishing roughly where we should we all want better and if PD can't do it.....

Slew injured himself when he trapped the ball on the edge of the box and turned to strike it wide of target. Can't see him ever getting injured in open play as he shies away from every confrontation. So far no pace, no heart and no commitment.

I like the detailed analysis. I thought Furman was so cautious because M'Changama was charging about all over the place. I also felt M'Changama could have done more with less effort as he seemed to me to be running out of position and I felt this resulted in Croft being drawn inside. The right side defence is a problem for Croft because neither Byrne nor James have the pace to get back should they go forward - I suspect Byrne would be more adventurous if he had a faster CM inside but that isn't going to happen. There is hope with this group of players but my hope has been downgraded to survival after what I have seen so far. Smith must wonder why he is at the club when Slew and Taylor are both ranked above him. Give him a run PD he couldn't do worse and might develop into the target man we desperately need. Where are the words of encouragement from PD on the website?

From a Main Stand moaner! Would have won the game but for the back pass - neither team looked like scoring. Croft certainly covered some distance but does anyone remember a decent cross. Montano has promise but that is a future thing. Slew has no interest in any sort of contact and injured himself when he finally turned and hit the ball wide of the goal. Simpson was used repeatedly as a target man but as he had no support what was the point. Back 4 OK. Cisak has yet to find the form he had before his injury. M'voto had at least three clubs watching him tonight - god help us if they want him! The team has to grow a backbone and yes one injury has revealed the lack of depth. Two points thrown away. Three points on Saturday a must or this will go from bad to worse.

Statistics can prove anything! There is a correlation between average attendance and league position. I know to some extent this is self fulfilling because performance does have an effect on attendance but with the wages cap you would think it would become more obvious as time goes on. What then happened last year? The average attendance at Boundary Park, League 1 games only, has reduced by a third over the last decade (2002/3 to 2011/12). Comparing those clubs that were also in League 2 in 2002/3 only Tranmere has shown a similar drop. Wycombe has lost a fifth, Brentford remained the same and Chesterfield, Colchester, Huddersfield & Notts County have all increased their gate. Comparing final position with average attendance is interesting. The top three all finished in the top three. 4th, Huddersfield came 4th. Latics with the 16th highest average attendance came 16th. 16 of the 24 teams came within two places of their ranking on attendance. 3 teams, Chesterfield, Exeter and Preston did significantly worse than their average attendance ranking and three teams, Bury, Colchester and Stevenage did significantly better. So there is a chance that we can out perform our attendance ranking but if we are to be anything better than mid table we need to either improve attendance or PD has to prove himself.

But for one year when I was building my home I’ve been a season ticket holder, with my son, since I arrived in Saddleworth in 1988, the free ticket for the kid idea, which now sees us both season ticket holders in the main stand, somebody carelessly knocked down my stand. People do moan in the Main Stand but as I hear moans from the other stands as well, it is wrong and negative to label the stand in that way. Just goes to show how the most positive people can moan as well! We are where we are and the squad size is limited by the income generated. PD simply does not have that many options because we only really have a starting 11 with so many youngsters in our squad. PD will do very well if we finish in the top half.

Of course he was off colour for the second half of the season - he was spending so much time helping the mid field and defence. It took Latics until Christmas to coach his scoring ways out of him. By the time he got a chance he was worn out. Had he been left up front I'm sure his run would have continued. One of the best signings in recent years and the management and stupid braying fans has put us where we are now. Lets hope they leave Slew up front and that he can resist the coaches. It is no wonder Smith has not produced the goods.

What about waiting until after the transfer window closes and picking the best from the unemployed players - wouldn't that save even more money! I liked M'Changama in the team and thought he did well enough to keep the spot. Baptism of fire for Slew, if picked, but then we can get an idea of how good this number one PD striker target is.

The best evidence is past performance with a bias to the last two seasons. Individually this is unlikely to be accurate but over the 9 players I picked it is reasonable to assume that it gives a good estimate of the likely outcome of the group. A group of players is unlikely to all perform better than they have in the past which with the current squad is what we need. Spreading the goals around the team is unlikely if we continue to hit the ball long to Simpson! I hope the million pound 10 minute wonder can perform miracles but any 19 year old will lack experience, stamina and strength and take a battering in this league. Simpson has never scored 12 goals in a season. I’m being optimistic! My feeling is that we will have to defend better if we are to do well and that means keeping our shape and not charging forward with reckless abandon as we did many times last season. I’m always optimistic but I’m still looking for two more players that we patently can’t afford.

Last season three teams scored fewer goals than Latics - two were relegated. I'm confident the defence can do no worse than last season so 66 or less against. The likely team, based on the Huddersfield game, gives us (on the assumption they stay fit and play every game and based on past performance): Cisak - none, M'voto - 1, Tarkowski - 3, Grounds - 2, Byrne - 2, Wesolowski - 6, Furman - 3, Croft - 7, Simpson - 12. A total of 36. Assuming we are still looking for a first pick striker and a first pick winger, the Slew signing just confuses me, they have to chip in at least 14 goals to get us to last years total of 50. Does this make sense?

Will we be the only league 1 club able to field a 19 and under team from our our squad of 21 players? Anyone that age who has proven talent would not be within our means. This team will be blown away if a few players suffer long term injuries. Would you bet your house on Simpson remaining fit? God help us!

The most frustrating thing about the Huddersfield game, for me, was the failure to give him the match practice he needs. Trialist A seemed OK although he did like to give Furman the odd hospital pass and Trialist B looked like he would do well on the wing. Why does Dickov continue to play Simpson, I worry about injuries, because we know what we will get with him, and leave Smith on the bench. Where are the goals going to come from?

I thought the stand was going to cost about £5m so given that Fleetwood spent £4.5m on theirs we can all see what is likely. We then lose the main stand, some buggar will knock it down whilst we are not watching to save money, so I get a view over Oldham - I was told I had reserved rights for where I sat before some......., half way line at front, so I'm looking forward to cashing in this Latics guarantee in 10 years when the stand is finished!

I don't see how we can join a league unless more players are signed. The squad will have difficulty meeting the first team fixtures once injuries take their toll - not to forget the season is two weeks shorter than last year. The season ticket holders will be upset if they can't use their vouchers!

I would be more optimistic about where we are now if more than five players were potentially available beyond 2013. There is great potential in this young squad but is SC waiting for wages to hit rock bottom, must be on a downward trend, before making any long term commitments?

There are so many answers to that question - could be another competition. My point really is so what, of course I wish him well but it has no relevance to next season and if he does well someone else will come in and take him away from us - so why just a one year contract?

It simply does not make sense! Why sign a 17 year old on a one year contract? We have gone from a player who has yet to play in the first team to a player who has yet to play in the reserves. Are Latics really reduced to hyping up signings for the under 18 team?

Of course we all wish him well and hope he will turn the corner. He fits well with current signings as he is only 19 (just)! If £1200 is our target wage how much should we pay him?

What would we talk about. I'm against this TV inspired nonsense. Two wrongs made the right result.

Paul Black was just not good enough. For those who have forgotten by the end of every game he played the opposition was attacking almost exclusively down the right. This didn't happen with either Mellor or Diallo but Mellor if we can keep him is the future for the midfield. Jones made an impression both ways so not at LB.