If we keep pumping aerial balls up to Cullen like we did against Harrogate, the lad will have no chance and the ball will be just coming back. Pope ball is not his strength.  Play in and around him and no doubt he'll be involved, able to trouble defenders, well as bringing  other players in, which,we've seen, he's really good at.

I really don't know why certain players did that on Saturday. Certain that JA didn't tell them to. To be fair, Popeball isn't Pope's strength either

If we keep pumping aerial balls up to Cullen like we did against Harrogate, the lad will have no chance and the ball will be just coming back. Pope ball is not his strength.  Play in and around him and no doubt he'll be involved, able to trouble defenders, well as bringing  other players in, which,we've seen, he's really good at.

5 minutes ago, philmpv said:

I really don't know why certain players did that on Saturday. Certain that JA didn't tell them to. To be fair, Popeball isn't Pope's strength either

I totally agree with your last line, but was too much of a coward to write it myself.- You know what some folk on here are like when Tom isn't refered to as a god.

I totally agree with your last line, but was too much of a coward to write it myself.- You know what some folk on here are like when Tom isn't refered to as a god.

I certainly do!

Sadly, we will no longer hear from Tom Pope’s greatest supporter on here. 

Big admirer of Popey but must admit last pic of him as he returned for training looked like he had put on some timber. The start to his season has been delayed due to suspension , might have needed it to get match fit. Anyone seen him recently ? Does he look like he could start ?

Sadly, we will no longer hear from Tom Pope’s greatest supporter on here. 

4 hours ago, philmpv said:

I really don't know why certain players did that on Saturday. Certain that JA didn't tell them to. To be fair, Popeball isn't Pope's strength either

It was quite simply the way Harrogate made us play at times, highly competitive, compressing the play with a high line and leaving no space to play through midfield.  Then it seems to become a mindset where the players rushed, even on the occasions when they had a bit of time and space.  They knocked us out of our stride, certainly first half, and we lost that bit of composure.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of Popeball but it needs to be played with a bit of quality rather, than hit and hope, and players have to get nearer to the striker to either run on to a flick on or a lay off, or simply compete for the second ball.  With Rodders in the team we should be able to play balls over the top for him to run on to, but we didn'tmanage to do that.

11 hours ago, The man in the pub said:

Big admirer of Popey but must admit last pic of him as he returned for training looked like he had put on some timber. The start to his season has been delayed due to suspension , might have needed it to get match fit. Anyone seen him recently ? Does he look like he could start ?

Last time I saw him he looked nowhere near being match fit. Wouldn’t have known he was a professional sportsman! 

We could of done with Pope as an option last week to be fair to hold it up when it got physical and long like it did...

Either way I think with the Stanley friendly off it would be best to bed Amoo, Gibbo and Pope back in against Wigan in the Leasing ideally.

Assume Smudge will play RB.

 

I think I’d play Rodney through the middle with McKirdy on the left. I’d keep Worrall in, though I think he’s been quiet by his own high standards. Pope I’d put on the bench as an option for last 30 mins if necessary. I’d play Smudge, Brisley, Legge and Fitz as back four with Gibbons and Monty  on the bench. I think Gibbons and Monty are our best fullbacks but Gibbo isn’t quite 90 mins fit I imagine and you can’t take Fitz out of a defence that hasn’t conceded yet. Cullen has had a decent start overall for me, he won’t score every game and sometimes we don’t play to his strengths. Rodney looking good down the middle last 20 is a different matter to starting like that which is a change of game plan that doesn’t always seem to work out but I’d have a look at Devante starting down the middle anyway. I believe Morecambe are more comfortable with a hoofing game so the midfield getting it down and playing a passing game  might be key, hence a bit of quality from McKirdy wouldn’t go amiss.

The Sentinel says Brown will make his 500th career start but Soccerbase say he's already made 503 starts (and 1 substitute appearance)? Wiki agrees.

https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=38612&season_id=153

Not sure why 500 starts is a milestone rather than 500 appearances full stop. Weird

Heavy rain and winds will be against intricate football.

3 minutes ago, Fosse69 said:

Heavy rain and winds will be against intricate football.

Sounds the perfect conditions to play it on the ground.

2 hours ago, Fosse69 said:

Heavy rain and winds will be against intricate football.

Yes, I guess it will be wind, rain and hoofball from Morecambe. I hope that Askey has got a plan for it this week because we have to have a way to beat this kind of football otherwise we'll have a repeat of last season where we took a load of points against the top teams (because we played good football) but lost a load against the dross (because we got dragged down to their level). Fingers crossed. 

Not sure Pope would have been any different last week. Defensively Harrogate kept their shape well with two centrehalves behind and a midfielder sweeping up infront of Cullen. We dropped into a 451 when defending and their defensive midfield player never got suckered in to getting further forward. We need to find a way to deal with it as all teams will have watched the video and will do something similar. One of the wingers needs to drop in as a 10 and one of the midfield players needs to take responsibility for the fullback. They never once tried to work the ball through midfield where we effectively had 3 players to their one.