Grimsby Town (A)

[Diggerthedog]

Wright has had a good season correct but we need more than good to take us to the next level, defensively poor for me and can count numerous times errors leading to goals at corners. Brilliant with the ball at his feet but we need defenders to defend and that’s why we’re not making play offs. Reynolds is far too lightweight for national league about 6ft 2 but weighs about 10 stone, again a good ball player but not good enough defensively there is a theme here and it’s costing us play offs. Johnson who is a full back has been the best of the bunch, easily our best defender but not played in his preferred position. If the manager is to persist with wing backs he needs to buy wing backs, not wingers who can’t do the defensive side very well, again a theme occurring here. I can’t fault the effort of any of these lads thats not the problem here it’s just some are not good enough for the expectations set by the owners. Manger has the money but has spent it poorly, he won’t be sacked but clearly the board think you can polish a turd.

[Pondfield Dagger]

Our defence against the top 7 teams has been awful. We need to play zouma and Manny together at the back..sadly with McMahon here, I don't think we will ever see it.

[AVincelotFlyingLeap]

Echo the thoughts above that four at the back might be the answer, depending on what they want to do with Balanta ? I wonder if Wright would be quick enough to play at wing back in a 5, so I wonder if this might be alright :

Justham

Wright, Manny, Reynolds, Johnson

Robbo, Comley, Rance

Vilhete, Macca, Weston

Not sure if that's just, rearranging the deckhairs etc and I do think we need three in midfield, but, idk not sure this back 3 is really working that well

[stanton101]

It just amazes me that we're nearly in to April and he still doesn't know a formation or the players capable of getting a result against the bigger sides. It's ok beating the likes of Eastleigh, Maidenhead etc. But every time we come up against a half decent side, we get beat.
Manny was brought back and can't get a game, other players get dropped for no apparent reason, the whole set up is laughable.

[Mark]

Reynolds is a decent defender and a decent footballer. Unfortunately when we play the better sides the opponents are more than decent. He isn't particularly strong or particularly quick, and he is what I call an 89 minute player - there's a lot of games where he has a moment of madness in an otherwise good performance.

Wright is a very good footballer and a below average defender. He can't play wing back - he is one the slowest players on the team and often seems to be blowing after his forays forward. You cannot play him as one of two CBs because he would be exposed. Even right of a 3 he still manages to get caught out of position and is very easy to beat one v one.

All that said, neither are the real reason we got beat yet again by a direct rival. We swallowed it, again. The performance was devoid of any tempo, urgency, courage, whatever you want to call it. And yet again when Weston got pinned back in his own half playing as pretty much a full back, the manager's solution was to haul him off rather than alter the shape. We make fewer tactical adjustments in-game than any team I've seen this season. It's fine to play Westy at wing back when we are dominating the ball but time and time again against anyone half decent he is completely wasted.

[Lcbdagger]

Reynolds is a decent defender and a decent footballer. Unfortunately when we play the better sides the opponents are more than decent. He isn't particularly strong or particularly quick, and he is what I call an 89 minute player - there's a lot of games where he has a moment of madness in an otherwise good performance.

Wright is a very good footballer and a below average defender. He can't play wing back - he is one the slowest players on the team and often seems to be blowing after his forays forward. You cannot play him as one of two CBs because he would be exposed. Even right of a 3 he still manages to get caught out of position and is very easy to beat one v one.

All that said, neither are the real reason we got beat yet again by a direct rival. We swallowed it, again. The performance was devoid of any tempo, urgency, courage, whatever you want to call it. And yet again when Weston got pinned back in his own half playing as pretty much a full back, the manager's solution was to haul him off rather than alter the shape. We make fewer tactical adjustments in-game than any team I've seen this season. It's fine to play Westy at wing back when we are dominating the ball but time and time again against anyone half decent he is completely wasted.

Think the manager is scared to change shape because he can't what change will improve the team... look at the change against York that will be called hindsight but 1500 fans collective sighed as we went to a back 4.

As an aside, aware everyone has individual opinions, but people on Facebook suggesting Justham is a week link in the team at this level need to give their head a wobble

[Mark]

I can't remember the last time Justham had a bad game! Crazy if people are doubting him. I was one of his biggest critics when he first joined but he's top drawer these days.

[DaggerJoel11]

Absolutely disgraceful performance when it mattered most. Our only shot on target was the injury time goal and we couldn't even raise our intensity after that. Beating mid-table fodder doesn't disguise the fact we fall short every single time we step up to the level we're supposedly meant to compete at.

Johnson, Rance and Reynolds were outrageously bad, the latter seeming to fire into his own keeper if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. Dropping Vilhete after his first game in months, for Weston who he admitted was shattered, made no sense either. Saw Sagaf while walking back to the minibus after the game too and he said minus a little tweak in his ankle he was 'perfectly fine' to play which just about tops it off.

Long old day for one shot on target, which was the last minute goal. If anything all that did was disguise the one-sided nature of the afternoon and everybody was so deflated that the reaction was pretty much indifference rather than genuine belief that we could nick an improbable point.

[Dagdale]

We've wasted so many chances to sit in a pretty comfortable position tail ending this season so many times we've been walking out of a deflated game, nine games left were still not any wiser? how can we totally outplay and make such a splendid job of destroying an in form Southend on their own grass and just blow cold air next 3 albeit we wangled a win down Hampshire just about,. Another half a day on the road coming home dejected, take away the odd injury or two the juggling of this team is my biggest mystery and more so when you look closely how we have quite adaptable first team players who would walk into any other top step one side, Grimsby wasn't even in full gear, pretty average but we just seemed to let them run over us, why? We could quite easily come out tops with two thirds of the lower sides left but could anybody really see the nine above us dropping many points in the final furlong, after all they've got what we deeply miss a damned good mindset to get the job done.

[DaggerJoel11]

MATCH REPORT from yet another must-win game which we've buckled under the weight of - https://dagnificent.weebly.com/match-re ... -daggers-1