Ratings and thoughts vs Chorley

[freemuzzy]

Very strange game today that makes giving individual ratings to the players almost impossible, so different were the two halves.

Chorley should’ve been at least two goals up at HT, though we did improve after our equaliser, which came completely against the run of play. For me it felt like the biggest factor was the fact Chorley are a part-time team (lack of fitness) playing their second match in 3 days on probably the biggest pitch in the league on the hottest day of the year.

Who knows if they’d have found a bit more had Enzio and Dennis not killed the game very early in the second half with two brilliant goals which then gave the team the confidence to show the quality they have.

One thing that should be noted was our patient build-up was seriously annoying the home crowd first half was (in my view) a factor in them tiring later in the game. There’ll be other away teams who’ll come to Meadow Lane this season and there needs to be a bit of patience in the stands as well as on the pitch; credit to the players for resisting the urge to take the easy option and hoof it long, as this really does play into the hands of the opposition. It felt like for the first time this season and probably under Ardley we actually used our pitch to our advantage, rather than let the opposition come for a great day out and pass us off it.

Overall I’m not sure we’ve learnt that much. There is clearly individual quality in the team - we surely have one of the best CBs (Turner), best wingers (Enzio) and potentially strike pairings (Dennis and Thomas) in the division, as well as four EFL standard CM options - it’s just a case of fitting a bit of structure and a style of play around them, and I’m still not sure we’re there yet.

Slocombe - 6 - Couple of decent saves first half. Kicking very poor in the second.

Kelly-Evans - 6 - Like to see a bit more positivity from him in using his pace to attack his opposite number, but 100% effort always. Suspect Rose will start RB on Saturday.

McCrory - 6 - Massively out of position at RCB (why are we starting each game with at least 2 clearly out of position?!), much more at home at LB for the last 15.

Turner - 7 - Class act. Defensive leader; a huge presence in both boxes and even enjoyed a couple of forays forward.

Bakayogo- 5 - Relied on our full backs to provide the width but couldn’t deliver despite regularly getting into good positions. Looked pretty spent early doors and I’d expect Ardley to go with McCrory there on Saturday.

Boldewijn - 7 - Massively uncomfortable asked to tuck in first half, and spent the first 45 looking lost in the centre circle. Then produced a moment of magic out of absolutely nothing which was the game’s defining moment. A special talent who we need to keep. Enjoyed himself thereafter and ended the game strongly.

Rose - 6 - Too deep first half and fairly wasteful in possession throughout. Better at RB but the game was already won at that point.

Doyle - 7 - Not a fan and don’t feel he’s always necessary as he plays so deep, but passing much better today and dictated the tempo throughout. A big factor in the calmness in possession which saw them wear out in the 2nd half.

O’Brien - 7 - Bizarre decision to start him on the left wing and struggled 1st half. As with others, improved second half and was a calm head on the ball floating across midfield. Set the tone with boundless energy.

Tyson - 6 - Dreadful first 30 minutes then scored a good goal and improved after that.

Dennis - 7.5* - Brilliant goal and an excellent assist for Thomas, where many strikers would’ve blazed it in the stands. Really seeing now what a good player he is after such a stop-start first season. By far the most natural goal-scorer in the squad; movement a cut above. Make him #1 striker and play to his strengths and he’ll comfortably hit 20 this year.

Thomas - 7.5 - Great to see a weight lift off his shoulders after scoring his first. Second goal just shaded Dennis’ and Enzio’s for strike of the day and will be up there for goal of the season. Clearly a very good player.

Graham - 6
Booty - 6

Expect the side that finished to be the one that starts at Yeovil.

[Robertomac]

I agree with your thoughts regarding the patient build up, but also think this team (and Ardley) need to earn the right for the crowd to stay behind them. 1-0 down at home to a part-time team is not going to have anyone in the stands appreciating a possession game which doesn't show any attacking intent.

My biggest issue with today was how many misplaced passes we made, conceding possession under no pressure. A better side could've really turned the screw on us, so I'm glad we came away with the points. But to make any real progress we must make it harder for the opposition to win the ball.

A very strange game all in all.

[queenslandpie]

Very strange game today that makes giving individual ratings to the players almost impossible, so different were the two halves.

Chorley should’ve been at least two goals up at HT, though we did improve after our equaliser, which came completely against the run of play. For me it felt like the biggest factor was the fact Chorley are a part-time team (lack of fitness) playing their second match in 3 days on probably the biggest pitch in the league on the hottest day of the year.

Who knows if they’d have found a bit more had Enzio and Dennis not killed the game very early in the second half with two brilliant goals which then gave the team the confidence to show the quality they have.

One thing that should be noted was our patient build-up was seriously annoying the home crowd first half was (in my view) a factor in them tiring later in the game. There’ll be other away teams who’ll come to Meadow Lane this season and there needs to be a bit of patience in the stands as well as on the pitch; credit to the players for resisting the urge to take the easy option and hoof it long, as this really does play into the hands of the opposition. It felt like for the first time this season and probably under Ardley we actually used our pitch to our advantage, rather than let the opposition come for a great day out and pass us off it.

Overall I’m not sure we’ve learnt that much. There is clearly individual quality in the team - we surely have one of the best CBs (Turner), best wingers (Enzio) and potentially strike pairings (Dennis and Thomas) in the division, as well as four EFL standard CM options - it’s just a case of fitting a bit of structure and a style of play around them, and I’m still not sure we’re there yet.

Slocombe - 6 - Couple of decent saves first half. Kicking very poor in the second.

Kelly-Evans - 6 - Like to see a bit more positivity from him in using his pace to attack his opposite number, but 100% effort always. Suspect Rose will start RB on Saturday.

McCrory - 6 - Massively out of position at RCB (why are we starting each game with at least 2 clearly out of position?!), much more at home at LB for the last 15.

Turner - 7 - Class act. Defensive leader; a huge presence in both boxes and even enjoyed a couple of forays forward.

Bakayogo- 5 - Relied on our full backs to provide the width but couldn’t deliver despite regularly getting into good positions. Looked pretty spent early doors and I’d expect Ardley to go with McCrory there on Saturday.

Boldewijn - 7 - Massively uncomfortable asked to tuck in first half, and spent the first 45 looking lost in the centre circle. Then produced a moment of magic out of absolutely nothing which was the game’s defining moment. A special talent who we need to keep. Enjoyed himself thereafter and ended the game strongly.

Rose - 6 - Too deep first half and fairly wasteful in possession throughout. Better at RB but the game was already won at that point.

Doyle - 7 - Not a fan and don’t feel he’s always necessary as he plays so deep, but passing much better today and dictated the tempo throughout. A big factor in the calmness in possession which saw them wear out in the 2nd half.

O’Brien - 7 - Bizarre decision to start him on the left wing and struggled 1st half. As with others, improved second half and was a calm head on the ball floating across midfield. Set the tone with boundless energy.

Tyson - 6 - Dreadful first 30 minutes then scored a good goal and improved after that.

Dennis - 7.5* - Brilliant goal and an excellent assist for Thomas, where many strikers would’ve blazed it in the stands. Really seeing now what a good player he is after such a stop-start first season. By far the most natural goal-scorer in the squad; movement a cut above. Make him #1 striker and play to his strengths and he’ll comfortably hit 20 this year.

Thomas - 7.5 - Great to see a weight lift off his shoulders after scoring his first. Second goal just shaded Dennis’ and Enzio’s for strike of the day and will be up there for goal of the season. Clearly a very good player.

Graham - 6
Booty - 6

Expect the side that finished to be the one that starts at Yeovil.

Appreciate the comments thats certainly what it sounded like on the wireless

[SwalePie]

Very strange game today that makes giving individual ratings to the players almost impossible, so different were the two halves.

Chorley should’ve been at least two goals up at HT, though we did improve after our equaliser, which came completely against the run of play. For me it felt like the biggest factor was the fact Chorley are a part-time team (lack of fitness) playing their second match in 3 days on probably the biggest pitch in the league on the hottest day of the year.

Who knows if they’d have found a bit more had Enzio and Dennis not killed the game very early in the second half with two brilliant goals which then gave the team the confidence to show the quality they have.

One thing that should be noted was our patient build-up was seriously annoying the home crowd first half was (in my view) a factor in them tiring later in the game. There’ll be other away teams who’ll come to Meadow Lane this season and there needs to be a bit of patience in the stands as well as on the pitch; credit to the players for resisting the urge to take the easy option and hoof it long, as this really does play into the hands of the opposition. It felt like for the first time this season and probably under Ardley we actually used our pitch to our advantage, rather than let the opposition come for a great day out and pass us off it.

Overall I’m not sure we’ve learnt that much. There is clearly individual quality in the team - we surely have one of the best CBs (Turner), best wingers (Enzio) and potentially strike pairings (Dennis and Thomas) in the division, as well as four EFL standard CM options - it’s just a case of fitting a bit of structure and a style of play around them, and I’m still not sure we’re there yet.

Slocombe - 6 - Couple of decent saves first half. Kicking very poor in the second.

Kelly-Evans - 6 - Like to see a bit more positivity from him in using his pace to attack his opposite number, but 100% effort always. Suspect Rose will start RB on Saturday.

McCrory - 6 - Massively out of position at RCB (why are we starting each game with at least 2 clearly out of position?!), much more at home at LB for the last 15.

Turner - 7 - Class act. Defensive leader; a huge presence in both boxes and even enjoyed a couple of forays forward.

Bakayogo- 5 - Relied on our full backs to provide the width but couldn’t deliver despite regularly getting into good positions. Looked pretty spent early doors and I’d expect Ardley to go with McCrory there on Saturday.

Boldewijn - 7 - Massively uncomfortable asked to tuck in first half, and spent the first 45 looking lost in the centre circle. Then produced a moment of magic out of absolutely nothing which was the game’s defining moment. A special talent who we need to keep. Enjoyed himself thereafter and ended the game strongly.

Rose - 6 - Too deep first half and fairly wasteful in possession throughout. Better at RB but the game was already won at that point.

Doyle - 7 - Not a fan and don’t feel he’s always necessary as he plays so deep, but passing much better today and dictated the tempo throughout. A big factor in the calmness in possession which saw them wear out in the 2nd half.

O’Brien - 7 - Bizarre decision to start him on the left wing and struggled 1st half. As with others, improved second half and was a calm head on the ball floating across midfield. Set the tone with boundless energy.

Tyson - 6 - Dreadful first 30 minutes then scored a good goal and improved after that.

Dennis - 7.5* - Brilliant goal and an excellent assist for Thomas, where many strikers would’ve blazed it in the stands. Really seeing now what a good player he is after such a stop-start first season. By far the most natural goal-scorer in the squad; movement a cut above. Make him #1 striker and play to his strengths and he’ll comfortably hit 20 this year.

Thomas - 7.5 - Great to see a weight lift off his shoulders after scoring his first. Second goal just shaded Dennis’ and Enzio’s for strike of the day and will be up there for goal of the season. Clearly a very good player.

Graham - 6
Booty - 6

Expect the side that finished to be the one that starts at Yeovil.

Cheers for taking the time and thought to do this. Really appreciated

[jackal2]

O’Brien - 7 - Bizarre decision to start him on the left wing and struggled 1st half. As with others, improved second half and was a calm head on the ball floating across midfield. Set the tone with boundless energy.

Bizarre to us, maybe, that O'Brien was played as a winger, because we've seen him play more as a central midfielder, but if you look back at his career, he's mostly described as a winger. In fact, his Wiki profile described him as a winger when we signed him, but has since been altered to central midfielder.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/spor...deal-1-4621147

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/...obrien-9662929

https://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/2014/jul...er-jim-obrien/


Regardless, I thought he was MoM today, not least because he seemed to be the only Notts player in the first half brave enough to take a risk rather than play the safe pass. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but he was more courageous than his team mates and his header set up Tyson's important equaliser.

[Elite_Pie]

As muzzy says, it's difficult to rate the team on such a mixed performance, but here's my effort:

Slocombe - 6 - One decent save early on, average game.
Kelly-Evans - 6 - Saw a fair bit of the ball but took the easy option of a backwards or sideways pass too often.
McCrory - 6 - Doesn't look a centre back but did ok. Is Bird injured?
Turner - 7 - The player we have lacked for a while. Heads it, clears it and a few good forward runs as well.
Bakayogo- 5 - Not impressed so far. Gives the ball away too easilt and wastes good positions by being indecisive.
Boldewijn - 6 - Struggled to get into the game but provided a brilliant finish to give us the lead.
Rose - 5.5 - Improved a bit in the second half, but was poor in the first.
Doyle - 6 - Another who started poorly but improved as the game went on.
O’Brien - 7.5* - Always in the thick of things and the one player who looks for the forward pass. Great awareness to set up the equaliser.
Tyson - 5 - Way off the pace until he scored a decent goal, just doesn't offer enough to merit a starting place.
Dennis - 7 - Clever player who is starting to show what he is about. Worked hard and scored a great goal out of nothing.

Thomas - 7.5 - One good finish and one superb finish. A better option than Tyson.
Graham - 6 - Did ok in an easy situation.
Booty - 6 - Not much time but looks like he will be a genuine asset.

I summarised the game on another thread, so I'll repeat it here:

For anyone looking at the scoreline and thinking that we outclassed Chorley, think again. For 30 minutes we were absolutely clueless, we were being completely played off the park by a team of part-timers and should have been at least two goals down. Then, with our first meaningful attack O'Brien had the awareness to set up Tyson (who's only contribution until then had been to tackle himself in their box) finished well. The rest of the half was uneventful, but we were very lucky to go in at half time on level terms. Even in the second half we didn't create a lot, but three of the goals were real quality strikes from outside the box, the sort we are lucky to see 3 times in 3 months, let alone 3 times in 20 odd minutes. The plus point is that this result should have given confidence a big boost, especially with all the strikers getting on the scoresheet. We now have to make sure this is a turning point, because the table is such that two wins may well see us in the playoff places, while two defeats will see us close to the drop zone. One final thing, it was good to see the Chorley players get generous applause from the main stand on leaving the pitch, because they were far better than the scoreline suggests.

[optipez]

A game of two halves, everything broke for us second half, first half all our weaknesses were to the fore.

Slocombe 7. Made two important saves to keep us in it.

Kelly Evans 6.5. Has a spark and positivity about him did nothing much wrong.

McCrory 6. Out of position but did his best strong in the air despite not being the tallest.

Turner 7. Absolute rock, would hate to see the defence without him.

Bakayogo 5. Solid enough defender but asked to push up his distribution was pretty poor.

Boldwijn 6. Hard to give him a mark, first half lost in no man's land tucked in on the right, second half scored a wonder goal then looks a class act.
For all his faults, he's played every game and bothered every team and is scoring.

O'Brien 7.5 MOTM positive performance, always wanted to drive us forwards.

Doyle 6. Much better second half a bit sideways and backwards first half.

Rose 6. Worked hard, broke stuff up but passing let him down.

Dennis 7. Deserved his (great) goal ran his socks off again. Rejuvenated this season so far.

Tyson 6. Got a goal and did ok.

Subs
Graham 5.5 did nothing wrong
Booty 5.5 not on for long, did ok
Thomas 7. Glad he's scored after missing a couple of chances. He looked very lively against a tired Chorley but smashed his second in.

Agree with the other posters, the score flattered us and we could have been two down before we got going.
We are trying to play football, they're not a hoofball team but we were slow first half and we missed McCrory being on the left.
Hopefully they can take some confidence from today, can't help but feel there was a lack of it until the third went in after which we cruised it.

[nw6pie]

I thought we played far better against Wrexham when we only got a point, but our finishing today was different class. They had a great chance in the first half but failed to hit the target, whereas we had one of those days when every shot flew in to put us 5 up. Thomas’ second was a great individual goal, but Dennis’ was the pick of the bunch for me coming at the end of a long passing sequence.

What did we learn today? That Enzio has a left foot; that Turner is one half of a good centre back pairing, but not sure who should play alongside him; that Mitch Rose is best running with the ball and not passing to an opposition player inside his own half; that we haven’t worked out routines for goal kicks; that you can deliberately knee the ball back to your keeper and it won’t count as a back pass; that Dennis is the 20-goal striker we needed; and that we still don’t know what our best starting XI is (although I don’t think it will feature Bakayogo).

[slack_pie]

Thanks for the match ratings everyone. The comments here pretty much reflect Charlie Slater's commentary. The first half sounded truly awful, and it sounds like our quality shone through in the second half. But given that Slater said the first 30 mins or so were as bad as anything he's seen, it takes the gloss off what is otherwise an excellent result.

I still have concerns about the fact we don't appear to be able to play well for 90 minutes. I know in every game both sides have good spells and bad spells, but our bad spells sound seriously dire. Against better opposition yesterday, we'd have been two or three down at half time and out of the game.

Anyway, we won, and by a four-goal margin in the end. That's fantastic for morale and confidence, whatever happened during the first half. Hopefully this will give our players the boost they need to go into the next game with a winning mindset. Four games unbeaten now - let's keep that going!

COYP

[Bartlett's Dust]

We now have to make sure this is a turning point

This is probably the most over used cliche on Notts Mad, especially under Ardley who has yet to even put any sort of run together in just less than 40 games. We keep on waiting for the inevitable winning run but the evidence would suggest it isn't going to happen, would love to be proved wrong though.

One thing is for sure, he certainly has the players at his disposal to at least challenge for a play off spot, the time to help excuse no longer washes with 7 games played.