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Initial Thoughts

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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby Gruff » Tue Mar 19, 2019 7:27 am

My two-penneth worth.

Lincoln were a very good side, not he "hoof-ball" I expected.
Danny Rowe ran the show for them, and if Grant had played that well we probably would have won it.
Anderson played really well, and if CJ had played like that we probably would have won it.
We seemed one-dimensional, and substituting Grant for MacDonald showed the need to try to stifle their midfield. personally would have brought on Tomlinson and Ajose for Grant and Mellis and gone more 4-4-2
The Cowley's "play the game" as spotted by the TV pundits who questioned the "injuries" to give team-talks. Pretty sure a few ref's will pick up on this.
The penalty appeal for the "foul" on Grant.... Tom Daley would have been proud.
The defence were great and really stifled them in the final third.
I thought Sweeney's distribution was a bit poor, and was generally a lump forward.
Preston & Pearce were immense, and there will be clubs sniffing around them.
Bishop & Pearce are two of the best players Stags have had for a number of years, and Preston could well be up there too if he sticks around.
Walker is not a lone striker, he needs a partner close by to play off, and CJ & Grant just weren't high enough last night given the Lincoln midfield strength.
The penalty.... poor decision-making by both Benning and Logan, that happens at this level unfortunately.
How the blazes does Akinde score penalties like that? Just stand still and wait for him to kick it in future.

Nice to see the Stags on the box, and some good stuff for the manager and players to analyse over the next few days.
Happy to take a draw from that (after the event), and hopefully will restore a little confidence in the team that they can mix it with (probably) the best team in the league.

We're 3rd in the League, in the automatic promotion places, we should be smiling :lol:
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby yorkstag » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:25 am

Gruff wrote:My two-penneth worth.

Lincoln were a very good side, not he "hoof-ball" I expected.
Danny Rowe ran the show for them, and if Grant had played that well we probably would have won it.
Anderson played really well, and if CJ had played like that we probably would have won it.
We seemed one-dimensional, and substituting Grant for MacDonald showed the need to try to stifle their midfield. personally would have brought on Tomlinson and Ajose for Grant and Mellis and gone more 4-4-2
The Cowley's "play the game" as spotted by the TV pundits who questioned the "injuries" to give team-talks. Pretty sure a few ref's will pick up on this.
The penalty appeal for the "foul" on Grant.... Tom Daley would have been proud.
The defence were great and really stifled them in the final third.
I thought Sweeney's distribution was a bit poor, and was generally a lump forward.
Preston & Pearce were immense, and there will be clubs sniffing around them.
Bishop & Pearce are two of the best players Stags have had for a number of years, and Preston could well be up there too if he sticks around.
Walker is not a lone striker, he needs a partner close by to play off, and CJ & Grant just weren't high enough last night given the Lincoln midfield strength.
The penalty.... poor decision-making by both Benning and Logan, that happens at this level unfortunately.
How the blazes does Akinde score penalties like that? Just stand still and wait for him to kick it in future.

Nice to see the Stags on the box, and some good stuff for the manager and players to analyse over the next few days.
Happy to take a draw from that (after the event), and hopefully will restore a little confidence in the team that they can mix it with (probably) the best team in the league.

We're 3rd in the League, in the automatic promotion places, we should be smiling :lol:


Good post

Personally I thought we made Lincoln look quite ordinary. We were never really in danger of losing.

I thought Benning should have put his boot through the ball rather than leave it to Logan for the goal Logan seems to have gone from hero to zero on here over the last 12 months.

Could have been so different if Tyler had taken his first half chance. It’s also unfortunate that our flair players didn’t turn up again - Grant, Mellis and CJ. There were another couple of examples of poor decision making - one where CJ completely miskicked when a straightforward pass would have sent an attacker clear and the Tyler Cj episode in the second half.

As for gamesmanship well where do you start

Yet another example last night of attackers staying on the floor to break up an attack then recovering

Feigning injury to facilitate team talks is becoming increasingly common. Lincoln did it twice last night after the Gk was told to go down by their assistant for the first one.The Port Vale gk did the same. Gk don’t leave the field of course

To his credit DF doesn’t whine about injuries but our situation is an issue particularly up front where we don’t have what I would call a proper centre forward.

Anyway I think we did ok. We are in the top 3 and we now need to continue to play our part

COYS
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby lifestags » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:30 am

At the end of the day its a cliche but a promotion race is a marathon, not a sprint. That is a good point which has put us in 3rd with 8 Games to go. I strongly believe that if we are still in this position after the Exeter game we will be fine.
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby london amber stag » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:35 am

I thought the boys stuck together last night against a tough Lincoln team, our defence was immense and that back three are phenomenal. We are back in the top three and all to play for. We need to kick on and get a couple more wins on the board and step it up against these mid table sides. There are 24 points to fight for and we are more than capable of getting promotion, we do not want to be involved in the lottery of the play offs. I certainly don’t want to be depending on a win at MK Dons on the last day of the season but it may come down to that!
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby victor A block » Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:20 am

Rob wrote:Great atmosphere and a good game, a draw was the right result. Back 3 and The Bish were terrific but as many have said Logan and Grant had poor nights. DF again showed what a good manager he is, taking Grant off which helped as we were being over-run in midfield. Lincoln are a very good side, a product of sustained investment and stable management. Just love big night games at Field Mill.


Should have taken Mellis off for Tomlinson. he contributed little and let them in a few times giving the ball away. We knew their midfield would be tough and should have started with Bishop/Tomlinson, so I'm not sure it proves what a good manager he is in that instance. We were still overrun with Macca in there. Logan will always be a liability. he doesn't read games well so his staring position is always poor and he then does 0 to 60 in 3 minutes, because of his frame. Had Smith or Bobby been in nets, we woudn't be discussing a penalty.
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby tmwilson » Tue Mar 19, 2019 12:20 pm

If we were still playing now, Lincoln still wouldn't have scored from open play. It was always going to take a fluke or a penalty for them to score.
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby FarnieStag » Tue Mar 19, 2019 12:43 pm

Opinions, opinions.... I personally, thought Grant did OK last night (better than many previous performances in which he wasn't dragged off), and as soon as he left the pitch we looked as if we only wanted a draw. I know lots on here saying Flitcroft was a tactical genius last night but all I saw was a team that looked up for it in the first half become defensive and deep in the second half, which alarmingly echoed his first home match in charge (Lincoln at home!). The defence looked so much better last night, but up front we must have the most lightweight attack of any team in the top half. Fail to win on Saturday and it could even be a struggle to finish 7th. Come on Stags... please please make me eat my words
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby yellowstagsfan » Tue Mar 19, 2019 12:47 pm

MTFCMusings wrote:Logan will keep costing us as I’ve said countless times, same as the reverse fixture last year. Flitcroft is to blame as well for dropping Smith who has barely put a foot wrong. Don’t forget the fumble in the six yard box under zero pressure which could easily have cost us prior to the penalty.

Totally agree
Logan started off well but is very slow in reading situations and coming out of his comfort zone and taking charge
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby Stags 2002 » Tue Mar 19, 2019 8:46 pm

FarnieStag wrote:Opinions, opinions.... I personally, thought Grant did OK last night (better than many previous performances in which he wasn't dragged off), and as soon as he left the pitch we looked as if we only wanted a draw. I know lots on here saying Flitcroft was a tactical genius last night but all I saw was a team that looked up for it in the first half become defensive and deep in the second half, which alarmingly echoed his first home match in charge (Lincoln at home!). The defence looked so much better last night, but up front we must have the most lightweight attack of any team in the top half. Fail to win on Saturday and it could even be a struggle to finish 7th. Come on Stags... please please make me eat my words


Far from it.

Logan played for an injured Smith.

He played his favourite formation given the welcome recover of Preston and Sweeney. Who have been fantastic most of the season - the defence picks itself given the White injury with jones as replacement.

Bishop and Mellis have built a strong partnership this season and he won't drop Grant or Hamilton.

Walker is top scorer although felt like he never got going. His comments after Port Vale where clearly aimed at Ajose (who along with Khan arguably where the only players who came out with any credit but have been seen since).

But for some reason we've lost our cutting edge that was so evident earlier in the season, are we playing with an element of fear?

Both the game last night and at Crawley the players look spent after 70 mins and fresh legs are needed. We used 1 sub at Crawley and 2 last night although 1 was in stoppage time.

The subs is where he failing and where he earns his corn in the latter stages of games to inject fresh legs, we where warned initially by Swindon fans that he doesn't make subs or does very late in the day. Most of the season he has been making regular subs but recently it has become a trait and its something I'm sure he was guilty of late last season when we struggled (is it a pressure thing?). It's almost as if he's scared to make a change although from the stands we can see it's needed. The change for Mellis should have been at least 10 minutes earlier.

We move onto Crewe Saturday and hopefully the players take confidence from last night and get 3 much needed pts Saturday.
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby lancer » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:49 pm

Our biggest problem we are far to lightweight up front, Walker, Ajose and CJ cant be 10stone wet through and can only play off the shoulder of defences, time after time we play high balls up front and never win any of them ( something that Rose is ok at) if we had someone who could hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play we would be top of the league.
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby MTFCMAD » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:52 pm

lancer wrote:Our biggest problem we are far to lightweight up front, Walker, Ajose and CJ cant be 10stone wet through and can only play off the shoulder of defences, time after time we play high balls up front and never win any of them ( something that Rose is ok at) if we had someone who could hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play we would be top of the league.


True....but both our hold up strikers are out injured.
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Postby jimmymac11 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:41 pm

Manager was too negative, Had an opportunity to close the gap between the two sides and was happy for a point.

Took off the only player that looked liked creating anything (Grant) and tried to hold on to what he had from 50 minutes on. Trying to hold on to what he's got rather than push on for more seems to be a recurring theme.

No intent to get any service to Walker at all.

More urgency and purpose to secure three points required.
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