Matt, I don't think you are a happy clapper at all (nor is Pooch, despite being so optimistic - because he can be critical when he wants), I just think occasionally you force yourself into an optimistic view which, if you substituted the name Halifax for Chesterfield, would become much more objective ...... that's all. You quite rightly want Chesterfield to win and carry hope in your heart - that's great, I wouldn't take the pee out of it. I admire it and wish I had more myself. But I think it stopped you taking into account the circumstances of the Accrington game.
I feared Ramsdale might have a bad game. We couldn't have made it more difficult for him. You have to remember youth football is very different, all the players are trying to impress coaches who are all telling them to play the right way - they aren't being thrown physical challenges, they aren't being blocked at every cross and their opponents are physically smaller in general and often not quite as sharp ......... Take that together with a wildly inexperienced central defence in front of him and an opposition who can throw a man of 6'5" up at corners. In the end how you perform sometimes comes down to how the cookie crumbles. In local football my first team debut went well, because I got a couple of decent saves to make early on, then I dived at someone's feet and took a kick in the head without a moan and then we went down the field and scored and suddenly I had a defence that would do anything for their new 17 year-old keeper. If I'd let one in early on, everything could have been very different. Even brilliant young players can need time and can fcku up and I think that goes for any level. That's why I'm so vociferous about us giving our own youngsters more than a dog's chance of making it.
I think Dancing's argument works both ways. I agree the attack not functioning pressurises the defence, but a shaky defence plays out bad ball to players further forward who feel they can't take chances and risk losing the ball, because the opposition looks like scoring with every attack. But of course they must eventually lose the ball, the opposition do score and pretty soon the whole team isn't playing its game. Our whole team isn't functioning and Dennis is probably a symptom, not the disease.
I don't think NOT-scoring is the way for Dennis to get himself a move. And though almost everyone wants to be rid of O'Grady it's going to take a desperate manager to chance his arm. It took Micky Mellon for us to briefly unload SEB and he soon got the sack.
If Hird and Evatt are gone for almost the rest of the season we need a tall commanding, experienced centre back. Yeovil clearly didn't rate Sid Nelson highly and seem to have mostly played him right back anyway. He might be very good cover for us across the back, but if he were a foundation to build on I kinda think Millwall would be building - and we need a foundation. Our team is too small without Evatt - we need a big guy, size and personality.
Unfortunately we still don't have a reliable ball winner in midfield and going forward it seems we need to make more chances for our striker/s and for our midfield to be more willing to take a pop, as McCourt was doing a few weeks ago. Poor old Jack has to make a team out of something that never was a team. He'd cobbled it together and got something functional, but he's lost vital elements. No one can win if there are huge question marks against their keeper and centre backs, just as no one ever wins without scoring. There's a lot to do, but Luton's an opportunity. No-one will give us a chance - but Port Vale showed what can happen when things don't go right for Luton.
I feared Ramsdale might have a bad game. We couldn't have made it more difficult for him. You have to remember youth football is very different, all the players are trying to impress coaches who are all telling them to play the right way - they aren't being thrown physical challenges, they aren't being blocked at every cross and their opponents are physically smaller in general and often not quite as sharp ......... Take that together with a wildly inexperienced central defence in front of him and an opposition who can throw a man of 6'5" up at corners. In the end how you perform sometimes comes down to how the cookie crumbles. In local football my first team debut went well, because I got a couple of decent saves to make early on, then I dived at someone's feet and took a kick in the head without a moan and then we went down the field and scored and suddenly I had a defence that would do anything for their new 17 year-old keeper. If I'd let one in early on, everything could have been very different. Even brilliant young players can need time and can fcku up and I think that goes for any level. That's why I'm so vociferous about us giving our own youngsters more than a dog's chance of making it.
I think Dancing's argument works both ways. I agree the attack not functioning pressurises the defence, but a shaky defence plays out bad ball to players further forward who feel they can't take chances and risk losing the ball, because the opposition looks like scoring with every attack. But of course they must eventually lose the ball, the opposition do score and pretty soon the whole team isn't playing its game. Our whole team isn't functioning and Dennis is probably a symptom, not the disease.
I don't think NOT-scoring is the way for Dennis to get himself a move. And though almost everyone wants to be rid of O'Grady it's going to take a desperate manager to chance his arm. It took Micky Mellon for us to briefly unload SEB and he soon got the sack.
If Hird and Evatt are gone for almost the rest of the season we need a tall commanding, experienced centre back. Yeovil clearly didn't rate Sid Nelson highly and seem to have mostly played him right back anyway. He might be very good cover for us across the back, but if he were a foundation to build on I kinda think Millwall would be building - and we need a foundation. Our team is too small without Evatt - we need a big guy, size and personality.
Unfortunately we still don't have a reliable ball winner in midfield and going forward it seems we need to make more chances for our striker/s and for our midfield to be more willing to take a pop, as McCourt was doing a few weeks ago. Poor old Jack has to make a team out of something that never was a team. He'd cobbled it together and got something functional, but he's lost vital elements. No one can win if there are huge question marks against their keeper and centre backs, just as no one ever wins without scoring. There's a lot to do, but Luton's an opportunity. No-one will give us a chance - but Port Vale showed what can happen when things don't go right for Luton.
