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Thread: That was a bizarre match

  1. #1
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    That was a bizarre match

    Got back about 45 mins ago scratching my head in the car all the way back.

    Our defence got totally bullied by their two forwards, Jamille Matt in particular...He was literally unplayable in that 1st half and was mostly drifting towards Rose (one of our smallest players) and out muscling him, very clever. Unfortunately our young defenders didn't know how to cope with him. Only Milsom had a reasonable game out of the back 4.

    Jim O'Brien was probably MOM for me. It was strange they gave it to Hemmings, but I thought it was a bit crass to boo that decision by some members of the crowd.

    Touching on the crowd, apart from the booing of Hemmings, they were fantastic and kept singing even when we were 1-4 down.

    A strange off day for Doyle. Hope he doesn't have many more of those....ouch. Alessandra was also poor.

    Gomis looked lively but was largely ineffective, although I believe he is still an improvement on Dennis.

    CMS was making things happen when he came on and Boldewijn played pretty well too.

    Strange really, because we weren't terrible overall by any means. Just got totally bullied for 50 minutes. Then Newport just saw the game out. We were much better 2nd half, but the game was already over by then.

    Oh well. onwards and (hopefully) upwards!!

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by MancMagpie View Post
    Got back about 45 mins ago scratching my head in the car all the way back.

    Our defence got totally bullied by their two forwards, Jamille Matt in particular...He was literally unplayable in that 1st half and was mostly drifting towards Rose (one of our smallest players) and out muscling him, very clever. Unfortunately our young defenders didn't know how to cope with him. Only Milsom had a reasonable game out of the back 4.

    Jim O'Brien was probably MOM for me. It was strange they gave it to Hemmings, but I thought it was a bit crass to boo that decision by some members of the crowd.

    Touching on the crowd, apart from the booing of Hemmings, they were fantastic and kept singing even when we were 1-4 down.

    A strange off day for Doyle. Hope he doesn't have many more of those....ouch. Alessandra was also poor.

    Gomis looked lively but was largely ineffective, although I believe he is still an improvement on Dennis.

    CMS was making things happen when he came on and Boldewijn played pretty well too.

    Strange really, because we weren't terrible overall by any means. Just got totally bullied for 50 minutes. Then Newport just saw the game out. We were much better 2nd half, but the game was already over by then.

    Oh well. onwards and (hopefully) upwards!!
    Newport were a lot better in the two penalty areas, which meant they won easily. They also bossed midfield. At least we have one thing in common with Man City - we both struggled with the long throw.

    Not sure Doyle’s performance was surprising, though - the guy is 37 and a half, and needs more recovery time between games.

    Was it just me that thought the pitch was in quite poor condition?

  3. #3
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    I thought we were pretty awful. It's no good passing the ball around when the game is already lost at 1-4. We never really looked like scoring, and they looked like they could have scored another at will if they'd wanted to. Seriously, that was no different to some of the games earlier in the season - shockingly fragile at the back.

    It has been said many times, but why oh why did he tinker with a winning team? Not just dropping a few tired legs, but changing the shape, too. Gomis and Hemmings up front simply didn't work. The ball never stuck. Allesandra did his usual thing of running around but achieving nothing. And the young centre backs and keeper looked like the inexperienced loanees that they are.

    There seemed to be huge gaps all over the pitch as well. Watching on iFollow, it was one of those games when the ball was cleared beyond where the camera was focussing, you just knew it would be a Newport player that would get to it first.

    The worry for me is that we lost heavily at home, without putting up much of a fight, with our supposed leaders and battlers on the pitch. After the last three games, I thought we're bound to lose again, but at least we won't make it easy for the opposition. After tonight, I don't know what to think.

    Away at Tranmere suddenly looks like another tough game. For all those getting carried away and talking about a promotion campaign next season (including me) - this is our reality check. We still have a huge job on our hands to get out of this mess. And it's clear that the teams around us are just as capable of picking up points as we are.

    Sort it out Ardley. Learn from your mistakes.

  4. #4
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    It's ok people saying Neil shouldn't tinker with the team but we can't play the season out with just eleven player.
    We know that Aless is no CMS but if Neil felt he needs a rest because he hasn't had much game time, then someone has to play there.
    A lot of people on this board thought it a good idea to play Hemmings in place of Stead, me included, but it showed just how important JS is to the team. Hemmings and Gomis were both trying to play in the same position in the first half and it showed tonight they are not the partnership we require.
    For Doyle it was a game too far and maybe that was where the tinkering was needed.
    Credit to Newport though, I thought they were excellent and just allowed us to play in front of them, then closed us down. Their delivery into the box caused us problems all night and, contrary to what a lot of us thought, they had energy in bucket loads.
    Neil said there would be highs and lows, and I suspect the players will be hurting.
    I looked at Stubbsy after the match and he looked totally deflated. That is what I expect and want of a Notts player after a defeat like that.
    I am not worried by this defeat because I think this is a squad of players that will take it on board and try and put it right. We shall see.
    Still believing.

  5. #5
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    Last night was certainly a reality check.
    We’ve played 3 of the top 4 who have all attacked us. That has completely suited this team.
    Newport sat back and invited us on and we struggled. They doubled up on our wingers and easily won the aerial battle without Stead on the pitch.
    That said we created chances and it just felt like on most other nights we wouldn’t lost that game 4-1.
    I bizarrely didn’t leave the ground feeling dejected, just that it was a reminder that we won’t always have it our own way.
    The biggest disappointment for me was it showed we need Stead to start every game and we’re going to struggle to create chances without him.

  6. #6
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    N A got the tactics right for the previous three games but horribly wrong last night didn't seem to acknowledge that in his after match comments though.

  7. #7
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    Agree with many of the comments made here, and that it was a strange game. The first half in-particular was weird; we were playing some great football going forward but looked vulnerable and conceded every time the ball was pumped into our box. The second and third goals were completely against the run of play, but were of our own making.

    Then the goal in the 46th minute (from another cross) kills it completely.

    It didn’t have the feel of a 1-4 game and at HT I still had a bit of hope. What I thought it highlighted was that it’s not as simplistic of saying we’re fine to play two kids at CB and one in-goal because Doyle and O’Brien will protect them; that’s fine when teams play in-front of them but for direct teams who are a good on set-pieces that’s irrelevant because our midfield will be bypassed and it’s just a case of dealing with the cross (or long throw). Maybe worth considering drafting Brisley in if there’s a Newport equivalent opposition again and telling him to always go for the first ball - there was a lack of leadership back there and I’m not convinced by Barclay (I think Stubbs is a hell of a prospect but it’s a big ask for him to be leading the defence at 20).

    The keeper is clearly a problem; he will probably go on to have a good career but he’s pretty much what you’d expect of a 19-year-old - not what we needed right now. I expect teams to continue to target us in this way now so lessons have to be learnt very quickly.

  8. #8
    Yeah, I’d have to agree with most of that.

    Ardley got it wrong in a number of ways, but did he have another option?

    We are missing a big centre forward and have 3 kids playing at the back. What options did NA have to change that?

    We played into Newport’s hands on a number of levels.

    They’ve been practising for their cup game to stop teams playing through them. And we tried to do exactly that.

    And it’s clear that the keeper and two young centres backs are far from the finished articles we’d ideally have. But that’s where we are.

    We pick ourselves up and get on with the next game.

    All this crap about top half finishes and promotion next season will hopefully now end.

    We are still in the relegation fight of our lives.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by The_Don_ORiordan View Post
    Yeah, I’d have to agree with most of that.

    Ardley got it wrong in a number of ways, but did he have another option?

    We are missing a big centre forward and have 3 kids playing at the back. What options did NA have to change that?

    We played into Newport’s hands on a number of levels.

    They’ve been practising for their cup game to stop teams playing through them. And we tried to do exactly that.

    And it’s clear that the keeper and two young centres backs are far from the finished articles we’d ideally have. But that’s where we are.

    We pick ourselves up and get on with the next game.

    All this crap about top half finishes and promotion next season will hopefully now end.

    We are still in the relegation fight of our lives.
    Good post. The lack of a target man is a massive issue, not just in build up play but there were a few occasions last night when dangerous crosses went in and we had players either battling for it with their defenders or straining to reach it because they ball was a couple of inches too high.

    The same kind of balls for Newport had an agile 6-foot-4 man-mountain steamrollering onto them.

    Nothing we can do about that until the summer but I'm surprised he didn't take Doyle or a centre half off and chuck Bird on as an auxiliary centre forward for the last part of the game when they had basically stopped attacking.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by drillerpie View Post
    Good post. The lack of a target man is a massive issue, not just in build up play but there were a few occasions last night when dangerous crosses went in and we had players either battling for it with their defenders or straining to reach it because they ball was a couple of inches too high.

    The same kind of balls for Newport had an agile 6-foot-4 man-mountain steamrollering onto them.

    Nothing we can do about that until the summer but I'm surprised he didn't take Doyle or a centre half off and chuck Bird on as an auxiliary centre forward for the last part of the game when they had basically stopped attacking.
    Teams with big strong centre forwards always seem to cause us trouble.

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