25th November fixtures

[EricSabin]

Bolton v Exeter
Carlisle v Charlton
Cheltenham v Oxford
Derby v Bristol Rovers
Fleetwood v Stevenage
Orient v Wigan
Lincoln v Barnsley
Northampton v Cambridge
Peterborough v Burton
Portsmouth v Blackpool
Shrewsbury v Port Vale
Wycombe v Reading

Full programme returns in league one this weekend thank god.

We host Cambridge who are in pretty poor form and were thumped by Boro last time out. We’ve got a few players back and deservedly beat Burton last time to stop a poor run. Looks like it’ll be another 7,000+ crowd at Sixfields with Cambridge bringing a good following, and I’m confident we’ll get something with a few players returning.

2-1 Town

 

[Bartonyellow]

5 defenders out injured. That aside. We are not good enough to take on the posh. Ironically we drew here last season 1-1 but we look worse now even though we have better players. Go figure.
We are going to get annihilated at Peterborough.
1-5 defeat.

 

[kieran_vale]

Have to see how many of our walking wounded are available again for this. Wouldn’t be averse to keeping Ojo in that sweeper role then Arblaster and Walters in midfield with Devine, that could potentially be pretty good to watch.

Shrews clearly not loving life at the moment and it seems their manager is being questioned so could be a decent opportunity to win and one which I fancy us to. That said am sure they will view us similar.

 

[Arbury]

Northampton away which is going to be tricky, getting thumped 5-0 in your last game by the team you hate the most on the planet is never a good thing but I do feel like it’s a sink or swim moment for bonner, I’m a glass half full kinda guy so I’m thinking we’re gonna be ok in this, 1-2.

First trip to sixfields since Trollope was in charge so quite a while, think we won 0-2 that night with riza scoring and someone else who I can’t remember, any recommendations on boozers cobblers? Think we’re heading for the city centre and there’s a couple of ale drinkers in the group.

KTF.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Lose. Probably quite heavily. Move on.

 

[hellogregory]

Big game for us, purely because it’s the first game under new ownership. The fan base are on a real high at the moment.

However we have to be realistic and when you look at both teams, getting anything will be a tough ask. No idea who’ll play up front and who’ll play in midfield (please not Mellish!), we are down to the absolute bare bones. Have strikers available with a grand total of two goals between them all season.

Lack of quality, lack of options. As we head into a new era, the team still bares the scars of the previous ownership and it will take a while for those scars to heal.

Carlisle United 0-2 Charlton Athletic

But this week is all about the bigger long term picture.

 

[Bobbin']

Big game for us, purely because it’s the first game under new ownership. The fan base are on a real high at the moment.

However we have to be realistic and when you look at both teams, getting anything will be a tough ask. No idea who’ll play up front and who’ll play in midfield (please not Mellish!), we are down to the absolute bare bones. Have strikers available with a grand total of two goals between them all season.

Lack of quality, lack of options. As we head into a new era, the team still bares the scars of the previous ownership and it will take a while for those scars to heal.

Carlisle United 0-2 Charlton Athletic

But this week is all about the bigger long term picture.

No danger of game being off?

Looked at weather last night and see it reaches -1 in the early hours of Saturday.

Still scarred by Peterborough last season when they called it off at about 2pm, obviously a lot further to travel tomorrow!

 

[Sydney Posse]

Could this be the game where the shit run ends?………,,no I don’t think so either. Oh well, soon be Christmas

 

[Si Robin]

Oxford should beat us, but we're playing well at the moment in the League and they've got a new manager, so you never know. Except you do really.

 

[hellogregory]

No danger of game being off?

Looked at weather last night and see it reaches -1 in the early hours of Saturday.

Still scarred by Peterborough last season when they called it off at about 2pm, obviously a lot further to travel tomorrow!

Hadn’t really crossed my mind till you said that. If it only does down to -1 the covers should keep the pitch fine.

 

[thewwfc]

Us v Reading is another of those games that on paper should be a derby but isn’t, because:

a) I guess Reading fans would consider us to be more like an annoying little brother than an actual rival
b) Reading are possibly the most beige club in the entire league, and it’s hard to get truly worked up about them.

I was looking forward to seeing the legend that is Andy Carroll slumming it in this division, but even that small joy has been denied to me since he buggered off to France instead.

Anyway. They’ve obviously done pretty poorly this season, coupled with a background of financial mess and points deductions, but I think it’s a team that’s possibly less than the sum of its parts.

Our manager was saying that we’d been interested in signing some of these players, but couldn’t offer them anywhere near what Reading were prepared to pay. Midfielder Lewis Wing left us at the end of last season to go to RFC, for example.

So - ultimately, 2 teams both on a run of poor form, I’m going to say 1-1.

 

[Strawberry_Jam]

Northampton away which is going to be tricky, getting thumped 5-0 in your last game by the team you hate the most on the planet is never a good thing but I do feel like it’s a sink or swim moment for bonner, I’m a glass half full kinda guy so I’m thinking we’re gonna be ok in this, 1-2.

First trip to sixfields since Trollope was in charge so quite a while, think we won 0-2 that night with riza scoring and someone else who I can’t remember, any recommendations on boozers cobblers? Think we’re heading for the city centre and there’s a couple of ale drinkers in the group.

KTF.

City centre? We're not MK.

Malt shovel is the one. The Princess Alexandra and Lamplighter as well.

You might think Shipmans looks good. It's all style and has recently been ruined, mainly because they think 30 somethings like myself prefer nights out with cocktails instead of quality hand pumps.

 

[hellogregory]

No danger of game being off?

Looked at weather last night and see it reaches -1 in the early hours of Saturday.

Still scarred by Peterborough last season when they called it off at about 2pm, obviously a lot further to travel tomorrow!

Looking at the forecast just now, met office has temperatures dropping to -4 early hours of tomorrow morning, that could be a problem with temps not getting back to zero till 11am to midday.

I’d say they’ll know by 9 or 10am whether it’s playable or not. Doubt it’ll be called as late as 2.

 

[Arbury]

City centre? We're not MK.

Malt shovel is the one. The Princess Alexandra and Lamplighter as well.

You might think Shipmans looks good. It's all style and has recently been ruined, mainly because they think 30 somethings like myself prefer nights out with cocktails instead of quality hand pumps.

Town centre better?

Cheers for the recommendations, we’re all 40’s 50’s so a nice pint rather than banging tunes.

KTF

 

[Luke Imp]

Home to Barnsley for us, which will be the biggest test of the week.

Hamilton picked up his 5th booking against Orient and is suspended so that's another player down, albeit we do get Roughan back from international duty.

We're going to have to shuffle the pack even more because our only options to replace Hamilton in CM are to take Sorenson from RWB and partner him with Erhahon or move Smith from the right of a front three into CM, which is probably the weaker option of the two.

Would like us to get some pace into that right hand side and give Shodipo a run-out. He's not great all the time but does have a knack of getting himself into decent goal scoring positions at times like he did against Port Vale.

It'll take a hell of an effort with what we have available to avoid defeat I think.

 

[Tallow]

No danger of game being off?

Looked at weather last night and see it reaches -1 in the early hours of Saturday.

Still scarred by Peterborough last season when they called it off at about 2pm, obviously a lot further to travel tomorrow!

I am 100% confident the match won't be called off.
Won't freeze hard enough or long enough to cause any concern.
-1° is T shirt weather up here.

 

[Don Tonberry]

At home to Blackpool which will be a tricky game, especially with our mounting injuries with Lane now out and Ogilvie out until at least the new year now. At least Marlon Pack should be back.

We really need to win this as I can see all of the chasing pack immediately below us winning their games.

 

[coronakopite]

After shipping 5 last time (the fact it was Posh will have more affect on the fans than the players, regrettably), I'm expecting a bit more steel in defence and midfield. We've generally taken a couple of games to react to tonkings, based on last season and this. Conceding an early goal (or just the first goal) would knock the wind out of the sails.

Heart says a tight Cobblers 0-1 U's is doable but head fears a 1-0.

We'll be visiting the Squirrels in Duston for standard Greene King fare as usual.

I'm almost wishing I was heading down to Colchester to celebrate memories of my best ever season following football and witness an extension to Barrow's (8 game) unbeaten run to match a record set in my early days at Holker Street in 1966. That run of 8 League matches (plus a 3-1 FA Cup win en route to Southampton being held to a draw at Holker Street) was ended by Stockport on 16 December, after consecutive 3-0 wins at Home to Luton and Away to Brentford.

 

[The Terminator]

First time we’ve welcomed Wigan since my 12th birthday back in January 1997 which they won 2-1. Not played them since.

They had a poor result last time at Cheltenham drawing 1-1, they have quite a bit of firepower for this level though, certainly compared to us.

We’ve hit the bumpers in terms of form, coming up against stronger opponents and Tuesdays nights game was an inevitable defeat, injuries starting to mount a bit as well. We missed Jordan Brown Tuesday as he’s slowly establishing himself with us.

We need to score first in games usually, our lack of goals is slowly catching up with us, our attacking players Drinan, Piggot & Archibald need to step up more, Ruel Sotiriou to his credit has 7 goals but should have more with chances he misses.

A draw would be a step in the right direction for us, we’re not the best against the leagues better sides right now.

 

[EricSabin]

Northampton away which is going to be tricky, getting thumped 5-0 in your last game by the team you hate the most on the planet is never a good thing but I do feel like it’s a sink or swim moment for bonner, I’m a glass half full kinda guy so I’m thinking we’re gonna be ok in this, 1-2.

First trip to sixfields since Trollope was in charge so quite a while, think we won 0-2 that night with riza scoring and someone else who I can’t remember, any recommendations on boozers cobblers? Think we’re heading for the city centre and there’s a couple of ale drinkers in the group.

KTF.

Pub wise, The Malt Shovel is your best bet for the ale fans. Otherwise, Lamplighter, The Fish, Mailcoach, Wig and Pen are decent pubs in the centre of town.

 

[leedsvaliant]

We'll look the better team, particularly first half and probably create a lot that we miss. I feel like it's going to click any week and once it does I think we'll be fine. We just need to keep levels up of performance throughout 90 minutes and not concede our usual soft goal.

Shrewsbury fans have inevitably looked at our recent form and seem quite confident. However, I can virtually guarantee that after the game, like most weeks, they'll be saying 'actually Vale were a good side that passed it really well '. It's whether we can finally convert more than 1 of the chances we create. We've started to see the seeds of moving away from possession for possession sake, with more of an emphasis of playing forward whenever we can. You can see what the manager is trying to do, and in the middle of the pitch we're as good as anyone, but ultimately football is about the results and we need to start winning.

 

[HutchECFC]

Bolton will score 6 or 7. Defeat. Onto Tuesday

 

[masi51]

Bolton will score 6 or 7. Defeat. Onto Tuesday

Dont think we have that in our locker. Charles apart our forward line is weak. ....Bodvarson will be on the bench despite him being head and shoulders better than either Adeboyejo or Nlundulu. Maghoma who has been our standout player is a booking short of suspension and with two aways to follow against Oxford and Portsmouth may be rested with the now fit duo of Dempsey and Mendes Gomes vying for his shirt. Apart from Johnston out for the season we have a clean bill of health. Take a 1-0 2-0 and no injuries and move on.

 

[GeneralLee]

Oxford should beat us, but we're playing well at the moment in the League and they've got a new manager, so you never know. Except you do really.

I hope we benefit from the new manager bounce. I suspect we'll line up either with wing backs or given we have wingers returning, potentially an inverted 4-3-3 with little or few changes. Any new manager was never likely to change a winning formula and Des Buckingham appears to be encouraging much the same.

 

[valefan16]

Big boost with both Iacovitti and Lowe back from injury. Our form downturn started when he went off at Bolton.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Wow, we played Diabate up front on Tuesday, but it looks as though he is loan striker today.
He is a centre half.
Start the car.

 

[Luke Imp]

Home to Barnsley for us, which will be the biggest test of the week.

Hamilton picked up his 5th booking against Orient and is suspended so that's another player down, albeit we do get Roughan back from international duty.

We're going to have to shuffle the pack even more because our only options to replace Hamilton in CM are to take Sorenson from RWB and partner him with Erhahon or move Smith from the right of a front three into CM, which is probably the weaker option of the two.

Would like us to get some pace into that right hand side and give Shodipo a run-out. He's not great all the time but does have a knack of getting himself into decent goal scoring positions at times like he did against Port Vale.

It'll take a hell of an effort with what we have available to avoid defeat I think.

We've gone with Smith into CM and brought in Makama to play up front. He was heading to Peterborough Sports (National League South) on loan about two months ago, so that tells you how desperate we are for players.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Easiest prediction ever. Just up to Bolton whether they want to rest players for Oxford now.
At least Fleetwood are losing.

 

[valefan16]

74% possession and 1 down… only Vale.

 

[leedsvaliant]

We'll look the better team, particularly first half and probably create a lot that we miss. I feel like it's going to click any week and once it does I think we'll be fine. We just need to keep levels up of performance throughout 90 minutes and not concede our usual soft goal.

Shrewsbury fans have inevitably looked at our recent form and seem quite confident. However, I can virtually guarantee that after the game, like most weeks, they'll be saying 'actually Vale were a good side that passed it really well '. It's whether we can finally convert more than 1 of the chances we create. We've started to see the seeds of moving away from possession for possession sake, with more of an emphasis of playing forward whenever we can. You can see what the manager is trying to do, and in the middle of the pitch we're as good as anyone, but ultimately football is about the results and we need to start winning.

As said before the game. So predictable.