Mansfield

[frogpole]

Just seen team news
Offord captain, O'Riordan on the bench
Nev starts, CBR on the bench

Predicted Holicek to score brace, but as he is also on the bench - it's gotta be a brace for 'Nev'

[gazan]

Happy with a point but in the end it was a missed opportunity.
When the opposition are down to 10 men, by all means play keep ball but you after make the opposition run around. Doing it on the halfway line just allowed then to sit tight until we gave them the ball. It nearly worked for them a couple of times. Mind you looking at the Alex players at the final whistle one has to wonder if some of them were fit enough.
Still, a decent day with all the fancied teams being rolled over.😆

[Timmy58]

Happy with a point but in the end it was a missed opportunity.
When the opposition are down to 10 men, by all means play keep ball but you after make the opposition run around. Doing it on the halfway line just allowed then to sit tight until we gave them the ball. It nearly worked for them a couple of times. Mind you looking at the Alex players at the final whistle one has to wonder if some of them were fit enough.
Still, a decent day with all the fancied teams being rolled over.😆

To be fair, they did play 54 minutes each way!!

[MeForCrewe]

Definitely a fitness issue for a fair few of them, quite concerning really or were Mansfield super fit. They looked like they were trying to win it more than us for the last 25 min (16 + 9) even with 10 men. I'll take a point though.

[jimmyboldon]

Thought for the first 10-15 minutes after the sending off it was very obvious that we had an extra man.
After that, it looked like 11v 11.
If the shot that hit the post had gone in to make it 1-3, no way would we have got a point, even against 10 men.

[MikeSB]

Thought for the first 10-15 minutes after the sending off it was very obvious that we had an extra man.
After that, it looked like 11v 11.
If the shot that hit the post had gone in to make it 1-3, no way would we have got a point, even against 10 men.

The evidence is crystal clear about who knows more about football...I forecast a drawn match and it was a drawn match and so am I the only optimist on here?

I wonder if I could make a living out of this match forecasting?

[whosbrianwilson]

The first 25 minutes were difficult and Mansfield were in danger of running away with it. We got hold of things thereafter and performed very well against a team that are expected to be thereabouts come the end of the season.
Demetriou was outstanding and is an upgrade on Concrete Rod, Tracey is going to be a serious handful at this level and as the game progressed we started to pass the ball about well and keep possession. Playing against 10 men is very often more difficult than against 11. I would certainly have settled for a point at 3pm, so onwards and upwards.

[gazan]

So what did we learn? Well, Davies still doesn't look to be much better than Booth. Zak is still a better CH than LB. Demetriou is an upgrade on McDonald. Maybe Rio should play further forward (but he did seem to be involved in a lot of the incidents in the game and WHAT A HEADER!) For me O'Riordan should have started. For an hour Powell was fantastic. As was Tracy for 50 minutes. Tabs never really got into the game. Long worked really hard and sometimes found it difficult to contain his frustration at the hesitancy of some of the players.
Overall, the Alex were much better with the ball than without it (no change there). There were some quite worrying moments with the defence when they were static and didn't close down space.
Certainly content overall. Obviously, we have to have some idea of how Mansfield compare with the rest of the division. They did look good in possession for the first 30 minutes but didn't look anything special after that. The Alex look like they could be quite exciting going forward but need to work on the sharpness at the back.

[Timmy58]

So what did we learn? Well, Davies still doesn't look to be much better than Booth. Zak is still a better CH than LB. Demetriou is an upgrade on McDonald. Maybe Rio should play further forward (but he did seem to be involved in a lot of the incidents in the game and WHAT A HEADER!) For me O'Riordan should have started. For an hour Powell was fantastic. As was Tracy for 50 minutes. Tabs never really got into the game. Long worked really hard and sometimes found it difficult to contain his frustration at the hesitancy of some of the players.
Overall, the Alex were much better with the ball than without it (no change there). There were some quite worrying moments with the defence when they were static and didn't close down space.
Certainly content overall. Obviously, we have to have some idea of how Mansfield compare with the rest of the division. They did look good in possession for the first 30 minutes but didn't look anything special after that. The Alex look like they could be quite exciting going forward but need to work on the sharpness at the back.

My take, for what it's worth, is that for the first half hour we were second best. Not by much but were flattered by a 2-1 scoreline at half time. We certainly began the fightback almost immediately after their second went in. Two goals that were poorly defended all round. Demetrio and Offord both showed failings in those two strikes. I agree about the keeper, although I will say that Arthur gave me the heebee geebies for the first few games. I suspect we were spoiled somewhat last year. Adebisi had a very good game and looks to me that he could prove to be a very good wingback for someone in time. ll the new players did well, Powell visibly tired after an hour (70 minutes in truth) but Tracey looked very good and will be a proper pain in the backside for defences this season. Whether he will score many is open to question of course.

All in all I think we look to be in for a better season than last although, of course, injuries will play their part as ever,

[MeForCrewe]

The evidence is crystal clear about who knows more about football...I forecast a drawn match and it was a drawn match and so am I the only optimist on here?

I wonder if I could make a living out of this match forecasting?

There were three people on here, including yourself, who forecast a 1-1 draw so if you call that optimistic you are not the only one. I would say the optimists were the one's forecasting a win for us.