Matt Preston

[tillydog123]

Agree that Preston was a decent signing and did well initially here, he is strong and good header of the ball although poor distribution sometimes has let him down.
Shame he has had a poor season but the penalty maybe was loss of concentration which we cant afford when heading down the table.
Would not see him staying much longer though.
Sadly it feels as though the whole squad has had enough or needs some sort of change and likely to see a biggish clear out coming.

White missing has had a lot to do with things but he looks like he is going to be a sicky now and gets crocked too much.

[Sweden Stag]

To be fair, regardless of manager, we haven't been able or allowed to play a settled side all season due to suspensions and injuries. Quite a few red cards and injuries early on, and currently we have Gordon and Tomlinson out due to injuries. And Hayden White might be out for a while again. As I've said before in other threads recently, I think our downfall last season started a few weeks after Hayden White's season-ending injury sustained at Colchester. And we also have not a single player who has played in all our league fixtures so far this season. FACTS.

So far this season, we have used 25 players in League Two. Out of those, four have only played as subs. Afolayan (now back at West Ham), Charsley (think he'll start soon), Davies and Knowles have all come on as subs.

Most starts: Benning 25, MacDonald and Sweeney 24 each. Benning and MacDonald have also come on as subs twice, while Sweeney has come on as sub once. Six other players have started at least 20 games. One of those is Matt Preston (one goal). Details checked.

[HitchcocksShins]

Preston is one of many who have been absolutely dump all season

What! Another insightful comment?

It's like rain on your wedding day

[tillydog123]

Good post and analysis from Sweden
Agree with that entirely
The side has been a mish mash all season long but sadly all teams must have similar probs but at least if you can have a settled spine of about 7 to 8 players it helps.

[jr senior]

Agree that Preston was a decent signing and did well initially here, he is strong and good header of the ball although poor distribution sometimes has let him down.
Shame he has had a poor season but the penalty maybe was loss of concentration which we cant afford when heading down the table.
Would not see him staying much longer though.

MP's role in the back 4 should be to use his playing experience and show an example of how to defend to the youngsters. This season he's shown himself to have lost that experience and all too often a lack of control. He has no excuse for his poor performances, he's past his 'best by' and its time to go. Perhaps a change of scenery will help him recover his mojo.

[Spiritater]

Matt Preston is the new Jake Buxton wonder what happened to his career after he was hounded out !!

So we carry on with Clogger giving the opposition a goal every other game so he can have a good season with us in NL next season?

[tillydog123]

Flitcroft brought him in and was a kind of old buddy a must do signing and had faith in the plan laid before him which was one point away from League 1

With DF gone my guess his plan went too and he is here purely here for wages and contract now and feeling is he is not in CG's new plan or won't sign up to it.
Pearce and a few others may also have been working on the old plan too.

We need a new plan which CG I guess has now and players new or old will need to sign up to it or ship out ....without stating the blindingly obvious of course
Dear oh dear which ever way u look at it....... what a fine mess we have got ourselves into!!

In all the years of following Stags since 1969 I have never recorded so many home defeats!!
It was rare for us to lose at home that's for sure!!

[Sweden Stag]

Flitcroft brought him in and was a kind of old buddy a must do signing and had faith in the plan laid before him which was one point away from League 1

With DF gone my guess his plan went too and he is here purely here for wages and contract now and feeling is he is not in CG's new plan or won't sign up to it.
Pearce and a few others may also have been working on the old plan too.

We need a new plan which CG I guess has now and players new or old will need to sign up to it or ship out ....without stating the blindingly obvious of course
Dear oh dear which ever way u look at it....... what a fine mess we have got ourselves into!!

In all the years of following Stags since 1969 I have never recorded so many home defeats!!
It was rare for us to lose at home that's for sure!!

Eight after fourteen games in 1990-91. Nine after fourteen games in 2007-08. And I have checked Stags results ever since our first promotion season way back in 1963.

[Amber Andy]

The whole defence has been a liability this season conceding 45 goals from 28 games. Only Morecambe have conceded more goals (50).

We've conceded 14 goals in the last 7 games and 9 have been from restarts/set pieces (3 penalties, 3 free kicks, 2 corners and one throw in). Mal Benning also scored an own goal. Graham Coughlan was bang on after the Forest Green game that we do not stop or block enough crosses coming into the area. Kellan Gordon, James Clarke, Mal Benning, CJ Hamilton and Alex MacDonald have all been guilty of this.

We also lack what Paul Hurst described on Saturday as "first header" of the ball who is also a leader. Scunthorpe have a similar problem due to injuries although they have only conceded 40 goals. Ryan Sweeney is our best header of the ball but he often switches off and loses his man. Matt Preston is brave and will stick his head in where it hurts but he does the same. Krystian Pearce did not win the first header that resulted in the first goal for Salford. He also switched off and lost his man against Newport, Exeter City, Walsall and Plymouth.

GC was a great defender for Plymouth and I trust him to sort out the defence when he gets his own players in and has more time to coach the defence. I think he was initially brought in by Bristol Rovers as a defensive coach.

Let's hope he's better than Dempster, who has also a defender but could not get his defenders to do their job properly!

Neither has GC

[Jamie]

Come on Andy, give over with the sniping at the manager. If you have some constructive criticism, let's hear it...

[EdwinstoweStag]

Come on Andy, give over with the sniping at the manager. If you have some constructive criticism, let's hear it...

Wasted words, Jamie. Wasted words.

[The One]

Come on Andy, give over with the sniping at the manager. If you have some constructive criticism, let's hear it...

Agreed.

[Amber Andy]

Come on Andy, give over with the sniping at the manager. If you have some constructive criticism, let's hear it...

I'm just saying defensively we are no better.

That's not sniping it's fact.

Usually when a new manager comes in, the first thing they do is stop the team leaking goals.

[Captain Cunno]

Do they ?

Give me some examples to back this statement up.

[gazza1988]

Come on Andy, give over with the sniping at the manager. If you have some constructive criticism, let's hear it...

I'm just saying defensively we are no better.

That's not sniping it's fact.

Usually when a new manager comes in, the first thing they do is stop the team leaking goals.

I'm assuming you mean by signing some defenders? We're not going to be better defensively if we haven't strengthened our defence. We've got just under 2 weeks to sort that out. GC has tried different combinations at the back but it's not working. A little competition at the back could give the lads the "rocket" they need.

[Bradders]

I think that Coughlan is only just into his second full week of training with the squad. It seems a bit much to expect that he can sort out our defensive frailties with just a few days of training, bearing in mind having to improve fitness, and allow rest and recovery time as well.
Fans need some patience. It looks like any promotion push is long gone now, and even if our league position is lamentable there's no cause for alarm as we have a decent squad and a committed manager.

It may be best to regard the next few weeks as an opportunity for the manager to mould the squad into some sort of unit, stabilise the defence so we pick up enough points to finish safely and see who is going to be up for next season (and who's had enough).
Preston will probably be in for "retraining", but I'm sure that with a bit of strong guidance he'll be okay.

[Amber Andy]

I think that Coughlan is only just into his second full week of training with the squad. It seems a bit much to expect that he can sort out our defensive frailties with just a few days of training, bearing in mind having to improve fitness, and allow rest and recovery time as well.
Fans need some patience. It looks like any promotion push is long gone now, and even if our league position is lamentable there's no cause for alarm as we have a decent squad and a committed manager.

It may be best to regard the next few weeks as an opportunity for the manager to mould the squad into some sort of unit, stabilise the defence so we pick up enough points to finish safely and see who is going to be up for next season (and who's had enough).
Preston will probably be in for "retraining", but I'm sure that with a bit of strong guidance he'll be okay.

"Promotion push long gone" ? There has never been a promotion push this season.

You are right about the priority to stabilise the defence. The fact we have leaked seven goals in the last two games, is a worry.

It may only be his second week of full training, but he has been here long enough to improve one aspect, which is our leaky defence ( especially when he has the same players who had the best defensive record in the league the season before ).

We are now in day twenty of the transfer window and still no experienced defender or otherwise signed.

[Dan]

The whole defence has been a liability this season conceding 45 goals from 28 games. Only Morecambe have conceded more goals (50).

We've conceded 14 goals in the last 7 games and 9 have been from restarts/set pieces (3 penalties, 3 free kicks, 2 corners and one throw in). Mal Benning also scored an own goal. Graham Coughlan was bang on after the Forest Green game that we do not stop or block enough crosses coming into the area. Kellan Gordon, James Clarke, Mal Benning, CJ Hamilton and Alex MacDonald have all been guilty of this.

We also lack what Paul Hurst described on Saturday as "first header" of the ball who is also a leader. Scunthorpe have a similar problem due to injuries although they have only conceded 40 goals. Ryan Sweeney is our best header of the ball but he often switches off and loses his man. Matt Preston is brave and will stick his head in where it hurts but he does the same. Krystian Pearce did not win the first header that resulted in the first goal for Salford. He also switched off and lost his man against Newport, Exeter City, Walsall and Plymouth.

GC was a great defender for Plymouth and I trust him to sort out the defence when he gets his own players in and has more time to coach the defence. I think he was initially brought in by Bristol Rovers as a defensive coach.

Darrell Clarke brought him in to do that, I saw him on Friday night & was talking to him about it. He was very complimentary about GC.

[part time pete]

Promotion push....... we were top of the league at half time in the Leyton Orient game.

[Amber Andy]

Do they ?

Give me some examples to back this statement up.

Ian Greaves was facing similar problems ( probably less severe ). Brought in George Foster to tighten up the defence and built a solid team around him. Brian Clough did the same with Dave Mc Kay. They saw these players as essential in steadying the ship and moving forward. Ironically I think DF had the same idea with MP.

The last two games show that the first priority is a sound defence. When you are scrapping for points to stay up, you defend the one point you have to start with. You don't go gung Ho and try and out score the opposition.

To save a point in each of the last two games we needed to score four goals in one game and three in the other.

I hope GC signs such a player asap.

[Amber Andy]

Promotion push....... we were top of the league at half time in the Leyton Orient game.

If only we could fire up the tardis and go back to 4pm on 20th August.

[James]

Promotion push....... we were top of the league at half time in the Leyton Orient game.

If only we could fire up the tardis and go back to 4pm on 20th August.

I wouldn't, i'd have still been at work.

[Bradders]

Promotion push....... we were top of the league at half time in the Leyton Orient game.

In October we were one of the form sides of the league, with three wins, two draws and one defeat. People should bear that in mind when calling for a mass clearout - this squad can do it.

[Tre Cool]

Promotion push....... we were top of the league at half time in the Leyton Orient game.

In October we were one of the form sides of the league, with three wins, two draws and one defeat. People should bear that in mind when calling for a mass clearout - this squad can do it.

This squad can not do it. They were one of the form sides of last season, certainly of the first part.. But then they bottled it.

[part time pete]

Promotion push....... we were top of the league at half time in the Leyton Orient game.

If only we could fire up the tardis and go back to 4pm on 20th August.

I wouldn't, i'd have still been at work.

You mean more likely 830pm