Match Day Thread Northampton Town vs Saints - Tuesday, August 12 - 19:45 KO

Assuming that Still has now learnt that Adarma doesn't really work through the middle as a lone striker. I'm going to guess that Stewart is currently next in line to start there in the league, however it would be unwise to start him in this game and against Ipswich given his fitness record. So this seems like the perfect opportunity to get Downs up to speed. And depending on what formation we go with this time. Either Archer playing off him in a front two. Or Archer left and Armstrong right of Downs. With our lack of proper wide options, I think we need to keep Fraser and Robinson for Ipswich. Then I'd probably go with Charles, Sesay and Matsuki in the middle. And Manning or Taylor LB, Wood and THB CB and Sugawara or Bree RB.

 

I would like to see the Loch Ness Drogba start. Other than that, not really worried who we go with.

 

I'd like to see us go pretty strong for this. Absolutely no need to be resting players at this point of the season.

 

I still can’t see where there are some saying we were woeful and were lucky on Saturday. 27 shots, nearly all the possession. Unlucky with a crap ref. What do some of you expect or are you just miserable? We wore them down and found a way.

 

I didn't see it like that at all. 27 shots sounds nice but covers up the fact that 10 of those were on target and of those 10 many were very poor shots straight at the keeper. You also can't ignore the very real possibility that we could have been 3-0 down at half time and Wrexham kept us very comfortably at bay until the inevitable happened and our legs persisted where theirs didn't and subs came on and we got a good free kick and scrambled home a winner. It was great but hardly convincing and this is how we were against a newly promoted team, I do kinda dread to think how we will look against a team with a bit more about them. Like a lot of times the last couple of seasons there was a feeling that if we were playing against a team that were able to attack us we would have been ripped apart. It was embarassingly easy for them to play through our defence. They had a couple one on ones and we had nothing other than aimlessly crossing the ball into our 5 foot tall strikers which luckily eventually worked in the 95th minute because we overloaded the box. I'm very happy we won but it was not a good performance in the slightest and there is no way people would be being positive if it stayed 1-0 or hell if it was even 1-1. I don't like to be negative but I believe blind optimism is just as bad. Absolutely everyone around me was very unhappy until Manning's free kick with a LOT of "same ****, different season" being thrown around. That's not good and shouldn't be brushed aside, 2 goals and everyone had sudden amnesia of the previous mind numbing 80+ minutes.

I saw a lot of the same issues that plagued last season in that performance but we just happened to win this one so it didn't hurt as much when the whistle blew.

 

You also can't ignore the very real possibility that we could have been 3-0 down at half time

Taking the above line from your post, why are you ignoring the possibility that we could also have scored 3 times before HT? Robinson with a shot saved and hitting the post. Adarma with a poor shot at the keeper and also having a shot cleared off the line. The Flynn Downes effort that was deflected for a corner could easily have been deflected into the goal, on another day. The 2 shots from Fraser, one going just wide and the other hitting the keeper’s shoulder and deflecting for a corner.
Robinson and Adarma also had shots charged down that were on target.
I think you are being very selective in what you are remembering.
Moving on, how much would the game have changed if the officials had seen the handball in the second minute of the second half and given us a penalty? How about the shirt pulling on Quarshie for a second penalty?
Seriously, you are only remembering one side of the game and being extremely negative and inaccurate as to our overall performance.
It wasn’t perfect and we still have work to do but we were never as bad as you and others are making out.

 

See I just don't see it that way. I'm not having blind optimism. For all the circumstances you mentioned, we weren't that bad. We were so poor last year, Wrexham have huge momentum. We have a new manager, new tactics, a hangover from last year and a few new members of the team. You say they had 'all these chances', but they didn't score them as we made good defensive tackles or a good save. We had clear penalties refused and a ref that was all for primetime on the Disney+ documentary. They only easily 'went through our defence' (I don't think this is true) when we were pushing forward for an equalizer for the last 30 mins. We were 'lucky' you say because we overloaded the box, but how about we were persistent?

I saw enough about the 96 mins to be cheerful. fcuk me, life is depressing enough without moaning about an opening day win in dramatic fashion.

 

I thought the first half was pretty poor but see no point dwelling on it. Happiest I've left the stadium in a long time.

However I'll definitely moan like **** if we lose tomorrow after putting out a weakened side.

 

As a neg head from the Gao era, I am also on the positivity train. I wasn’t bored during the game!!!

 

Still has said some players who played on Saturday will play tomorrow as he wants players to be very fit. So will be interesting to see the team but think it will still be a strong one.

 

I get that impression too.

 

Which is the right imo and immediately puts some credit for still in the bank.

 

I'll never forget Martin away at Gillingham couple of years back; pairing Lynaco & ****ing Romain Perraud at centre-back. I still shudder.

 

Ah but they kept possession.

 

They ****ing didn't; kept losing the ball between the pair of them ... no wonder he bombed them out after that

I'm genuinely having PTSD thinking about them together.

 

And we missed out on Luton away cos of it.

Imagine we lose this and the 2nd round draw is Northampton Vs Portsmouth.

 

To continue the ‘we weren’t that bad’ theme, when Man U did what we did “That is the sign of Champions’. When we do it, we are lucky.

 

That's my dream tie right now assuming we both get through, seeing as I can't do the league game

 

I don't see a problem with posters expressing their concerns even after an exciting win. It's a forum designed to discuss different viewpoints after all. Most people agree that overall, it wasn't the best of performances so it's not like the concerns are coming after a brilliant display.

I know it's human nature to see positive thought = good and negative thought = bad but on a forum criticisers should be allowed to criticise without being criticised is a catchy mantra which I've just made up.
Do we want to sit around the camp fire all singing kumbaya after every match or have a discussion?

If people want to hear opinions where almost everyone thinks the same, posts the same and ban those who think differently, they should head over to the politics thread.

 

We won on saturday and the manager stated there were things to improve on and he changed things in the game to try to impact the result and it did, so not going to repeat the rest of the commentary on that game here as I can't add anything over what is already said.

For this, I just want the strongest available team put out, a win to boost confidence going into the weekend, maybe a "normal" goal and more time in the team to get up to speed with WS methods etc.

Any win helps morale and confidence and consistently winning lowers the opposition's