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Thread: Yesterday

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    346

    Yesterday

    Really impressed with Lowery and Ng yesterday.

    Apart from a few badly chosen passes Lowery looked like one of the best players on the pitch, good pass on him and a fair amount of competitiveness too.

    Ng looked a threat every time he got on the ball and his link up play in and around the box was pretty sharp, looked confident and assured at the back as well.


    I'm giving Nolan the benefit of the doubt that he might have been a right back at left back but he was the only one who looked a bit off the pace

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    1,611
    A bit of mixed feeling after yesterday, In the end settled for the draw
    Raynes is what we have needed for a while. A sort of don't mess with me player. Got their No.9 nicely off the ball
    Walker looks to have potential but would like to see him in midfield. Sat near his family, I think the whole of Billingham had come to watch, a great bunch of people.
    In patches I thought Ainley was good. Nice to have a cf who can head a ball
    For me thought the man of the match was Lowery. What a little terrier, he doesn't worry how big you are. Ok he got caught a couple of times but that will improve. My m.o.m by a long chalk. Why their player didn't get sent off for that challenge on the half way line I don't know. Lowery should have rolled round like he had been shot, just like their players who when they realised the ref wasn't giving a foul jumped up as if some miraculous cure had been found

    Oh and by the way referee 1/10 and he only got that for turning up

    Let's see what Wednesday brings

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    1,175
    Agreed. It was noticeable how much less of the ball Lowery got in the second half as they clearly identified him as a problem, which just meant Cooper got into the game more and started to cause more problems for their RB. Highlight of the second half, though, was the 70 yard cross filed pass from Lowery to No - pinpoint accuracy from a lad clearly not overawed or in a mood to be bullied.

    I thought Ng suffered defensively in equal measure to how decent he looked going forward. We lacked pace at the back, which hopefully a fit George will put right. Walker looked a holding midfielder playing CH but, against a big side, making a decent fist of it. Not convinced by Nolan - Zooms makes mistakes but is quick enough to put them right.

    Porter MotM - can't argue with 2 goals on debut and a good old fashioned CF showing - if the ref allowed them to hold and push him without recourse to his whistle. Then he was going to push and shove back - good man.

    And a word for Garratt, without whom we would have lost the match.

    Overall, a very satisfactory and promising start - 7/10

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Posts
    2,957
    It was definitely an exciting game, occasionally for the wrong reasons. Evans didn't disappoint- all the dirty tricks we expected. However, Inthe second half for about 20 mins they actually concentrated on playing football and looked half decent. It didn't last tho! The ref was unbelievably bad.
    Lowery was brilliant. Wintle kept giving the ball away in dangerous positions. Good to have strength at the back and front.
    One worry was Raynes's volatility. He will miss a few games from suspension. Ainley was also inviting the yellow card.
    However I came away feeling positive that we weren't bullied out of the game.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    431
    Thanks for the reports everyone. Very much appreciated.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Posts
    151
    For me Chris Porter was MOM with his 2 goals. Raynes, Walker, Porter, and Bowery have added the essential we have been missing for years, grit and power. They all look like men who are not going to be bullied or pushed off the ball easily. We already know that with Dagnall.

    In the first half we played some decent football and should have been at least 2-0 up. Goodness knows what Mansfield were playing, it certainly was not football. Evans and his coach were blatantly encouraging it, and constantly intimidating one of the worst referees I have ever seen. I have no problem with strong physical football, but they were disgraceful. If I had been a Mansfield supporter I would have been ashamed of my teams performance.

    Don`t know what was said to our players at halftime, but we came out for the second half and went negative and defensive. This is something we done often in the last few months last season. Their defence was shaky and slow. We should have pressed them but for some reason we did not. Mansfield were there for the taking. We were so poor for their second goal. It should never have happened.

    Only then did we start to attack, and in the last quarter we were so unlucky not to get the win we deserved. Though Cooper did not have one of his better games his corners and freekicks were vastly superior to what we had last season. His cross for our second goal was super. On that performance a playoff spot should be easily achievable.
    ..

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Posts
    2,957
    Yes, I forgot to mention that Bowery, when he came on looked very positive and chased them down a lot. On this showing I'd have him rather than Ainley for the moment.

  8. #8
    In a way the performance was everything I feared. First half Mansfield gave our back line and midfielders that bit of room they needed in order to play; and we looked good and were unlucky not to be further ahead at the interval. Second half though they came out like an express train and proper got in the face of our midfield and back line, not giving them a minutes peace and, as a consequence, struggled to get our game going after the break. That said, a very encouraging start. As has been mentioned Lowery looked totally at home, Porter looks at least like a 15+ goal capture for us, Bowery looked lively and full of purpose when he came on, Wintle looked mostly assured in the centre of the park and Brad Walker looks like a real capture for us. A lot more positives than negatives from Saturday. Crewe of last season would've crumbled and capitulated. Let's see what the next few games bring...

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