Kewell our or relegation

[Davy500]

What are people expecting Paul Hart to do? He's here to oversee the academy and presumably assist in the transfer market (and the window is closed currently).

Kewell is working with an awfully put together squad thanks to Nolan and I can't see it getting much better until January, we'll pick up points here and there and lose games here and there, do people really expect us to go on a fantastic run of form and fly up the table just because we changed manager?

The fact is Nolan was, and will always be streets ahead of HK

Nolan only 4 losses at home in 18 months, Hk is close to that already - so go and figure

We did run up the table immediately when Nolan took over

If anything Nolan was a victim of his own success , because he started of so well , people expected it to continue

The only way HK could be better than Nolan is to get Notts into League 1, but then Nolan would have done that if he and Notts had not been swindled out of it by the officials in the Coventry game, So he still would not be better


The fact is The chairman should of never have sacked Nolan till January - end off. I know it was after 5 games, but chairman said he was considering it after 3 games- disgraceful for which he will now pay, and he could pay heavily with HK in charge

So in one sense chairman is now reaping what he sowed

HK is useless -there has been no improvement from him, He told us he sort it out in 2 months ( His words)

All Hk has got to do is be better than 2 clubs, maybe just 1 club as it appears macclesfield are certs for the drop

[sinophile]

Amongst all the hysteria calling for Kewell to be sacked, I have not seen anyone suggest what else he could do. Without Stead and Hemmings there were no credible attacking options. We know how fragile the midfield is, so it was, on paper at least, sensible to play Thomas and Baldwjn as wide midfielders. The problem was that Milsom had an appalling game, Hewitt ran around like a headless chicken, and moving Turley to right back, with Brisley in the centre of defence, left things wide open.

But what else was there he could do? Nolan has bequeathed such an imbalanced squad, that cannot withstand any injuries or suspensions. Kewell clearly has nous, as was demonstrated by bringing Duffy on. It stemmed the flow towards the defence and gave some steel. What was probably not evident on tv was that Duffy acted like a captain and communicated and organised the defence.

Whether or not Dennis should have been kept on is debatable. He did absolutely nothing, but got no service. Something had to give and I think Kewell got the substitution absolutely spot on. Notts could have gone on to win as the Oldham threat was nullified. I expect Duffy to be a first choice and to be captain.

[LaxtonLad]

Amongst all the hysteria calling for Kewell to be sacked, I have not seen anyone suggest what else he could do. Without Stead and Hemmings there were no credible attacking options. We know how fragile the midfield is, so it was, on paper at least, sensible to play Thomas and Baldwjn as wide midfielders. The problem was that Milsom had an appalling game, Hewitt ran around like a headless chicken, and moving Turley to right back, with Brisley in the centre of defence, left things wide open.

But what else was there he could do? Nolan has bequeathed such an imbalanced squad, that cannot withstand any injuries or suspensions. Kewell clearly has nous, as was demonstrated by bringing Duffy on. It stemmed the flow towards the defence and gave some steel. What was probably not evident on tv was that Duffy acted like a captain and communicated and organised the defence.

Whether or not Dennis should have been kept on is debatable. He did absolutely nothing, but got no service. Something had to give and I think Kewell got the substitution absolutely spot on. Notts could have gone on to win as the Oldham threat was nullified. I expect Duffy to be a first choice and to be captain.

I agree almost totally with this post except Turley did quite a good job at RB.

If anyone was watching Duffy off the ball they would have seen, if not heard, how vocal he was.

The subbing of Dennis for Duffy surprised most of the supporters but I don't think it deserved the boos and it must have had them thinking again when we saw an improvement. Not really fair on Dennis, he was a lone striker and is as good at that as Hewitt is at RB. The shifting of Brisley forward into midfield-ish while Duffy took his regular position in defence actually seemed to work as Boldeweijn was given more service than Dennis had and looked more threatening directly on goal than on the wing.

A thumbs up from me for HK reading the game correctly this time.

[matt_magpie]

I agree almost totally with this post except Turley did quite a good job at RB.

If anyone was watching Duffy off the ball they would have seen, if not heard, how vocal he was.

The subbing of Dennis for Duffy surprised most of the supporters but I don't think it deserved the boos and it must have had them thinking again when we saw an improvement. Not really fair on Dennis, he was a lone striker and is as good at that as Hewitt is at RB. The shifting of Brisley forward into midfield-ish while Duffy took his regular position in defence actually seemed to work as Boldeweijn was given more service than Dennis had and looked more threatening directly on goal than on the wing.

A thumbs up from me for HK reading the game correctly this time.

Agree no one would can argue the starting 11 or in my mind with Enzio going up front, it actually nearly worked in getting a goal and he did a lot better than Dennis. As for any of the other midfielders at the club I don't think anyone would have backed any of them going into that game at that point. I thought Duffy played well bar his one off theatrics. The problem is the squad is awful, 4 or so midfielders not in the squad because on the face of it their not good enough or suited at this level for and unfortunately Hewitt cannot consistently perform, we needed a left back in the summer, toots is struggling this season and to top it off Duffy and Hall have been injured, Dennis missed pre season, its just been a shambles for many reasons and Kewell has been left to sort it out, his choice but I don't think he realised how bad it was.

[LaxtonLad]

The fact is Nolan was, and will always be streets ahead of HK

Nolan only 4 losses at home in 18 months, Hk is close to that already - so go and figure

We did run up the table immediately when Nolan took over

If anything Nolan was a victim of his own success , because he started of so well , people expected it to continue

The only way HK could be better than Nolan is to get Notts into League 1, but then Nolan would have done that if he and Notts had not been swindled out of it by the officials in the Coventry game, So he still would not be better


The fact is The chairman should of never have sacked Nolan till January - end off. I know it was after 5 games, but chairman said he was considering it after 3 games- disgraceful for which he will now pay, and he could pay heavily with HK in charge

So in one sense chairman is now reaping what he sowed

HK is useless -there has been no improvement from him, He told us he sort it out in 2 months ( His words)

All Hk has got to do is be better than 2 clubs, maybe just 1 club as it appears macclesfield are certs for the drop

... end off(?) and then you keep writing.

[DelroyFacey22]

Amongst all the hysteria calling for Kewell to be sacked, I have not seen anyone suggest what else he could do. Without Stead and Hemmings there were no credible attacking options. We know how fragile the midfield is, so it was, on paper at least, sensible to play Thomas and Baldwjn as wide midfielders. The problem was that Milsom had an appalling game, Hewitt ran around like a headless chicken, and moving Turley to right back, with Brisley in the centre of defence, left things wide open.

But what else was there he could do? Nolan has bequeathed such an imbalanced squad, that cannot withstand any injuries or suspensions. Kewell clearly has nous, as was demonstrated by bringing Duffy on. It stemmed the flow towards the defence and gave some steel. What was probably not evident on tv was that Duffy acted like a captain and communicated and organised the defence.

Whether or not Dennis should have been kept on is debatable. He did absolutely nothing, but got no service. Something had to give and I think Kewell got the substitution absolutely spot on. Notts could have gone on to win as the Oldham threat was nullified. I expect Duffy to be a first choice and to be captain.

This is an excellent post.

Nolan only 4 losses at home in 18 months, Hk is close to that already - so go and figure

8 wins in 26 games in 2018 for Nolan, "HK" has 3 wins in 10 games already - so go and figure

The fact is The chairman should of never have sacked Nolan till January - end off. I know it was after 5 games, but chairman said he was considering it after 3 games- disgraceful for which he will now pay, and he could pay heavily with HK in charge

Nolan was sacked because we'd been cr*p since Christmas and ended up falling in to the playoffs after having been in the top 3 of the league for 23 consecutive games last season

HK is useless -there has been no improvement from him, He told us he sort it out in 2 months ( His words)

This is just nonsense, there has quite clearly been improvement, the fact we've kept 2 clean sheets and won 3 games under Kewell whereas Nolan managed 1 draw and a clean sheet and then went on to lose the next 5 conceding 3 or more goals every game is proof of that, denying it is just silly. We are very clearly in a better position than when Nolan was sacked.

Kewell's last 10 league games are 3W 4D 3L and that is a hell of a lot better than 0W 1D 5L...

To replace the lone striker with another centre haf after an hour or so, with the scoreline 0 - 0 against a bottom half the table team is almost like admitting we aren't good enough top push on and win the game.

Whilst that's what the numbers on the board said it's not what happened, he replaced Dennis with Enzio and put one of the two only experienced players he had available to him on the bench on. (Hawkridge would have been like playing with 10)

[Pies4u]

Delroy - agree with you re: Hawkridge, he is one of "pub players" on our books but replacing Dennis with Duffy is precisely what happened. It was a defeatist approach. The fact that we then re-shuffled and stuck Enzio down the middle was a consequence of that swap. I disagree with those who thought it was the only option, there was no point having Etete on the bench if we weren't going to use him to try to win the game.

Why did we need an "experienced" player to replace Dennis? I would certainly question that tbh. It was most of the experienced players who were the ones who were struggling.

[DelroyFacey22]

Delroy - agree with you re: Hawkridge, he is one of "pub players" on our books but replacing Dennis with Duffy is precisely what happened. It was a defeatist approach. The fact that we then re-shuffled and stuck Enzio down the middle was a consequence of that swap. I disagree with those who thought it was the only option, there was no point having Etete on the bench if we weren't going to use him to try to win the game.

Why did we need an "experienced" player to replace Dennis? I would certainly question that tbh. It was most of the experienced players who were the ones who were struggling.

I think if he throws on a youngster and it backfires people would crucify Kewell even more than they are doing now, we had no right to win that game with the way we'd played and should be greatful to the football gods that we managed a point, his substitution at that point could have gone the same way his change against Swindon did and ended up leaving us with nothing.

I think he did it because Enzio upfront was the best option he had available to him with two of his biggest players this season out injured.

[the_anticlough]

I agree with Slack, Jackal and a few others - Hardy's committed to giving HK a fair go. We're already better off than when he started.

A question worth asking is would AH accept HK being our manager in the Conference following relegation. We have to hope and pray that the answer to that is 'hell no' or even stronger. But given our dodgy position at the moment he should be doing some serious contingency planning. If we've still haven't escaped the threat of relegation after 30 games or we're sinking fast in the run-in... Something like that, better to have set targets rather than make an emotional decision, pressured by fans, after a couple of bad losses (which will come).

With that, comes the job of lining up possible successors just in case.

Hopefully, none of this will be needed. Others may disagree but I'd be fine with a comfy 19th place and let Kewell show us what a proper pre-season's recruitment, conditioning and tactical work can achieve.

[matt_magpie]

It's just a poor squad but I actually think with Duffy coming back is a positive, I think Turley can do a job at right back if he's required now as he's looking more fit.

I think all he needs to do is get a decent left back, I don't think Edvinas terrible but he is a liability with crosses to the far post and we just need a another decent centre mid and I believe that will at least be good enough to stabilise us.

Kewells not trying to do anything radical but shoring up the defence and getting a centre mid that can at least consistently perform at this level will help massively in his quest to play the right way. I want to believe Vaughan can still salvage his season but I think League 2 maybe just be a bad fit for him.