Laughing stock

[Could'vebeenacontender]

I remember most fans were in two groups, either it was all down to the way we played, or all down to our non league defence.

I think with hindsight it was clearly both, with the main emphasis on the non league defence.

We do take the safety option more regularly, but also have far better defenders. In fact, actual defenders.

Brilliant, I laughed at that
But so true

[magpie_mania]

Fantastic Album from Talk Talk

Terrible concessions from Notts. We were truly awful defensively last season. As people have mentioned there has to be some credit to SM and the staff for that, not to mention Platt, Bass and Bedeau who have all been fantastic.

I would add Ness and McDonald (and Macari).

[OP67]

So glad we got shot of Baldwin, yeah he scored 2 goals to get us through the play off semi final but jeeeeeeeeeeez he was a sh*te as a L2 defender

[matt_magpie]

I remember most fans were in two groups, either it was all down to the way we played, or all down to our non league defence.

I think with hindsight it was clearly both, with the main emphasis on the non league defence.

We do take the safety option more regularly, but also have far better defenders. In fact, actual defenders.

We did have our WBs really high with LW and they were hugely exposed at times.

That said Cameron as an example was infuriating me near the end, 6 foot 3 and rarely won a header, then you look at Bedeau and he virtually wins everything, a lot is about desire to go and put your body on the line and he clearly has it.

[jackal2]

That mistake for the first goal by Baldwin would have some people checking for recent contact with overseas betting syndicates!

Baldwin's errors tended to be the most spectacular, but there were other times and other games when he showed some defensive ability.

I think our most inept defender was Cameron, who simply wasn't a defender. He didn't anticipate danger, reacted late, and was generally weak in any attempt to recover. I lost count of the number of times his lack of ability or effort to make or win first contact challenges cost us goals, but sometimes the attention and blame got focused on others who had to scramble because Cameron didn't cut out the threat at source. Matty Platt is the polar opposite, making and winning challenges before the threat even has chance to develop.

I don't actually think Kyle Cameron was a bad footballer, in fact he had decent ability on the ball for big lad, for instance he could get down the wing and put a decent cross in, but if he wants any sort of future in the game (above National League level) he needs to re-brand himself as something other than a defender/centre-half.

[Lullapie]

It's not just just the change of defenders that has helped with the goals against this year. As Johan Cruyff said "In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker is the first defender."

Notts are less reliant on their first attacker as than they had been for the previous three seasons with Langstaff leaving and now they appear to be a much more complete team.

Williams set the team up around Langstaff, which made the team a little unbalanced. This wasn't an issue in the National League, but Notts soon got worked out in League 2.

Obviously the new signings at the back are a vast improvement, but as part of a total package not just in one area.

It does make the Senior Leadership Team look like they are heading the right way.

[Elite_Pie]

How much better are our defenders this year?
It's like night & day
I remember several fans of other clubs asking me if I thought one or more of our defenders had been betting against their own side after this game
https://x.com/DirtyFootbaIIer/status...23131333333454

I remember that game well. We looked the team from a division above, we dominated the game and Shrewsbury created next to nothing. Turns out they didn't need to, we gift wrapped three gilt-edged chances for them! And in the next round they drew Wrexham at home, which would have drawn a big crowd at Meadow Lane.

[M0ufMk3]

That mistake for the first goal by Baldwin would have some people checking for recent contact with overseas betting syndicates!

Baldwin's errors tended to be the most spectacular, but there were other times and other games when he showed some defensive ability.

I think our most inept defender was Cameron, who simply wasn't a defender. He didn't anticipate danger, reacted late, and was generally weak in any attempt to recover. I lost count of the number of times his lack of ability or effort to make or win first contact challenges cost us goals, but sometimes the attention and blame got focused on others who had to scramble because Cameron didn't cut out the threat at source. Matty Platt is the polar opposite, making and winning challenges before the threat even has chance to develop.

I don't actually think Kyle Cameron was a bad footballer, in fact he had decent ability on the ball for big lad, for instance he could get down the wing and put a decent cross in, but if he wants any sort of future in the game (above National League level) he needs to re-brand himself as something other than a defender/centre-half.

With three defenders, two of them being Cameron and Brindley/Rawlo Baldwin was often left exposed. He also played a lot deeper than the others because of the way we set up, which meant his absolute howlers (which were too common) tended to lead to goals. But he was a more naturally gifted defender than any of the others. Cameron should have been on the left of a back 5 (Chicks in the middle - not as tall as Cameron but a significantly better defender) or not at all in a back 3 unless it was wide left where he would have been a decent attacker.

The areas where he had a real talent were waving his arms around, lying on the ground, and seeking to pass the blame for his inadequacies onto others.

I predict Barrow's reasonably sound defensive record to take a hit and Stephen Clemence to be out of a job come the end of the season.