[HoneyTrippa]

On a different note, £1,600 for the 50-50 Draw at HT today. Does anyone know anyone who has ever won on the matchday 50-50. The 50-50 results winners don't seem to get published unlike the Spire Lottery winners.

[spireitetoo]

 HoneyTrippa, on 11 May 2025 - 07:56 PM, said:

On a different note, £1,600 for the 50-50 Draw at HT today. Does anyone know anyone who has ever won on the matchday 50-50. The 50-50 results winners don't seem to get published unlike the Spire Lottery winners.

I've won once... a few seasons ago now tho, ..

[Exharboroughspireite]

 HoneyTrippa, on 11 May 2025 - 07:56 PM, said:

On a different note, £1,600 for the 50-50 Draw at HT today. Does anyone know anyone who has ever won on the matchday 50-50. The 50-50 results winners don't seem to get published unlike the Spire Lottery winners.

Me and my mate won about £450 back at saltergate. Spent it all in a weekend!

[dim view]

HoneyTrippa, on 11 May 2025 - 07:56 PM, said:

On a different note, £1,600 for the 50-50 Draw at HT today. Does anyone know anyone who has ever won on the matchday 50-50. The 50-50 results winners don't seem to get published unlike the Spire Lottery winners.

Yep. Two blokes right in front of me shared the jackpot last season, as did a group of about 4 folk 2 rows behind me.

[Mr Mercury]

I won’t it at Saltergate when we beat Oldham 4-2, early 2000s. Made £650, about the time when the done thing was to give some back to the club, I got £500 and donated the rest. Idiot lol

[hilly81]

Mr Mercury, on 11 May 2025 - 08:06 PM, said:

I won’t it at Saltergate when we beat Oldham 4-2, early 2000s. Made £650, about the time when the done thing was to give some back to the club, I got £500 and donated the rest. Idiot lol

0:2 down? Think Allott scored on debut and a belter from Jamie Burt? Randomly one of my favourite Town games ever.

[Zigsuk]

 dtp, on 11 May 2025 - 07:46 PM, said:

Mate, I believe the rule now is 6 seconds that a keeper can hold the ball. If refs can’t count to 6 how on earth can we expect them to count to 8?

However, the powers that be have really got to sort out these false injuries to keepers. The first time he went down he had been nowhere near the ball for 10 minutes. The ref and officials knew that. The 4th official should see the keeper has been instructed from the bench. It’s quite simple really - either instruct refs to ignore the play acting or make the keeper go off for a few minutes to get over his problems.

That said, I thought we were poor today with our experienced players being most disappointing. There was no bite, urgency, creativity, from central midfield. Their tactics of getting the ball forward long for players to run on to were the only times when they had players out of position. What did we do after winning the ball back in defence? Play it about as if we had all day to cross the half-way line thus giving every one of their players time to get back into their well organised defensive roles. The time to turn them was immediately after they had attacked by moving the ball forward with urgency before they re-organised.

Cook won’t do it but I do wonder if we should go 3 at the back for the return game by bringing Grimes in for his height, play Mandeville and Sparkes as wing-backs, Naylor, Metcalfe & Dobra central plus 2 up top. We produced the square root of nothing from the wings today and they seemed to outnumber us centrally, whilst Grigg got no change out of their big CBs.

One thing for certain - we cannot play a game of possession for possession’s sake like we did today and expect a different result. We’ve tried that 3 times against this lot and 3 times failed. It is not a time to repeat the same mistakes.

This is amazing. Exactly what I was thinking and with exactly the same team. I was going to create a thread about it which would have annoyed the knob heads but you have saved me the trouble. As you say Cook won’t do it and some will inevitably whinge but I think it could work.

[dart in the crossbar]

dim view, on 11 May 2025 - 07:35 PM, said:

well here's my take.

I thought Michael's early booking completely unsettled him and we were effectively playing with 10 men. He went to pieces both in attack and defence. This knocked on to Grigg, who never got a sniff of any service.

I would have liked to see Cook swap Michael and Colclough over for a bit, just to try summat different. It's funny. He does it sometimes but it's difficult to work out the circumstances when he tries it, and when he doesn't.

Just to be controversial, my MOM was Gordon who defended well against his man, and never gave the ball away.

But my main gripe is that the the defensive square passing takes place far too deep. It's too easy to defend against. What we need is defenders who can play 10 yards higher up the pitch AND still effectively mark quick forrads if a turnover happens.

MOTM Metcalfe for me today. Palmer and Colclough look like Greenie's choice. I thought that his lad made Palmer look very limited in the air and on the deck today. Shame, cos he's done well of late. Colclough did ok sometimes when he was given the ball. For me, he didn't do enough to get involved again.

[JonB]

 HaslandBlue58, on 11 May 2025 - 07:37 PM, said:

I had made up my mind,again,after two and a half minutes when Grigg had been grabbed around the neck on two occasions and dragged to the floor without acknowledgement from the ref.Pretty obvious by then how he was going to continue the afternoon.The spineless way they turn their backs on incidents so they do not need to make a decision I find infuriating.

Yeh after those initial couple of being thrown to the floor moments grigg tried to ask the question about it and the ref just ignored him and ran past him like he wasn’t worthy of asking a question.

That’s one thing refs need to do better. Treat players with some respect in terms of explaining things to them and they will know where they stand and may even get off the refs back. Half the issues with disputing decisions etc is because refs don’t talk to players enough or properly.

[Toddhopper.]

gordon_brittas, on 11 May 2025 - 07:03 PM, said:

I know we have had some disagreements this season, but I can agree with you on this. We have given Walsall an undeserved pass straight through to the final. Lack of effort, tactical ineptness, and frankly just not playing for the badge. I expect Cook to sort our deficiencies over the summer and deliver a top 3 spot next campaign in League 2. Too many poor performances this season against sides that have put a bit more effort in too make up for the lack of skill.

Back to being an idiot I see.

[hilly81]

dart in the crossbar, on 11 May 2025 - 08:22 PM, said:

MOTM Metcalfe for me today. Palmer and Colclough look like Greenie's choice. I thought that his lad made Palmer look very limited in the air and on the deck today. Shame, cos he's done well of late. Colclough did ok sometimes when he was given the ball. For me, he didn't do enough to get involved again.

Colclough in a nutshell, that.

[plannerj]

Mr_Pleasant, on 11 May 2025 - 07:48 PM, said:

I'm with you. I thought Gordon was probably MoM. And for the comments about him not having any attacking presence, it was his lovely ball to Colclough that gave us our best chance in the first half, and he was taking up some good infield positions second half that were ignored.

It’s easy not to give the ball away when your passing is generally square or, more likely, backwards. Gordon very rarely provides a constructive, meaningful forward pass. I feel sorry for Oldaker; heavily criticised on here but nowhere nearly so negative as Gordon. Constant passing back puts no pressure on the opposition and it always gives them time to re-organise. The % possession at the end of the game looks impressive though!

[Paul Fisher]

 gordon_brittas, on 11 May 2025 - 07:03 PM, said:

I know we have had some disagreements this season, but I can agree with you on this. We have given Walsall an undeserved pass straight through to the final. Lack of effort, tactical ineptness, and frankly just not playing for the badge. I expect Cook to sort our deficiencies over the summer and deliver a top 3 spot next campaign in League 2. Too many poor performances this season against sides that have put a bit more effort in too make up for the lack of skill.

Lack of effort. Give over. This post is a lack of effort. Show some respect. Sometimes, on the day, you're just beaten by the better team, accept it and you'll feel better.

[Mr Mercury]

hilly81, on 11 May 2025 - 08:18 PM, said:

0:2 down? Think Allott scored on debut and a belter from Jamie Burt? Randomly one of my favourite Town games ever.

That’s the one, freezing cold winters day. Glynn Hurst wrapped it up with a lovely lob/chip i think.

[azul]

Paul Fisher, on 11 May 2025 - 08:42 PM, said:

Lack of effort. Give over. This post is a lack of effort. Show some respect. Sometimes, on the day, you're just beaten by the better team, accept it and you'll feel better.

I had to listen to some gobshite telling anyone who would listen that the team didn't want to reach the playoffs because they had booked their holidays. It was on a bus heading towards Walton where he got off.

[jack bauer]

Paul Fisher, on 11 May 2025 - 08:42 PM, said:

Lack of effort. Give over. This post is a lack of effort. Show some respect. Sometimes, on the day, you're just beaten by the better team, accept it and you'll feel better.

well said, there was no lack of effort so that is just a silly thing for someone to say. beaten by the better team? not sure, i think webb got it right when he said that they played their way better than we played our way. Upto the penalty we were bright, inventive and threatening, just didn't score, then they get a goal and the whole thing went flat. 2nd half we had a go and created chances but didn't take them.

[Burgerman]

 HoneyTrippa, on 11 May 2025 - 07:56 PM, said:

On a different note, £1,600 for the 50-50 Draw at HT today. Does anyone know anyone who has ever won on the matchday 50-50. The 50-50 results winners don't seem to get published unlike the Spire Lottery winners.

I once won £600 back at Saltergate. I’ve also won a tankard and a pizza.

[RN Blue]

 HoneyTrippa, on 11 May 2025 - 07:56 PM, said:

On a different note, £1,600 for the 50-50 Draw at HT today. Does anyone know anyone who has ever won on the matchday 50-50. The 50-50 results winners don't seem to get published unlike the Spire Lottery winners.

I won it during COVID when you could enter online but never had a sniff at the match

[dtp]

plannerj, on 11 May 2025 - 08:26 PM, said:

It’s easy not to give the ball away when your passing is generally square or, more likely, backwards. Gordon very rarely provides a constructive, meaningful forward pass. I feel sorry for Oldaker; heavily criticised on here but nowhere nearly so negative as Gordon. Constant passing back puts no pressure on the opposition and it always gives them time to re-organise. The % possession at the end of the game looks impressive though!

Should you not be comparing Oldaker to Fleck and not to a full back?

[dim view]

plannerj, on 11 May 2025 - 08:26 PM, said:

It’s easy not to give the ball away when your passing is generally square or, more likely, backwards. Gordon very rarely provides a constructive, meaningful forward pass.......

.... Look at the extended highlights, toss in any number of suggestions that he also passes square or back, and he's still done all that's asked of him.

His only fault is a square throw in. Cook needs to ban them. We are crap at keeping possession from them.