Matchday Chat

I watched the game on ifollow. It looked like we were being cautious in the 1st half and didn't really offer much in attack, just kept possession and sat back defending when needed. I suppose we were expecting Lincoln to come at us seeing they were on a 100% record. But Lincoln didn't really offer much either in the 1st half.
2nd half started with an error from Hare which led to their free kick and they got their goal through an unlucky Baldwin own goal. Our heads didn't drop, we immediately went down the other end and got an equaliser after a great cross from Hare. After that, we looked more likely to score the winner as we had pushed up the pitch more. Once we got the penalty (and it was in the box) and scored it, we then decided to sit back and stay solid, making sure we see out the game instead of killing them off. I had hoped the red card would knock the stuffing out of Lincoln but they looked better with 10 men. Thankfully, we stayed strong, put bodies on the line and got our rewards.

Overall, a very good performance against the league leaders (at the time) which builds on the win from last week and the good performance against Oxford too. Have we turned a corner? I can only say confidence is building within the squad now and the belief is there. We just got to keep being patient and expect the odd step back as we won't win every game. But trust in BG.

 

I listened to the game and we sounded really solid defensively - a million miles away from the Doncaster defensive debacle. That’s not a bad achievement going to the league leaders and putting in a performance like that.

After a dire start to his reign as gaffer perhaps Garner is getting his ideas across and is building confidence in the team. Still early days but I’m a lot happier than two weeks ago!

 

Yeah, although im pro BG, my feet are still firmly on the ground. There will be a step backwards here and there, like you get at every club, even Man City and Liverpool get them. But is the way we bounce back shows us what BG and the players are made of, not just in games but also after results. We just came back from behind and won against the league leader. That to me shows we are on to something. I know BG's record was poor last season but I honestly don't believe a lot of the players were up for his style or good enough to implement his style and many were not fit enough (some players publicly said so at the time) to work the way BG wanted them. This all would explain the bad run last season as well as having his own personal issues at home. I certainly won't judge him while managing another person's team. Now he has brought in a lot of players, kept the players that made an impression on him during last season, you can now say this is his team. Judge him now. But allow time for the new squad to get to where BG wants them and to allow them to gel. What didn't help was a tough start in the fixture list. Sunderland away. Not many will go there and get anything. Ipswich - who are now top. Not many will get anything against them this season. Donny away, where we have a terrible record and even if we had Pep as manager we would still lose against them! Now this is where BG's and the players are showing what they are made of. Despite the bad start and despite it being early and it will still take more time for the players to fully gel, we have now won 2 in a row. We can learn from this moment for when we have another bad run (because we obviously will). We have proved to ourselves that sticking to this system, we will bounce back, even against the most inform teams. Shows great character.

 

Jaakkola didn't have much to do but what he did do, he did well. No mistakes. Not even with his distribution. His positioning was great for every cross and shot.
Hare defended well and attacked well. Made the mistake which led to their goal but made up for it with the assist for Daly. Worked hard for the team getting up and down the pitch.
Tutonda was great. A real threat in attack but very competent in defence. Made the odd error which could have led to something but thankfully it never.
Ehmer/Harries/Baldwin ALL looked solid and put their bodies on the line with tackles and blocks. All looked good with the ball at the feet too and mainly their distribution with the ball was very good. All 3 were very close to my MotM.
Westbrooke was a bit quiet but when he had the ball, he tried to get us forward and tried to keep things simple.
Grant was my MotM. I thought he had a cracking game in the middle. Broke down a lot of attacks and won the ball a lot. Was our rock in front of our back 3.
McCormick played ok and had some good touches and had some good long range shots. He will get much better as he gets more game time.
Daly against put in a decent shift with running and chasing things. Im so pleased he got his 1st gas goal. Hopefully this will now be a regular occurrence for him now.
Hanlan was not a good as last week (still was good though) but I think that was mainly down to Lincoln's defence who at times had 2 or 3 around him when he went deep to get the ball. He was obviously seen to be our threat by Lincoln. A little more support then I think Hanlan would have had a better game but he still had a good game.

 

Pre-match interview for tomorrow's game....

 

Im watching the game and so far I am slightly disappointed. I had hoped we would have built on the good performances vs Northampton, Oxford and Lincoln but we've instead copied the performance from Saturday vs Burton. Can't put 3 passes together or can't keep the ball. We are not winning the 2nd balls either. Set pieces we look good, which is what we scored from. Not 1 player so far has stood out for me as a player who is playing ok. Somehow we are winning though as Shrewsbury have not been good with finishing. However, they have been the better side, especially in their attack. I will be very surprised if we manage to keep a clean sheet. If we play the 2nd half as the 1st half, we will not win. We need to keep the ball better and dominate the midfield. But the ball is like a hot potato. No one wants it.

 

Come on Gas - 1-0 often just isn’t enough!

 

.... but on this occasion it was enough!

Overall a decent away performance - sounds like the defence did a good job.

UTG!

 

2nd half was better from us. We won more 2nd balls and got forward more creating a few chances. We kept the ball slightly better too but I think all of this was due to Shrewsbury giving us more space where they had to push up more to try and get back into the game. BG wants to play attractive football but sometimes we need to play ugly and tonight, that was ugly. Im still not sure who was our MotM. No one stood out. Could give it to Ehmer for his clearance off the line. Or Westbrooke for his set plays causing havoc and getting an assist. Apart from that, nothing really to shout about who was our best player on the night. Nicholson looked promising when he came on. But right now, I would keep Daly starting as he works really hard.

 

Great result. Ipswich also lost 4-1 at Donny, so we might just be contenders.

 

All of a sudden,our 4-1 defeat at Donny doesn't seem so bad!

 

Having seen the picture in the WDP of their GK taking out Hanlan when he scored, as the ball was well passed him before contact was made i am wondering why the keeper wasn't at least Yellow carded

 

Tomorrow’s game v Accrington is OFF due to eight Stanley players going down with Covid. Bummer.

 

Should have been red carded for that. It was terrible.

 

I don't want to sound harsh here but im not sure why games need to be postponed. I do understand it wouldn't be fair on Accrington and any other club who have players unable to play due to isolating. But if they had 8 players off with injuries, then the game would still go ahead. If they had 8 players off with illness like food poisoning for example, then the game would still go ahead. I just don't get the difference.

The good thing about this for us is that our next game is Hull, who are currently top of the league. We get more time on the training pitch, we have more rest time and have more time to prepare for a big game for us. Meanwhile, Hull are playing Peterborough today, which will be a tough tough tough game for them. They have a chance to pick up knocks or suspensions and could be a bit tired when they come to the Mem on Tuesday night. We may have a slight advantage.

 

Hull lost on Saturday so they will either tired, bruised and battered after their tough game with Peterborough or they will be up for the fight to make amends for their defeat.

 

I think we'll give them a decent game. I'm sure we're contenders this season.

 

BG on the Hull game....

 

Same lineup as v Shrewsbury.

Fair enough not changing a winning team but i’d have been tempted to start Oztumer over McCormick - more creative.

 

Difficult decision. I think if we had played Saturday then I guess there would had been a couple of changes to utilise the full squad to rest players as games coming thick and fast.

As for Oztumer, I agree, more creative than McCormick but Hull will be a difficult test and we will be under a lot of pressure throughout the game. I think McCormick will be better at defensive duties over Oztumer so probably a better option in my opinion.