Numb

[Ben the Pie]

My big fear ahead of the game was their high press, we've struggled against 3 or 4 times in the season...Barrow at home, Dag and Red away come to mind. Thought we'd have sorted it out for Sunday but Doyler and Rose are just a beat to slow in possession when pressed and it showed. JOB went missing and all the back 4 had horrible games. All 3 goals are poor and came from between Tuner and Bagan - even the free kick was their side! I can only think Rawlo wasn't fit, he'd be fuming otherwise...

[Glad2BeAPie]

We need pace in midfield and in defence as the first priority for next season

[Ben the Pie]

Totally agree, youth and legs in the middle of the park. I fear Doyler was found out yesterday and he'll only get more of the same next season.

[BigFatPie]

I've lost count of the number of times I've said "It's not the defeat, it's the manner of the defeat". I can take losing, but when we just don't show up it's hard to accept. You can carry one player having a bad game, maybe two, but more than that and it's always going to be an uphill struggle.

After watching Harrogate against Borehamwood, I still cannot believe that with a week to prepare we weren't ready for their high energy game. We should have had the skill and guile in our squad to counter this but we just froze. They had far more desire to win that game, throughout the team. Collectively, we just didn't want it enough. Very disappointing in that regard.

Next season we need to be intent on nothing less than the top spot.

100% correct. I saw Harrogate’s game last week and worried that we didn’t have the legs in midfield to cope with their style of play. Then I saw us play Barnet and was a reassured that we’d maintained the form from pre lockdown. With hindsight, it’s clear that Borehamwood, by staying strong and not making individual errors, did well to restrict Harrogate to no more than half chances, and in the end they only scored from a set piece. I also think that in reality Barnet were a poor team who’d lost many of their good players to injury or transfer. Leigh Curtis’s ratings of 9 for every player last week were a joke.

We were like a team dads chasing shadows against a team of lads. The moment that summed up yesterday was when Jon Stead, a player I associate with 4 years of failure at Notts, waltzed past 2 of our players in the build up to the 3rd goal like they weren’t there. A failed player for us coming on for a club not much bigger than Arnold and he was able to just take the piss. Truly embarrassing.

[jackal2]

The irony is that many believed our experienced players would be key to Notts’ success yesterday. Sadly, the performances of Turner, JOB and Doyle were all woeful. Struggling to understand why Rawlinson and Crawford weren’t brought on!

By virtue of being a Notts fan I've learned to be very philosophical about the ups and downs of football and I don't let it dictate my wider mood as the opening poster seems to suggest he does.

However, I agree with Stan that my biggest disappointment yesterday was the experienced players. We're often told that it's these players who should take responsibility and lead the team through crisis situations in matches, but yesterday I didn't think the likes of O'Brien, Turner and Doyle contributed any particular leadership when we needed it most. In fact, their performances were part of the problem rather than the solution.

To be fair, O'Brien has contributed plenty in other matches this season and when you're playing on the flanks it's difficult to do much to seize control of the game. Likewise, Turner was immense earlier in the season but yesterday looked like one game too many after his return from injury and it's hard to believe Rawlinson would not have done better.

But Doyle? Sorry, I think his usefulness is coming to an end. He's amazingly fit for for his age, but even so he doesn't have spark to play week in, week out in a two-man central midfield or enough influence to grab a game like yesterday's by the scruff of the neck and turn it around. His career is a credit to him, but he's certainly not "the future". I think Neal Ardley sees him playing the same role that Dannie Bulman played for him at Wimbledon, but it really isn't working well enough. We need an injection of hard running, hard tackling youth and enthusiasm into the midfield next season, especially if Ardley still wants to play 4-4-2. Dare I say it, we need someone like a Curtis Thompson. Now whatever happened to his career?

[jackal2]

We were like a team dads chasing shadows against a team of lads.

Good call BFP. Yesterday in a sentence.

Most of Harrogate's players were chasing the first real glory of their career. Too many of ours were trying to rediscover past glories.

But signings like Wootton, Roberts, Lacey and Kelly-Evans show us the way forward. We're on the verge of something better but we need to commit fully to it. And why wouldn't we, when through Football Radar we have a scouting network far superior to our level?

[slack_pie]

The most annoying thing for me is that we did not even turn (apart 15 minutes in the second half).

I strongly believe if we had played some of the good football we have this season we would have won, but we just froze and chucked it away.

I was actually really gutted about not being able to go yesterday, but I am glad I couldn't in the end.

I disagree. I think Harrogate looked really good. I know we were bloody awful, but I have a feeling we may have lost even if we'd played to our normal standard. Like we've discussed on other threads, they wanted it more.