Best Of

Agreed @TheAndyGrahamFanClub . We have not taken as many risks recently as we did before Xmas.

Fred being the prime example currently. That run at the end shows how he can terrify opposition.I want to see him do that as much as possible. Instead he has been ultra safe the last couple of months. McCleary went through the same last season.

I suspect playing the top half of the league might be better for us, at least it may open games up more and we can exploit the space.

One thing that Wigan did exceptionally well yesterday was press. We needed more movement from our front three and they were all quite static. Kone is very good at finding space across the back line and we missed that movement.

Hoping Mansfield can do us a favour and not lose. If they win we will actually finish the weekend better than we started.

The quote I responded to was you having an unnecessary dig at Dodds.

And whilst others brought him up, the mention of Blooms that you took exception to was simply someone placing yesterday's result/performance into context i.e. noting that we struggled to break down many ultra-defensive low block teams at AP under Blooms as well. I didn't interpret that as a criticism of Blooms, rather it was a defence of Dodds

The majority of gasroomers are in full support of the new manager and are certainly not criticising him at all. I think he will see us over the line to the championship and be a tremendous appointment.

Tempo, like playing the ball out from the back, is a legacy of Pep and that dull as fcuk football that City play. A graveyard for flamboyance in favour of process and phases. Coaches see a slow tempo build up and think this is the way to win games. Our superiority in passing showed that yesterday but stats can do one when you don't actually win games (I'm not talking about Wycombe here, it is all football). Largely speaking I struggle to watch Premier League games as balls are passed around and then everyone gets excited when it goes through the lines in the hope there might be an attack.

We have wide players that rarely hit the dead ball line to get a cross in. And again this is not exclusive to us, or current manager, or previous manager. Sadlier and GMac do it when they play.

The problem is that when you play a ponderous tempo game of possession you better have a player to split the defence with a pass and. a player to make a run ready to receive that pass. If everyone is stood around it doesn't make for much of a spectacle.

As I say a wider thought on football and nothing to do with our current coach.

We're all Mansfield fans today, aren't we?

@Jonny_King is it possible to get a PDF copy of The Wanderer as I’m guessing it gets put in a PDF format ahead of printing or during the process?

I’d love to receive a regular PDF copy if this is possible and could be arranged as I can’t attend so many matches these days and I still love to read it.

Just thinking out loud and suggesting an idea, but perhaps an annual payment could be an option for some people if there were others like myself. Then to receive it as an email when produced throughout the year etc.

Keep up the good work all at The Wanderer.

I just did some meticulous record checking and proved my memory is not perfect. Here is a screenshot of the top ten out of my final post of the 18 /19 season, the first year we had an attendance 'Tour de Season'

@NewburyWanderer's 32.00 is the best ever end of season score.

I should do an "All Time Greats" table sometime - I know the scores won't be absolutely comparable because I have included some cup games on occasions, but I think it would be fun.

I agree yesterday was a dull game, but you either have a very short memory, or have managed to blot out the seemingly endless boring games of Bloomfield's early management career. I hope you are prepared to give Dodds a little leeway in his early games.

Just a little plea from a paid up member of the "pompous brigade"

The problem isn't that Doddball is dull, the problem is that it's....professional.

I have been so spoilt by the Ainsworth era where games where focused on team spirit and injury time often felt like the ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Yesterday was very grown up and probably used words like 'transition' and 'channels' that I only half understand as I prefer terms like 'going out on his shield' when watching football. But nothing lasts forever and I, for one, will embrace our data overlords (whilst secretly thinking 'In order to get what they wanted, they had to lose what they had')

As many have alluded to, teams are coming to AP for a point and we are struggling to break them down.

i quite enjoyed yesterday, thought Wigan were very good defensively but offered very little going forwards. Extremely well organised and I can see why they concede so few goals. I was also frustrated but mainly due to our league position and the tension to get three points.

We created a few openings but didn’t really do enough.

A couple of things I’d like to see change. 1st half Scowen and Simons played next to each other in a two that was protecting the back four. I didn’t think we needed that and it became difficult to transition. Josh’s effort came from him being further forward, I’d like to see us be a bit braver and take some risks.

Tempo - we didn’t really up it and try and take the game by the scruff of the neck. Maybe it’s modern football but we lacked urgency. Too many times we strolled across to take corners, pondered over free kicks, throw ins and goal kicks. It didn’t feel like we wanted it enough OR rather the coaching manuals nowadays are about believing in the process but it seems urgency is a forgotten concept.

When we are not winning we should be sprinting to every throw, free kicks etc and getting the ball back in play as soon as possible.

We are now seven games unbeaten in the league, that’s great news but only three wins.

Dodds said he would assess for first few games and not change much. I’ve been fairly pleased with things so far if he has been assessing. Moving forwards I’d like to see him tweaking a few things.

We’ve almost got a free hit at Birmingham next week. Let’s end their 16 game unbeaten run and all will be good again.

Finally, we all want the same thing - a team we can be proud of and hopefully a promotion. There are too many of us looking for things that aren’t there in some of the posts and it is getting a bit emotional. We have traditionally had the best forum in the football league, let’s move forwards together and get this forum back to being the world class place it has been for so many years.

COYB!