[spireitetoo]

Was a good performance, and we thoroughly deserved the win, but they never pressed and put us under any pressure, we had all the time we needed today, .. which let's be honest was just what we needed.
It's the teams that get in ya face and don't give us the time and space on the ball that we struggle with, ...
But with so many OOC I'm sure we can sort that and push on next season...

[TJ Blue]

Fair play to Ash Palmer, I think he?s looked pretty good since his return

[Toddhopper.]

Palmer MOM for me today. Looks calmness personified. All round much better performance, hopefully that'll restore a bit of confidence going forward.

[HaslandBlue58]

The one on one with Boot cannot be over estimated,if they had scored I could see heads going down after the recent run.The quick response to equalise was just what was needed and even better to get in front so soon after.
All the starters gave 100% and for once I would have had difficulty who to sub. off, probably carded players would have edged it.
Said from him joining us that Bim had a lot of good attributes,not sure why refs.allow defenders to be wrapped around his neck every time a ball is played forward, rules applied and he would be heading for double figures now.
I note a few saying what a good ref.,in comparison to the majority yes, would actually be decent if following the rule book, but I seem to repeat this every game.Two handed pushes in the back,forward dragged to the ground at every opportunity, defenders holding off players for ball to go out of play which is still obstruction in the rule book.
Well done JG for doing as always,100% and not dwelling on previous performances.Shecks,Palmer and Grimes kept it simple,no over playing, which suited them.You would think Sparkes and Grigg would be a perfect match if they ever get a chance.
IMO Mandy had one of his best games this season.Dobs his usual self but over trying at times rather than releasing.IMO thought Naylor was more himself today,Boot came off his line well and did all that was asked him including a few good punches.
Good to see Fleck showing his experience and Duffy has much to offer.

Quality observing for the minutes applause and even better than I expected, glad the result went to plan for Phil and that he gets plenty more of these feel good days.

[dim view]

Toddhopper., on 08 March 2025 - 08:25 PM, said:

Palmer MOM for me today. Looks calmness personified. All round much better performance, hopefully that'll restore a bit of confidence going forward.

Fanciful I know, but I think he looks half a yard quicker. Any NL scout watching him today and against Preston Stiffs where he was also outstanding would be very impressed.
Ironically if he'd always been half a yard quicker he'd never have spent so much time too deep, which has been his perennial weakness.

[HaslandBlue58]

jack bauer, on 08 March 2025 - 07:59 PM, said:

the response was excellent, whilst their players were lauding it over the south stand, palmer went and got the ball ready for a restart, shecks then drove forward with purpose from the restart and before their fans could finish singing "how Shhhh must you be we're winning aw....oh hang on"

Was I the only one annoyed that, when they scored a few minutes were given to them,as you correctly state 'lauding it over the south stand',yet shortly after upon equalising the ref. was marshalling our players back to restart before they reached the sideline?

[Westbars Spireite]

Just back in via the pub. Thought we played quite well. Back to basics. Everyone played their part. Proper football.

[dim view]

Westbars Spireite, on 08 March 2025 - 08:51 PM, said:

Just back in via the pub. Thought we played quite well. Back to basics. Everyone played their part. Proper football.

Agreed.
And Newport played their part in an open game, apart from the contrived drinks breaks 'cos we were on top. As you say, proper football.

[Westbars Spireite]

It did have a feel of an end of season game. Bit with a few playing for contracts. Weirdly the atmosphere was as good as any game this season, partly perhaps due to the feeling that the target has gone.

[HaslandBlue58]

Westbars Spireite, on 08 March 2025 - 09:03 PM, said:

It did have a feel of an end of season game. Bit with a few playing for contracts. Weirdly the atmosphere was as good as any game this season, partly perhaps due to the feeling that the target has gone.

Personally think the atmosphere was in big part due to wanting Phil Kirk able to see and feel how much the fans appreciate what he and Ash have done for the club and the community.

[dart in the crossbar]

At the risk of lowering the tone.

In the first half they were poor and we weren't a whole lot better. Their big CF won just about everything in the air v our CHs.

We had no attempts on goal. We had a few shots which were fairly lame. Dobra looked a handful. Naylor worked hard, as he does. Sparkes looked bright, as he does. Mandeville worked hard for the team; as he does. Oldaker and Banks strolled about a bit; as they tend to do.

Moving on, their boys seemed to run out of ideas and pressed less in the second half. We got better and they got worse.

A few random incidents over the 90. Pepple looked lost when we ran the ball towards him for a good part of the game... until he scored and then he looked half decent. Palmer did well for our goal but he missed his lad and then (I think) brought him down in / close to our box. They had a fairly sketchy offside called against them when our CHs lost their position (again).

Naylor, Mandeville, Dobra and Sparkes combined effort with quality. Our CHs worked hard but looked vulnerable over the 90. Banks did well when things were in his favour. When he lost the ball he didn't seem especially interested. When he was in the box he wasn't overly keen to use his left foot and slowed a decent attempt to just about nothing. That said, he did some good stuff at times. Just not enough times IMHO. Sheckleford did better than midweek thankfully. Things went well for Boot when they broke through v him. It went in his favour but could have just as easily gone badly.

IMHO we need to put down the rose coloured specs today. They were yet another mediocre side. We won - which is great. With a couple of different outcome we could have very easily lost. We won, which is great

That said, IMHO a rebuild is needed.

MOTM was Dobra for ability and effort. It could have been Naylor or Mandeville. Highlight of the afternoon was the applause. Big thanks to the ref and their boys too.

3 points. We move on. But lets not kid ourselves that that was quality from us... it just wasn't. And sorry for dropping the mood

[HaslandBlue58]

dart in the crossbar, on 08 March 2025 - 09:27 PM, said:

At the risk of lowering the tone.

In the first half they were poor and we weren't a whole lot better. Their big CF won just about everything in the air v our CHs.

We had no attempts on goal. We had a few shots which were fairly lame. Dobra looked a handful. Naylor worked hard, as he does. Sparkes looked bright, as he does. Mandeville worked hard for the team; as he does. Oldaker and Banks strolled about a bit; as they tend to do.

Moving on, their boys seemed to run out of ideas and pressed less in the second half. We got better and they got worse.

A few random incidents over the 90. Pepple looked lost when we ran the ball towards him for a good part of the game... until he scored and then he looked half decent. Palmer did well for our goal but he missed his lad and then (I think) brought him down in / close to our box. They had a fairly sketchy offside called against them when our CHs lost their position (again).

Naylor, Mandeville, Dobra and Sparkes combined effort with quality. Our CHs worked hard but looked vulnerable over the 90. Banks did well when things were in his favour. When he lost the ball he didn't seem especially interested. When he was in the box he wasn't overly keen to use his left foot and slowed a decent attempt to just about nothing. That said, he did some good stuff at times. Just not enough times IMHO. Sheckleford did better than midweek thankfully. Things went well for Boot when they broke through v him. It went in his favour but could have just as easily gone badly.

IMHO we need to put down the rose coloured specs today. They were yet another mediocre side. We won - which is great. With a couple of different outcome we could have very easily lost. We won, which is great

That said, IMHO a rebuild is needed.

MOTM was Dobra for ability and effort. It could have been Naylor or Mandeville. Highlight of the afternoon was the applause. Big thanks to the ref and their boys too.

3 points. We move on. But lets not kid ourselves that that was quality from us... it just wasn't. And sorry for dropping the mood

Don't disagree with any of that, today was about much more than football though I think we all agree.
As we all know today's team was close to the NL team due to the injury crisis we have had and nobody could have predicted this,we all,and I include management in this, expected to be playing the standard we have been.We all expected better, and at the start of the season, before injuries took over,we were playing well.
We need to keep adding points until we are sure of where we are then trust in the management during the summer, though personally I think a rebuild is going to be much harder than a lot are thinking.

[Exharboroughspireite]

dart in the crossbar, on 08 March 2025 - 09:27 PM, said:

At the risk of lowering the tone.

In the first half they were poor and we weren't a whole lot better. Their big CF won just about everything in the air v our CHs.

We had no attempts on goal. We had a few shots which were fairly lame. Dobra looked a handful. Naylor worked hard, as he does. Sparkes looked bright, as he does. Mandeville worked hard for the team; as he does. Oldaker and Banks strolled about a bit; as they tend to do.

Moving on, their boys seemed to run out of ideas and pressed less in the second half. We got better and they got worse.

A few random incidents over the 90. Pepple looked lost when we ran the ball towards him for a good part of the game... until he scored and then he looked half decent. Palmer did well for our goal but he missed his lad and then (I think) brought him down in / close to our box. They had a fairly sketchy offside called against them when our CHs lost their position (again).

Naylor, Mandeville, Dobra and Sparkes combined effort with quality. Our CHs worked hard but looked vulnerable over the 90. Banks did well when things were in his favour. When he lost the ball he didn't seem especially interested. When he was in the box he wasn't overly keen to use his left foot and slowed a decent attempt to just about nothing. That said, he did some good stuff at times. Just not enough times IMHO. Sheckleford did better than midweek thankfully. Things went well for Boot when they broke through v him. It went in his favour but could have just as easily gone badly.

IMHO we need to put down the rose coloured specs today. They were yet another mediocre side. We won - which is great. With a couple of different outcome we could have very easily lost. We won, which is great

That said, IMHO a rebuild is needed.

MOTM was Dobra for ability and effort. It could have been Naylor or Mandeville. Highlight of the afternoon was the applause. Big thanks to the ref and their boys too.

3 points. We move on. But lets not kid ourselves that that was quality from us... it just wasn't. And sorry for dropping the mood

Agree with everything there bar Naylor. He looks yards off the pace.

[Osborne again]

It was nice to see Lewis Gordon come on today. Welcome back Lewis.

[jack bauer]

Osborne again, on 08 March 2025 - 11:22 PM, said:

It was nice to see Lewis Gordon come on today. Welcome back Lewis.

agreed. hope we take the option to offer him another year whilst being greedy i also hope we take sparkes on for next season.

[Osborne again]

jack bauer, on 08 March 2025 - 11:28 PM, said:

agreed. hope we take the option to offer him another year whilst being greedy i also hope we take sparkes on for next season.

Definitely,both are decent full backs, with Sparkes being the slightly better going forward and Gordon being much better defensively. One for home, and one for away games 😁.

[The Earl of Chesterfield]

dart in the crossbar, on 08 March 2025 - 09:27 PM, said:

At the risk of lowering the tone.

In the first half they were poor and we weren't a whole lot better. Their big CF won just about everything in the air v our CHs.

We had no attempts on goal. We had a few shots which were fairly lame. Dobra looked a handful. Naylor worked hard, as he does. Sparkes looked bright, as he does. Mandeville worked hard for the team; as he does. Oldaker and Banks strolled about a bit; as they tend to do.

Moving on, their boys seemed to run out of ideas and pressed less in the second half. We got better and they got worse.

A few random incidents over the 90. Pepple looked lost when we ran the ball towards him for a good part of the game... until he scored and then he looked half decent. Palmer did well for our goal but he missed his lad and then (I think) brought him down in / close to our box. They had a fairly sketchy offside called against them when our CHs lost their position (again).

Naylor, Mandeville, Dobra and Sparkes combined effort with quality. Our CHs worked hard but looked vulnerable over the 90. Banks did well when things were in his favour. When he lost the ball he didn't seem especially interested. When he was in the box he wasn't overly keen to use his left foot and slowed a decent attempt to just about nothing. That said, he did some good stuff at times. Just not enough times IMHO. Sheckleford did better than midweek thankfully. Things went well for Boot when they broke through v him. It went in his favour but could have just as easily gone badly.

IMHO we need to put down the rose coloured specs today. They were yet another mediocre side. We won - which is great. With a couple of different outcome we could have very easily lost. We won, which is great

That said, IMHO a rebuild is needed.

MOTM was Dobra for ability and effort. It could have been Naylor or Mandeville. Highlight of the afternoon was the applause. Big thanks to the ref and their boys too.

3 points. We move on. But lets not kid ourselves that that was quality from us... it just wasn't. And sorry for dropping the mood

No, don't apologise, it's all fair comment.

We were a side whose confidence was through the floor. Largely populated by lads knowing they're surplus to requirements.

We looked ordinary because most are proven non league, but ordinary EFL performers.

And everyone at the club just wouldn't be human if they/we weren't effected by recent events.

But to their enormous credit the players were professional. As so many have said they went back to basics, won and possessed the ball and earned - EARNED - the three points.

Though against an admittedly limited opponent.

Everyone delivered a 'seven'. Dobra and Palmer eights. Most importantly everyone in the stadium gave an 'eleven' in terms of the minutes' applause.

All things considered positives to be taken...

[Gatesheed-Spireite]

Match highlights on YouTube. Right at the start the commentator mentioned 3 changes including a recall for Pepple. Can't be right surely? Can't have been sent back and recalled to us since last playing on Tuesday

[Johnnyspireite7]

Gatesheed-Spireite, on 09 March 2025 - 08:18 AM, said:

Match highlights on YouTube. Right at the start the commentator mentioned 3 changes including a recall for Pepple. Can't be right surely? Can't have been sent back and recalled to us since last playing on Tuesday

Recall to the starting line up, Madden started v Colchester.

[Gatesheed-Spireite]

Johnnyspireite7, on 09 March 2025 - 08:28 AM, said:

Recall to the starting line up, Madden started v Colchester.

*Facepalm* lol I was thinking it meant to his parent club. Makes more sense now