Stockport post match comments.

[Derbymiller]

If you are referring to to Powel by any chance ? He won?t be a big miss ? His big strength is is 100% availability, rest of his game is poor, no goals / goal attempts, every cross, corner or free kick hits the front man or flies into the crowd ?
He should be a great player for us but apart from his work rate he offers nothing !

Really, wow what an insane assessment of him, you clearly miss a lot when watching a game. The close control, the ability to retain the ball, join up play, bring others into the game, the pass he played yesterday down the line to find James was top draw and there isn’t another Rotherham United player that could see that pass never mind make it (gore is a Man Utd player). His stats last season on chances created and assists show the lad is quality. Yet you focus on his one area he hasn’t excelled his set pieces which I admit are not good enough. However when he gets blamed for a poor corner that was actually taken by another player like some idiot did sat behind me yesterday, what chance does anyone have, he wasn’t even on the pitch at the time!! When he went off yesterday we struggled to get the ball and looked completely disjointed, it removed our engine room from the centre of the park and affected Gore as he had nobody to win the ball for him, MH decisions yesterday were awful, those decisions were not made because of injuries or bad luck, they were made by a bloke that is struggling. Please defend the club potentially letting another asset walk away for free in the summer, remember we were promised it wouldn’t happen again. Outside of the tight finances this club is badly managed at all levels, we have people that are just happy we have a club and that is fine if that is the way someone measures levels of success, but we should be able to compete around the top of L1 with the occasional promotion, that was achieved but we have regressed as a club and that should worry people. Mansfield game will be a very important game, let us hope MH can get the team morale up and get a result because that is how he will be judged.

[Derbymiller]

To add to that his name is spelt with two l's not one. This is a summary from the Footystats site from last season, a league with Birmingham and Wrexham in it.

"Joe Powell has assisted 8 goals in 46 matches so far in the EFL League One 2024/2025 season. Looking into his passing aspect of the game, Powell passes the ball roughly 37.72 times during a game with a pass completion rate of 73.55%. He also plays 2.11 key passes each game which leads to significant scoring chances. Overall, Powell's xA (Expected Assists) output is 0.24 per 90 minutes. This stat puts him above 94 percent of the players in the EFL League One."

[RU66]

Martha Kaleta never wide players give McGuckin a go on the right. Forget wing backs go 4-5-1. There's only Sherif to return up front who could make a difference until then I'd play Martha lone forward. Baptist Gore standout players yesterday. Would never have taken Rafferty Powell off yesterday they always put a shift in. Need a consistent midfielder hoping Spence at last getting match sharp can be that.

[MILLERSTALE]

To add to that his name is spelt with two l's not one. This is a summary from the Footystats site from last season, a league with Birmingham and Wrexham in it.

"Joe Powell has assisted 8 goals in 46 matches so far in the EFL League One 2024/2025 season. Looking into his passing aspect of the game, Powell passes the ball roughly 37.72 times during a game with a pass completion rate of 73.55%. He also plays 2.11 key passes each game which leads to significant scoring chances. Overall, Powell's xA (Expected Assists) output is 0.24 per 90 minutes. This stat puts him above 94 percent of the players in the EFL League One."

He has absolutely no end product ! I enjoyed his game when he first came but it slowly dawned that he contributes nothing going forward ! watch the game a bit closer and you will find he either runs into blind alleys or gives the ball away with a loose pass. Just to concentrate on his set piece is a bit mean you say ? but he takes all our set pieces and that?s where teams like Rotherham expect to get 50% of their goals. He is massively underachieving ! can you tell me when he had a decent effort on goal ?

[Townerslovechild]

First the positives,this won't take long,Dan Gore was outstanding, a mixture of Wiles and Rathbone, but better than of them.
Baptiste looks a decent player,Agbaire back in the squad.
That's it really, the first half we did ok,matched a top 6 team, but i said at half time, I hope that wasn't our best 45 minutes.
It was.
Martha should have gone off at half time, little going forward, and can't defend.
McWilliams did his Mr Invisible routine again, should have been replaced on 60 minutes, not like we're short of midfielders.
The lack of forwards is killing us,Hugill is .....well we know what, and Kayode is either not very good, or just not fit...er and that's it.
However we ended the game with no strikers on pitch and about 20 midfielders, when we were chasing the game !
Surely you keep the limited Hugill on,and stick someone fresh along side him Kaleta, Benson, anybody really, maybe even push Gore further forward at least he would give them something to think about.
Finally, Dawson....as a member of the goalkeepers union, I always have a compassionate opinion on the keeper, but he simply isn't good enough.
When I was 12 or 13 I was taught that up to the penalty spot is your domain as a goalie, go and dominate that area the best you can.
That meant coming for the ball and catching it,and ONLY punching when you couldn't catch it.
This meant sometimes you didn't get the ball cleanly,but my defence knew I would try and get it,I did this all the time I played, even though most of opposition were taller than me.
Cam Dawson is 6 foot 3,and nearly 30 years younger than me,but i reckon i could have done a better job yesterday !
Time to give Cann a go,by the way,saving shots us the easy bit.

[jakethemiller]

I think we'll come good when we get a full squad to pick from. But we need a leader we saw a bit of that from Holmes in his one match. Specially when we go behind the heads drop and there is no direction.
I think MH has had some tough cards to deal with, he's stuck with a poor goalie and p@@s taking centre forward both on big money and
playing their time out,come the summer we can offload them for good. But i'm afraid his substitutions yesterday were ridiculous.
Mc Williams has limited ability his asset is his workrate and anyone could see that wasn't there yesterday, he's been injured so may have not trained enough and maybe still carrying the injury. He should have gone off instead of Powell. The fact that we took the Centre Forward off when we are a goal down at home says it all. Hugill should never get a shirt again.
Again i'll say providing we are not adrift by christmas we'll be OK, this season to rebuild and step forward next, but we need to remain in league one to do so.
Gore was tremendous and given better outlets which he will have when the other 3 forwards get fit we will see improvements.
The ref was total pants, Martha was clear through, He scores it's a different ball game. But saying that Poweell should have put us in front before that.

[mellowmiller]

One manager got his changes right and one got them wrong, very wrong. I like McWilliams but he had a poor game, taking Rafferty and Powell off is unbelievable, Powell work rate is outstanding, he tracked back and stopped at least one certain goal, him and Gore look wonderful together. Dawson again cost us the goal, a simple catch he punches straight to their player and then sits on his line. He must be rested to give the other lad a go. I know JJ fluffed his lines but at least he battled and created his own opportunities, how taking him off and leaving that fake footballer on the pitch was criminal by MH. Should never have started two strikers as it left no change up front, should never have started Martha on the right and stop playing 3 CBs, how can you not see this is hurting us week in and week out. Baptiste did well again, and in fact the four of Rafferty, James, Jules and Baptiste would have worked better as a four, James is a decent L1 full-back he is no wing back. Set pieces still crap at both ends, and they could have played without a keeper. Some nice passing in the first half, but when they scored it was game over as those players have no belief and no confidence, it is plain for anyone to see. All we get is the injuries excuse, and the promise of jam tomorrow, we are 21st, we don?t score, or keep clean sheets and lose every away game. Where are the leaders on and off the pitch, why are we letting the most talented footballer at the club leave on a free in the summer again.

Rafferty took a knock in a heavy collision and was struggling a bit after that so needed to go off to prevent a long term absence.
Powell did a lot of running and harrying but his end product is hit and miss at best. His set pieces are so inconsistent and it seems incredible that he takes practically all of them.
We had plenty of midfield options on the bench so it made sense to try something different.
Football is about opinions but managers have to make decisions. Interestingly we looked slightly more threatening after the substitutions and did manage to get the ball into the net, albeit ruled out for offside.

[Back of the net]

Back home for yesterdays game we look lightweight and lack any real conviction in our play
Kayody is impersonating a footballer he is horrendous.
The keeper looks scared of everything. The highlight kicking it straight out then having a go at his teammates.
Gore was class. Powell is meh I don’t have an opinion one way or another
The half time guest yesterday may well end up taking us into the second half of the season.

[GlennMiller]

The half time guest yesterday may well end up taking us into the second half of the season.

BOTN - for the benefit of those of us sat in the cheap seats, can you reveal an ID?

[Back of the net]

Paul Hurst