Bruce 'There Were Some Pleasing Things'

I agree with SB about the early part of the game. We were weirdly passive and at 2-0 down it looked for a while like Salford might get a cricket score. On reflection, I think the three who started in midfield (Ashley, Cover and Austerfield although he was playing a little more advanced than the other two) are all a bit ‘samey’. We lacked energy and drive. None of them were aggressive enough and we were on the back foot. Then the three of them combined neatly for our first goal out of nowhere and the whole momentum shifted. A strange game in many ways but very entertaining.
 
There were some good things, but also some bad ones... players not lasting 90 minutes, chances missed, stupid unforced errors, putting everybody back in our own penalty area to defend free kicks and corners, even against ten men (old Warney trick to throw away the lead!).

Despite the three goals conceded, Eyestone looked quite good. I also noticed that the Salford keeper spilled the ball several times, but our forwards didn't react quick enough to put the ball in the net - unlike what happened when to us with Cann in goal. None of our forwards looked likely to score from open play. We have nobody who is a strong header of the ball. Is three-at-the-back really the best formation for the players that we have?

Entertaining match, but we need some wins. Got to cut out the mistakes.
 
CleanSweeper said:
I agree with SB about the early part of the game. We were weirdly passive and at 2-0 down it looked for a while like Salford might get a cricket score. On reflection, I think the three who started in midfield (Ashley, Cover and Austerfield although he was playing a little more advanced than the other two) are all a bit ‘samey’. We lacked energy and drive. None of them were aggressive enough and we were on the back foot. Then the three of them combined neatly for our first goal out of nowhere and the whole momentum shifted. A strange game in many ways but very entertaining.
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I think we were missing the likes of Jellis and Spence to really energise and drive midfield.
 
I agree that we were missing a Jellis or a Spence type. Maybe we could have started with a different formation instead of choosing three very similar midfield players. It’s only an observation. My mate summed us up perfectly I think when he said that we have a league two budget, mostly league two standard players and a new manager learning his trade so what we are likely to get is a mid table league two side and some ups and downs along the way. That’s where we are in our journey. I enjoyed some of our football once we got a foothold in the game and you can’t grumble at a six goal roller coaster of a game with two penalties and a sending off. I have no great expectations this season - I just want to be entertained (tick) and see us improve (optimistic about that).
 
Need Kian Spence and Jamie Jellis back from injury. They would be my first choice in Midfield.
Mixed emotions from Saturday for me.Disappointing not to take all three points yet credit to them from coming back from 2-0 down. We played some decent football without banging the ball up in the air too much. At 2-0 down last season we would probably have given up and lost the game.
Plenty of room for improvements.
 
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