6 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

Late substitutions haven't cost us this game, players going to sleep have.

If you don't believe the subs were made at least 10 minutes too late to give us a much better chance then I give up.

31 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

Finishing is the difference. 

Finishing is our problem full stop.

There are not enough goals in our whole squad for the play offs let alone promotion. Its not just who plays up front its also midfield. We waste a player having to play Joyce as a holding player.

It has to be 442 but we dont have any midfield player good enough for a 2.   433 will remain and we will win games but not enough. We will need 7 plus wins or so at 1 0 to get anywhere near play offs.

Weve brought in ten wide players since Montano was signed and he will still score more than any of them, with equal games played and yet Montano is not good or consistent enough to gain us play offs. Conlan might score a wonder goal or two but who will score 10 from midfield. Worrall 5 max a season, good season for him. Rodney a defo no as our hero. 

Whoever plays up front in a one is on a loser i am afriad.

Askey failed tonight with his changes. 10 mins to go before a change , come on. Thats poor. He must have been hoping for a 2 1 defeat at most or a last minute equaliser.

Now then a win at little old Oldham. Lets see hey

36 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

How many saves did Brown make? 

Wish he could have made three mire than he did

Interesting to watch their tactics first half. They tried to play down our left and get balls into the back post and gamble with their lad coming off the wing to attack the back post or when they went long from the back they were trying to hit it on to worrall and Clark. Whilst the game was a tight affair first half I felt their chances were better, Hoolahans effort off the post and a header at the back post. Ours was probably whiteheads volley from the penalty spot which he fired over. But other than when compared to them I thought that we looked far more disjointed in the final third and really struggled to get combinations going and meaningful balls into the box and striker.  Think about our best play last season and some of the combination play between fullbacks wingers and midfielders was excellent. We are seeing none of that. I’m struggling to see what Whitehead is bringing to the team and our pressing game that served us well last season is non existent. Worrall and Monty really struggled throughout. We are crying out for Amoo and Mckirdy to get fit and provide some competition there. 
 

Second half we were easily second best to them. They had a lot more joy behind our right hand side on more than one occasion and even though the ball across the box for the second goal was a good one I felt that between them smith and Fitzpatrick will be disappointed that Mullin got between them, but to be fair to him it was fantastic movement. I mentioned our combinations with fullbacks and wingers, Fitzpatrick is a lot more steady than say Monty, Clark or gibbo and so things seem to grind to a halt with him when he gets it. But defensively I felt he was decent tonight. We struggled to get anything going in that second half and it was crying out for a change, but they came too late. Joyce and Conlon were getting on the ball a lot, but it was  ineffective stuff. Whereas Hoolahan was running the show and with a lot more movement in front of him than we had then it was a lot easier for him to play. But we allowed it, no one pressed him. Contrast that with the first half when every time Joyce or a centre half got it they were pressed and we had to go backwards. 
 

I don’t see too many positives to take from that. We aren’t creating anything meaningful other than scrappy half chances. We aren’t linking well together. We aren’t pressing. We got exposed too often down the right hand flank and we aren’t giving our subs much chance to make an impact. 

 

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by PV1973

16 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

Late substitutions haven't cost us this game, players going to sleep have.

Agreed.  That second goal was poor and the the third one was abysmal - Leon Legge is a hero but he wants shooting for his contribution to that one.

10 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

They could have saved the game though. Why are we waiting until the 80th minute to try and get level? It’s appauling management. Every game he does it. It makes no sense, 2-1 down there’s nothing to lose. Get players on that can actually change the game. Rodney and pope certainly can but not when they only get 5/10 minutes. Should have changed it at 60 mins or after conceding but instead we were treated to another half hour of whitehead. 

Interesting listening to Phil Sherwin and Bowers who both said the subs should have been made around the 65th minute mark when it was clear as day we were going nowhere. Instead Askey waited until the 80th minute and then the 85th before making any changes. Far, far too late.

The front 3 is the biggest problem. I actually thought Theo did ok tonight, and thankfully is starting to look better than he was in the first couple of games. Worrall needs a rest or moved into the midfield 3 instead of Whitehead. I said before he hasn’t got the pace to play in a front 3 and got slated. I still stand by that. The third midfielder is a worry, and I think Askey’s biggest mistake has not been reinforcing that area. Manny just isn’t going to be fit and Whitehead and Burgess aren’t good enough.

We aren’t a bad side, but just haven’t got enough goals in us. If we get Amoo, McKirdy (if he finds form or is good enough) and Manny back, then we might have a chance to turn this around.

I’m not giving up on promotion just yet, but we are unfortunately looking very toothless at the moment. If we do turn it around, it will feel very sweet. That’s what I’m clinging onto. 

If we were creating hats full of chances every week then fair enough, you could say our finishing is costing us. But it isn't.

For a good few games now we've created very little. We look like we don't know how to stretch teams or engineer clearcut chances.

 

Agree about Theo - I thought he did well tonight.  Four goals already.  Glad we got him instead of Maynard!!

More than matched them for an hour but one good move and it's game over. Frustratingly the few chances we create, we aren't hitting the target enough and another keeper comes away not being worked enough.

We are not quite there at the moment. We lack creativity and are really missing the oft injured Manny who's little niggle of an injury has lasted nearly three weeks now. 

As has been mentioned we look like a mid table team at the moment 

13 minutes ago, TylerB said:

If you don't believe the subs were made at least 10 minutes too late to give us a much better chance then I give up.

For what it's worth I agree that the subs were made too late, but that's not why we lost.  Feel free to give up.

Unusual that there were more penalties than yellow cards.

Some people seem to be very positive still despite getting 4 points from the last 18 with a total of 6 league goals scored all season.

Little Port Vale syndrome striking as usual. Nevermind, eh? At least things are going nicely off the pitch.

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by TylerB

3 minutes ago, TylerB said:

Some people seem to be very positive still despite getting 4 points from the last 18 with a total of 6 league goals scored all season.

 

Make that 7 points from the last 18.  You can't count, Tyler!

4 minutes ago, Rory said:

Another nil tonight if a buffoon wasn't refereeing the game.

No creativity. No spark. No subs. No plan B. NO HOPE!