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

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Originally Posted by Elite_Pie

If you can't stop him, the least you can do is make it more difficult for him by offering a challenge.

Leaving a tall centre back unmarked so he can pick his spot is criminal defending.

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This^^^

At a very minimum, you should jump with the opposing player and make a challenge. if you can't win the header, at least try to put them off. Remember DKE? At 5ft 5ins he could often win headers against 6 footers. Sometimes it's not about how tall you are, but more about how much you are motivated.

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Originally Posted by Elite_Pie

Brindley has looked really good in the middle of a back three, but poor when played on the right. Maybe Cameron's absence forced our formation today, but we looked dodgy all game.

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True, but I was happy with Brindley being on the right, given the starting XI. That way at least 2 of the 3 were in their natural positions. Truth is, nobody has looked all that good on the right so far this season.

Having said that, both non-set-piece goals today came from the left. But most seem to agree Rawlo was alright today, the goals could just as easily have come from the right where they broke through a hell of a lot.

Rawlo was my MOTM today.

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Originally Posted by nw6pie

The concern at the moment is the level of performance in recent weeks - we’ve had one great 45 minutes against Swindon, and poor showings against Colchester, Barrow and now Mansfield. Let’s hope it’s a blip, but we’ve created very little in the last two league games.

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It's a really bad day, no doubt. But let's put it into context. We have just come up from NL. We are doing okay over all. There's plenty of match days left in the season to sort things. U PIES !!

If this was still the NL today would be a disaster as any defeat would be due to only 1 promotion place but we need to remember we're still up there, we can still go up this season.

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Originally Posted by marky

If this was still the NL today would be a disaster as any defeat would be due to only 1 promotion place but we need to remember we're still up there, we can still go up this season.

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It's just gutting though. We have become a team who fight, who play positively, who handle pressure games, who create chance after chance and today that was ALL missing. We hardly created anything and the defence was like the olden days. I'm all for being balanced and not losing perspective - it's just that was painful today!

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Originally Posted by Pietastic

It's just gutting though. We have become a team who fight, who play positively, who handle pressure games, who create chance after chance and today that was ALL missing. We hardly created anything and the defence was like the olden days. I'm all for being balanced and not losing perspective - it's just that was painful today!

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Today was alien to everything we have seen under Luke Williams, but why do we always save these dire performances for when we play Mansfield?

Yeah good points.... We used to always bottle big/tv games - hopefully today was just because it was Mansfield B)

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Originally Posted by Robertomac

Rawlo was my MOTM today.

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I was really impressed impressed with his character today to get chucked in late notice on the left in a massive game.
I think today just showed what we’re against this season. I think Stockport and Mansfield will be top 3 come the end of the season.
Feels like that 3rd spot is up for grabs, Wrexham will probably go big in Jan if their still in touch.

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Originally Posted by Pietastic

It's just gutting though. We have become a team who fight, who play positively, who handle pressure games, who create chance after chance and today that was ALL missing. We hardly created anything and the defence was like the olden days. I'm all for being balanced and not losing perspective - it's just that was painful today!

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Excuse me for sounding full of it, but it was all because of how we forced our game plan on you. To be able to sustain the press and have the character to implement it so effectively after going behind early, was highly impressive by Stags. I'm not sure it mattered what mentality or level of quality or desire Notts brought today. Mansfield, on our game, are just better. Sorry.