Warren

The irony in all this is they did have one good header on target and Ripley made a great save after a corner. But it was he that needed to make another great save because he gave the ball away to their striker that led to the corner. In management speak that's called accepting too much risk or being inefficient. But in football it's called being stupid.

Needed a wee. So did I. He's humanoid.

Corrected. Late night was Friday.

Chislett goes off on dribbles in the wrong areas of the pitch and gets tackled. He is not being anywhere near as effective as he could be. I don't see what his is doing as a positive at all. He needs to get himself in better positions. I do think his team mates need to help him with that. We clearly have some issues in central midfield. Ojo doesn't look up to speed, I'm hoping veteran hasn't come early. Lowe is probably an L2 player in central midfield. Somehow need to be better there to let Garrity and Chislett get forward.

The stats do not suggest Lincoln won at a canter. The subs they made were because the players coming off were exhausted. I do think they were a well organised side defensively, which is why they are well up the table. But they offered very little going forward and we were directly responsible for their goals and other shots on target by way of gross mistakes. Lincoln had 5 shots, 4 on target. We shot ourselves in the head!!!! But other than that We had 10 shots with 4 on target. That's not enough, but in normal circumstances would have got us 0-0 against a team 10th in the table. In the midst of this we won 26 aerial duels against 10. Their keeper has made 4 saves against our 2. We've done OK on the ball making 558 passes as against 390, but taking the point that we are not creating enough up front. So, it is far from hopeless, there is stuff for Darren Moore to work with.

I thought Darren Moore had solved many issues with the team yesterday. The team blew his head off with some gross mistakes that gifted Lincoln the game. I can see we have problems in central midfield which is patched up with Lowe there and I am wondering whether Ojo can get back to the player he was after coming back. Jones has talent but needs emergency training on correct play at left back on Monday. We need Chislett to do his dribbles in the opposition half and show better judgement with ball retention. We desperately need to get Garrity as more of a threat to help out Wilson. My problem with Wilson is he's not a target man and the ball doesn't stick either because he gets tackled or he tries a trick that doesn't work. Once or twice a game he shows his class, but it's not enough. Darren Moore needs to get him more effective. Some players in the team are desperately short of confidence and feeling the expectation / frustration of the crowd. This can only be solved by winning a game - Tuesday. But we are not a bad side and can fight to stay up if we can get a win. It is possible to see immediately that Moore is a far better manager than Crosby. I like him as well as he stays calm and respectful in difficult times. And so I come to Loft! I want to accumulate the max number of adverse comments possible here. Whether to play him on Tuesday or not depends on what Exeter are like for me. He is OK on the ball, probably not an L1 player. But he most definitely is a L1 player with his strength, physicality and speed. Moore needs to get a tune out of him. So when I watch the stats in games it is Loft putting it about and giving cheap fouls away and he's doing this when the opposition have the ball and are trying to counter attack. He gets away with loads more stuff than other players do. My problem with him is not scoring goals and it's the same as the other forwards - too much outside the box, not enough in the box. So Darren Moore has a lot to sort out. It's fair to say the future of the club hangs on him being able to do so. I hope he can and we somehow need to keep faith.

We lost to the team that sit 10th in the league. They're an OK side. We have better stats than them across the board aside from giving them 2 goals. Their other shots on target bar one were caused by our madness. Some of the players in our team are short on confidence. But from a management perspective there are better patterns of play and organisation. So you can give me all the symbols you want, but we should have got 0-0 out of that today. If they are a top half team that would not have been that bad. I'm in the camp that thinks a win on Tuesday will kick start a better phase that allows us to stay up. I'm coming to the Fleetwood game. Then a bit of Scottish next weekend Montrose v Alloa.

We are now possibly in a mini league of 5. We can finish top of it and stay up. I saw enough today, cutting out daft errors responsible for all their shots on target, to hold the faith a while.

He's got to work with the players.

Chislett kept dribbling in the wrong areas giving the ball away. Wilson is a poor target man. Deborah looked OK to me. Sang has the ability but is very short of confidence. Weir is coming along. Smith and Jones threw the game away. We were not worse than Lincoln today. The stats other than the goals say that. That's not to say either side were much kop.

We've had 10 shots. 4 on target. Not enough but ..... Lincoln had 5 shots with 4 on target. Port Vale created all 4 of their shots on target and gave them an unnecessary penalty. We were calamitous.

The sides are about equal. But we've thrown the game away.

Crosby was a big issue. We had a decent side before Christmas. He was very poor and you can see a structure now with Moore. But too many coming back or injured.

Wilson did show good skill to get off a shot. May have been able to step forward a couple more yards. But watching him at other times he doesn't hold the ball up. Not strong enough and tries to use tricks that don't often come off. Chilslett also trying to dribble in the wrong areas. Moore has given PV a proper shape and method. But the players have to be better than they're showing to stay up.

Manager knows best I guess. But I'm fed up to the back teeth of Wilson.

Sawp the word character for the words concentration and confidence.

We are playing a team tomorrow who are perhaps where we could have been without Crosby ball. However, post Jan window we are weaker in midfield and have a continuing left of field defensive issue. I'm hopeful DM can find a win from the squad available. We are still in a surprisingly tenable position if we can get the team playing well together after gaining some confidence.

Darren Moore coming in as manager on a long contract is a spectacular appointment. It shows commitment by him and the owners. The gradual filling up of the senior squad with players brought through the youth team is a well thought through strategy in the medium term, but they need to play when required now. I'm fed up with PV losing games in the second half and I'm fed up of having a problem on the left side of defence. If Darren can crack these two issues we have a chance. Loft does get stuck in and provides a physicality we need. If we can get the other players around him to be more effective in forward positions then he too will be more effective. The whole pattern of play going forward must be improved. The answer is not Wilson, I have had enough of him jogging round doing nothing and in my view playing to avoid physical contact and injury. I would stop putting him on the bench since he is pointless. Big effort tomorrow, tight at the back, shoot as often as possible, force corners and freekicks and we have a chance. I hope so anyway.

There are no suitable strikers out there. We need to get more out of what we have. Loft has been able to score well even in a very poor Scunthorpe side. But you know I've had enough as well. This criticism of Loft and the form it takes on here is what would be called racism if he was a black guy. It is really disgusting.

I'm not convinced this is the way to go. I know he's played at top level but is now 34 years old and was unsuccessful at Championship level most recently. We have two similar sized forwards in Chislett and Mighton. I feel we need to get what we have going.

Loft scored 15 goals in 62 appearances for Scunthorpe Utd. At Bristol Rovers, where he was often a sub, he scored 7 in 57. At Carlisle Utd he scored 6 in 35. There is most certainly material to work with there. It's only Port Vale where he has been doing worse. I wonder why that is. Could it be our previous manager's lack of mastery of tactics?

What we have got up front needs to be better organised. For example, it might be a good idea if Chislett stayed up front and wasn't dribbling round at left wing back giving the ball away. I don't accept that Loft is some sort of hopeless guy. He has not been used properly. In his career to date he's scored 3 goals against Port Vale in his times at Scunthorpe and Bristol Rovers. All the critics overlook that little fact in the well established and utterly ridiculous prejudice against him.

Yes we do. Loft is a number 9 type striker. Wait for the the standard speel of criticism. Yawn.

He does not play for Stoke. His contract with them has ended.

An overall perspective is that the Jan 2024 window has been a quiet one nationally. The top clubs have done little business. This has not allowed a kick off of trades lower down. So, it is difficult to assess what PV has done well or not well because of an inherently stagnant market.