Highlights vs Wrexham

[Killerkline]

Aware of all that, but that 2nd half in May was such a bombardment that they'd have been given it on points for sure (if it was a boxing match and if we hadn't actually scored )...
So I think they have outplayed us 3 times (defining 'outplay' as even marginally edging the play) and we're supposed to be the possession team. Even though we got 7pts out of 9, I still say this tells us we aren't quite ready to dominate and still have a way to go to secure top 3

We were definitely outplayed on Monday, and it looks similar to the problems Ardley had for most of the first half of last season, not enough football from the wing-back (then full-back) and holding midfield positions.. ...
There's still hope that the recruitment got it right, but many on here are expressing doubts and not without reason

Why does 7 out of 9 points tell us ‘we aren’t quite ready to dominate and still have a way to go to secure top 3’? 2 of the 3 games were last season.

And we’ve played 3 games this season, 2 away, 1 of those against the league favourites. We’ve got 5 points and unbeaten. But, ‘many on here are expressing doubts and not without reason’? By no means am I suggesting we’re the finished article, but come on. It’s been far from a disastrous start.

[laddo]

That would be 23 points from 11 games if achieved, and impressive. Call me crazy but i will judge our start to the season a game earlier.

10 games is the true barometer of how a club starts a season and that definitely doesn't include fitness building pre season friendlies.

Friendly smendlys just ask York fans although they've still got 6 games to turn it around.

[Killerkline]

I’m probably more of a pragmatist than others on here, but for me we went with a plan on Monday and got what we came for. They had lots of pressure but few clear chances, job done. I think we’re decent, but I wouldn’t expect us to be capable of going to Wrexham (or Stockport, Chesterfield etc) and controlling the games on our terms.

Next eight games tells us where our season is going IMO. A team with designs on promotion needs to be taking 18+ points. That’s where the real battle is in this league, the ‘big games’ are a bit of a distraction.

Sensible view which I agree with. I believe we will take 18+ points from the next 8 games. If we don’t, then there maybe cause for concern.

The reasons I’m optimistic;
- we’ve shown we can score goals
- Burchnall proved that he can set his team up to adopt to opposition
- we’ve shown we can defend against an aerial bombardment
- there’s still a lot more come

[Mapperleypie]

Sensible view which I agree with. I believe we will take 18+ points from the next 8 games. If we don’t, then there maybe cause for concern.

The reasons I’m optimistic;
- we’ve shown we can score goals
- Burchnall proved that he can set his team up to adopt to opposition
- we’ve shown we can defend against an aerial bombardment
- there’s still a lot more come

Difficult to disagree with this.

I think the real change since IB got his feet under the table has been the way we have gone about our business against the weaker sides in this division. They are no longer given chance to settle into the game and get comfortable with their own game-plan, we go at them from the off. I hope this continues.

[the_anticlough]

Why does 7 out of 9 points tell us ‘we aren’t quite ready to dominate and still have a way to go to secure top 3’? 2 of the 3 games were last season.

And we’ve played 3 games this season, 2 away, 1 of those against the league favourites. We’ve got 5 points and unbeaten. But, ‘many on here are expressing doubts and not without reason’? By no means am I suggesting we’re the finished article, but come on. It’s been far from a disastrous start.

You're making a leap there.

Like most, I'm very positive about our start. It's just that I hate this league and I've never made any bones about that. So I'm always looking for the way out, signs that we can finish top or top 3. I guess this makes me the 'anti-pragmatist' as well as the anticlough .. I want to see us boss Wrexham and the rest of the top teams because that's what it's going to take. Obviously, the jury is still out on our recruitment. Did they nail it at Centre-Mid and Wing-backs? Let's hope so, but time will tell. The good news is that even if some of the recruitment proves to be average, we still might be holding one of the 2 golden tickets out of here...

If both Rodrigues AND Roberts play to their full potential, or very close to it, for a full season we can get 1st.
Even if just one of them does, we will be top 3.

[nw6pie]

I’m probably more of a pragmatist than others on here, but for me we went with a plan on Monday and got what we came for. They had lots of pressure but few clear chances, job done. I think we’re decent, but I wouldn’t expect us to be capable of going to Wrexham (or Stockport, Chesterfield etc) and controlling the games on our terms.

Next eight games tells us where our season is going IMO. A team with designs on promotion needs to be taking 18+ points. That’s where the real battle is in this league, the ‘big games’ are a bit of a distraction.

While I agree with you that we’ve got to picking up a lot of points in the upcoming batch of games, there are also going to be plenty of “big games” where things are going to be very tight. I’d say there are probably 14-such fixtures this season (Wrexham, Chesterfield, Stockport, Grimsby, Southend, Dagenham & Redbridge and a surprise package), so that’s almost a third of our games. A lot of these teams are going to take points off each other, so it’s going to be fascinating to watch how we fare against them.

Saturday against Aldershot (played 3, lost 3 so far) should tell us a lot about the season ahead, especially as they did the double over us last season.

[Killerkline]

You're making a leap there.

Like most, I'm very positive about our start. It's just that I hate this league and I've never made any bones about that. So I'm always looking for the way out, signs that we can finish top or top 3. I guess this makes me the 'anti-pragmatist' as well as the anticlough .. I want to see us boss Wrexham and the rest of the top teams because that's what it's going to take. Obviously, the jury is still out on our recruitment. Did they nail it at Centre-Mid and Wing-backs? Let's hope so, but time will tell. The good news is that even if some of the recruitment proves to be average, we still might be holding one of the 2 golden tickets out of here...

If both Rodrigues AND Roberts play to their full potential, or very close to it, for a full season we can get 1st.
Even if just one of them does, we will be top 3.

What leap am I making? I’d actually suggest you’ve made a leap/assumption based on very little.

I dislike this league, the refereeing(although the ref on Monday was pretty good), the governance or lack of. Your looking for ways out and signs that we can finish in top 3, I’ve seen nothing, yet, to suggest we can’t. I think wanting to see us boss the top teams is unrealistic and I don’t think that’s what it’s going to take. Against the tougher opposition we will have passages of possession and we need to make it count. In turn the opposition will have passages of possession, this is where we need to stay switched on and endeavour not to concede.

Of course the jury’s still out on our recruitment, because we’ve only had 3 games to judge on. So, I understand caution. But I’ve seen nothing to suggest we haven’t got majority right.

[TSANHO]

I’m probably on the glass half empty side of pragmatism at the minute. A bit like Anticlough says, I want to see signs that we can go and dominate teams, I don’t think that is unacceptable.

This may be unpopular but I don’t think we played well against Wrexham at all. They dominated us. They forced their style and tempo on us and created far more opportunities than we did. Had we gone in at the break 2-0 down there couldn’t be any complaints…and had their ‘offside’ goal rightly stood and the effort that went narrowly wide actually gone in, that’s exactly what would have happened.

Of course, ifs, buts and maybes don’t mean anything in the league table but I was concerned, still, with our lack of midfield presence and how easy it is for the opposition to bypass it with such little effort. Neither Palmer (as tidy as he is) and especially Francis are going to strike fear into any combative midfield. All this, of course, puts an added strain on the defence.

To be fair to the defence they stood up well to most of the air borne attacks but they still looked very vulnerable trying to play out of their six yard box, it was scary stuff at times. It may be unfair to use the phrase ‘polishing a turd’ but that’s what the score line did to our performance the other night.

At the end of last season we had glimpses of what we thought an IB team was all about, high pressing, winning the ball back early, plying in the opposition’s half, harrying the opposition and moving the ball quickly and purposely…and more often than not, forward.

Against Wrexham we looked more like the team that Ardley left behind than anything resembling what we thought we were going to see this term. Don’t forget, before the sending off, Torquay were also managing to dominate us and put us under pressure…the same Torquay who we’re smashed by both Woking and Altrincham at home. We couldn’t beat them with an extra man for 65 minutes.

Say what you want about gelling, being unbeaten, good signs in defence etc etc. The signs are there for all to see, this isn’t at present a promotion challenging side.

[magpie_mania]

I’m probably on the glass half empty side of pragmatism at the minute. A bit like Anticlough says, I want to see signs that we can go and dominate teams, I don’t think that is unacceptable.

This may be unpopular but I don’t think we played well against Wrexham at all. They dominated us. They forced their style and tempo on us and created far more opportunities than we did. Had we gone in at the break 2-0 down there couldn’t be any complaints…and had their ‘offside’ goal rightly stood and the effort that went narrowly wide actually gone in, that’s exactly what would have happened.

Of course, ifs, buts and maybes don’t mean anything in the league table but I was concerned, still, with our lack of midfield presence and how easy it is for the opposition to bypass it with such little effort. Neither Palmer (as tidy as he is) and especially Francis are going to strike fear into any combative midfield. All this, of course, puts an added strain on the defence.

To be fair to the defence they stood up well to most of the air borne attacks but they still looked very vulnerable trying to play out of their six yard box, it was scary stuff at times. It may be unfair to use the phrase ‘polishing a turd’ but that’s what the score line did to our performance the other night.

At the end of last season we had glimpses of what we thought an IB team was all about, high pressing, winning the ball back early, plying in the opposition’s half, harrying the opposition and moving the ball quickly and purposely…and more often than not, forward.

Against Wrexham we looked more like the team that Ardley left behind than anything resembling what we thought we were going to see this term. Don’t forget, before the sending off, Torquay were also managing to dominate us and put us under pressure…the same Torquay who we’re smashed by both Woking and Altrincham at home. We couldn’t beat them with an extra man for 65 minutes.

Say what you want about gelling, being unbeaten, good signs in defence etc etc. The signs are there for all to see, this isn’t at present a promotion challenging side.

We all look for different signs.

I am happy with our start, a good foundation. I sometimes wonder what people want, Wrexham looked pretty one-dimensional to me - get throw-ins near the box and launch it in.

[the_anticlough]

What leap am I making?

To answer your question, by over-reacting to the post you misrepresented. Just who was saying it was a disastrous start?

Anyway, I spelt out how I think we can get the auto spot or top three. It's going to take separation from the pack and R and R firing on full cylinders is the blueprint for that

That would then shut up that young Wrexham Youtuber ...Liam Roberts...I think his name is. Talking about Notts in his match review he said 'they won't win the league' so casually and emphatically it rankled with me. Obviously it doesn't matter a jot what he thinks, but it kind of rang true after his lot had outplayed us, we failed to beat 10 men at home and a couple of areas of our team are looking less than great. Happy for all these teams/fans to think this way, knowing that we have the weapons to leave them in the dust