Guitar Ray

Fair play to Mansfield but we kept giving them a leg up all game. It’s a while since we made that many unforced errors in a game. Covolan and Pett played well but the rest were pretty poor.

Wow, really two examples? Go and check how many games he played then google the formula to help you work out percentages.

Pretty bloody obvious you've got a very short and very selective memory.

If you’re trying to defend Covolan by knocking Brown, no way can you argue against the fact that when Brown came in he actually lived up to his reputation. OK so there was a dip towards the end in a few games, but he was mostly excellent in his time for us, far more consistently good than the present incumbent. From what I’ve witnessed, at his best he was way better than we’ve seen so far from Covolan, who you could also say is arguably having a far easier ride in this team than Brown ever did. Covolan got off to a bad start and it’ll take some great performances from him to erase the memory of that in many fans minds. Hopefully we’ll see that from him as the season progresses.

Every player makes mistakes so a keeper is going to be no different in that regard. Put simply, the better players make fewer mistakes. I’ve no idea which camp Covolan, or Stone for that matter, will fall into, good, bad or indifferent, I’ve not seen enough of either yet to really form a solid opinion myself but I’ve seen enough good in both to think we’re fine in the goalkeeping department, without either player looking like setting the world on fire.

Hi Phil, that’s football for you.

Not relating to Covolan in just this one game but more generally, is it possible, subconsciously maybe, that some fans have got a little bit carried away in thinking we’ve signed a goalkeeper who was destined to become a superstar club legend, when in reality it’s more likely that we’ve signed a decent League 2 level keeper, no better or worse than that? Ironically, we’ve seen already, the better players so far have been those where our expectations were lower.

I’m not a Lucas doubter, or massive fan at the moment. What I would say was that at the time the free kick went in, it looked like the wall had been lined up wrong. Either way, it didn’t do it’s job so having watched the replay I’ll give Covolan the benefit of the doubt and say he’d have seen, what was a very well hit shot, a bit too late to get enough on it. I’ll also say he made a very brave save to prevent Gordon getting on the end of a low cross second half. Swings and roundabouts.

I would guess Proc will be fit. Didn’t look happy at being subbed on Saturday. Just DC playing mind games in my opinion. Speaking of Rodders, what’s the word on him? “Personal” reasons mentioned for his unavailability last weekend. Anyone heard anything to suggest he’s available this?

Looked miles off the pace for us, admittedly in a poor team. I can see him doing ok at Altrincham, if he can get a run of games to build his confidence and match fitness.

Can’t disagree with any of this apart from the football. Depends on how you look at it, but my own recollection is that at its best the football was better under Askey than we’ve seen so far under DC. Obviously the flip of this is that we weren’t always at our best. 😬

How anyone can be critical of Smith just now is beyond me. Of the 3 current CB's he's by far the best out and out defender, despite not maybe being the tallest of the 3. Jones and Cass don't even come close in this regard. What those 2 players have, as we've seen, is more ability with the ball, Jones has a great pass on him whilst Cass carries the ball really well and can cross. So what I think we have is a great blend with those 3 players and I don't think it's fair, on current form to be critical of any of them. That said, non of the 3 have the raw power and size of Legge, who must also be one of the best headers of a ball in this division. Clarke recognised in his post match interview that it was a game that needed a Legge or Martin, but neither were available sadly. We've seen some big teams already this season but Sutton looked the biggest. Not sure if this will be a continuing trend or if we've played all the big sides now, either way we've mainly held our own and if that continues we'll be in a good place.

On the subject of game management, one thing that did occur to me yesterday was why not, when under pressure at 3-2 up in a tiny ground, repeatedly deliberately smash the ball out of the ground? Wastes a bit of time and, generally, gets a reaction from the crowd. Best example I can give is away at Altrincham years ago in the cup. Not that we we’re under any pressure there that day.

That's football. Last week "little old Port Vale" snatched victory when it looked impossible. Swings and roundabouts. Bad management? You could also say bad luck, bad ref, bad whatever you want but you've also got to give a bit of credit to the opposition for not giving up. They stuck to their guns and had the rub of the green in the end.

When you look at the team we had out on the pitch compared to Sutton it was quite clear who was the bigger side. Without Legge we're pretty small at the back and the midfield isn't the biggest so it's always going to be tough against your Suttons. It's very difficult to consistently win the ball, get it down on the deck and play your football against these teams, who're just looking to launch the ball at every opportunity rather than play the ball through you. We managed to play some great stuff first half but not enough the second, certainly after Proctor went off.