Match Thread vs. Aldershot 07.11.20 [NL]

I'm going to be lenient in my criticism today because the squad has not played for three weeks and Covid has been through the squad. So some degree of a loss of sharpness can be expected.

However this game has mirrored similar away performances in that individual errors and failure to take our chances has cost us.

What is concerning is that we are being out fought in these kind of games and are losing the physical battles. We might have superior technical quality on paper and plenty of experience, but it means nothing at this level if you can't execute the dirty and ugly side of the game.

Dover, Maidenhead and now Aldershot we have lost, but they are bad losses. We can only afford to lose another 4-5 games this season if we want to get promoted automatically.

I can only hope we are better against Stockport on Wednesday otherwise we might be in for our heaviest defeat at this level.

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Originally Posted by upthemaggies

Ardley post match: "Can't use (3 weeks) as an excuse, everything they did is what we worked on all week, really focussed on what they were going to do, in football you've got to win battles, attacks constantly broke down, nothing tactcial about it, they won the battles, AS DISAAPOINTED AS I'VE EVER BEEN AS NOTTS COUNTY MANAGER. I take full responsibility, on the flip side I can't win a header for my centre-half, not a lot I can say or do about that performance.

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How many times have we listened to same crap? and then he will still pick the same players for the next match. What is the point in saying the same thing and then not changing it? He has to go or promotion this season will only be a dream

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Originally Posted by magpie_mania

Evening KC.

Awful wasn't it. Two poor teams. I am not going to turn on NA and call for his head, nor defend him as something needs to change for Wednesday. Playing it out from the back is so risky if it goes wrong. I am not totally against it but it needs someone creative in the centre to do something positive with it, then some strikers who look hungry to score.

Hope that Roberts is available, I would also play DKE, and Turner if Rawlinson isn't fit. I would also give Sam a start instead of Thomas. Controversial maybe.

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Hi Mania,

Fair post.

I'd be inclined to start Knowles. We are woefully short of pace. I'd also go direct because our wide players are useless. We cannot keep playing out from the back, anybody with half a brain can see how suicidal it is at this level.

Not very good. Or as our friends across the big pond would say "sub-optimal".

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Originally Posted by Disturbed

How many times have we listened to same crap? and then he will still pick the same players for the next match. What is the point in saying the same thing and then not changing it? He has to go or promotion this season will only be a dream

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That was absolutely piss poor fitness isn’t a excuse as there full time and train every day and even when In isolation should of been given a fitness plan to keep to at home.
Elisha Sam is an absolute fraud of man call him a professional? He’d struggle at Ilkeston to make an impact at there level.

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Originally Posted by magpie_mania

Playing it out from the back is so risky if it goes wrong.

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If there's one message above all others that needs to sellotaped to Neal Ardley's forehead in front of his eyes it's the one above. It isn't working, at least not often enough to get the results and the promotion expected of the team this season. We've lost today by conceding possession in a fatal area of the pitch, and we're also struggling to string enough passes together to feed our forward players. Yes, you could make the excuse that we've been out of practice for a couple of weeks and weren't fine-tuned, but isn't that precisely the reason to employ a simpler approach?

I believe for this level we've got better attacking players than most (if not all) of our opponents, but we've got to get the ball to them more quickly and more often to make that ability tell, and also to minimise the risk of losing the ball so often to the high press. This is not the Premier League, we are not Manchester City, we just need to do what Warnock and Allardyce did and put the pressure on the opposition rather than ourselves.

I'm not saying we should just lump it up field. We just need to hit the front players faster and more directly than we are now, whether that means one ball or two or three swift forward passes. At present we're just faffing around with multiple square or backward passes in the wrong areas and inviting trouble.

I'm not going to be lenient that's a very poor result and although I didn't watch any of it, it sounded an even worse performance from the manager's comments.

The player ratings are going to be grim viewing both the players and management team need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

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Originally Posted by KCNotts

Hi Mania,

Fair post.

I'd be inclined to start Knowles. We are woefully short of pace. I'd also go direct because our wide players are useless. We cannot keep playing out from the back, anybody with half a brain can see how suicidal it is at this level.

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My fear is that the same is happening to the defence as happened during the Nolan play-off season. We were strong defensively with Duffy etc. but the following season it all went wrong with the same players. Last season we had the second best defence, Rawlinson player of the season and Lacey a close second imo, but this season looking really shaky, whoever is playing.

I do think that the Covid situation has not helped, but one thing I noticed today is that we just seemed to trudge out onto the pitch as if it were a park game.

Lack of spectators also changes things - an instance today was where their goalkeeper slipped. When he got the ball after, the crowd would have been on him, but all that has gone.

That said, it was a terrible performance - very difficult to defend and I won't try to.

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Originally Posted by Disturbed

He has to go or promotion this season will only be a dream

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It's in the balance now whether or not the man who buys this club from the Danes in the far distant future will be willing to keep Ardley on.

Just beginning to wonder if we are landed with owners who are in their own way are just as bad as the other recent owners of the club. Tinkering can be as bad as doing nothing. As far as
I can see that Notts are becoming the Titanic of the football world, we are the oldest League club, we have a long history, we are too big to fail, we have a great ground, we have a good fan base, we are unsinkable. If the owners continue with their present policy of doing nothing and giving the manager a chance, how many fans will there be by the end of the season. Poor performances are predictable; how many are going to actively support the club and keep paying to watch the videos or hopefully attend the ground. I for one have already opted out. Automatic promotion is already fading statistically we are now down to 3 perhaps 4 losses for the rest of the season or the playoffs are the only hope and that is not acceptable.