4 minutes ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

My biggest problem with Darren Moore tonight is that we started Hackford when he showed nothing on Saturday and then he brings on Richards who I’ve seen very little impact from. 
Meanwhile….. Paton, our own contracted player, with goals in him, sits on the bench. 
 

Paton was hung out to dry by Moore and his tactics in the first four games and it seems now that he’s out of favour over loan players up top who, in my opinion, aren’t better than him. 
 

Time to unleash Paton on Saturday, along with Tolaj, along Stockley. 
 

Come on Darren. Let’s see what the three can do. 
I don’t want to see Hackford or Richards starting over any of those three. 

Agree though I do think Richard’s look decent. Not entirely sure where’d play though.

Disappointing result against a side that didn’t offer much. Pointless talking about their antics though, when we’re spending as much as we are on players, we should be able to rise above that.

i think the lower end of the play-offs is about the best we can hope for going off what’s been shown so far. If we do achieve that I think it will be more down to the fact we’ve got a lot of quality, well paid players rather than anything Moore does.

2 tough games to come now. I think the story of our season will largely be beating the dross (of which there is a lot) with the odd hiccup (like tonight) and then struggling against the better sides but picking up the odd result. Like I said above, this will probably land us just about in the play-offs but it won’t be pretty.

 

 

26 minutes ago, 1 said:

Saw Byers injury a mile off, I’m sorry to say. I said we should be starting Croasdale against scrappy teams that leave their feet in and come for a point. I was right. That’ll be him until Christmas.

I doubt anyone will believe this but I genuinely said to my mate pre-game that Byers would pick up a knee injury around 20 minutes in tonight. The game had a bad vibe.

His injury record isn't good and he hasn't hit 25 league games in years.

8 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

I disagree. We can’t just keep picking the same side / formation every time we win a game (especially after beating such a poor side) we shouldn’t be using a back 5 at home, there is no need. There was no way Hackford deserved to start tonight after Saturday and once again offered nothing. In my opinion we should be picking the side that has the best chance of beating the opposition. Tonight in my opinion we left most of our creative players on the bench to start the likes of hennegan who just was not required in a game like this. 

With hindsight we are all brilliant managers.

I posted pre match I would play Paton rather than Hackford and pre Swindon I said Debrah should be starting tonight to deal with the pace of the Colchester striker BUT 5 at the back worked a treat Saturday and was very offensive. It would have been difficult to justify the change and we were poor with 4 at the back tonight albeit better offensively for 5 minutes.

8 hours ago, Raveninblack said:

I’m not going to predict a score but I fail to understand why they keep watering the pitch to make it too slippery and why our goalkeeper keeps kicking it long 

Nobody slipped over.  Some opposition players did however find it difficult to stay upright. 👍🏻

Edited October 1, 20241 yr by Guitar Ray
Typo

I think it's hard to argue that Moore is improving this squad through his management. He has much better players than the opposition but we've played convincingly maybe twice this season - Newport and Swindon. Arguably Chesterfield.

He keeps having to make double changes at half-time to sort out a mess of his own making (would a single Vale fan have started Hackford tonight?), and we keep clinging on in the final stages of home games against sides with little threat.

I just think we could be a bit better than this. Wednesday fans told us that he never really convinced there, but did just about enough with a very expensive squad to get over the line (just) at the 2nd time of asking. I've got a feeling it'll be similar here.

 

A final point is we're in a bit of bother if Byers is out, as someone we've contrived to build a squad with only one ball-playing, tempo-setting midfielder.

Garrity and Croasdale have the passing range of a non-league player. We came under the cosh late on as we couldn't hold onto the ball and it kept coming back at us.

13 minutes ago, MBE said:

I will make the same argument about the GK situation as I did a few weeks ago.

Ripley is the only denominator from last seasons porous defence. We have seen Ripley for over 50 games to judge him. 

Amos has had 1 game not enough of a sample to judge him fairly. I would give Amos a run of 5-6 games to see if he can win the shirt. He either does but if he doesn’t it gives Ripley a kick up the backside.

We are conceding far too many goals especially considering the number of chances we concede.

Totally agree. Ripleys' casual attitude which some may call arrogance sets the tempo for the team

Tonight right from the start he was clearly being casual in everything he did. 

It's not a coincidence his last 3 seasons saw his team get relegated.

As soon as we scored tonight he started his time wasting that brought the tempo down throughout the team. 

I would love to know how many shots on target we have faced this season and how many of those have resulted in goals against.

After scoring the opening goal we should have increased our tempo and the captain should have lead the way. But that became impossible as soon as Ripley started his time wasting r-sing about.

He needs dropping and DM needs to tell the team why he is dropping him.

I couldn't see the cross at the end of the game but it looked to me he fumbled it and cost us the win.

Abysmal lack of concentration.

I've just seen there goal. 

Well it's not good for CR I think my mum could have saved it ,or caught it .

Never mind serves us right sitting back and thinking games won at 1-0 .

I'd have see Tolajs offside goal again it didn't look offside to me after wonderful play resulting in a Curtis curler which was saved .

The linesman as much as Ripley is too blame for 3 points not being acquired but why for 10 mins until J Debrah scored did we play superbly then we seemed to think we had done enough when quite clearly we hadnt. 

1 hour ago, SuperHuman said:

I’m not going to moan about how Colchester played. That was on us. A game we’ve seen x 100 times. A Colchester goal was coming, it didn’t surprise me. 

 

Yeah, once again clubs that cheat get rewarded in the end.
Looked to me like Mr Arrogant Ripley lost concentration yet again and cost us.
His last 3 seasons have all seen his club get relegated.
I am not surprised. His casual arrogance leads not only to him losing concentration, but his casual distribution style spreads through the side.
As soon as we scored he started <ovf censored> housing and doing exactly what Colchester had been doing. That lead to us becoming casual and a drop in tempo. Allowing them to dictate the game.
The sooner he is dropped and bombed out of the club the better.

Edited October 1, 20241 yr by andy jones

The Ripley save looks even worse now I’ve seen it back. Initial reaction back of the railway stand was what a glaring error. He’s got to be either going with his fists and getting distance on it or palming it wide. Awful mistake. When we need him stand strong and pull us out a win he does this. Simply not good enough. Time for a change please Darren and give Amos a run of 5/6 games. Maybe it’ll do ripley the world of good in the meantime. 

Until now I’ve said don’t drop Ripley as Amos has looked even worse in the games I’ve seen him. But he’s cost us 3 points plain and simple. Needs a kick up the arse. I’d start Amos next game.

20 minutes ago, sandyford_valiant said:

The Ripley save looks even worse now I’ve seen it back. Initial reaction back of the railway stand was what a glaring error. He’s got to be either going with his fists and getting distance on it or palming it wide. Awful mistake. When we need him stand strong and pull us out a win he does this. Simply not good enough. Time for a change please Darren and give Amos a run of 5/6 games. Maybe it’ll do ripley the world of good in the meantime. 

I thought this too. Looked awful in the ground but somehow looks even worse on the highlights. Saw their fans blaming Connor Hall but don’t see what he’s meant to do when his keeper pushes it straight to their forward 5 yards out.

1 hour ago, Spunk Trumpet said:

My biggest problem with Darren Moore tonight is that we started Hackford when he showed nothing on Saturday and then he brings on Richards who I’ve seen very little impact from. 
Meanwhile….. Paton, our own contracted player, with goals in him, sits on the bench. 
 

Paton was hung out to dry by Moore and his tactics in the first four games and it seems now that he’s out of favour over loan players up top who, in my opinion, aren’t better than him. 
 

Time to unleash Paton on Saturday, along with Tolaj, along Stockley. 
 

Come on Darren. Let’s see what the three can do. 
I don’t want to see Hackford or Richards starting over any of those three. 

Don’t want to pile on Hackford but I’ve seen nothing from him at all. Even against Accrington he was anonymous until he scored his tap in. Find it very bizarre to be starting him over two forwards we payed fees for who both scored 20 odd goals last season.

It felt like everything was a bit sloppy tonight. Lots of miscontrolling, lots of short or misplaced passes, lots of lackadaisical attempts at crosses. Nobody looked sharp, which you need to be when playing a team that sits in.

Like others, I'm confused by Hackford starting. I don't want to pile in on him but he's not been in games at all. Play Paton surely?

Thought Richards did well and looked direct. Curtis shows glimpses but isn't quite doing it yet.

I think everyone is disappointed as we dropped 2 points against a very poor side at home. However, 3 wins and 2 draws from the last 5 is decent enough.