Mansfield v Carlisle #sixpointer

[shoddycollins]

Well since people are now creating match threads I thought I should best get involved. This should be a busy one.

Don't know much about Mansfield's summer but I should imagine that Murray has turned them into more of a passing team. He's also been texting BBC Radio Cumbria match summariser and his former Carlisle team-mate Chris Lumsdon asking for sneaky inside-info.

 

[Baratheon]

Bit of a shot in the dark at this stage but I'll go for 2-1 Stags. We may even get our first penalty since the bronze age!

 

[Alanstag]

A bit nervy as it will be Murray's first "proper" game in charge where he has his own team and a whole summer to orchestrate everything, so who knows how we'll perform when it comes to it. I think we have it in us to beat Carlisle although we as a club have a habit of freezing on the big occasions. There's no form going into games early on in the season so it's really hard to predict how they will pan out.

Curle teams tend to start well from my memory which is in the back of my mind, along with Raynes and Asamoah who could come back and play a worldie. I'm just glad to finally have football back and something to talk about all week and look forward to, even if we're usually dismal.

 

[daviejones]

I've been very impressed so far this pre-season, Curle has gone beyond my expectations in terms of our style of play in the last few games. Many fans, myself included, expected the signing of Ibehre to indicate a permanent shift to direct, long-ball football with Ibehre hopefully collecting a few punts and passing it on to somebody. What we've seen, however, is a good passing game with Joyce and Kennedy impressing a lot and Ibehre proving even more effective in this system. I don't know how well we'll do in relation to league games and I've no idea how well Mansfield have done in pre-season but we definitely have it in us to beat you quite comfortably. My preferred team would be:

Gillespie
Miller Atkinson Troy CMW Brough
Kennedy Joyce Hery
Ibehre Rigg

The midfield 3 picks itself, as does the keeper, but then we've got a few options in defence and up front which will make life difficult for Curle when selecting. Personally I'd start Troy over Raynes - seems obvious but then Curle could opt for the consistent defence instead of coping with Troy's knee problems. CMW came on for Grainger against Oldham and pretty much straight away pinged an amazing ball for Rigg to finish off, he can easily be the one who plays those balls consistently for us and if we give him a good run in the team with the 3-5-2 formation I think he could still prove himself.

As for up front, I think Rigg has the potential to score for fun playing alongside Ibehre. He's got the knack of being in the right place at the right time and in two brief appearances at the end of the last two friendlies he's won a penalty and scored. We know Wyke has a few goals in him but Rigg could still prove to be prolific in a better team than last season, especially considering he got 35 goals from midfield for Penrith before coming here.

Score prediction: Mansfield 1 - 3 Carlisle

 

[pride_of_notts]

Mansfield 3-0 Carlisle
Tippy tappy football to win against Curle's hoofball with goals coming from a Green brace and N. Thomas.

 

[cufc17]

Shoddy, you've got the thread title wrong, it should be 'Barcelona v Carlisle'

This could go either way, but I think we're capable of getting the 3 points. I reckon there'll be a few goals in this game, our defence isn't very solid but our attack/midfield are very strong.

Hopefully we don't revert to aimless long balls though, as we've looked much better with the ball on the ground.

Mansfield have every chance of beating us, but I think we'll finish a lot higher come the end of the season.

 

[hellogregory]

I think the signs are there for an improved season for us. I don't expect us to challenge anywhere near the top, but I expect us to be slightly better than last season. Despite losing our 2 best players, we've made some solid signings that should make us a bit tougher which should see us push up to mid-table.

That said, hand on heart I can only see a Mansfield win here. From the reports from Mansfield fans it looks like they've assembled a brilliant team for League 2 with quality throughout to pass teams to death as well as a striker to finish opponents off.

2-0 to Mansfield.


It's taken me about 20 minutes just to post this. This forum is so fucking slow at the moment.

 

[Flaxman's Alibi]

Who cares? I'm bored of the season already....when does the cricket start?

 

[Youpies]

Curle still persistent with the 352? Was the final nail in his coffin at Notts. Made us hard to beat but the players didn't get it

 

[cufc17]

I quite like the 3-5-2 formation, it worked very well towards the end of last season. I'm still not wholly convinced about our defence though, which has been our weakest area for years.

We've sold about 300 so far.

 

[hellogregory]

Curle still persistent with the 352? Was the final nail in his coffin at Notts. Made us hard to beat but the players didn't get it

After our last few seasons, being hard to beat would be an absolute god send for us.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I think we'll win. 2-1. Looking forward to hopefully see us play some football.

 

[AdamStag]

First game of the season for me, not much in travelling from Manchester to see a pre-season, so looking forward to it.

It looks like we've made some decent signings and people are saying we've performed decently, which is encouraging - hopefully we will have a better season (can't be much worse).

First games are always a bit random, so expect anything to happen - though having lost the opening game for the last 3 seasons it'd be a welcome change to get something.

How many carlisle fans are coming down? i'd expect 1,000?

 

[MattStag]

Really think we have a chance of winning this game I've been impressed so far this pre-season but the important stuff starts now lets see how good we are when 3 points are at stake.

 

[hellogregory]

We got allocated 500 tickets. We've sold out so have requested more.

I doubt we'll get 1000 there. Most don't expect us to pick any points up here so will save their money for away trips where we've got more of a chance. I however will be attending, even though I'm expecting defeat.

 

[StagsForLife]

We got allocated 500 tickets. We've sold out so have requested more.

I doubt we'll get 1000 there. Most don't expect us to pick any points up here so will save their money for away trips where we've got more of a chance. I however will be attending, even though I'm expecting defeat.

True supporter over here.

 

[AdamStag]

Why is everyone expecting defeat? We haven't turned into galacticos over the summer and though we've promising players we will be firmly midtable - it could be neutralised by the nativity of Murray - though I hope he's learned something more over the summer

 

[daviejones]

Why is everyone expecting defeat? We haven't turned into galacticos over the summer and though we've promising players we will be firmly midtable - it could be neutralised by the nativity of Murray - though I hope he's learned something more over the summer

Yeah I'd have to disagree with him saying that most fans expect defeat. I can tell a lot of our fans are secretly pretty happy with our squad at the moment but if you explicitly state this then you get shot down by the relegation enthusiasts. I'd say we've got every chance on Saturday, could go either way but if we carry on as we've been playing in terms of the style then we'll be tough to stop up front I think. Defence is a different matter of course, you guys will know all about Raynes by now...

 

[hellogregory]

Despite my expectations of an improved season, I expect defeat here for the following reasons.

1. It's the first game. We always lose.
2. Mansfield are playing well and passing teams off the pitch (from what I've read on here and elsewhere). They drew with a full strength Leicester team didn't they?
3. Even though we played well against Preston, Oldham and even for an hour at Bradford, there were still some signs of really poor defending. On Saturday Oldham had a player with a free header in the 6 yard box from a cross. There wasn't a CUFC defender within 5 yards of him. Luckily for us the player completely fluffed it. Mansfield won't make the same mistakes.

But hell, I'm an optimist! We'll still have an improved season and will not go down.

 

[StagsForLife]

As we all know pre season means nothing. Everyone thought Cox was starting to adapt some more football into our play last year.

The main worry for me this year is our depth, defence in particularly as at LB we have Benning and youth professional in Conor Green there.

 

[hellogregory]

Apparently we'll be without Jabo Ibehre for this one.

That's a big blow, he looked excellent against Preston last week.

 

[shoddycollins]

Apparently we'll be without Jabo Ibehre for this one.

That's a big blow, he looked excellent against Preston last week.

Question it then... who to play up front? We certainly have a collection of very different strikers in Ibehre, Wyke, Rigg, Asamoah and Osei

I fancy seeing what one of the two tricky Ghanaians can do... perhaps alongside Wyke?

 

[WH_Stag]

Mansfield win. If it all clicks 4-1.

 

[hellogregory]

Question it then... who to play up front? We certainly have a collection of very different strikers in Ibehre, Wyke, Rigg, Asamoah and Osei

I fancy seeing what one of the two tricky Ghanaians can do... perhaps alongside Wyke?

Interestingly Asamoah didn't play in the behind closed doors friendly midweek, but Osei and Rigg did.
Could that be an indication that Asamoah and Wyke will start on Saturday?

 

[hellogregory]

Mansfield win. If it all clicks 4-1.

That's the thing isn't it. "If" it clicks. You look at your squad and the way it can play like it did when it drew 1-1 with a full Leicester team... if or when it clicks, teams at this level will have absolutely no chance.
In a way it's maybe a good thing we're getting this trip out of the way early on, maybe your players won't have totally gelled yet so we won't face the full force of Mansfield.

 

[WH_Stag]

Id like to wait and see what other fans think of Mitch Rose, hopefully he's picked and plays well. I honestly think we've found a quality player for this league. After all rotherham fans were shocked he left.

The leicester game was a funny one, seeing quality players get fed up of not being able to get the ball back was strange, we should of won and they were really getting riled up and going for it. If we get anywhere near that kind of performance we'll be fine this year.

Ive predicted a 3-0 win for us.

 

[Alan Partridge]

Comfortable 2-0 win, Wyke & Rigg.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

I wish Mansfield all the best for season after this one, if I had a side I always had a soft spot for its them, seen 2 promotions at field mill, plus nearly got kicked in as a 15 year old by 40-50 nutjobs in the family stand back in 1995 when we nicked a decisive winning goal, and seen my fave ever match, plus best ever moment at field mill..............plus is only ground in football I've seen a match from all 4 sides.....so yep a soft spot for Mansfield.

but to me I hope we win this the start will make or break our season and law of average suggest we must be due something after 3 crap years.

my worry is and was Curles insistency that away we 'stop them rather than play' approach, I would rather they worried about us than vice-versa, but mansfield are abit hit and miss on how you think they will do so I hope we have a chance. Think maybe a draw us leading them flogging it.

 

[shoddycollins]

I wish Mansfield all the best for season after this one, if I had a side I always had a soft spot for its them, seen 2 promotions at field mill, plus nearly got kicked in as a 15 year old by 40-50 nutjobs in the family stand back in 1995 when we nicked a decisive winning goal, and seen my fave ever match, plus best ever moment at field mill..............plus is only ground in football I've seen a match from all 4 sides.....so yep a soft spot for Mansfield.

but to me I hope we win this the start will make or break our season and law of average suggest we must be due something after 3 crap years.

my worry is and was Curles insistency that away we 'stop them rather than play' approach, I would rather they worried about us than vice-versa, but mansfield are abit hit and miss on how you think they will do so I hope we have a chance. Think maybe a draw us leading them flogging it.

Hopefully, Curle hasn't used that phrase so far this summer I don't think... so perhaps that isn't how he ideally wants his teams to play.

With the first game of the season, there's always that hope, but uncertainly that the signings we've made are the difference. Last year we hoped Billy Paynter would be the difference. This year Ibehre is the big man up front we're pinning our hopes on, but we can also fantasise that relative unknowns like Osei, Miller and McQueen turn out to be epic

 

[Habbinalan]

Uncertain what I want from my third club - ideally enough problems to have them in a shaky state of mind for next week's venture north to turnover Rotherham then combine the Brampton Bee-eaters with Brunton Park and a Carlisle Curry.

Despite the pre-season waffle, I can see a cagey 0-0 as the most likely outcome - probably acceptable to both parties?