Match Thread: Notts County v Lincoln City | Page 23 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Notts County v Lincoln City

plumbob said:
Thought DC got it wrong today, too much change up top. Rowe has looked very dangerous "in the hole", switched wide for McCartan (did little) In place of Pett, Anderson made way for Andrade (nicely taken goal. None of this did us any good offensively, apart from the moment of quality from Bruno. No forward momentum from the middle of the park either, don't think Freck and O'Connor can be in the same side they just lack pace.
A point away is always a good one, but I'm not buying County being a decent side. For big parts of the game we made them look decent.
Thought Akinde did alright on the whole, but the penalty miss is a shocker. Yes, players miss pens but to miss the goal completely is criminal.
The Ref was just plain awful for both sides.
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"no forward momentum from the middle of the park"
This is a major area of concern and for most of our attacks 1st half we lobbed lots of long poor quality balls into Akinde.(playing off scraps)
(poor service to the frontline and bypassed the midfield.....why?)
From most throw ins nobody showed for possession( some players hiding?) one or two need to be braver on the ball./take responsibility.
If we persist in Shackell playing the key ball forward from the back then play Rhead and you can at least build attacks off him.(and still play Akinde)
MCcartan showed little today in the hole and rightly saw the bench early.

Playing a back 4 shielded with a holding 2 who neither carry or arrive in the opposition box may work defensively but creates little.
Plenty of set plays especially corners but no joy as yet,hopefully this will improve.
We didn`t lose today but at 90 minutes i sensed that the players hadn`t done enough to get the fans out of their seats,and the crowd departed in a subdued mood all 4000 of them.
As Plumbob says County were there for the taking and on today`s performance we were not worth 3 points.
 
azz_88 said:
But to be fair to him look back at his play and how isolated he is. Hard to find one or two players in a see of eight opposition defenders after you've just chased another aimless ball down the channel, shielded two players and sprinted to the byline to try and find space to cross.

Several times today he got in good positions after chasing a channel ball, battling past defenders only to look up and maybe see one Lincoln shirt on the edge of a packed box of County players. He needs options.

He's not perfect but no one in league 2 is.
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i am with this. the supply to akinde needs to be better. seeing the rowe goal at yeovil, i was hoping for more of that passing into the forward areas by O'Connor, but it didn't happen. hopefully we will get more of that going forward.

so frustrating when our two central midfielders get the ball on the halfway line and consistently turn and play sideways or backwards. easy option. they need to be braver. on halfway they are much closer to akinde [or whoever] to get an accurate forward pass in. instead, we go back, then try to hit akinde with a high ball from the defenders from 30 yards further away?? normally after passing it around at the back a bit, so the opposition have time to line up one in front of akinde, one behind him. another observation: don't always bang the long ball towards akinde!

yet again, did anyone make a chance for akinde in open play? a decent cross?

finally, i noticed the throw-in we took in the first half, to akinde, with FOUR players around him. which raises two questions, can't the thrower see this and throw it to someone else? what are our three spare players doing?

i suppose being very regimented is one of our big strengths, but it can be a weakness in the forward areas.
 
Personally I think throw in’s have been a big weakness this season if Frecklington who always makes a run doesn’t receive the ball we seem stuck. For all the great work the Cowleys do IMO this is a part of the game which needs improving, especially considering the amount of throws we have.
 
devonexlondonimp said:
"no forward momentum from the middle of the park"
This is a major area of concern and for most of our attacks 1st half we lobbed lots of long poor quality balls into Akinde.(playing off scraps)
(poor service to the frontline and bypassed the midfield.....why?)
From most throw ins nobody showed for possession( some players hiding?) one or two need to be braver on the ball./take responsibility.
If we persist in Shackell playing the key ball forward from the back then play Rhead and you can at least build attacks off him.(and still play Akinde)
MCcartan showed little today in the hole and rightly saw the bench early.

Playing a back 4 shielded with a holding 2 who neither carry or arrive in the opposition box may work defensively but creates little.
Plenty of set plays especially corners but no joy as yet,hopefully this will improve.
We didn`t lose today but at 90 minutes i sensed that the players hadn`t done enough to get the fans out of their seats,and the crowd departed in a subdued mood all 4000 of them.
As Plumbob says County were there for the taking and on today`s performance we were not worth 3 points.
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i think we saw the same game! ))
 
bbh 11 said:
Personally I think throw in’s have been a big weakness this season if Frecklington who always makes a run doesn’t receive the ball we seem stuck. For all the great work the Cowleys do IMO this is a part of the game which needs improving, especially considering the amount of throws we have.
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Respect your opinion but I think we retain the ball and move it really well. Sometimes slow to throw it in but waiting for the moment with quite a lot of movement.
 
nlondonimp said:
seeing the rowe goal at yeovil, i was hoping for more of that passing into the forward areas by O'Connor, but it didn't happen. hopefully we will get more of that going forward
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The formation difference there was Bostwick as the holding midfielder allowing O Connor the chance to get that further forward where he can thread those forward passes. I think that is his best position for us rather than holding midfield but with Bolger's injury he played further back today
 
nlondonimp said:
i think we saw the same game! ))
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We did mate and it wasn`t the best..........it was a long day.

Still plenty around me expecting Akinde to turn turds into pieces of gold.
The inexperience of the Notts central defence and keeper never got exploited (Rhead. maybe.........a case of horses for courses)
Can`t see DC enjoying his tandoori chicken tonight,too many under par or carrying injuries,still there is always the keema naans?
Roll on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!
 
County have won another 21 points this season whilst they are bottom they will always be a potential upset. 1 point from Lincoln and it all sems doom and gloom for us. Im sure the players will be gutted and might just lift there game knowing they can do better. As for Ja he doesnt seem to get the service he thrives on is that because our play is poor or other teams double up on himand the service stopping that threat.
 
sedgleyimp said:
The formation difference there was Bostwick as the holding midfielder allowing O Connor the chance to get that further forward where he can thread those forward passes. I think that is his best position for us rather than holding midfield but with Bolger's injury he played further back today
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yes. ideal. but if o'connor is playing further back, frecklington should be the one getting further forward to thread the passes. or rotation. but neither did it.

so easy for notts centre midfield.
 
nlondonimp said:
i am with this. the supply to akinde needs to be better. seeing the rowe goal at yeovil, i was hoping for more of that passing into the forward areas by O'Connor, but it didn't happen. hopefully we will get more of that going forward.

so frustrating when our two central midfielders get the ball on the halfway line and consistently turn and play sideways or backwards. easy option. they need to be braver. on halfway they are much closer to akinde [or whoever] to get an accurate forward pass in. instead, we go back, then try to hit akinde with a high ball from the defenders from 30 yards further away?? normally after passing it around at the back a bit, so the opposition have time to line up one in front of akinde, one behind him. another observation: don't always bang the long ball towards akinde!

yet again, did anyone make a chance for akinde in open play? a decent cross?

finally, i noticed the throw-in we took in the first half, to akinde, with FOUR players around him. which raises two questions, can't the thrower see this and throw it to someone else? what are our three spare players doing?

i suppose being very regimented is one of our big strengths, but it can be a weakness in the forward areas.
Click to expand...
I think your analysis is basically sound. I think this IS basically the game plan. Last season we defended by going long to Rhead and if we did I'd win the next ball defend from there with Woodyard the key. Now we defend more with the ball, happier to keep it but not going anywhere for a while. We deliberately don't look to play any risky attacking passes in the middle of the pitch. I think this is because if unsuccessful they exposed the centre of our team, which has lots of know how but not much mobility and pace.

Instead we rely on us having enough individual ability to make something out of nothing, allied to attacks from the flanks which are less risky when they fail.

It may be frustrating at times and not all that exhilarating when we do n 't play to our best, but it's a sound strategy and better than anyone else's so far this season.
 
Lets give County some credit. They are playing for their football league lives, they are playing the top of the league team in a local derby. They are playing for that sign on the Jimmy Sirrel Stand that proudly say "World's Oldest Football League Club". They have some real strong, streetwise players and their manager motivated them on the day. As DC says, anyone in this league is capable of beating anyone else. Naturally I'm as gutted as anyone that we didn't win but neither did we lose. We are still top of the league in a very healthy position. In terms of defeats, we are still one of the best teams in the league. We are still 9 points clear of 4th as we come to the final run-in. We have some winnable games to come so lets cheer up and get behind what is probably now one of, if not the, best squads in this league. Bring on Northampton.
 
Incidentally, that is the first time this season that we have played two successive league games without having a player booked. And we completed a double against Notts County - we haven't had a single player booked in either game against them this season.

They are such a dirty side, Lincoln.
 
P'boro imp said:
May be but Grimes scored goals,Akinde couldn't hit a barn door at the moment,I've not seen him strike the ball cleanly yet always seems to scuff a shot,he's our main striker so should be scoring,maybe if he was played differently he would be better
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Words fail me. I don’t think supporting a League Two team is really for you. Maybe ‘support’ Man City or Barcelona. Or the Harlem Globetrotters.
 
A positive from me is that we might well of lost such a game last year, but ground out a draw, and should (?) have won. After conceding in the first minute or so, we locked a motivated opposition out for over 90 minutes thereafter.
 
A negative from me is that we’re starting to fall in to last year’s trap of picking up draws. Last year we ended up saying that if only we had won a few of those games that we’d drawn. I think we have more quality this time around, and are in a fantastic position after 30 games, so no reason not to be optimistic.
 
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