St92

Looked miles better tonight, but Eastleigh sat off us as much as we usually do to other teams, so I'm trying not to get carried away Surprised they gave us so much time on the ball knowing confidence would likely have been low after Saturday Hammond is improving every game too, we really dropped off when he came off. Guessing it's MM trying to manage his minutes being a young lad in his first taste of senior football

Well we were previously relying on a midfield of McGahey, Sheron and Lundstram, so he was forced into signing CMs, and DU signings like Nuttall that obviously didn't work out meant we had multiple ST we couldn't really use So although we would have ideally wanted to sign 3 wingers with a bit of pace to open up more formations, we didn't seem to have the option to

I think between here and Twitter/X there has been plenty of overreaction to today We're in late February, not early September, we know what this team is by now. We're a team of grafters who will play direct, have little if no creativity and going to struggle at home against lower placed teams as a result We know we're paying the price for allowing Unsworth to have the first 10 games and, more crucially, the summer transfer window We're going to continue to pay that price until we have had probably 2 summer transfer windows, so although it's definitely not been pretty, for Mellon to get 2 ppg with the current squad is decent

Apparently Kidderminster have been given some seats in the chaddy, assuming that's the bottom right block closest to the new away end, that means the next block in, and the block behind it can't be used for Latics fans, so that's a large chunk of the unused capacity straight away Remember the chaddy wasn't designed or built to be a split stand, so might need to block off more of it to satisfy police/safety requirements

For me the issue with Lundstram seems to be how long it takes him to process what's in front of him It seems to take 5 seconds or so after him seeing a pass to realise it's on, and by then it's usually not there anymore, and then he ends up having no option but to go back Saw it again on Saturday where Kitching goes on the overlap when Lundstram has it on the left touchline, obvious ball to most, but he waits, Kitching has then gone too far past so the full back is in the way of the pass a bit, and then he has no choice but to play a short ball to Conlon who's immediately under pressure

It just looks like him and Sheron are too similar to me. Seems like we should have either Lundstram or Sheron in ideally, but not both. However we don't have the CM options for that I think there is some potential in there with Lundstram to be a different type of player, but he needs a coach who can improve his decision making and processing of the game. It seems to take him 5 seconds to process what he's seeing every time. The best example being the 2 on 1 chance he had with Norwood at Rochdale. He seems to look at an available pass, take 5 seconds to realize it is an available pass, and then by that point the player is marked and he has to pass backwards

The getting rid of players thing isn't even a post game reaction though Loads of people say it all the time There's absolutely zero point in paying off contracts. Just means we're paying the same amount but taking an up front hit If we think they're not good enough but can't get rid we might as well make use of them on community visits etc rather than paying them for nothing

Lundstram seems to take so long to process what he's seeing and react that by the time he's seen a pass, the player isn't open anymore And he ends up with nowhere to go but backwards Like I remember the one at Rochdale where he was 2 on 1 with Norwood vs a defender and just held the ball until he lost it

Oh yeah we should have defended better, but they don't get the chance if we don't run into traffic and expect to turn into prime Messi

Walker wins the pen, and then gives them the platform to win it Absolutely crazy decision to run into 3 defenders when he's got a simple pass to Ward on the overlap

Doesn't look like he's out there at HT actually so think he's coming on

Lundstram looks like he's got the technical ability but it always just seems to take him 4 or 5 seconds to spot a pass or make a decision Wouldn't be surprised if Conlon gets a run out here

Poor. Freeman just seems to lose his man or let someone dribble straight past him too often Midfield non existent today Looked tired We seem to look alright when we are away or playing an OK team where they will attack us and we can keep a solid shape and counter But when we have to try and break teams down and move out of our shape we struggle We need a solid RB desperately, and a creative CM who can stay healthy

Freeman so frustrating today. So many times in that 2nd half where he had the ball at his feet with 30 yards of space in front of him, and he just stood still. Sutton might not be a RB but he'd have known to carry it forward in those positions

Sides above us dropped points, we played alright and clearly better than Tuesday Definitely a game to just be happy we're done with that ref without it costing us a loss