MATCH: Solihull Moors (A) 16/12/23

[south east latic]

6 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Nice story, just to add some context we were fucking awful for 60+ minutes, Norwood was again disappointing and appears untouchable, they needed another rocket which I'm presuming Mellon eludes to in his post match interview and we managed to get something from the game, most comments on here are not aimed at undermining the manager but merely pointing out the huge deficiencies that exist in the playing squad, not one person at half time could have been of the opinion that that was anywhere good enough, it's easy to after time in a debate when the outcome is known but I'll stick by what I said as it wasn't good enough, simple as that.

 

Nobody is blaming Mellon let's just get that straight before it starts getting quoted as fact.

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…

[Boyyou]

Mellon himself described the first half as "rubbish" 

On a different note. If we can get Dan Ward fit do we think he might offer an option as RWB until we can find a long term solution?

[aaronoafc]

First half we weren’t great but neither where Solihull. Both teams where pretty poor first half. 
 

Second half Lundstram and Sheron played further up the pitch and it changed everything.

 

I thought Stones was superb, bit wobbly first 10 but after that was a huge threat. He was so direct in his forward runs. Wigan fans want him back there in the squad, would be trying to extend his loan asap. 
 

Sheron really grew into the game, I’m becoming a big fan of his. His work rate is always outstanding, which is all we can ask really when a player is selected. When we went 1-0 down he was the one shouting to all of the players to step it up/games not over etc. His finishing seems to be really good too. If he could pass he’d be playing a couple of leagues higher. 
 

Norwood was so poor. He’s a great player particularly for this level but can be a frustrating watch at times. 
 

Good support and a great win. We MUST try and follow this up though next weekend. Huge game which will show us where we really are. 

[League one forever]

My take. 

 

That first half was the worst I’ve seen us under Mellon, it was Unsworthesque. (Yes, it was that bad) We sat deep, bypassed the midfield, and had zero urgency or tempo. Everyone looked a yard of the pace. I sat there and thought - we are million miles away from challenging this season. 
 

Half time- and Mellon must have given them absolute bollocking- because literally everything they didn’t do first half- they did second half. We immediately started playing further up the pitch, we looked at it, and we suddenly had runners from midfield. Much better, and much to Yardy’s despair I’m singing EIEIEO on the way out.
 

Here’s the rub. 
 

We have shown in patches how good they can be, but it only comes when the tempo and intensity is good. Playing that way should really be the minimum, and it really pisses me off how we start games. It’s a lack of professionalism-  plain and simple. To many are sat in the comfort zone on relatively fat contracts thinking they just have to turn up. That mentality is nowhere near good enough to go up 
 

Today’s game is the perfect illustration of Mellon’s tenure so far, really encouraging in what we could be. . . but can only play at the intensity he wants in patches or for one or two games, before they fall off a cliff. Until he can mould that squad and mentality to what he wants were going to keep seeing these up and down performances. 

 

Final thought 

 

Awful day for the Sheronisgarbagelads.

[yarddog73]

Got to find a way to beat Gateshead at home next Saturday, we've beat 2nd and 4th away in the last few weeks yet tripped up against Fylde, Ebbsfleet and to a degree Mickleover, it's really Jekyll and Hyde stuff and the players need to treat it like a cup final.

[diggleblue]

7 minutes ago, League one forever said:

My take. 

 

That first half was the worst I’ve seen us under Mellon, it was Unsworthesque. (Yes, it was that bad) We sat deep, bypassed the midfield, and had zero urgency or tempo. Everyone looked a yard of the pace. I sat there and thought - we are million miles away from challenging this season. 
 

Half time- and Mellon must have given them absolute bollocking- because literally everything they didn’t do first half- they did second half. We immediately started playing further up the pitch, we looked at it, and we suddenly had runners from midfield. Much better, and much to Yardy’s despair I’m singing EIEIEO on the way out.
 

Here’s the rub. 
 

We have shown in patches how good they can be, but it only comes when the tempo and intensity is good. Playing that way should really be the minimum, and it really pisses me off how we start games. It’s a lack of professionalism-  plain and simple. To many are sat in the comfort zone on relatively fat contracts thinking they just have to turn up. That mentality is nowhere near good enough to go up 
 

Today’s game is the perfect illustration of Mellon’s tenure so far, really encouraging in what we could be. . . but can only play at the intensity he wants in patches or for one or two games, before they fall off a cliff. Until he can mould that squad and mentality to what he wants were going to keep seeing these up and down performances. 

 

Final thought 

 

Awful day for the Sheronisgarbagelads.

Really think he'll get it right. Just think how bad it was under D.U.

We've already come a long way and Mellons only signed one so far.

[League one forever]

24 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Nice story, just to add some context we were fucking awful for 60+ minutes, Norwood was again disappointing and appears untouchable, they needed another rocket which I'm presuming Mellon eludes to in his post match interview and we managed to get something from the game, most comments on here are not aimed at undermining the manager but merely pointing out the huge deficiencies that exist in the playing squad, not one person at half time could have been of the opinion that that was anywhere good enough, it's easy to after time in a debate when the outcome is known but I'll stick by what I said as it wasn't good enough, simple as that.

 

Nobody is blaming Mellon let's just get that straight before it starts getting quoted as fact.

For balance.
 

Why is everything you post always through an ultra negative lense?
 

Example- in the first half you said Stones looks like he’s won a raffle- he was literally the only tiny bright spark. The only one who went past a man, and the only one who actually managed to fashion a shot for himself.
 

You don’t like fans say singing EIEIEO if we have a good result.

 

It was garbage first half. Really really shit. 
 

But they turned it around, and got their third away win on the bounce. (I’m sure you’ll tell me how shit we are at home) My point is, we’re nowhere near the finished article, but that second half shows what we can be in time and we should some heart from that. 

[League one forever]

4 minutes ago, diggleblue said:

Really think he'll get it right. Just think how bad it was under D.U.

We've already come a long way and Mellons only signed one so far.

No question he’ll get it right. I didn’t coin him 5 promotions Mellon for nothing.
 

I’m questioning the player’s professionalism and mentally, and if they don’t or can’t do it more consistently- Mellon will just get rid. 

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Up the beautiful bi-polar Latics!

[League one forever]

2 minutes ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Up the beautiful bi-polar Latics!

 

Amen. 

[Littlemoor Lad]

35 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Nice story, just to add some context we were fucking awful for 60+ minutes, Norwood was again disappointing and appears untouchable, they needed another rocket which I'm presuming Mellon eludes to in his post match interview and we managed to get something from the game, most comments on here are not aimed at undermining the manager but merely pointing out the huge deficiencies that exist in the playing squad, not one person at half time could have been of the opinion that that was anywhere good enough, it's easy to after time in a debate when the outcome is known but I'll stick by what I said as it wasn't good enough, simple as that.

 

Nobody is blaming Mellon let's just get that straight before it starts getting quoted as fact.

Exactly as I saw it and said so at the time

Completely different story 2nd half after having to be told to up their game

Stones 'brought in by Mellon' as if I didn't already know, silly me, got him out of a hole because other's around him just weren't doing it, no mention of tactics or criticism towards the manager whatsoever.

Some twist and some stick, I too will stick to what I said.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

2 hours ago, Inspectormorose. said:

First half was that shite I took the opportunity to order a new lease car online whilst I was there to pass the time.

Alright Inspector LinkedIn. Calm down.

[rudemedic]

To sum up football is a game that is at least 90 minutes long, and some of our fans would do well to remember that.

 

However, first half we were poor and Stones was our best performer by some way. They were not that much better though, and if that game is at Boundary Park I think their first goal gets disallowed for the tug on Raglan.

 

Second half we looked a lot better and were a lot more on the front foot, with Sheron and Lundstrum playing 10 to 15 yards further up the pitch. If we are unfit I don’t know how you’d describe them as they were knackered by 60 minutes, hence our 2 goals in 2 minutes shortly thereafter. They struggled to chase the game, because they were knackered and it was a comfortable last 20 minutes for us, even more so when we scored our third thanks to hard work from Fondop. Yes they got a penalty in added time but that was against the run of play they had barely threatened in the second half.

 

Sutton had his best game at RWB, although that’s not a high bar, probably helped by having McGahey sitting at CDM. Stones is a beast, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone higher up comes in for him in a few years. Getting another striker may not have been addressing our obvious frailties but he is better than what we have, and I’m tempted to include Norwood in that too. 
 

Oh and while I only used it to warm up a bit, how much better was that away end thanks to that portakabin bar thing. It’s not much but it allows away fans some semblance of equity in terms of facilities, especially alcohol drinking due to an antiquated law which needs removing from statute.

[Bluemood]

Every time we play well it’s always because Sheron & Lundstrum are playing higher up the pitch , can’t we start like that !!!!!!

[simplythemostimportantkick]

2 hours ago, south east latic said:

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

Upvoted on the 8th word

1 hour ago, Bobledgersheart said:

Still his Uncle !

As has been said by multiple people. Trouble is they are all blocked so he won’t see it. 

[League one forever]

5 minutes ago, Bluemood said:

Every time we play well it’s always because Sheron & Lundstrum are playing higher up the pitch , can’t we start like that !!!!!!

Yep. 
 

I’m starting to think we’ve completely misused Sheron. 
 

When he’s asked to play the defensive role, or he sits deep- he looks like a limited trier. When he’s given licence to get forward he looks a completely different player. His link play suddenly become very good and he obviously has an eye for a shot. I think that’s 5 goals he’s scored now, and every one has been a beaut. 

[Inspectormorose.]

30 minutes ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Alright Inspector LinkedIn. Calm down.

Was a good deal and the entertainment desert of the first half seemed as good a time as any.

[the_mighty_bosh]

5 hours ago, Worcester Owl said:

We won 4 away games in the league in Nov/Dec 2020. 

21 Nov Exeter away won 2-1

24 Nov Barrow away won 4-3

5 Dec Cambridge away won 2-1

19 Dec Newport away won 4-2

On 8 Nov we beat Hampton & Richmond 3-2 away in the FA Cup 1st round, 10 Nov won 3-2 at Bradford in the EFL Trophy and 28 Nov we beat Bradford away 2-1 in the FA Cup 2nd round. So 7 away wins in a row including the EFL Trophy/FA Cup.

 

That period was peak Danny Rowe!

[jsslatic]

27 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Yep. 
 

I’m starting to think we’ve completely misused Sheron. 
 

When he’s asked to play the defensive role, or he sits deep- he looks like a limited trier. When he’s given licence to get forward he looks a completely different player. His link play suddenly become very good and he obviously has an eye for a shot. I think that’s 5 goals he’s scored now, and every one has been a beaut. 

 

He's scored 7 in 69 Latics appearances, the first 20 or so of which must have been at CB or RB.

 

By comparison, Richie Wellens scored 8 in 101 Latics appearances.

[yarddog73]

38 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Yep. 
 

I’m starting to think we’ve completely misused Sheron. 
 

When he’s asked to play the defensive role, or he sits deep- he looks like a limited trier. When he’s given licence to get forward he looks a completely different player. His link play suddenly become very good and he obviously has an eye for a shot. I think that’s 5 goals he’s scored now, and every one has been a beaut. 

His best position would probably be as s CDM - IF he could pass a football, problem with him playing deep is he just gives the ball away or slows us down hence why Mellon wants him pressing and pushing further up the pitch, he showed glimpses of that under Unsworth but Unsworth was ultra defensive and wanted him to tuck in all the time, strangely he looks more comfortable on the ball further up the pitch as well so let's hope for more of the same.

[League one forever]

1 hour ago, yarddog73 said:

IF he could pass a football,

 

 

1 hour ago, yarddog73 said:

strangely he looks more comfortable on the ball further up the pitch as well so let's hope for more of the same.

 

That’s what I mean. 
 

The first comment implies he’s garbage. 
 

The second comment proves he isn’t. 
 

Mellon said in his presser- ‘I don’t think we’ve got a two in midfield that works for us at the minute so I wanted 3 in there, and it works if Harrison sits in front of the back three and Josh and Nathan push on, but first half we didn’t do that, and I asked them to push on and start asking some questions of their back four, and getting it into wide areas. 
 

I think Sheron is instinctively defensive minded as a player, and that’s what he reverts to. But I don’t think Mellon wants that from him, and like you say if we can get further up the pitch more often, he could be more of an asset. 

[League one forever]

1 hour ago, jsslatic said:

 

He's scored 7 in 69 Latics appearances, the first 20 or so of which must have been at CB or RB.

 

By comparison, Richie Wellens scored 8 in 101 Latics appearances.

Unreal stat. 
 

And like you say- nearly a third of them games were in the back four. 
 

So a fairer return is 7 from 50.
 

Not bad for a lad who can’t pass and is derided as garbage. . . 

[L1onheartNew]

My take:

 

First half hour: On your marks...

Second half hour: Get set...

Third half hour: Go!

[Summerdeep]

I hadn't realized that Solihull were managed by Henry VIII before I saw this video:

 

 

 

[Monty Burns]

l fancy an eighth