Oldham Athletic v Notts County

[Hurrikeen]

So it's a battle between two sides who've gone from surprise packages to mid table plummeters.

County do still have that decent away record though, so I think I'm going to opt for a draw here. We've started scoring - 2 goals in each of the last 3 games - however we're conceding more. County aren't big scorers though.

Latics 1-1 County
Poleon to score.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Thankfully there isnt as much riding on this game as the corresponding fixture last season Think both side will finish comfortable Midtable.

 

[RavenBish]

 

[Hooped Wizard]

Draw

 

[LongEatonPie]

 

[RavenBish]

 

[RavenBish]

This game is happening.

 

[Hurrikeen]

3-0 was kind. They were absolute toss.

 

[RavenBish]

Just one of those periods at the moment where things aren't working out, we're making pointless desperate signings to plug the gaps and tinkering with the team a bit too much - a bit like on Football Manager when you're not really sure what the issue is so just think 'fuck it' and try weird formations and randomly switch left-backs (no idea what Adams has done wrong to get dropped for example and the second goal was Cranston's fault I hear).

Anyway, whatever, we'll be fine still - just a bit disappointing how things have fizzled out when everyone was quite optimistic with January looming but we appear to have replaced all the ineffective shit with more ineffective shit and signed 7 players when probably 3 more thoughtful acquisitions would have sufficed. I'd sack Santos and Thomas off and really evaluate *how* we want to play.

I don't blame the defence either like everyone else will. They've spent most of the season making up for the lack of goals at the other end to get results, at some point we're going to go through a period where things get a bit shaky at the back and they have a blip and at some point our attacking players have to stand up and get us a result themselves. It's no wonder our heads drop at 1 nil because half the team probably thinks 'ah shit, we're fucked, no way we're going to score 2'.

Anyway, I went to Burton today, fairly enjoyable. Not much quality on show but a decent enough game. Bury were rubbish apart from Soares and Mayor in the second half.

 

[BCFC David]

No Suprise. In both fixtures County have been awful!

 

[RavenBish]

We've pretty much had a completely different team in all 3 games so they're not really indicative. We've been fine for most of the season, we just lack a bit of quality going forwards and that's now coincided with the defence looking a bit shaky despite being good all season and that's why we've dipped. Still enough players to have the base of a good side, this January has just been shite apart from Hayhurst and Bajner who so far have been slight upgrades on McLaughlin and Cassidy...but we needed more than small upgrades, we needed different types of players and more options.

 

[Hurrikeen]

Just watched the highlights - Carroll's positioning for our 2nd was laughable.

 

[RavenBish]

Nah, it was fine, ideally he'd have not hesitated early on and chose whether to go or not but he recovered well enough and the angle was just about perfect for a right footed striker where it's near on impossible to come out and force them wide. Whole thing was created because Cranston at left-back wasn't switched on and played the striker onside by being 3 yards behind everyone else.

 

[Hurrikeen]

Nah, it was fine, ideally he'd have not hesitated early on and chose whether to go or not but he recovered well enough and the angle was just about perfect for a right footed striker where it's near on impossible to come out and force them wide. Whole thing was created because Cranston at left-back wasn't switched on and played the striker onside by being 3 yards behind everyone else.

Opinions eh?

He looked too far over to his right hand side, and although it expected of the striker to open his body up and stick it in the bottom right, Carroll offered too much goal to aim at.

 

[RavenBish]

Every keeper tends to do that though to limit the striker's options. It's not really about opinions it's just that it's clearly not 'laughable' - any more to his left and he's leaving his near post free too. Most keepers will try and coax the striker to going one way - one-on-ones are effectively cat & mouse. The camera angle is also really misleading as it's from the sideline rather than what the striker will see, Carroll's a fair way out of his goal with body angled towards. Morgan-Smith likely had less of the goal to aim at than it appears from 50 yards away.

That's basically just a really long way of saying it's far from 'laughable'. It's just a simple goal from a team caught napping.

Can't say I'm too fussed about our defending yesterday if I'm honest purely because I think Carroll, Adams, Hollis, Mullins, Dumbuya is a perfectly good back 5 in League 1 and they clearly just had a bit of an off-day. By all accounts we were playing alright (should have had a penalty etc...) up until that weird 5 minute period and then we just lost the plot - which is the worrying trend in our play at present.

 

[Hurrikeen]

I laughed when I saw it. It was poor.

 

[RavenBish]

You have a weird sense of humour then.

 

[Hurrikeen]

 

[Hurrikeen]

That's poor positioning.

Simple as that.

 

[RavenBish]

Fucking hell you're weird.

His weight's shifted left, he knows exactly what he's doing and screenshot the bit where his hand is like a cm away from the ball if you want too.

 

[Hurrikeen]

Nothing weird about having a difference of opinion on a football forum.

And maybe had he positioned himself better, his left hand *may* have stopped the ball going in.

Anyway, its done with now. I'm off to be weird again in another thread.