[bluepooch]

On the face of it any away draw is a decent result in my opinion and we finally scored a goal, but its 8 without a win now and every game without a win the pressure starts to build on MA .I dont care how popular he is I will measure him on results ultimately and the winless run is made worse by the poor style of football .If anyone was under the illusion that MA was a football playing manager they need to give their head a shake.I was fully aware his teams were hard working but not pretty and that is exactly what we have got ,except as a manager ,no matter how you do it you have to win games to keep your job.
Anyway its on to next Saturday to see if the screw will be tightened a bit more .

[Dancingwilldoit]

At least we scored and didn't lose. It didn't sound pretty but if it takes grinding teams down to get results and to get a few wins under our belts then so be it. We can try pretty football when we are in the top half of the table.

[Devongone]

Denton gets MOM in the Non-League Paper. MA blames Will Evans. We were easing to a 1-0 win against team which would never have scored he says. But then how can you begrudge a team whose goalscorer is called Chike Kandi and whose new owner has Tourette's?

[SaltergateBorn]

I didn`t go - I thought about it, though - but I listened to the commentary on SD and it sounds as though Lee Shaw missed an absolute sitter in the 2nd half. That would have put us 2 up and we would probably have coasted it from there. That`s football. But as Dancing says, at least we scored and just at the moment it really doesn`t matter how we get the results, as long as we get `em

Somebody said on another post - I think it was either Matt or Blue - that what we needed up front was a big `un and a little `un. Well, in Denton and Shaw we seem to have got precisely that; and it sounds as though it might just work. Now, if we just get somebody to give them some decent service..........

I won`t be going to any more matches until towards the end of October because of family commitments and then holidays. So I`m fully expecting an upsurge in form for the next few weeks, followed by another downturn about mid-October. I seem to have this effect.

[Devongone]

Well done SaltergateBorn!

Absence makes the team grow stronger! If we are doing well by the end of October we'll have to crowdfund to send you on a world cruise.

My comment on Lee Shaw would be that even the greatest strikers miss the occasional sitter. Really poor strikers don't tend to even be there for sitters. I'm still holding out hopes for the lad too.

My worry is midfield. Weston injured ....... Carter taking time to recover ........ Weir fairly obviously only under consideration due to lack of alternatives. One little point - on here, on Bob's, everywhere, there seems general agreement that Rowley is physically weak. Why don't we strengthen him up? More than forty years ago when I was leaving college, a Yorkshire Rugby Union team wanted me to go and play as a centre for them, because I was a good crash tackler. At the time I was 6' 3" but only a fairly athletic 12 to 12 1/2 stones. They were going to put weight and muscle on me. They were going to find me a physical job (no pro' rugby then), feed me up and torture me in the gym to add that weight and muscle. Back then they were confident they could do it! (The idea of the gym was too much for me and I said no!) If in the days of amateur rugby they could have transformed me, why can't we now add a bit of muscle and a few pounds to Joe Rowley? We are a professional football club ffs trying to develop potential professionals.

[SaltergateBorn]

Excellent suggestion that, Dev. All donations gratefully accepted.

[bluepooch]

One thing I do like about MA is he admits its not good and looks like he is trying to change things with more additions and outgoings ,he says some of the players he has brought in haven't been as good as he expected.Really ??.I could have told him that after 2 games ! .He brought in average to poor workmanlike players under the pretence that you need strong ,hard working players only to get out of this league .Wrong ! you need strong hard working players combined with players with some footballing ability.We haven't got too many of them at the moment ,so regardless of the budget ,the recruitment has been poor so far for the 4th season running !.
At least in Denton and Shaw he has found what looks like a good combination ,we need to now find a creative midfielder which he has arrogantly overlooked up to now.

[Devongone]

"Arrogantly!" Wow.

Percy Kiangebeni from St Albans City would be a start for us ........

[SaltergateBorn]

I`m not sure I`d go along with you on `arrogant`, Blue. We can all agree or disagree as much as we like with the decisions that MA makes, but at the end of the day he`s the manager and the buck stops with him. He obviously has his own ideas about how he wants the team to play and he doesn`t seem ready to change them any time soon. You can call that arrogance or stubbornness, I suppose. Yer pays yer money and yer makes yer choice.

Let`s not forget, though, he know this league a hell of a lot better than any of us. As you say, he doesn`t hide behind vague euphemisms; he says it as he sees it and he`s clearly not happy with what he`s seeing right now, so he`s doing what he thinks needs to be done and he`s not messing about in doing it; even if that means losing face by listing a player he has signed himself. I respect that, although I admit it does come across as being more than a little erratic. And, to be fair to those above him, the club seems to be backing him so far.

[Devongone]

I think good footie managers have to have a degree of arrogance, to believe in themselves ....... when perhaps all the evidence is stacking up against them.

The big thing about Martin Allen is, could we get someone better? Despite Lincoln City and Crystal Palace, finding a football-managing PE teacher who doesn't behave like a refugee from Kes, isn't that easy.

In a popular vote Weir wouldn't have come near matching the Remain percentage and Barry would probably have done worse. The question is can we get rid of any of the listed first-teamers and replace them? Woking are top of National South - I suggested swap Gozie for Kane Ferdinand, or as we like old players, how about Thierry Audel, he's scored 4 so far from full back .......... or if we want a younger man Kiran Khinda-John, a centre back of just 22 sounds decent, ex-Crystal Palace and Eastbourne before Woking.