The Poolie Bunker

First half played some good football and thought 3 points was on the cards....2nd half team fell to bits and defending was appalling to watch at times

But.... We are 10th, 3 points from play offs with a game in hand... Not all doom and gloom!!

We will finish somewhere between 10th & 14th, too good to go down but not good enough to go up or trouble the play-off positions !!!!

First half we were excellent, up to about 40 mins.
Then we ran out of ideas, which was ok, we got up to half time level.
In the dressing room input from the manager, coaching staff and captain should have freshened things up and led us on to victory...........only downside appears to be Turner delivered the half time team talk.

what he said ^^^

Liddle puts his effort anywhere except down Fon Williams throat we go 1 up and it totally different game , we were better team for 30-40 minutes of first half. Start second half we all asleep, and let in stupid goal. We then stopped playing and were rightly beat.

But we would have all took 10th after 14 games with 22 points. And if that Liddle effort goes in we would probably be say 6th with 25 points. No I'll rephrase that we probably wouldn't be sat 6th we most CERTAINLY would have been.

Fon Williams 2008 playing for Stockport he put on the 2nd best display I've ever witnessed by a visiting goalkeeper after Prudhoe in 1991

That Swindon keeper who saved two pens was still best keeper display iv seen against us.

In the last few weeks I seen this sort of statement several times but the numbers keep dropping. At what point after an another inept display would we not have taken that position it before the season started?

I agree. Its a ridiculous attitude to take. We were up there on merit. We had a mean defence and the best away record in the league.

We have now literally given 6 points away in the last 2 home games.

If we had played the last 2 games with the 11 that started the season we would have lost neither game.

I too would have taken that at the start, but there again, I am sure we would have done in the Cooper years.

Its just annoying that we know we could be higher, and the tinkering, and playing people out of position is hurting us.

Some people will still be saying the same thing when we are 19th!!
The fact is we need an Akins or an Ainsworth, we've been saying this for years, there's just no quality at all between the 5 or 6 midfielders we have on the books.

I dont buy that one bit, how can you pissibly know that? We need a balance between what we had at the start and what we have now. There are some big positives at the minute and there were some big positives at the start. At the start we were solid defensively, kept the ball well but created little or no chances. Now we are the opposite, we give the ball away, look shaky defensively, but there seems to be a cutting edge going forward. If we can balance the two then we have a chance this season of pinching a playoff spot.

We have to go back to 4-4-2 and we have to play people in their natural positions but I dont think that the first 11 we put out are the strongest. I would be happy with a team that looked like this (assumin everyone is fit which I know they aren't).


----------------------------------Flinders

Austin------------Collins-----------------------Hartley--------Horwood


Solano----------------Luscombe-------------Murray-------------Monkhouse

----------------------Poole--------------------Nish

I will say that its a tos up between liddle/luscombe/sweeny but for me liddle and murray cant play together in 4-4-2 as there is noone to go forward. Sweeney isnt always effective in the centre but then luscombe doesnt look fit enough to that is the one position I struggle with but I would be happy to see Luscombe get a run to see how he gets on in the centre of a 4 man midfield.

What are the positives from our last 2 home games Stevo? We've rolled for them and jus gave them the 3 points. Sweeney has to start when fit in the middle. Not sure who I would want with because lidds has been poor the last 5/6 games. Murray looked like getting back to his best after some woefull performances so he could be the one. Luscombe looked lost yesterday in the middle gave the ball away far to easy. He has the potential but needs to read games better.

Murray and Sweeney for me in the middle.
I'd also like to see Baldwin given a chance in place of Collins.

Totally disagree.

Solano, Murray, Monkhouse, Sweeney, Liddle, Luscombe, Brown (if in midfield) all have enough quality for this league.

If MW would only play the midfield with a bit more balance (who was on the right last night?) and in natural positions then I think it good enough.

Don't get me wrong. If a young Tinkler became available I'd snap him up!

Agree entirely, Liddle is a waste of space at the minute and Sweeney only any use if we play 4-5-1. Nish would prosper in that line up due to the fact hopefully with Luscombe in midfield that the ball would be on the floor more and he seems best at linking up play with good flicks, touches etc that im sure Poole would relish.

It would seem that Liddle hasn't been the same since he got his face broke. I suggested giving him a rest but I was scornfully informed that he was he best player at the club and indispensable. He could be but at the moment he's clearly not and we have good defensive midfielders who can step in.

Maybe the problem comes from building a game plan around Nobby who then gets injured and it's back to the drawing board??

It seems that way.

That's not right, he was superb in the games after he hurt his face, he scored in consecutive games with the mask on a got top marks in a few games

He is one of our better players he just hasn't played well lately (the last 3 or 4 games) at the time you said he should be dropped he was doing well it's since you said it.

Basically I blame you