Can’t believe I haven’t seen more praise for Gape. He was very good. Incredible on second balls all game especially in a second half where our midfield was significantly outnumbered
Tad harsh. He wasn’t at his best but he wasn’t that bad. He’s still recovering from injury of course. And he’s been asked to play a variety of positions since returning - one of which very unfamiliar (left side in a 3). And he got swapped round again mid-game today by GA (Alfie started left; Taf started middle; they swapped approx 30 mins in).
Tough watch, very nervy last 15 minutes, none of the silky football that we've played some of the early games at home, ball spent most of the time above everyone's heads ! Still 3 points, would've taken that before the game. Mawson, Gape and Scowen the standouts for me.
Accy really threw caution to the wind in the final 20 mins. The result was lots of balls pinballing around our box. But also countless breakaway chances where we could have put the game to bed.
In the end I thought we were the only team to create a clear cut chance and can probably claim to deserve the win on that basis. Basically it came down to us never giving them a free shot on goal, despite having a lot of defending to do.
His sluggish movement wasn't disimiliar to some of the rigid performances that Nigel Gray used to turn out. In his defence he probably isn't 100% match fit, and doesn't look to comfortable on the left of a back 3.
But he struggled to get off the ground for headers, I felt he was trying to mirror Mawsons ability on the ball, but ended up getting in a mess, instead of hitting the ball long.
Yep I think Taf suits being in the middle more - seems to struggle more when pushed wider. He and Mawson went for the same ball on a few occasions also
Despite all the negativity lately, thought I'd shed a positive light.
- this "break" couldn't have come at a better time for us.
- Accrington are an average outfit so tonight was a great opportunity for minutes.
- vokes and taff make our starting 11 SO much stronger.
- we are SO lucky to players like Mawson playing for us. Going back a few years we would have laughed if it was suggested he'd play for us again. That is a CREDIT to how far we have come. He was called up for England FFS!!! Its amazing. Vokes too! We really do take it for granted.
A fairly typical League One encounter, more honest endeavour than silky skills, but on nights like this against dogged opponents you have to dig in and grind out a result and that’s exactly what we did. Played some decent stuff first half, defended very well second half. Accy’s only real threat was from corners and those long throw ins. One to quickly forget and move on.
Taf’ was definitely off the pace tonight. We defended well as a unit but I certainly wouldn’t be singling him out for individual recognition.
A rare blip though, he’s an absolute cut above at this level normally. To have him and Masson as our CB pairing is frankly ridiculous. To think, if Stewart has stayed he might not even be getting in the team right now.
I would have liked to have seen him come on too, but I guess we were going more for the defensive angle tonight and less for the creativity.
Quote of the video on GA’s post-match comments on Wanderers TV: “We moved a bit away tonight from the more flowing football we’ve seen in recent weeks”…and deliberately so, to counter Accy’s set piece/long throw threat.
Quite the understatement re. avoidance of flowing football, but it’s a results business and we got the points. But it may give a bit of context as to why Horgan didn’t get the nod tonight.
Not the best of games but think we all would have taken a 1-0 win. Some excellent defending esp 2nd half. Think we should have made some subs earlier Ali did really well for the 5 minutes he had.
The 'tribute' at the start (clearly a Republican protest) set the tone for the match. Stuttering, faltering, so much worse than the sum of its parts, got there in the end.
Vokes was ring rusty and I'm surprised we kept him on for so long. Nice aggressive cameo from AAH - I'm starting to see a future for the lad. McCarthy's goal was a strange one. It seemed the whole stadium took a collective intake of breath ready shout 'what a terrible first touch' and then the ball was in. Even on the replay it looks a poor first touch.
Bit late with the subs I felt and Horgan would have been a nice addition for a frustrated / frustrating Anis. Another day he would have slotted a couple in with ease. But that summed up our showing - nearly but not quite.
A W on the board. 3 points. A game to forget. Job done
To be fair to the gobby lot behind the goal, they rescued the situation pretty well. Dance anthem played 50 seconds into a minute's silence, people started laughing. This was followed by a tiny snippet of the anthem, which then stopped again. Crowd started clapping and then took it on themselves to sing the national anthem as it was clear that whatever was going on behind the scenes was a shambles.
The game itself was a tough watch. I was certain we'd throw the lead away but some last ditch defending, particularly from Grimmer preserved the clean sheet. Phew. As the saying goes, we'll play better and lose this season.
From the highlights it suggests had Macca not taken such a terrible first touch he wouldn’t have taken the snap shot follow up to score. Lucky.
No one is mentioning a close range save at the near post in the second half by our new keeper (could we have an abbreviated Nick name soon please). It was top draw.
Comments
Can’t believe I haven’t seen more praise for Gape. He was very good. Incredible on second balls all game especially in a second half where our midfield was significantly outnumbered
Grimmer and Mawson were superb at the back, but can't believe posters thought Tafazoli played well.
He was dreadful, powder puff headers, heading across his own goal, sluggish movement, tip tappy weak unconvincing clearances.
Tad harsh. He wasn’t at his best but he wasn’t that bad. He’s still recovering from injury of course. And he’s been asked to play a variety of positions since returning - one of which very unfamiliar (left side in a 3). And he got swapped round again mid-game today by GA (Alfie started left; Taf started middle; they swapped approx 30 mins in).
Taf wasn’t great tonight, but that sounds more like a description of a Nigel Gray performance from the 80s.
Vintage? No. Perfectly acceptable? Yes.
Tough watch, very nervy last 15 minutes, none of the silky football that we've played some of the early games at home, ball spent most of the time above everyone's heads ! Still 3 points, would've taken that before the game. Mawson, Gape and Scowen the standouts for me.
Accy really threw caution to the wind in the final 20 mins. The result was lots of balls pinballing around our box. But also countless breakaway chances where we could have put the game to bed.
In the end I thought we were the only team to create a clear cut chance and can probably claim to deserve the win on that basis. Basically it came down to us never giving them a free shot on goal, despite having a lot of defending to do.
It was embarrassing 😳
His sluggish movement wasn't disimiliar to some of the rigid performances that Nigel Gray used to turn out. In his defence he probably isn't 100% match fit, and doesn't look to comfortable on the left of a back 3.
But he struggled to get off the ground for headers, I felt he was trying to mirror Mawsons ability on the ball, but ended up getting in a mess, instead of hitting the ball long.
Job done and onward to Derby who are now below us and looking like they are in for a tough season
I'm not reading the last 5 pages, were we any good tonight? Four word micro reviews welcomed
Not beautiful, job done.
Yep I think Taf suits being in the middle more - seems to struggle more when pushed wider. He and Mawson went for the same ball on a few occasions also
For the 5th time....what was the formation please? Have that many people blocked me?
Despite all the negativity lately, thought I'd shed a positive light.
- this "break" couldn't have come at a better time for us.
- Accrington are an average outfit so tonight was a great opportunity for minutes.
- vokes and taff make our starting 11 SO much stronger.
- we are SO lucky to players like Mawson playing for us. Going back a few years we would have laughed if it was suggested he'd play for us again. That is a CREDIT to how far we have come. He was called up for England FFS!!! Its amazing. Vokes too! We really do take it for granted.
3-5-2 wasn’t it? Or 3-5-1-1
3 at the back
McCarthy and Obita as wing backs
Scowen and Gape CDMs
Mehmeti and Wing attacking mids behind or sometimes alongside Vokes
A fairly typical League One encounter, more honest endeavour than silky skills, but on nights like this against dogged opponents you have to dig in and grind out a result and that’s exactly what we did. Played some decent stuff first half, defended very well second half. Accy’s only real threat was from corners and those long throw ins. One to quickly forget and move on.
Incredible that he stayed on the pitch as long as he did. That sub was screaming out to be made from early on.
Taf’ was definitely off the pace tonight. We defended well as a unit but I certainly wouldn’t be singling him out for individual recognition.
A rare blip though, he’s an absolute cut above at this level normally. To have him and Masson as our CB pairing is frankly ridiculous. To think, if Stewart has stayed he might not even be getting in the team right now.
What does Horgan have to do to get on? Did he scratch Gareth’s car in the car park by mistake?
Spot on
I would have liked to have seen him come on too, but I guess we were going more for the defensive angle tonight and less for the creativity.
Quote of the video on GA’s post-match comments on Wanderers TV: “We moved a bit away tonight from the more flowing football we’ve seen in recent weeks”…and deliberately so, to counter Accy’s set piece/long throw threat.
Quite the understatement re. avoidance of flowing football, but it’s a results business and we got the points. But it may give a bit of context as to why Horgan didn’t get the nod tonight.
Fair play to the terrace for at least partially rescuing the situation by singing national anthem Without the music
(This comes from a resident of the Frank Adam’s stand )
It’s like a scene from a 1950s Ealing comedy but it wasn’t very funny Embarrassing
Not the best of games but think we all would have taken a 1-0 win. Some excellent defending esp 2nd half. Think we should have made some subs earlier Ali did really well for the 5 minutes he had.
Well we’re always told that the queen had a great sense of humour…
Up there with the late landing parachutists in the Adams Park league of farces for sure!
@StrongestTeam “did enough to win”
The 'tribute' at the start (clearly a Republican protest) set the tone for the match. Stuttering, faltering, so much worse than the sum of its parts, got there in the end.
Vokes was ring rusty and I'm surprised we kept him on for so long. Nice aggressive cameo from AAH - I'm starting to see a future for the lad. McCarthy's goal was a strange one. It seemed the whole stadium took a collective intake of breath ready shout 'what a terrible first touch' and then the ball was in. Even on the replay it looks a poor first touch.
Bit late with the subs I felt and Horgan would have been a nice addition for a frustrated / frustrating Anis. Another day he would have slotted a couple in with ease. But that summed up our showing - nearly but not quite.
A W on the board. 3 points. A game to forget. Job done
Stewart would be lucky to get on the bench now.
To be fair to the gobby lot behind the goal, they rescued the situation pretty well. Dance anthem played 50 seconds into a minute's silence, people started laughing. This was followed by a tiny snippet of the anthem, which then stopped again. Crowd started clapping and then took it on themselves to sing the national anthem as it was clear that whatever was going on behind the scenes was a shambles.
The game itself was a tough watch. I was certain we'd throw the lead away but some last ditch defending, particularly from Grimmer preserved the clean sheet. Phew. As the saying goes, we'll play better and lose this season.
From the highlights it suggests had Macca not taken such a terrible first touch he wouldn’t have taken the snap shot follow up to score. Lucky.
No one is mentioning a close range save at the near post in the second half by our new keeper (could we have an abbreviated Nick name soon please). It was top draw.
Onwards…..
His surname is two syllablles. It's not that hard to remember. Or we could just call him Max?
He's getting a reputation as being a solid, commanding presence.