6 hours ago, darren1810 said:

I'm far far from Hackford biggest fan. Weak as pee at times.

He's 3rd joint top scorer.

For me I think he's an impact sub particularly away from home with his pace.

A bit like Benning 2 season ago, nowhere near as bad as he's made out to be.

All 3 of his goals are away from home.

The fact our top scorer only has 5 is pretty terrible. 

Hackford has, by a fairly clear margin, our best ratio of goals:90. He's got 3 goals in 7.6 90s.

For every 90 minutes played, he's scoring 0.39 goals, which over a 46 game season (implausible, I know, but for illustrative purposes), would result in 18 goals. If you add in his assist, he's getting a goal or assist every other game.

This is with the acknowledgement that he misses loads of good chances - three in the first half last week, several against Dons late on, and there's others I will be forgetting.

It's a weird one. He isn't very good at a lot of stuff, but he is pretty good at being quick and having good chances, which is quite important.

He looks like he shouldn't be good, and he does a lot of not good things like get bullied off the ball and give away possession loads, but in terms of 'getting in good positions to score goals', he's the best at the club - which people won't like to hear.

Some more fun little stats:

Players which, when on the pitch, we score the most goals minus goals conceded:

Garrity (+11 goals scored than conceded)

Stockley (+9)

Hall (+8)

Sang (+5)

Tolaj (+4)

Worst;

Sam Hart (-4)

Joe it's Friday night, I'm looking forward to the weekend, then U come quoting figures like DD when he has been on the smarties - me eds gone 🙈🙈🙈😁

I assume it is an option to park on the big Tesco near to the ground?

(or will I need to sprint back over at half-time and dash up the nearest aisle to make a qualifying purchase?!) 😆

Sorry to ruin your night mate

UTV vtid etc etc 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

1 minute ago, The Kalamazoo Kid said:

I assume it is an option to park on the big Tesco near to the ground?

(or will I need to sprint back over at half-time and dash up the nearest aisle to make a qualifying purchase?!) 😆

UTV 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

Can't even post any stats on a Friday night without the wokes getting involved 😡🇬🇧

1 hour ago, JoeB2 said:

Hackford has, by a fairly clear margin, our best ratio of goals:90. He's got 3 goals in 7.6 90s.

For every 90 minutes played, he's scoring 0.39 goals, which over a 46 game season (implausible, I know, but for illustrative purposes), would result in 18 goals. If you add in his assist, he's getting a goal or assist every other game.

This is with the acknowledgement that he misses loads of good chances - three in the first half last week, several against Dons late on, and there's others I will be forgetting.

It's a weird one. He isn't very good at a lot of stuff, but he is pretty good at being quick and having good chances, which is quite important.

He looks like he shouldn't be good, and he does a lot of not good things like get bullied off the ball and give away possession loads, but in terms of 'getting in good positions to score goals', he's the best at the club - which people won't like to hear.

0.39 goals? Worlds gone mad.

4 hours ago, stokespireite said:

Think mite be a tough game for us.......we have lost goals this week with Markanday and Berry joining Orient and Wycombe plus no Grigg etc. A few new defenders on maybe their first appearance also. Anyway as im going over with a few vale fans hope its a good game.

They've signed 37 year old Kyle McFadzean from Blackburn Rovers so if he plays tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised if Hackford and/or Olomu get to stretch their legs at some point during the game. 

8 hours ago, crofty59 said:

Moore is thick. End of.

Brain dead comment.  For starters Moore isn’t making decisions on his own, we’ve got plenty of staff in various roles, more than ever in fact.  There’s a lot more people in the background these days who’ll have a major influence on many of Moores decisions, many of which will be driven by stats.

3 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

Brain dead comment.  For starters Moore isn’t making decisions on his own, we’ve got plenty of staff in various roles, more than ever in fact.  There’s a lot more people in the background these days who’ll have a major influence on many of Moores decisions, many of which will be driven by stats.

Too many cooks then. 

8 hours ago, Regal Beagle said:

Fine but the constant selection of hackford isn't explained by that. He is picking him for a reason, it's a reason I can't see. I know it's not based on form. I know it's not based on past contribution. So it is fair enough to question that. Tolaj was ticking along quite nicely with his assists and then all of a sudden out in the wilderness, and almost as suddenly a nailed on starter again. That situation has been very weird.

 

Lowe, was it enforced? He has played 12 times in the league. Ill be as charitable as possible and assume harper wasn't fit to play more than 45, but we still had Sang, we still had heneghan on the bench to cover cb. I just don't see any rhyme or reason in the tinkering as it stands. It looks like he is a tactical god when we win 8 out 10 or whatever it was, but the flip side of that is when we win 1 in 12 and nothing he changes actually has a positive effect, he looks clueless.

 

That's why the upturn in form since Garrity comes back is making me think that Moore is being carried by the quality of the squad. In fact he has done quite well to go 12 games without winning, in league two, with this squad regardless of the injuries we have had. 

 

Plus, the argument that players benefit from a run of games is still valid. Fine to write it off when you are winning but you can't write it off when you aren't.

 

The reason is pace.  Hackford is very quick, at least compared to our other strikers, which forces the opposition defenders to sit deeper.  Tolaj did seem to get bombed out after one game, can’t remember which, which possibly affected his confidence, but that’s football.  But didn’t he also pick up a knock at one point, I could be wrong.

Lowe was bought in to cover in midfield due to our injuries and suspension of Harper.  He did ok, better away likely due to the physical requirements when playing on our big pitch, he’s never been the most mobile.

Nobody is saying Moore is a tactical god but some credit is due when we’re winning games and top of the league.  When we’re losing he comes under the spotlight, rightly so, but if we see the injury situation then you’ve got to make some allowances.

Moore should be “carried by the squad”, that’s the idea.  Recruit a great team and get them playing well together, ideally needing the minimum of input from the manager.  The players are the ones crossing the line, not Moore.  The better the players he recruits the better our chances, in the most basic sense.

Players do generally play better if given a run of games but if you’ve got competition for places then they have to perform when given the chance.  Quite a few have been inconsistent at best.  Fair to say a big squad can also be a problem, trying to keep players happy and match fit so there undoubtedly a bit of that going on.

All in all we’ll have a better idea as the next few months progress.  Many teams will have bolstered their squads or recruited cover where they have a gap so it’ll look different after the window shuts.

For me a finish in the top 7 would match my expectations, anything better would be great.

24 minutes ago, SS Vale said:

Too many cooks then. 

Not sure about that.  Didn’t we run out of pies earlier in the season?

11 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

Not sure about that.  Didn’t we run out of pies earlier in the season?

Metaphorically old boy. 

35 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

The reason is pace.  Hackford is very quick, at least compared to our other strikers, which forces the opposition defenders to sit deeper.  Tolaj did seem to get bombed out after one game, can’t remember which, which possibly affected his confidence, but that’s football.  But didn’t he also pick up a knock at one point, I could be wrong.

Lowe was bought in to cover in midfield due to our injuries and suspension of Harper.  He did ok, better away likely due to the physical requirements when playing on our big pitch, he’s never been the most mobile.

Nobody is saying Moore is a tactical god but some credit is due when we’re winning games and top of the league.  When we’re losing he comes under the spotlight, rightly so, but if we see the injury situation then you’ve got to make some allowances.

Moore should be “carried by the squad”, that’s the idea.  Recruit a great team and get them playing well together, ideally needing the minimum of input from the manager.  The players are the ones crossing the line, not Moore.  The better the players he recruits the better our chances, in the most basic sense.

Players do generally play better if given a run of games but if you’ve got competition for places then they have to perform when given the chance.  Quite a few have been inconsistent at best.  Fair to say a big squad can also be a problem, trying to keep players happy and match fit so there undoubtedly a bit of that going on.

All in all we’ll have a better idea as the next few months progress.  Many teams will have bolstered their squads or recruited cover where they have a gap so it’ll look different after the window shuts.

For me a finish in the top 7 would match my expectations, anything better would be great.

After the start we had, money spent and squad assembled, I’d be very disappointed with a play off finish