[moondog]

https://www.bbc.co.u...s/play/p07v69gn

[Spire-Power]

Radio said they had only won one game and scored 9 goals all season ...and they took the p 1 ss by simply being able to pass and move

[jack bauer]

Sheridan praises Sheridan for todays performance but critical of other players not helping him

[metallilad]

I agree. Jay played well today, his crosses were a danger when they went in, but we seemed to want to play down the right and ignore the space that Jay had to capitalise from.

[dtp]

metallilad, on 17 November 2019 - 12:29 AM, said:

I agree. Jay played well today, his crosses were a danger when they went in, but we seemed to want to play down the right and ignore the space that Jay had to capitalise from.

In the first half nothing came from the right side. Weir won the ball on several occasions and had nobody in front of him to pass to as Smith, in particular, didn't seem to understand his role and certainly didn't make himself available. So the ball either went out or was aimed at Denton who lost out to their CB with frequency.

So, the only crosses which went into the box came from the left and mainly from Sheriden, assisted by Rowley, but neither of our two forwards troubled their defence.

After the hour mark and the substitutions I thought we had a better balance about us (with the exception of Evans, of course) and play was fairly even from both sides of the pitch.

Jay has a good left foot, always showed for the ball, and put in some good crosses. As his dad says he needs to work on the defensive side of his game but, in my opinion, his main problem is a distinct lack of pace. Nevertheless, Chapman got a lot of praise for his crossing ability last season and young Jay is getting into the team for much the same reason at the moment.

[Spire-Power]

"So, the only crosses which went into the box came from the left and mainly from Sheriden, assisted by Rowley, but neither of our two forwards troubled their defence."

Well they wouldn't would they - the crosses from left and right were dire. Denton won and laid off most of the balls pumped up to him. Rowley assisted next to nothing. You are right about Smith not showing for the ball. He also stood off opponents advancing in midfield, shocking performance.

[sophocles]

Agree about Weir not being supported when he was looking for an outlet on the right. In the first half I lost count of the times Weir looked up to find a teammate to pass to, saw a huge gap on our right just waiting for one of our players to run into, only to see Smith standing absolutely still as if he was tethered to a point midway between our area and the halfway line. He had no other option but to send it high towards Denton. The criticism of TD on here is wide of the mark - he won virtually every high ball that came near him, despite being shoved and pulled continually by their no.6, and he never misplaced a pass when he brought the ball down on his chest and laid it off. The reason we got nowhere from his dominance was that our 'midfielders' were static, and didn't bother pressing forward, so we never put enough pressure on their defence. In the Notts County game we pressed forward in numbers, and stopped them before they reached halfway; yesterday, inexplicably, we backed off and let them stroll totally unhindered into our half. I agree about Rowley going downhill - won't somebody tell him to run FORWARD with the ball and commit defenders instead of continually turning and playing the ball sideways or backwards? He seems to turn back instinctively now, even when there's 10 yards of clear space in front of him, and constantly gives the opposition time to sit back and block us out. A positive, for me, was Weston, who is often slated on here; apart from scoring a cracking goal, he ran himself into the ground trying to push us forward, and could hardly move near the end. And finally, I haven't heard a word of criticism of Fondop. Yes his header led to Boden's goal, but it was put on a plate for him and should have been buried anyway. More worryingly, he made NO effort to get to passes that were not aimed perfectly at him. At least four times he just stood still and watched a defender collect the ball without even attempt to apply some pressure. He was one of the freshest players on the pitch, and should have been running defenders down continually instead of standing still.

[dtp]

sophocles, on 17 November 2019 - 10:52 AM, said:

Agree about Weir not being supported when he was looking for an outlet on the right. In the first half I lost count of the times Weir looked up to find a teammate to pass to, saw a huge gap on our right just waiting for one of our players to run into, only to see Smith standing absolutely still as if he was tethered to a point midway between our area and the halfway line. He had no other option but to send it high towards Denton. The criticism of TD on here is wide of the mark - he won virtually every high ball that came near him, despite being shoved and pulled continually by their no.6, and he never misplaced a pass when he brought the ball down on his chest and laid it off. The reason we got nowhere from his dominance was that our 'midfielders' were static, and didn't bother pressing forward, so we never put enough pressure on their defence. In the Notts County game we pressed forward in numbers, and stopped them before they reached halfway; yesterday, inexplicably, we backed off and let them stroll totally unhindered into our half. I agree about Rowley going downhill - won't somebody tell him to run FORWARD with the ball and commit defenders instead of continually turning and playing the ball sideways or backwards? He seems to turn back instinctively now, even when there's 10 yards of clear space in front of him, and constantly gives the opposition time to sit back and block us out. A positive, for me, was Weston, who is often slated on here; apart from scoring a cracking goal, he ran himself into the ground trying to push us forward, and could hardly move near the end. And finally, I haven't heard a word of criticism of Fondop. Yes his header led to Boden's goal, but it was put on a plate for him and should have been buried anyway. More worryingly, he made NO effort to get to passes that were not aimed perfectly at him. At least four times he just stood still and watched a defender collect the ball without even attempt to apply some pressure. He was one of the freshest players on the pitch, and should have been running defenders down continually instead of standing still.

Sorry mate, I struggle to see how you can criticise Fondop for "standing still" then praise Denton.

And, as for Tom "winning virtually every high ball" and "never misplacing a pass" I can only think I was at a different game.

But, then, I seem to remember him receiving a good pass to put him clear into the penalty area and actually try to shoot at goal in the first half. However, after he'd made two strides in the time it took their defender to make ten the chance was lost.

[jack bauer]

dtp, on 17 November 2019 - 12:24 PM, said:

Sorry mate, I struggle to see how you can criticise Fondop for "standing still" then praise Denton.

And, as for Tom "winning virtually every high ball" and "never misplacing a pass" I can only think I was at a different game.

But, then, I seem to remember him receiving a good pass to put him clear into the penalty area and actually try to shoot at goal in the first half. However, after he'd made two strides in the time it took their defender to make ten the chance was lost.

denton is what he is, for me to make the best use of him you have to play with wingers who can get crosses to him in the box, yesterday his role was to receive punts up from the back 4 or keeper, this generally leads to nothing, so a limited player was limited further by a team selection that had no wingers again.

[clarevoyant.]

dtp, on 17 November 2019 - 12:24 PM, said:

Sorry mate, I struggle to see how you can criticise Fondop for "standing still" then praise Denton.

And, as for Tom "winning virtually every high ball" and "never misplacing a pass" I can only think I was at a different game.

But, then, I seem to remember him receiving a good pass to put him clear into the penalty area and actually try to shoot at goal in the first half. However, after he'd made two strides in the time it took their defender to make ten the chance was lost.

He did win the header that led to their first goal, unfortunately he wasn't aware as to Boden (his target) whereabouts or conversely Boden didn't anticipate Dentons efforts something that may be worked on, on the training ground!!!!!

[Stoptalkingbol]

Denton was shocking yet again, so immobile it’s embarrassing and laughable to watch. Dropping Fondop who at least knows where the net is just sums up Sheridan’s brain dead thinking. As soon as mandeville and Fondop came on we stopped hoofing it and played a bit of football and created openings. Another defeat purely down to Sheridan’s ineptitude and clearly no thought out plans in training.

[sophocles]

I can criticise Fondop for standing still because he is perfectly capable of moving fairly quickly, but he chose not to bother even trying. I don't expect Denton to race past defenders because he has no pace, so he can't do that. Denton's job is to win balls and either flick them on or bring the ball down and lay it off to a teammate. In yesterdays game Denton did those jobs perfectly well, but we failed to take advantage because we didn't get enough supporting players up with him. As others have already pointed out, Denton would be a bigger goal threat if we occasionally got players wide to put in crosses he could attack and head at goal, but we don't. Of course Denton is a limited player (which of our players isn't?), but he is a useful asset at our current level if he is supported properly.

[dtp]

sophocles, on 17 November 2019 - 01:25 PM, said:

I can criticise Fondop for standing still because he is perfectly capable of moving fairly quickly, but he chose not to bother even trying. I don't expect Denton to race past defenders because he has no pace, so he can't do that. Denton's job is to win balls and either flick them on or bring the ball down and lay it off to a teammate. In yesterdays game Denton did those jobs perfectly well, but we failed to take advantage because we didn't get enough supporting players up with him. As others have already pointed out, Denton would be a bigger goal threat if we occasionally got players wide to put in crosses he could attack and head at goal, but we don't. Of course Denton is a limited player (which of our players isn't?), but he is a useful asset at our current level if he is supported properly.

In several of our recent games Denton has missed chances which he should have buried.

He is supposed to have a good understanding with Boden and several on these boards consider those two to be our best partnership up front but yesterday it did not work at all.

Strange, though, that if Denton can't find a team mate it's other players' faults yet if Weir (for instance) fails to do so it's all Weir's fault. I'll stick to what I saw, yesterday, Denton was shocking, hardly won a header, big as he is he allowed himself to be bullied out of the game, hardly ever found a team mate or brought others into play. I know what his job us and I know his limitations but, like others, he didn't do his job yesterday. Let's be honest, most of the team played very poorly and things only improved after the changes were made only for Evans to make the sort of mistake you will struggled to worse all season.

[Stoptalkingbol]

Correct DTP. Denton has very few assists and even fewer goals and causes us to play the worst brand of football I’ve ever seen here. The difference when Fondop came on and having two mobile strikers was obvious. Felt sorry for Boden first half running his backside off having to do the running of two strikers. The team should be built around the attacking 3 of mandeville, Boden and Fondop, played on the deck as we did at the end and we’d be scoring for fun. Fondop and Boden will bag 20 each if played every game, Denton has no place at this level to be starting games. Desperate impact sub at best.

[jack bauer]

Stoptalkingbol, on 17 November 2019 - 02:27 PM, said:

Correct DTP. Denton has very few assists and even fewer goals and causes us to play the worst brand of football I’ve ever seen here. The difference when Fondop came on and having two mobile strikers was obvious. Felt sorry for Boden first half running his backside off having to do the running of two strikers. The team should be built around the attacking 3 of mandeville, Boden and Fondop, played on the deck as we did at the end and we’d be scoring for fun. Fondop and Boden will bag 20 each if played every game, Denton has no place at this level to be starting games. Desperate impact sub at best.

I think we have a number of pedestrian players in our side, in fact we made the comment yesterday in the first half that our play resembled walking football, so slow and negative no movement and then the all too inevitable launch ball somewhere near denton, so much better when the 3 subs came on maguire and Mandeville can actually control and pass a football

[Stoptalkingbol]

Definitely, there’s not one single athlete in the side. Even these low budget teams turn up with a few dynamic pacey players that cause problems. Again, all comes down to another season of shambolic recruitment.

[ELTON 2020]

jack bauer, on 17 November 2019 - 02:42 PM, said:

I think we have a number of pedestrian players in our side, in fact we made the comment yesterday in the first half that our play resembled walking football, so slow and negative no movement and then the all too inevitable launch ball somewhere near denton, so much better when the 3 subs came on maguire and Mandeville can actually control and pass a football

Bucannon a poor signing. Too slow, weak and small. Why???? Their 17 got around a bit. Would have him any day over the dross we have.

[sophocles]

I'm wondering how often some of those commenting on here have seen Fondop and Denton playing up front. Stoptalking..... has clearly not noticed that they have no understanding whatsoever, and in fact they both seem to want to move into the same space, so they don't link up at all. As far as Weir is concerned, I've already pointed out that he suffered the same lack of support as Denton, as he was constantly looking for an outlet on the wide right, but nobody offered to run into the space to receive a pass. Like it or not, we just have a very very poor collection of players who have little idea of movement and teamwork. The only player who consistently shows intelligent anticipation and movement is Boden, and he can't do it all by himself. Talk of the play-offs this season is pure fantasy - we're more likely to remain in a relegation scrap throughout the season.

[azul]

sophocles, on 17 November 2019 - 03:42 PM, said:

I'm wondering how often some of those commenting on here have seen Fondop and Denton playing up front. Stoptalking..... has clearly not noticed that they have no understanding whatsoever, and in fact they both seem to want to move into the same space, so they don't link up at all. As far as Weir is concerned, I've already pointed out that he suffered the same lack of support as Denton, as he was constantly looking for an outlet on the wide right, but nobody offered to run into the space to receive a pass. Like it or not, we just have a very very poor collection of players who have little idea of movement and teamwork. The only player who consistently shows intelligent anticipation and movement is Boden, and he can't do it all by himself. Talk of the play-offs this season is pure fantasy - we're more likely to remain in a relegation scrap throughout the season.

Not many people will have seen Denton and Fondop play together because they rarely do so. Perhaps they don’t work well in training but it makes you wonder what they do in training anyway after that shambles yesterday.

[sophocles]

Apologies - I actually meant Fondop and Boden playing together - they don't seem to gel at all.