Tuesday night games

[ShrimpsMeltdown]

Well that was an absolute classic, certainly lived up to the hype.

3 points is 3 points though, will take that all day.

 

[Moomin]

0-0 at Oldham. Sounds like we missed a couple of good chances but a draw and a clean sheet is decent enough.

Only 1 goal conceded in 4 games but only 3 scored. A bit boring, but good we seem hard to beat

 

[darren gregory]

Don't want to rake over the past but I will. Just what went on with Aspin and Worrall ?
A shit Worrall still gets on last year's subs bench but was completely sidelined.
He is like a new signing an absolute revelation.

That was a very enjoyable game of football which is not something we say very often.
Must also say about FGR that the difference in the 2 years since they came up is huge. They play some lovely stuff despite losing legends like Doidge and Mad Gavin !! .
I feel that we've beaten a bloody good team tonight and Askey made a very brave decision that paid off .

 

[dedwardp]

Well got a point, don't think we deserved it but Colchester didn't push on in the second half and were happy with the lead which came back to bite them.

Sounds about right! What goes on at half-time with us is anyone's guess, but we're always much worse after the break and incredibly negative. Fed up of it.

 

[Topher]

Would have been an utter disgrace if that had been a red. It was a superb tackle, took the ball cleanly.

aye tbf i was disappointed that was given as a foul. Bit like Gibbons I think it was for us last season v Newport.

Good game anyway, just concerned that's 3 sitters to put a game to bed wasted in 2 games

 

[valefan16]

Don't want to rake over the past but I will. Just what went on with Aspin and Worrall ?
A shit Worrall still gets on last year's subs bench but was completely sidelined.
He is like a new signing an absolute revelation.

That was a very enjoyable game of football which is not something we say very often.
Must also say about FGR that the difference in the 2 years since they came up is huge. They play some lovely stuff despite losing legends like Doidge and Mad Gavin !! .
I feel that we've beaten a bloody good team tonight and Askey made a very brave decision that paid off .

FGR just couldn’t handle the way we played but play great football, patient and last season were easily by far the best footballing side we played at their place. Defensively they were all over the shop but think they are generally non league lads coming through so will improve, maybe need to be more streetwise away from home and ditch the sweeper keeper idea! He was further forward then the centre halves at times!

As for Worrall who knows, he was allegedly involved in a car accident and had whiplash wasn’t he? But seemed to have fallen out the team after the horror show at Grimsby. Was superb under Askey at the end of the last season though and looks even better this year. Fitness as mentioned is beyond any Vale player I can recall and just never gives defenders a rest and when out of possession hunts down the ball.

May be a master stroke using him in Mannys place when he’s injured.

 

[valefan16]

aye tbf i was disappointed that was given as a foul. Bit like Gibbons I think it was for us last season v Newport.

Good game anyway, just concerned that's 3 sitters to put a game to bed wasted in 2 games

Never a foul but if the referee gives it should be off as Monty was about to go one on one. Right outcome didn’t realise Matt Mills was there!

 

[Kim Mitten]

Don't want to rake over the past but I will. Just what went on with Aspin and Worrall ?
A shit Worrall still gets on last year's subs bench but was completely sidelined.
He is like a new signing an absolute revelation.
.

Glad Worrall did well, always liked him at Southend and was a bit surprised when he dropped back to League Two. Get him playing well and he's a top end League One quality player.

 

[Chris FGR]

Yeah we got lucky that Vale missed some real sitters, especially that one at the back post from Amoo and Worrall when he went through one on one.

Our defence are talented but young and naive, 3 of them and the keeper have 1 season of football league experience between them. Left gaps all over the place. Matt Mills was tearing his hair out in the middle of all that. Interesting he, as player coach/stand in assistant mngr, was making tactical suggestions to the bench during the game.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Couldn't make it out of bed wee small hours local time for that and sounds like I picked a good morning for a lie-in.

 

[Chris FGR]

Dunno, it was entertaining tbf.

 

[valefan16]

Yeah we got lucky that Vale missed some real sitters, especially that one at the back post from Amoo and Worrall when he went through one on one.

Our defence are talented but young and naive, 3 of them and the keeper have 1 season of football league experience between them. Left gaps all over the place. Matt Mills was tearing his hair out in the middle of all that. Interesting he, as player coach/stand in assistant mngr, was making tactical suggestions to the bench during the game.

Similar back line to us, 3 young lads and Leggey but we’ve stuck in the main with Gibbo and Smith last two to three years and improving, just those lapses like Gibbons mess up!

 

[valefan16]

Glad Worrall did well, always liked him at Southend and was a bit surprised when he dropped back to League Two. Get him playing well and he's a top end League One quality player.

He was critical the first season, literally first name on the team and kept us up just, last season lord knows what went on but Askey got him back in and was instrumental in our form that pulled us out of trouble.

 

[The Alex]

Crewe winning 3 on the bounce away, coming from behind and not bottling it at the end? We look really good this year, some top players and a manager doing an excellent job. We’re gonna win the league.

 

[Chris FGR]

Quite like watching young players develop, not so much when they make mistakes but that's part of the learning process I suppose. I was impressed at how well Vale played it out from the back at times, some young lads in their back line but they looked confident doing it. Shows you can play football with a big targetman in the side, you don't have to look to hit him early with a long ball all the time.

 

[EricSabin]

Terrible missed offside for Northampton's goal. Officials at this level really are appalling. That ref tonight loved being a c*** all evening.

However we didn't do enough. Can't think of many saves their keeper had to make. Need to be better against teams that come here to frustrate.

Organised away performance from Northampton. Unspectacular but solid. The type of away win we all love to see from our own sides.

Have seen a picture of the offside floating round, pretty clear cut.
And that organised away performance I personally haven’t seen for years so thank fuck it’s finally made a reappearance!

 

[leedsvaliant]

Looked like two good sides to me. Vale had the better of the first half but Forest Green always looking dangerous. Better than the other sides we have played so far, so I'm delighted with the result.

I just hope we can maintain this as we are creating lots of chances each game but just not converting them to make things comfortable. If we do start converting, we could give someone a good thumping.

Can see FGR being up there at the end of the season, so a good barometer of where we are at.

 

[Indian Dan]

Don’t think we deserved anything - despite the howler of a decision for their goal. It always felt to me that we were going to lose.

Shows up that we can’t change things from the bench when needed. There is something about us and midweek games.

 

[Gladders]

Huge shithouse win for Keith Curle’s men at Swindon tonight, but there’s only one win I’m interested in.

Bradford v Stevenage match thread posts = 8
General Tuesday match thread posts = 175 (all figures correct at time of posting)

Firthy, you and yours took one hell of a beating.

And its all Bradford fans talking to each other in it. What's the point of a general football forum with fans of many different clubs if your going to post amongst yourselves in a thread of your own, may as well stick to Bradford forum for that!

 

[Gladders]

So final thoughts on last night's game and overall this season.

Still believe we didn't deserve a point, Colchester were very good in the first half although that's probably more to do with us being very poor. Second half we tried a lot but didn't do a lot, I think the early penalty definitely changed things. Still not sure it was a penalty, but if we hadn't scored that early I think Colchester would have pushed on. As it was they let us have the ball and tried to keep the lead. It was another set piece that got us the equaliser.

Overall we are one dimensional, play the long ball to Hanson and hope or win corners and free kicks and again cross to Hanson or our central defenders. We don't ever look like scoring except from a set piece. Hessenthaler is excellent in midfield especially in his defensive duties but the other two are anonymous and by passed.

Green despite his excellent strike last night is not suited to playing a front three, lack of movement and strength and is largely anonymous because of it. Obgu is the opposite, always running around excellent when he has the ball at his feet, strong and quick but your never quite sure what he is going to do and I don't think he is half the time either!

Defensively I think we are fine, the 2 goals last night and the one against FGR were poor goals to concede from a defensive viewpoint, if we can cut those out I think we will win plenty of games this season from defending well and scoring from set pieces. Not sure on Waterfall yet, he's good in the air but he is very slow, think we have signed him purely as a defender that gives us another option at set pieces, hopefully Ohman comes back in for him and not Davies.

I think we have the footballers to play better football and create things but not while we keep insisting on aiming for one man and hoping, though we do need that creative guy in the middle or wide. We are missing Embleton from last season. We have a lot more grit and determination especially when losing which we didn't have last season so I don't think we will trouble relegation this year, but we won't be troubling the play offs either if we don't have a plan B.

 

[FiRTHYY]

And its all Bradford fans talking to each other in it. What's the point of a general football forum with fans of many different clubs if your going to post amongst yourselves in a thread of your own, may as well stick to Bradford forum for that!

Dismiss the other three City threads created and focus solely on a Tuesday night affair against a team who seemingly have no fans who post on this forum.

Seems a fair comparison, to be honest.

The reason why singular fixtures threads are created on this forum is because they always have been. It’s all well and good creating threads on your own forum, but how many opposition contribute to that? As it happens, not many Stevenage have contributed to the thread on here - hindsight eh.

 

[Valeite]

FGR will struggle to score goals if last night is anything to go by, lots of tip tapping but no cutting edge. When the winter comes the pitches wont help them.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Crewe winning 3 on the bounce away, coming from behind and not bottling it at the end? We look really good this year, some top players and a manager doing an excellent job. We’re gonna win the league.

Artell and Lunt are doing an awesome job. Slowly plugging away at improving the team on absolutely no money. Steady improvement since they took over with shrewd signings and good progress by the academy lads, no flash in the pan bankrupting a club before jumping ship to spend shit loads at another one (aka the one who wanted the job behind Artell).

Just makes it frustrating that Hassall will not go and crawl under a rock. The moment he fucks off we'll have some proper good times. Completely hamstrung at the moment.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

Would appear it's only taken a couple of games for teams to figure out that if they sit deep with a couple banks of 4/5 against us then it's going to be difficult for us to break them down and chances are they'll spawn a goal at least on the break or from a set piece.

Lowe has to come up with a way to break sides down as it will be the same story all season. Starting with a poacher type striker. Ryan Taylor sticks out like a sore thumb in our side, not suited to the style of football at all.

Deserved 3 points again last night but in the end were lucky to come away with 1. Can't rely on a Mayor screamer every game. Work to do!!!

 

[SVH]

Dizzy heights of 3rd in the league from games against Bradford, Newport, Colchester and Scunthorpe. Not too shabby at all!

 

[valefan16]

FGR will struggle to score goals if last night is anything to go by, lots of tip tapping but no cutting edge. When the winter comes the pitches wont help them.

Build up was too slow IMO from them but we sat in second half. To be fair FGR are the model of what we need to look to, finishing 21st one season then making the play offs is a fine achievement, whilst we've set the bar lower as fans, an improvement similar would be welcome!

 

[LeonTheGreen]

Would appear it's only taken a couple of games for teams to figure out that if they sit deep with a couple banks of 4/5 against us then it's going to be difficult for us to break them down and chances are they'll spawn a goal at least on the break or from a set piece.

Lowe has to come up with a way to break sides down as it will be the same story all season. Starting with a poacher type striker. Ryan Taylor sticks out like a sore thumb in our side, not suited to the style of football at all.

Deserved 3 points again last night but in the end were lucky to come away with 1. Can't rely on a Mayor screamer every game. Work to do!!!

Spot on mate. 27 shots on goal, 5 on target. I’d put Baxter alongside Mayor. If teams are going to let us have the ball then he’s the most creative out of him, Sarce and C Grant.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

Guys be prepared for a whole lot of very unsubtle time wasting from Salcombe.

Having travelled back from our holidays just for the game and went straight back afterwards, that was a frustrating game. But Salford knew, like Newport, what they were about and our dodgy defence obliged. Twice. We missed the pace of either Joel Grant or Byron Moore. We looked slow with Taylor up front, he just does not fit our system.

Their number 25 in the middle, Jones looked good.

I know a lot of people, including me, got on his back but the ref in his first season in the EFL was okay until the last ten minutes when it got a bit feisty, and he was not sure how to handle it. In truth, I think we got one or two homers at the end - though how their was only five minutes added on given their was five substitutions at that point is mysterious (one of their substitutes literally refused to leave the pitch and had to be ‘encouraged’ by the ref which probably took 90-120 seconds alone). Wake up fourth official.

Must say the lino on the lyndhurst was excellent - was not afraid to make decisions, was on the play and has good positioning. Best I have seen for a long time. Shame the Grandstand Lino missed the very obvious things going on before the penalty was taken. Kicking the ball away and trying to scuff up the penalty spot is not cricket. And the Lino was standing yards away with clear line of site.

Oh, 11,405 on a Tuesday night, where did that come from? Fantastic turn out, gives a sense of the positive mood at the moment.

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Have seen a picture of the offside floating round, pretty clear cut.
And that organised away performance I personally haven’t seen for years so thank fuck it’s finally made a reappearance!

Not that clear cut, I was sat almost in line, at the time it looked a long way offside, there were quite a few who didn't even bother celebrating waiting for the flag.
Watched it on Sky, freeze frame etc. It was a lot Closer. The photo doing the rounds, posted by Swindon fans, shows that Williams was behind the ball when put through by Watson, therefore not offside.
VAR would need a better angle to sort that out but in the absence of VAR, the Assistant was in the best position.

 

[Son of Cod]

Jolley seemed like a good footballing coach before. Why has he totally chucked that out the window? Surely tweaking it a bit and playing with a bit of variety would work better?

Vale are physical with a big man up top, but they move it well at the same time and have wingers running at us all the time. Look an impressive unit.

I think that probably is the end plan, but implementing this varied style of mix it up football on a lower end League 2 budget isn't always going to be achievable in one or even two or three transfer windows. It's easier to get the direct part of that in place first too. Creative midfielders and flying wingers aren't exactly ten-a-penny at this level unless you've got a Mansfield/Plymouth/Bradford/Scunny style budget. Jolley probably saw the chance to bring in Hanson and shift our style a bit. It's not necessarily pretty, but early signs suggest that progress has certainly been made in terms of our effectiveness. I think it took us until Feb or March last season before we took a single point from a losing position, we've done that twice in about 10 days before August is out this season. Get this solidity and ruggedness instilled and then begin the search for a few more creative players and ease off the route one pedal slowly is perhaps what he's thinking.