Similar to saturday for me re: performances.

Flinders - 7 - Really good early save, let down by defence for both goals
Haslam - 6 - Steady again, nothing flash
Hartley - 6 - Slightly better than Saturday but just looks out of position, too early to judge
Collins - 5 - Poor IMO, could have cleared the ball for both goals and didn't. Looks a little shaky
Liddle - 6 - Slightly better than Collins tonight but not a long term solution
Monkhouse - 5 - MOM? No chance, pretty poor again for me
Fredriksen - 7 - Did ok when given the ball, too often though the defence missed him out and went long to Behan
Sweeney - 5 - Effort alone is not enough. Needs replacing
McSweeney - 6 - Had ten good minutes second half, apart from that, offered little
Behan - 8 - MOM again for me, most of what we created went through him and he got the goal, this lad will be class
Brown - 7 - really promising first half, gave a glimpse of whats to come when fit, why he played 82 minutes is beyond me!

Subs

Boyd - 6 - little time to impact
Rowell - 6 - NO time to impact
Foley - 6 - is this what we've sunk to???

Turner - 4 - Very poor management. Was if he just stood there waiting for something to happen. Should have changed it sooner. NOT the long term solution, seems like jobs for the boys, needs sorting and fast. Potential is there for a decent season but COULD be a disaster.

need jones back from injury quick. turner brought boydy on far to late shud of played brown,behan and boyd after 65mins and just went for it

Ok here goes, I have had a hour to sit down and stop kicking the cat around the front room:-

Flinders 7 - Badly let down by defence Coliins especially, but 2 great saves last year it would have been 4 goals at least tonight.
Haslam 6 - Okayish.
Hartley 6 - Struggled at times.
Collins 2 - For turning up, didnt hoof the ball clear for 1st goal, followed the ball and centrehalf out for 2nd leaving Kuffour unmarked 6 yards out for the second.
Liddle 6 - Will not bring the ball out maybe worried about Collins lack of mobility.
Fredrieksen - 5 Too powderpuff I think, needs a strong midfielder alongside.
Sweeney 6 - For effort gets pushed off the ball to easily BUT does not hide.
McSweeney 7 - Provided the best balls into the box genuine wide quality we must get him the ball more.
Monkhouse 5 - Got one on one near the end on the edge of the box and passed the ball to space, sums him up at times. MOM how?????
Behan 8 - Effort and graft and some flashes of genuine skill needs to bollock other players for not getting the ball in to him.
Brown 6 - Getting better but needs to get closer to Behan.

Subs - Not long enough to judge HOWEVER Boyd looks like a carthouse without the running of Porter to make him look good.

We need a captain on the field, defenders need to concentrate and defend first. If in doubt kick it out......old St Francis saying.

Midfield too powderpuff and Boyd should be no where near the 1st team at the minute not a luxury we can afford.

Very Dissapointing!

sam collins deserved a lot more than a 2 like. he was quality before the 1st goal went in. getting good tackles in winning the ball well in the air

To be honest I reckon Mcsweeney was the worst player on the pitch first half - couldn't beat an egg.
The defence almost looked as bad as last season at times, Collins has this awful habit of kicking the ball back over his head and it WILL cost us again this season.

The only shining lights for me were behans performance and browny starting, he showed some great glimpses and I cant wait until he's up to his usual sharpness... although I think we may struggle for goals this season.

agree with this!
Collins was playing well till their first.
Also Behan is looking to be the makings of a very good player.
Flinders pulling off some good saves just needs a solid defence in front of him.

Collins was superb for the first 35 minutes. Some of the shite on here now is just beyond a joke. Yes Collins should have cleared the ball for the first goal, but it should still have been cleared after that.

Prior to that Collins won every thing, in the air and on the floor.

To give the bloke 2 out of ten suggests you had your mind made up, a bit like half the nutters on the Mill house terrace, before a ball had been kicked.

He wasnt great after that, and his head did seem to drop, but foook me, 2???????????

We played some good stuff last night and did NOT deserve to lose. It was a very good game.

Bobby Behan is gonna be a legend, and Flinders is gonna be very very good, and I love the way he bollocks defenders when they fook up. keep it up Scot son.

We have 3 problem areas at the moment. The full backs are still weak for me, and their distribution was awful. Haslam is too slow. Austin must be better. I would stick with Hartley as its a confidence thing with him. But at least he talks, and is trying to do the right things.

We need to get Brown and Boyd fit. Neither are 100% for me. Brown and Behan looked great for 30 minutes, but Browny tired markedly, and should have been taken off earlier. Boyd needs the ball on the floor and we did get a bit desperate towards the end. Maybe give Larkin a try with BEHAN?

The midfield two is clearly not right. We need a player in there who knows were the ball is gonna drop. Boland does it, as Tinkler did. Fedriksen is gonna be good, but looks like a wide player to me. Sweeney is trying hard, but hardly touches the ball in anger. Its got to be one or the other with someone else. Jones needs to play in there, but I cant help thinking thats the one signing we really need to make. A Boland/Tinkler type of player.

Overall disappointed with the result, but we played some good stuff, and I see more positves than negatives.

But as we are in the results games, I suppose some of you are feeling suicidal, and wil see no positives at all from last night.

But do any of you really think we deserved to lose??????

Well thats all I am saying, so carry on ladies.

Hard to disagree with any of that.

Opinions eh? And some of yours are bolox.

Flinders- 8
Haslam- 6
Hartley- 7
Collins- 6
Liddle- 7
McSweeney- 7
Fredriksen- 4
Sweeney- 4
Monkhouse- 7
Behan- 8
Brown -7


It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out where our problems currently lie.

Was it only me that thought the full backs played largely well last night? Hartley looked strong in the air, he did the simple things solidly and more often than not found feet with the ball (more than we can say about others anyway). Haslam too always seemed to hit feet and he played some dangerous balls into the box at times. Both 7's for me.

I think McSweeney was hiding a lot, especially in the first half. He offered no width, just like Saturday and kept wandering inside. He should have been on the touchline all the first half and just wasnt there.

Subs were made far too late but looking at the bench, who, apart from Rowell would you think could come on and make an impact to the game?

I thought hartley was pretty poor although improved over saturday. haslam did at least pose some threat in the first half. I can recall him getting 3 dangerous crosses into the box

After having a nights sleep on it, I am still willing to argue my point with regard to Collins last night.

He gave away 4 freekicks in dangerous positions in the first 20 minutes last night, all of which where when the player he was marking/shadowing had his back to goal with the ball coming straight to them about 20 yards out. After the 1st 5 minutes we knew that the referee was going to blow for any contact, so what does he do, grab a shirt, leave a leg in and try to kick the ball throught the back of a player. People are right he won must of the headers played into the area. He was marking Duffy 5'10ish and Jo Kuffour who would have a hard time beating Baby David in a high-jump competition.
His dithering play almost got Haslam sent off, when the two of them sandwiched their right winger on the right hand edge of the box, when the ball should have been put over the stand, and the goals.......Jesus, schoolboy stuff.

I was at MK Dongs and he had a good game, but last night he was very poor in my opinion and for me is not the answer as Captain. I also thing that Liddle is always aware of the lack of pace in Collins and feels he can not move forward into the gap in front of him. So it is easy to defend against pools (opposition in 2 banks of 4) and the midfield is missed out as the ball is almost always hoofed forward.

Come on Pools.

Great post. Collins on the whole played ok last night. he was certainly very involved
but was partly at fault for a goal again. He certainly did better than a 2 !

Spot on ADG - Collins was having a very good game up to the point of the first goal - 35 mins in. I'm not Collins' biggest fan but when he does play well, The team seem to thrive on his confidence. Sometimes he doesnt do the fundamentals right, i.e if in doubt put it out. I would replace him with Ben Clark when he comes back from injury.

The midfield still seems to be overrun and we need someone in there to protect the back 4.

Flinders I felt sorry for last night as he didnt deserve to conceed the goals with the saves he was producing, It just liabilites and silly mistakes. If we can iron them out we'll do pretty well. Behan looks a class act and up front with a fit Brown will get us a fair few goals this season. Still positives to take on :D

In response to the comments about Turner's late substitutions:
If there's one problem I had with him the last time he was with us it was the fact he always left it friggin ages and ages before sending subs on/changing the style of the way we played. It used to drive me mad and he was like this on so many occasions. Of course he was a huge success overall - but some managers see a problem and rectify if, at half time or ten minutes into the second half when things still arent going to plan despite the team talk. Turner, for the vast majority of the time, gave subs five or six minutes, ten at most, when we were desperate for a change...