Match Thread vs. Hartlepool 22..02.20

[laddo]

Pingu with the post of the year so far.

Nailed it. The "Gerrit forward" brigade are just the worst. No matter how many sideways passes and neat triangles inside our own half Ardley produces, game after game, season after season of aimless lumps forwards, hit it long up to the big man from all angles and feeding off scraps et al. I've had my fill of it already.

[Elite_Pie]

The "Gerrit forward" brigade are just the worst. No matter how many sideways passes and neat triangles inside our own half Ardley produces.

Answer me this then. If we produce sideways passes and neat triangles in our own half (as we frequently do), when it goes right how many chances on goal does it create? When we get it wrong (as we frequently do), how many chances on goal does it create for the opposition?

It's a football match ffs, not an 'artistic merit' figure skating competition.

[Elite_Pie]

Haha, thank you.

Because the attitude around the club is detrimental - in my opinion, is all. The pressure for near-perfection, the way the fans sing for the first 15-20 minutes but the Lane goes quiet if we aren't already winning or bossing it (although I will give credit that there can't be many sets of fans who are so good at finding their voice when conceding, particularly if we've been playing well and have been hit on the counter, like the Woking game).

Every time I go, if we aren't winning comfortably by 60 minutes at the latest, or have managed to concede, it takes one missed pass for the cry of the idiot - Gerritforward - to start up.

That's just for any one game, however. I think the belief that we deserve to conquer all because we have a pretty ground, paired with a couple of egotistical owners who paid far too much attention to things like this board or social media, is what led to the ridiculous merry-go-round of manager sackings. Add in the eternal infighting of what we expect to be given each week - win, but pass to feet don't just lump it, but don't pass anywhere other than forwards, but get down the wings, but also don't be soft in the middle, and use the target man (but still don't lump it), then change it all and gerritforward, don't play this guy, play him, but so and so doesn't like him, and blah de blah de blah de blah de blah.....

We had Warnock, and we got to the top flight. Pretty much since then we have chopped and changed every five minutes, and we are in the National League - although it's convenient to just blame Ardley, or Hardy, or Trew.

I think Notts fans are now addicted to the drama more than anything else. Like I said, if the Reedtz brothers think Ardley isn't doing the job well enough, fine. I'm going to imagine, even as inexperienced football club owners, their business means they know more about football - the actual playing of the game - than any of us.

I pretty much gave up on Notts fans at the Eastleigh game. To have come so close to oblivion, to have signed a bunch of players two days previously, to all the protestations of just being glad we had a club and that a mid-table finish would be fine, it took less than 15 minutes for the moaning to start. We won't build a success from such negativity easily.

I usually agree with your posts pingu, but not this one. Whatever the root cause of our problems are, the fans can be eliminated in an instant. We are like the fans of any other club - give us something to applaud and we'll react accordingly, give us nothing to applaud and we'll also react accordingly. Given the sh!t we have had to endure the support has remained remarkably strong. If a player at this level can't do his job in front of 5,000+ fans, he shouldn't be on the pitch in the first place.

[Warnocks Legends]

I have nothing against passing in our own half rather than as some put it " pumping it forward " , however there does need to be a an end result and positive plan. So we need to mix it up and not be so predictable , when plan A stops working try plan B C or D

[durhampie]

Bird must have had a shocker in training this week.

Rose has a shocker every week but still keeps his place.. Bird plays well, then gets dropped... Dennis scores goals then gets taken off. So in Ardleys eyes, if you train well but play crap on match days you keep your place in the team. If you play well in matches but dont train so well then you get dropped...

[navypie]

I have nothing against passing in our own half rather than as some put it " pumping it forward " , however there does need to be a an end result and positive plan. So we need to mix it up and not be so predictable , when plan A stops working try plan B C or D

All I wanted was hope today. In the first minute at 0-0 we were passing it around at the back. In the 89th minute and with us 2-0 down, we were passing it around at the back.

[KCNotts]

Pingu with the post of the year so far.

Nailed it. The "Gerrit forward" brigade are just the worst. No matter how many sideways passes and neat triangles inside our own half Ardley produces, game after game, season after season of aimless lumps forwards, hit it long up to the big man from all angles and feeding off scraps et al. I've had my fill of it already.

Passing it around the defence in triangles is the most pointless tactic that we could possibly employ. I feel very strongly about that. These defenders are playing in the conference, the nature of their positions on the field means that the majority of them do not possess silky passing abilities! Why would you ask the worst passers on the team to pass it around the most risky part of the field? It's ludicrous. It is also incredibly predictable and easy to play against. Any decent opposition know that all they need to do is press us until somebody inevitably makes a mistake. I have never seen a Notts side give the ball away so often as this side does. It's painful.

What happens is that eventually a defender will play it forward, bypassing midfield. The ball will be intercepted and immediately we are on the back foot. There is literally no argument to suggest this tactic is working. Arguably the best forward players in the league are starved of service game after game. It DOESN'T WORK!!!

On these pitches against this opposition and with these players, direct is how we should be playing. Let their defenders make the mistakes and let's actually use some of the pace we have in the side.

[pingu_pie]

I usually agree with your posts pingu, but not this one. Whatever the root cause of our problems are, the fans can be eliminated in an instant. We are like the fans of any other club - give us something to applaud and we'll react accordingly, give us nothing to applaud and we'll also react accordingly. Given the sh!t we have had to endure the support has remained remarkably strong. If a player at this level can't do his job in front of 5,000+ fans, he shouldn't be on the pitch in the first place.

Ha - I know - we agree on several things but I know we differ here. Maybe you sit with some more enlightened folk around you, but I still see the thirst for drama far too much, on here more than anywhere. Having just had two chairmen who went through a couple of managers a season, I just feel like the fanbase as a body is addicted to the need for change... or just gossip.

Just analyse a few of the messes we have seen in the last few years. Every season there is moaning because we haven't signed players within the first few days of the offseason. Yet when Ray Trew would come on here and say something was close, he was pilloried when nothing happened. If he said nothing, then "there's a culture of secrecy / he doesn't care about the fans / he's not trying to invest". Relationships break down, he's gone. So we get another one who wants to appease the fans, and we do the same cycle over and over - apart from that one season where Nolan was winning pretty much every week (and the football was still "boring"), which is the only thing that shuts Notts fans up for a while. I mean, we even had posts on here about how could the Danes possibly leave us all guessing as to whether they had made a bid back in the summer, why couldn't they just tweet something to let everyone feel good.

Another example is the amount of guff on here about what managers say to the press. Who the hell cares? Steve Thompson made jokes on the radio, so what? He was useless the first time, and we reappointed him to be useless again. Keith Curle was boring and had nothing to say. So what? He had our best league finish in god knows how long.

Tonight we have Ardley not saying that we will crush Fylde as some massive issue. I ask again, so what?? I've been very lucky to be a fan of the New England Patriots in the NFL for 20 odd years. Go watch clips of our Head Coach's press conferences on YouTube sometime. They are legendary, because he says NOTHING. Nothing that the other team can use as motivation, nothing that could be used as information, he doesn't even use it to big up his own players - he just coaches them up, makes great game plans, and then kicks seven shades out of teams. We've won 6 Superbowls and he's generally credited with being the best coach there has ever been. Similar stuff with Gregg Popovich with San Antonio in the NBA; he borders on being rude when interviewed. It doesn't matter, it's all just tosh to fill airtime. I'm not saying Ardley is Belichick or Popovich, far, far, FAR from it, but look at how much people are getting their knickers in a twist over what he says to Radio Nottingham. He should tell the players to go out there, believe they are the best, and to rip the other team to pieces... when he's with them.

Funnily enough, I'm closer to your view on Ardley anyway; I'm still not sure of him, I perhaps have a bit more hope than you, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it works out even if I have my concerns. My real issue is that should he go, it won't really matter who we get next in the mind of most Notts fans, because they will simply be the next one to tear down.

[pingu_pie]

I have nothing against passing in our own half rather than as some put it " pumping it forward " , however there does need to be a an end result and positive plan. So we need to mix it up and not be so predictable , when plan A stops working try plan B C or D

I agree completely with this - we don't keep the opposition on their toes. We do make some good chances through making space with the passing game, but when we aren't getting that, we don't offer an alternative.

[CheltenhamPie]

All I wanted was hope today. In the first minute at 0-0 we were passing it around at the back. In the 89th minute and with us 2-0 down, we were passing it around at the back.

Ditto last Saturday against Woking.