⚽ Match Thread vs. Mansfield Town FC 14.10.23 [EFL L2]

[Elite_Pie]

and just got the luck on the day against a team they always seem to do well against

That's rubbish, luck wasn't involved at all.

The better team deservedly won.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Naturally it’s very disappointing that we lost 4-1 to Mansfield especially since it was our first local derby in four years.

There are a few calls on here for us to adopt a Plan B or C. Of course when you shipped four goals once and five goals twice in thir**** games it does raise questions. If we do change style and philosophy then we go away from all that has made us what we are in the past year and a bit.

As fans we will be the biggest critics of our team and I would imagine privately LW and the players will be the same.

If we break yesterday down we did not have Bostock, Jones or Cameron for the second half and with those three in the second half I’m adamant we would have created more.

Im not denying we have to be better defensively certainly from set pieces which we all know and can see from the goals against column. That is already one of the lessons learned going forward and I would expect this to be a priority for recruitment either in January or the summer.

What we don’t need to do is change our style of play. It’s served us well and has given the club a new lease of life. So we don’t and I doubt we would throw the baby out with the bath water. This is the problem we had under previous owners and managers where styles and philosophies would change all the time and you would end up with bloated squads and players unable to fit a system.

We are a little like The Coated ones if they score four we will score five at the moment.

What we don’t need to do is change our style what we need to do is do it better and that’s where in LW we trust. It takes hours and hours of detail and preparation and training to be able to play football like we do. As LW said we need the exposure to the bigger games and also for me the stronger and more powerful teams. The Mansfield video will be a good learning tool for the club going forward.

As someone said on here already (think it was Elite) we are not the biggest or tallest side so we have to be quicker, smarter and cleverer to counter act physical teams. Again that comes from signing technically good footballers and improving our own game which takes time. It is after all only our first season back in the league, and if we can keep in the mix at Christmas we will be doing just fine.

Keep the faith.

[Stagnificent]

Course you are going to be full off it - i dont blame you -all fans enjoy days like this
For whatever reason Mansfield are a bogey team for us- and we had 2 of our best players missing and Bostock went off when it was still 1-1
mansfield just got lucky on the 2 set pieces that credited them with a healthy win , even your own supporters on their forum admitted the ball had dropped kindly for them in both halves
You will lose soon prob to a team in the bottom half,

As someone else said, you make your own luck. We kept the ball in your half, whether that was us in possession or you. We created chances, despite the possession stats (although that was mostly the keeper). Balls drop the way they drop. We've dominated Wrexham, Gillingham, Crewe, Wimbledon and others this season for the ball not to drop and for us to complain about bad luck. Yesterday it finally fell for us.

[Stagnificent]

Another thing -we have alaways been a bigger club than mansfield - we have played at the highrst level - something you will never do- and we have spent time in the top 2 tiers
How long has it taken Mansfield to get promoted to league 1 , bet we will do it sooner
And the maximum level for Mansfield is mid league 1, you will never go much beyond that, you dont have the fanbase or the owners to do it, but we do, so enjoy your temporary victory

Yeah I know all that and you were founded when men wore top hats and sideburns. Well done you. 10 points for Gryffindor.

[OchPie]

What we don’t need to do is change our style of play. It’s served us well and has given the club a new lease of life. So we don’t and I doubt we would throw the baby out with the bath water. This is the problem we had under previous owners and managers where styles and philosophies would change all the time and you would end up with bloated squads and players unable to fit a system.

I think there has to be a middle ground between not wanting to throw away all we've gained by our style of play, and having something in the bag for when a team is successfully stifling the way we play.

I don't quite know what that is. I think there's an alternative where we ride out the stifling - as I feel we did for most of the first half - but I think we all believe we don't quite have the players to do so. And there seems to be concern over whether we can get the players to do so while in this division. That said, there is a couple of players in our team I think were always going to struggle in League 2. Maybe upgrades in January are possible, but we are asking a lot. We brought in only Tipton and Macari at the back and neither have made it to a league appearance.

I hope Radar can stop my nagging pessimism.

[ncfcog]

Match report … https://www.ncs-news.co.uk/read/repo...n-h-league-two

[upthemaggies]

The league record between the two clubs is now tied at 15 wins each, but Stags have scored 9 goals more.

Pld:43 W:15 D:13 L:15 F:55 A:64 GD:-9 pts:58

Twenty years ago we were on 13 wins, Stags on just 6, so the pendulum has really swung towards them in the last two decades despite them averaging 86th in the pyramid since 2003/04 as opposed to our 79th.

[SmiffyPie]

Another thing -we have alaways been a bigger club than mansfield - we have played at the highrst level - something you will never do- and we have spent time in the top 2 tiers
How long has it taken Mansfield to get promoted to league 1 , bet we will do it sooner
And the maximum level for Mansfield is mid league 1, you will never go much beyond that, you dont have the fanbase or the owners to do it, but we do, so enjoy your temporary victory

Don't forget we won the FA Cup in 1894 AND the Anglo Italian Cup in 1995 (More sour grapes for your catapult! They dicked us good and proper).

[Davy500]

Don't forget we won the FA Cup in 1894 AND the Anglo Italian Cup in 1995 (More sour grapes for your catapult! They dicked us good and proper).

So what they won a one off game, recently we always seem to lose to them, there were reasons like we were missing key players, and we backed off, they had the drop of the ball etc
I dont buy all this nonsense Mansfield are the best team ever, if so why have they drawn 8 matches, and are still behind us in the table if they are so great, we lost and move on - simple

[upthemaggies]

I dont buy all this nonsense Mansfield are the best team ever, if so why have they drawn 8 matches, and are still behind us in the table if they are so great

We've collected 7 points against sides currently in the top half of the table having played only 4 of those 12, Mansfield have collected 17 points from current top half teams having played 9 of those 12.

So they've had a much tougher opening 13 games than us, yet sit only 1 point behind us.
Notts may of course do better against the top teams when we get to play them, but from what we have got to go on and in light of what happened yesterday, I'd have to say Stags look set to finish well clear of Notts in the final reckoning.

We did win at Doncaster whereas they drew, but we lost at Colchester where they drew. Those are the only two identical fixtures we've both played so far.

Stockport incidentally have collected 11 points from current top half teams having played 7 of them.
Wrexham have taken 7 points from 6 fixtures against current top half clubs.
Most of Crewe's points have come against sides down at the bottom, Swindon's mostly at home to 10th and lower.

Stags, having beaten Stockport at Field Mill, look the most likely team to win the title at this stage, for me.