Just now, davehartshill said:

Some of our performances last season were dreadful. More than a handful of them as well. We struggled against sides at the bottom and in lower mid table but got decent results against those around us. Despite automatic promotion and some good performances so far this season, I’m still not convinced by DM as a manager. 

Last season was horrific, this season so far has been infinitely better. The lack of goals is worrying, early days though and we need reinforcements through the door in the coming days.

Just now, Jacko51 said:

Glad you specified league. Faal has as many in the Cup!

As I said, in the league. 

Might be a Vale caller on P&G in a min, they just have to interview Viktor Johanssons cat first.

18 minutes ago, JohnDoe said:

Dreadful. Previous performances papered over how poor we are going forward. When they attacked, you would often see 4-5 players in the box. When we attacked, we’d often have one person in the box who we would swing a cross into for their defenders to head out.

Dreadful transfer window where we have ended up with a worse starting 11 than in league 2. The only person who has strengthened us is Humphrey’s.

Dreadful in game management. Moore has only won 1 game where we went behind.

Dreadful league 1 record. 2 wins in 22 i think it is. 

We are in trouble. 

Well said, Humphreys, Byers, Clark are League 1 players, in my opinion, I am not too sure about the others.

We are not good enough in both penalty areas, we need more League 1 quality or it could be a long season.

 

We are no real threat in the final third, as soon as they scored heads went down and Vale chased shadows. Need to bring some reinforcements in asap with the Tolaj funds.

3 minutes ago, davehartshill said:

Some of our performances last season were dreadful. More than a handful of them as well. We struggled against sides at the bottom and in lower mid table but got decent results against those around us. Despite automatic promotion and some good performances so far this season, I’m still not convinced by DM as a manager. 

Careful, that looks a lot like a reasonable and balanced view.  The question for me is can we start to get the results that some of our performances have deserved, or will heads drop as the pressure builds and we continue failing to pick up enough points to survive.  Still a long way to go, but not a great start so far.  After the goal today it looked like heads dropped, so some real work to do with the games coming up.

1 minute ago, JS Valiant said:

Well said, Humphreys, Byers, Clark are League 1 players, in my opinion, I am not too sure about the others.

We are not good enough in both penalty areas, we need more League 1 quality or it could be a long season.

 

Disagree, we have plenty of players who are good enough for league 1….Hall, Headley, Amos, Walters, Garrity, Croasdale I’m just not sure we have a manager good enough for league one. We have a better squad than last time we were promoted and Clarke kept us up easy enough first season. 

5 minutes ago, Quebec_Valiant said:

I'm just going to go ahead and assume that you've never been.  Am I close?

Didn’t buy the t-shirt . 

Need a striker or two now we’ve sold lorent.

 

just hope we’ve have a replacement lined up Monday or Tuesday. This would show shrewd planning and good business. If not then a s**t show and we will be in trouble.

 

1 minute ago, Quebec_Valiant said:

Careful, that looks a lot like a reasonable and balanced view.  The question for me is can we start to get the results that some of our performances have deserved, or will heads drop as the pressure builds and we continue failing to pick up enough points to survive.  Still a long way to go, but not a great start so far.  After the goal today it looked like heads dropped, so some real work to do with the games coming up.

Yeah, I see a lot of imbalanced views on here. Either way too far one way or way too far the other. We’ve played well so far and created decent chances in all our games but you don’t get given points or stay up for playing well and creating the most chances.  

Second half was fine according to Darren. Discuss.

5 minutes ago, Rory said:

Last season was horrific, this season so far has been infinitely better. The lack of goals is worrying, early days though and we need reinforcements through the door in the coming days.

Until the 88th minute on Tuesday I was really enjoying the season, despite the results.  I said at the time that if we didn't start picking up points then the pressure would build quickly, and I think that we are either there or rapidly getting there now.  Hopefully a quality replacement for Tolaj can make a big difference.

30 minutes ago, Paul6754 said:

their changes nullified what threat Vale had.

Yep, bringing on Pearson at half-time was a masterstroke by Grant McCann as he won every single header. 

Shipley and Ojo were the backbone of the midfield. Last season’s fodder. It just makes no sense at all.

Byers and Croasdale, Walters filtering in as and when

Garrity in front, with Curtis et al to play a few minutes here and there.

that’s the only midfield we should be playing.

Some positives today but a lot of frustration as well. Gauci looked very comfortable but in reality had very little to do. I thought the defence looked comfortable as Doncaster didn’t really create that many chances. 
 

I felt for Mo as his loose pass obviously lead to them having a gift of goal. But to be fair to him a lot of players were playing loose passes. The first ten minutes of the first half our passing was all over the shop and the ball was a hot potato. It seemed to calm down then and we then had control of the rest of the half. The second half we just never really got started and allowed Doncaster to have control of the game. I don’t think this was down to a lack of effort but for me the balance of the midfield wasn’t quite right. I thought Shipley was awful today. If Byers is suspended, I don’t get why Walters wasn’t the first name on the team sheet. We had no one in the middle of the park who wanted the ball and demanded it so that we could get the game by the scruff of the neck. Shipley just isn’t that player. If Moore didn’t fancy playing Walter’s from the start then Ojo should have had the middle of the park position. Not once did Shipley turn or look comfortable receiving the ball deep. 
 

I was impressed with Humphrey’s who looked really comfortable. Gordon just kept giving the ball away when he came on. Crosses were hit too hard for anyone to get on the end of them, albeit all of our headers seem to either go side of the post or go tamely to the keeper. We desperately need some heading practice in training. Curtis never seems to fully connect with it when it hits his head. 
 

This season hangs in the balance of what DM now does in the transfer window. We need someone who can get the ball in the back of the net. I know it’s easier said than done but we just don’t have anyone with that killer instinct in the box. 
 

I just don’t get why Walters wasn’t on from the start. We only really started playing a little bit when he came on and was looking to play a through ball. 
 

we have just gifted 3 points to Donny. Frustrating.