[PhilAnders]

3points separate Top Six, and 7 Points to 7th. Southend and those below face being out of the race by NYE, with only the one play off spot to fight over!
And now it is a test of our nerve. Don’t blink just find away to win every game till NYE. We may not be top, but we will sure as hell be breathing down the neck of whoever is! UTI

[PhilAnders]

No Roberts or Ewing today, and no Evans. It’s been agreed many times on this Forum that we need our best 10 outfield players on the pitch to play and win well. Grinding out results when these 3 key players are not available is fine by me!

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glanford, Cliff Byrne's Right Peg, Plymiron, MK Iron, cassidystash

[PhilAnders]

The most important thing to me is that we win. Will Carlisle get 4 at Southend tonight, I doubt it, will York get 4 against Rochdale on Tuesday, I doubt that! All 4 teams will be happy with draws from those games and the teams around us have those sorts of games in the next few weeks. I’ll take 1-0’s and 3 points any day over the next 6 games!

[PhilAnders]

At the Turn of the New Year, I think league positions 1-4 will be separated by a gap of no more than 3 points. There will then be a gap of 3/4 points and then positions 5-8 or 9 will also be separated by a small number of points(?3) there will then be a gap of 3/4 points to the rest of the teams in the league. I expect this gap to widen to 6-7 points by the end of March. We need to be in the 1-4 position at the end of the year. For the rest of the year we should strongly attempt to win every game! Home and Away! Didn’t think I would be writing that at the end of July!

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Sanfran49

[PhilAnders]

Just seen the line up. Obviously not!

[PhilAnders]

I wonder if Ross Barrows might get some minutes this evening? If his rehab has gone to plan he must be ready to kick a ball in anger. However, he might take a look at the pitch and decide it is too dodgy to risk it! Wouldn’t blame him!

[PhilAnders]

Why am I perplexed? just like many on here I feel that we have a good preferred starting outfield 10 , with perhaps 3-4 more than adequate subs. In my mind, these “more than adequate subs” do not describe Beck, Brogann or Eze. Thus if they are in the matchday squad then those that are not are either injured or ill. My next question therefore is “How long are they likely to be out?” How perplexed I become depends on the adequacy of the answer to the question. For example, I am perplexed about the length of time Will Evans will be out as I’m pretty sure he is undergoing a Head Injury Protocol. If he is, we won’t see him in an Iron shirt until Yeovil at home!

[PhilAnders]

Given today’s lineup , I would be more than happy with a boring, flat 1-0 win!

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Rene Artois, Northumbiron

[PhilAnders]

There are 2 key performance indicators that define promotion winning teams. The first is that you don’t keep losing to your rivals, and so far, we’ve done quite well on that! The second is you beat the poorer sides in the division and between now and Christmas we have a chance to display or credentials here ( with the exception of the Rochdale away game which fits into the first category. Thus, I’m not too concerned about how many we score today as long as we win. 1-0 is as good as 6-5!

[PhilAnders]

I agree we are looking a tad jaded, although that does not excuse some of the misses in front of goal last night! Saturday could be a difficult day, the Shots are probably much of a muchness with Eastleigh. Maybe the return of TSF may pep things up and Ollie Rose’s return may help the defence.

[PhilAnders]

I have to say I am hugely relieved at gaining a point at Boston. I don’t like to single out the goalkeepers for criticism because, in my view, they are the last line of defence, and if the defence doesn’t deal with the opposition’s attack first, they leave the GK exposed. Our defence is poor at defending high balls into the box. That won’t change with a GK from a “higher level” and while that defensive weakness continues opponents will always get “tap ins”. I will accept that the GK is part of the defense, and that having a keeper who confidently comes for crosses ( and manages them) may improve the situation, but our opponents counter is to put the crosses in deeper ( beyond the keeper’s reach) and pressurise the fullbacks. I suspect with our current fullbacks (Ollie Rose excepted) we may well then have a “fullback crisis”

[PhilAnders]

Still in Spain so haven’t heard Butler’s pre match interview. I have no idea which of the loanees will be permitted to play tomorrow. I presume the season long loanees will but the short termers? I do think if he plays Beck, I can’t see us getting more than a draw, Brogan and Eze and we will be defeated. However, if none of those 3 get minutes on the pitch zi would be optimistic of a win. By how many will depend on how long, Whitehall, Howe, Roberts and Ewing spend on the pitch!

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ironfromafar

[PhilAnders]

I’ve stopped listening to the podcast to be honest. Same shyte, different day

[PhilAnders]

Morecambe will come to scrap for a point and is possible to steal 3. I would expect similar tactics to Carlisle on Saturday, but probably not the skill levels to pull it off. We need to start with Whitehall and Howe, Dawson and TSF ( if Hull have given permission) could start in the cup game against Kings Lynn , and if TSF is not permitted to play, Carlton is in need of a game. I think we will win, and at the end with goals to spare, but half time could well be 0-0 or 0-1.

[PhilAnders]

It was Radagast the Brown. He had such big hair animals could have lived in it!

[PhilAnders]

For me, we are now playing as a team, with team goals supplanting individual ones. Roberts square ball for TSF’s tap in against Southend. Last year having done the hard work, he would have shot himself and may/may not have scored. This unselfishness makes us incredible difficult to defend against, York were completely blindsided by Boyce’s air shot”dummy” on Wednesday and he had the sense to leave his second attempt to Alfie Beestin. You can’t create this stuff easily, it needs a manager touched by magic. Last time we had a team like this was under Gandalf the Grey ( Nigel Adkin’s himself) is Andy Butler the new Merlin?

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lesgeo, Sanfran49

[PhilAnders]

I see Beck, Eze and Brogan are not making the bench. We need to ease these 3 out and extend TSF’s loan spell.

[PhilAnders]

In Spain on holiday at the moment so missing these crucial games and having to rely on Radio Humberside online for match commentaries. It seems AB has found a good playing style of a high aggressive press without the ball, and fast forward movement with the ball. Very difficult for opponents at our level to beat that, the best they can hope is to play it themselves and then it’s down to who converts their chances. I expect Carlisle to do this, hopefully we can score early doors and make things difficult for them!

[PhilAnders]

I agree with most on here that Borehamwood were the best team we have played this season, like last year, 8/9 games in teams have rumbled their opponents style of play and it was obvious in the first half that Borehamwood had done their homework on our preferred style of play at home. However, unlike last year Butler changed formation in the second half and demanded our high press game. The Wood didn’t look so good once we started doing that and while I accept they should have had the game in their pocket by half time, they didn’t and a draw was a fair result at the end.
For me therefore, credit to the management team for coaching in some flexibility to our style of play. My only criticism is that they now have to develop some way of initiating that change whilst the game is in play and not hang on until half time!
Looking at last night’s game and the game against FGR , I feel that we are not currently good enough to win this league. But, given a fair run without injuries or suspensions and the determination showed in the second half we will make the play off’s and my worst case scenario is a top twelve finish, not a relegation battle, which is good.
I had a sneaky tenner on us drawing all 4 of these top of the table clashes. It’s still on.

[PhilAnders]

Apologies, just looked at the official site. I want to know how somebody who works from home can leave a job for “family reasons”?

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Sanfran49, Rene Artois

[PhilAnders]

Who is he/was he?

[PhilAnders]

One of the things I like about Roberts is that in the time he has been with us I feel that he has become more of a team player. A reason why AB has made him club VC? It may be part of his/the teams game plan to get the ball into the danger area quicker, rather than shoot speculatively from distance, especially now we have a goal poacher like Howe

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Sanfran49, Rene Artois

[PhilAnders]

There are a couple of Fans with Tourette‘s Syndrome in that stand, I’ve seen them with their carer who struggles to keep them quite during a minutes silence.

[PhilAnders]

There are a couple of Fans with Tourette‘s Syndrome in the Moritz, I’ve seen them with their carer who struggles to keep them quite during a minutes silence.

[PhilAnders]

Well done Joey Dawson! This doubting Thomas delighted to eat Humble pie this evening. The next 4 games will show us exactly where we are in this division. Glad that we have defenders coming back ( JB should have completed his head injury protocol by Wednesday) and Whitehall is being nursed through. Happy days !

[PhilAnders]

Well that’s a bit of a shocker, selection wise. No Captain dependable, presumably Starbuck is at CB with Scales at RB. Whitehall on the bench (expected)but Joey Dawson starting!!! I never saw that coming, like most I thought he would be toddling off on loan next week for a bit of game time elsewhere. Personally I would have thought Carlton and TSF were above him in the Striker pecking order. Anyone else any thoughts on this?

[PhilAnders]

I could cope with Carlton instead of TSF. What I couldn’t cope with is Beck as his style of play slows us down. Truro have only just gone full time professional. They are still learning the ropes to that. As an added handicap, their away games involve substantial travelling so even coming up today they will be a bit leggy. We need to attack with pace, and their defence and defensive midfielders need to be running around like the proverbial blue bottomed flies! If we play at a high pace and press , then they will crumble. Play at Becks pace and they will get something from the game!

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Rene Artois, Cliff Byrne's Right Peg

[PhilAnders]

If you follow the Mantra, Attack is the Best form of defence, then, to a certain extent, having a couple of just about OK GK’s fighting it out for the number 1 slot should be fine this year if we are considering mid table safety the aim. However attack is only our best form of defence when we have our best 10 outfielders on the pitch and our scoring/creative 4 of Roberts, Whitehall, Ewing and Howe are on the pitch. What contributors are highlighting is that the GK’s and back up strike force /creative midfielders are nowhere good enough to sustain a promotion challenge and should long term injury rob us of one of the creative 4, we could struggle to survive outside the relegation places!

[PhilAnders]

I did mean Chadwick, apologies.

[PhilAnders]

AB is right to seek new signings. Both the substitutions during league games and the NLN games show that we have 14 decent outfield players. We are particularly struggling for a back up holding and a back up creative midfielder, as well as options up front with Carlton struggling for form. Dreze and Chapman can’t cut it and I would send them back. Beck, Brogan and Dawsonh don’t provide with options either!

[Author]

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