Match Thread: Notts County v Lincoln City | Page 24 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Notts County v Lincoln City

I think first half we were missing something, I would have liked to have seen how it went with Pett in the 10 role. McCartan didn’t have a particularly great game, and with County’s two new holding midfielders mopped up everything in our ‘10’ position. With O’Connor sitting deep as a battler, and Freck liking to drop back to pick up the ball, we were a little absent in the link area between the middle and up front, an area County had two players in!

Neither County full backs, Rose and Milsom, were true full backs, and the two Centre backs were young and inexperienced, something for me we didn’t exploit enough.

For record on the debate, I thought Akinde did well in difficult circumstances!
 
Yep and I've left it, whilst dissapointed, I'm not reading comments like that about the team and players I support. The administrator will have to get a grip or that page will just eat itself. Danny Cowley and the team have my backing.
I've left it too, the abuse of JA is totally unjust. They obviously cannot watch games or see the league table from the back of their cave ! In DC/NC we trust.
 
Yep and I've left it, whilst dissapointed, I'm not reading comments like that about the team and players I support. The administrator will have to get a grip or that page will just eat itself. Danny Cowley and the team have my backing.

Ditto- left it last night. We may have a fan base who attract players currenly but i can guarantee if this abuse continues then we'll be losing players not attracting them
 
My take on yesterday was it was another point gained, but disappointed as we had the chance for all 3 with the pen. However big John was 100% up till that point, and we are all going to miss at some time, just happened to be today.
The old adage of win your home games and get a point away stands up well. Two awkward games at Bury and Notts undefeated and our unbeaten run is I think now 8 games with two homes to come.
Mansfield are on a roll and I think most will not be surpised.
9 points ahead of 4th place is a great place to be at the start of Feb.
 
Akinde has scored 12 and assisted in 15/16 I think a tweet from the club last week.
The lack of support from his team mates yesterday was a disgrace, he was totally surrounded at times especially in the first half and just lumping the ball up to is not the answer.
Put where he can run on to it.
Think Danny set up wrong in the first half, better in the second.
Was a poorly taken penalty but he wasn't the only one yesterday he was poor in front of goal.
That run from Harry should have squared it to Danny.
Corners were poor too bar a couple.
Onwards!
 
It's probably best to just draw a line under yesterday and move on. Atmosphere at the end summed it up, subdued and indifferent..... which would also be a fair reflection of the 90 minutes that had gone before. Happy to give County some credit, they rolled their sleeves up, gave it a go and made life difficult. We just seemed permanently stuck in second gear and never threatened to get out of it. To use a Danny phrase, we just didn't reach our usual levels.

My view on big JA was that (after a run of very good games) he had one of his poorest games for a while yesterday. That said he wasn't alone and I could name you 10 others that didn't play as well as they have done recently. His penalty miss is irrelevant..... it happens, move on. Service into him was poor and he was very isolated. My main concern is that too much bounces off him due to a poor first touch often resulting in us losing possession.

The good news is that despite playing poorly we didn't lose and any away points are valuable. We now have 3 games at home in the next 4, so let's pack the Bank, make some noise and get back to winning ways.

Onwards and (hopefully) upwards!
 
"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.

Glad it’s not just me who was frustrated with the two in the middle. At one point in 2nd half Akinde did well, pulled it back and if a central midfielder was on the edge of the box they would of had it - both were in our own half! Was like we had a back 6 at times. People get frustrated with our forwards, but we are often expecting 4 players to do it all against teams set up to defend against us as we are top of the league, someone from the middle needs to push on more when we have the ball, or get it forward quicker. I like O’Connor and Freck as players, like them both in the team if we play three in the middle, but as a 2 in there they both end up very deep, it invites pressure and means we don’t pick up enough 2nd balls in central areas in the opposition half. Maybe O’Hara is the answer? Or Bossie back in there with O’Connor who seemed to go forward a lot more with Bossie alongside him.
 
Let's face it, we play a very defensive game. One up top with a deep-sitting mid-field. It has been very effective so far. It isn't always great to watch.

I have an ongoing discussion with Imp79 about this and we both agree that, occasionally, it might be worth playing 2 up top and trying to put weaker teams to the sword. But I don't see that ever happening.

On another point, am I right that Rowe was moved out wide? Why on earth would you do that with a player who has just scored 3 goals in 2 games playing centrally in the link role?
 
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Let's put it this way. If we are just aiming for promotion or the play offs, its a point gained.

If our aim is to win the league (as we should be) its two points lost.

We will probably never have a better chance to win this division - so that is what we should be striving for. Standards have been raised at all levels - and so should expections for the run in. DC would have it no other way.

County are fighting for their lives; I think you are being disrespectful to them.

We do not have a God-given right to win every game,neither is it our right to win this League.

Perhaps a bit of humility and realism is required?
 
Well finally seen our bit of action on Quest just now.
Excellent goal from Bruno.
Both pens, really can't tell if wrong or right from the one angle we get. But both do look soft at best.
As for the missed penalty, even if on target keeper would have definitely saved it.
It is the one thing I've been saying all season about Akinde's pens, the apparently casual style does make them very saveable if the keeper guesses right. And i don't actually know how this is the first fail. But Akinde must be confident in how takes them!

... you'll have to ask those 'keepers who've failed to save all those on target.
 
[QUOTE="NottyImp, post: 1725193, member: 9698"
On another point, am I right that Rowe was moved out wide? Why on earth would you do that with a player who has just scored 3 goals in 2 games playing centrally in the link role?[/QUOTE]

To accommodate McCartan? It does smack of experimentation, even at this stage of the season. Can't see it happening again, mind.
 
You only have to look at the reaction from the County fans at the end, they haven’t seen anything like that all season and it was almost cup final celebrations. That tells me it’s probably the best performance they had put in, in about a year.
 
Let's face it, we play a very defensive game. One up top with a deep-sitting mid-field. It has been very effective so far. It isn't always great to watch.
You are spot on

Kevin Keegan certainly would n’t have set up a team like Cowley does. But then again I think Cowley has won more promotions/leagues.

We have become so used to success, some now want attractive on the eye success. That would dismantle “the method” with no guarantee of maintaining the success.
 
[QUOTE="NottyImp, post: 1725193, member: 9698"
On another point, am I right that Rowe was moved out wide? Why on earth would you do that with a player who has just scored 3 goals in 2 games playing centrally in the link role?

To accommodate McCartan? It does smack of experimentation, even at this stage of the season. Can't see it happening again, mind.[/QUOTE]

Well, I hope not. McCartan has not been very effective in that role this season. But moving a player who looked lethal in that position out wide after 3 goals in 2 games is surely a pretty big error of tactical set-up?
 
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.

This is the problem. When Frecks and O'Connor are playing in midfield, we have very little penetration in the box. I hope O'Hara comes up trumps on that score.
 
To accommodate McCartan? It does smack of experimentation, even at this stage of the season. Can't see it happening again, mind.

Well, I hope not. McCartan has not been very effective in that role this season. But moving a player who looked lethal in that position out wide after 3 goals in 2 games is surely a pretty big error of tactical set-up?[/QUOTE]

We know he's not afraid to shift formation, but when I saw the lineup, I too was more than a little puzzled, especially since Anderson has re-discovered his mojo.
 
On another point, am I right that Rowe was moved out wide? Why on earth would you do that with a player who has just scored 3 goals in 2 games playing centrally in the link role?
Yes he was. Crazy!
Okay, bring back Andrade in place of Pett (If fit should have then been one of the middle 2), straight swap.
Anderson maybe wasn't 100% fit(?). I believe we signed one or two to fill that role in the window?
I'm not one to criticise someone that clearly knows more about football than I ever will, but disrupting the entire 3 behind Akinde seems foolhardy to me.
 
The second half Andrade / Rowe / Anderson 3 looked more effective I agree and as we’ve discussed before John does look a little less isolated with Rowe behind him.

Anderson’s long run and shot was an inch or two away from another goal of the season contender.