Match thread

Pleased with both the result and the performance.

On paper this is one of the toughest fixtures of the season. To comfortably earn a draw with so many injuries and suspensions is a fine result. I thought we looked pretty solid all round and will be very difficult to beat this season.

Well done lads.

And how great was it to se Alan wearing the shirt once again!

A promising start.

Quoted from Alfie

Err - who did we have on the bench again?!

Is Bemrose not a striker?

Yes but he's about 13 and made out of pipe cleaners.

I bet he can still run fast for 5 mins

Pleased overall with a point I would of taken that beforehand and having watched the game I'd  say if that was a league 2 fixture then you would have 2 teams on show that are going to be in a relegation battle, but seeing as we are not in league 2 and the fact the Bristol rovers are the favourites then this league really is wide open, a good point gained looking forward to tues nite.

Quoted from denni266

Pleased over all. no one played bad, in fact over all everyone did well. Like many saw LJL missed the chance to  give us the points. He does a lot of good work and gives 1oo% , but how can you keep missing what was basically an open goal from 5 yards

The same way he had a break on and just kicked the ball to a defender when all he had to do was control it, draw him and play Connell (I think) straight in on goal. He looks good running and jumping but we get no end result.

I don't understand those saying Hurst should have pressed for a win at the end.

At this stage of the season, it's going to help build confidence in the squad to go away to a fancied club and get a hard earned point.  Conceding a late goal would have left everyone deflated and put undue pressure on for the home games ahead.

Man management.


I'd hate to work for some of the posters on here!!

It was obvious that some of the players were tiring towards the end, but Hurst felt he needed to leave the experienced heads out there to secure the point rather than pitch in a young, inexperienced player. That seems like a pretty good choice to me. We will certainly need to be a bit more ambitious in the next two games, though.

Acceptable result with half our team unavailable.

Thought defensively we were solid, only really having that Taylor one-on-one as a chance against us. Doig particularly good for me. Boyce was steady too but still smacks it out of play unnecessarily too much for my liking. Thomas got better as the game went on and Magnay was solid.

Mackreth didn't really offer anything in the way of creativity on thr ball but he worked hard and closed down high up the pitch very well.

Key thing to take from the game is how opposition teams will have much less time on the ball in midfield with Scott Brown in there. Thought he was very good. Gets in peoples faces but can also play on the ball.

I think when we integrate Nielson, Arnold and Pittman into this side it could be successful.

Got to agree with the more positive posters generally, point decent with so many key men out. Plus Rovers fans well up for it (apparently they had heavily reduced tckts, anyone know for sure about that?).  But as much as I want the Shop to become a Town legend we have to be honest and say he has to score! I was already jumping up and down as I did not believe it could be missed. He works hard and was generally good today but chances like that need to be scored to give us the extra 2 points in tight games like today to win this league.

Also think it is a bit false to call Rovers favourites I think, bookies fear getting blown away by large support if they gave them long odds so kept them short, but I doubt Rovers will trouble the top of the league this season. To be fair the various Rovers fans I talked to (all very friendly which was nice!) All said they would take playoffs right now as a v good season and think they are probably gping to be at this level for a few years yet.

Still definitely a satisfactory start which we need to build on on Tuesday!