wrexham match thread

A point gained but the overall performance was very poor.
Artus ans Elding were very poor.

Ponds given MOM.

Quoted from 1739

Is it just me or does anyone think this is a good result against a good side who came second in the league last season.

Oh yeah of course, taken out of context a point and a clean sheet away at Wrexham is a fine result. Unfortunately though Wrexham were garbage and Town were just as useless going forward. If we were even slightly competent at attacking football we would have taken all three points from that game.

Still, I guess the back 5 look solid enough. It's just a shame that the midfield and strikers are all hopeless. We've had a crap midfield for years - why haven't any of our managers managed to sort it out? Oh to have a fit Paul Bolland again.

What worries me is our complete lack of a killer instinct. We had some good situations in that second half, but the final pass/cross/shot was awful. Cook and Elding should be making more of the chances they had. Didn't even force the keeper to work from 3 or 4 good situations.

Wrexham look a team on the way down to me. Losing out in the play offs 2 years running has taken it's toll and they have lost a couple of good players. Don't expect them to be up there this year.

With a bit more confidence and swagger, we could have left there with 3 points. That's what promotion sides do.

Have to say though that we did look a little more cohesive second half and can't grumble at a point away to a decent side.

solid defending, need new tactics still    is the midfield still a problem? I think so anyway.

Mckeown your a legend in my eyes, well done to our defence though not too kene on Hatton.

but not a bad result, 2 gamess undefeated, bring on Mansfield. UTM!

Think before the game most of us would have settled for a point against Wrexham, but 2 goals  scored in 4 games and neither from a forward is a worrying statistic, think that says quite a lot about our unimaginative  attacking play, if we d'ont start getting behind teams, instead trying to go over them, goals will be in short supply.

It wasn't a great game. We're still lacking any sort of cohesion going forward and Wrexham were pretty much the same. On the bright side though, our back five were all very good. Pond and Pearson were rocks at the back and Niven showed his use in these sort of games. We're not really looking like losing, we're just not looking like winning either.

Hopefully we can bring in a couple more creative players, maybe a left winger and a striker in the next week before the window closes and then, we might stand a decent chance of stringing some wins together.

Here's my opinion of the match.

Good defensively apart from Hatton who is completely d*gs**t and too slow. Much prefer Woods.
Disley was totally anonymous and is not Captain material - needs to be dropped.
Niven does a lot of the donkey work and sticks his foot in, looked good from my first viewing.
Need to play Thanoj regularly as he is a good playmaker and passer of the ball.
Artus is s**t and needs to be dropped.
Coulbeck, its the first time i've seen him play so ?
We miss Liam big time. Elding needs shooting for missing that sitter in the 2nd half. Greg Pearson and Andy Cook - why the f**k have they signed them. Need to give Dayle a chance or get a decent striker in on loan until the new year at least.

Awaiting the usual torrent of abuse!

seems a fair summing up Andy from what I watched

X Factor, chinese and beers soon so will do this now and not wait for the just back thread.

McKeown: 8 - Was commanding all the way through, coming to collect crosses and catching every time. He without a doubt earnt us a point today with a world class save. He was a little eager at times and threw the ball directly out of play whilst trying to release us on a counter attack, but a really good performance for him.

Hatton - 5 - He is very indecisive and does not seem a great player, his crosses were often not great and he often found himself out of position, leaving Pearson to cover of the right back position (resulting in Pearson being booked) trying to pull back their left winger). He has no composure on the ball and give the ball away extremely cheaply at times.

Pearson 7  - As always a completely solid display and showed good attacking abaility and enthusiasm busting into their box to supply a cross. He won every header all game and brought the man down when it was sensible to do so. An all round commanding performance as always.

Pond - 8 a shaky start and looked unconfident in the first minute or so and cought himself in two minds almost leaving Wrexham through on goal (like he did at Southport) after the 10 minute mark he was a different player and absolutely solid. he won all his headers and was a great presence in defence. He was given MOM by Premier Sports.

Thomas 7 - Again looked very good going forward and defended well enough at the back, some of his overlapping was exiting and he seems a very clever footballer with his runs and crosses. He put a few bals into the box but often these lacked pace and were eaten up by Wrexham defenders. A pretty decent performance, however.. as at Southport, he needs to learn how to take a throw in.

Colbeck - 6.5 - He has lots of pace, however appears to run with his head down and all of his crosses are that of a school boy (just belts it into the box as apposed to seeking players) In the second half he appeared to do alot more with the ball, putting better crosses in and creating a few decent chances for elding and cook. pretty average performance all round.

Disley - 5 - Was he even playing? This may seem harsh but as the club captain and central midfiedler, the composed, passing footballer of early last season has gone. He never appears to want the ball and wants to get rid of it as soon as he gets it. He often found himself in lots of space and running forward but completely looked as if he didnt have a clue what to di with the ball. I imagine the strikers were very frustrated with his performance as they had no supply when he was often in positions to provide it.

Niven - 8.5 and my MOM. A player who looked dog toffee in the first few games was an absolute rock in midfield today and his previously criticised passing was very good today. The most composed footballer on the pitch today and always played the right pass. He defended brilliantly and never wasted possession. A very experienced and hungry performance today.

Artus - 4 - This is a very low rating but Artus had a shocker. He does not look comfertable on the wing. He only say the ball 4 or 5 times throughout the game. He constantly had Thomas overlapping and every time failed to find him. His set piece delivery is inexcusable and worse than that frustrating predictable corner delivery Eagle used to provide. Numerous times our centre halfs had run the length of the pitch for him to blast it into orbit. Shocking performance today. Offered nothing.

Elding - 6 Elding won a lot of his headers and his hold up play was alright. Its hard to be too harsh as he was not provided well by our midfield. But he did miss another trademark sitter.

Pearson - Same as elding. Offered nothing however wasnt provided with a lot either.

Subs: As soon as he came on Grimsby appeared to play passing football and there was 1 spell late second half were we looked a very good footballing team. He always offers compsure on the ball and good passing. not a bad performance but not long enouhg on the pitch for me to rate him.

Cook - Christ if he played like that for 90 minutes id give him a 1. He looked reluctant to pull the trigger numerous times... as he has all season. He failed to leave the ground for a header 5 yards out after a fantastic cross from Colbeck. Poor performance from him

All in all i though we were better than ive seen us play this season bar a 10 minute spell against Southport. A good result for town today and im MORe enthusiastic than i was for Mansfield.


UTM




(

On the plus side,

We have only lost one game out of four,

AND

We have been rubbish,

Just think what we will do when we play well.