[Dancingwilldoit]

Well it's taken me a while to calm down fully. Now my brain is functioning normally I think it's time to comment on Saturday.
First of all I don't like to criticise young upcoming players but our keeper really should have cought the ball rather than punch it, but what followed was insane.
Oldham scored in the 95 minute with a player in an offside position interfering with play. The scorer runs to celebrate in front of our fans and prompts a pitch invasion. In the melle our keeper gets pushed over and chaos followed. Players and management ran to protect him with others surrounding the ref. Oldaker went to the lino with the ball and my lip reading is getting much better because I clearly saw him say "that was offside Sir" or something very similar. The lino shrugged his shoulders and said something that calmed Oldaker down and made him walk over to the ref.
The invaders made their way back to the stand, meanwhile the ref stands waiting in the center circle , then some knob threw a flare onto the pitch. The ref waits for the flare to be cleared and the teams to get into position then blows his whistle and that's it, game over. Get off the pitch quick to boos from all around the ground.
So the reasons why we dropped 2 points;

The manager tried to hold onto a 1 goal lead which we didn't - again.
The keeper made a big mistake,
The ref should have given offside and not been intimidated by Oldham fans.
Norwood should have been red carded along with Dan Gardner for dangerous play earlier.
The game was not restarted after the goal even though the full amount of additional time had not been played.
Take your pick.

[Devongone]

As I have been so critical of our goalkeeping in the past no doubt you will expect me to share in the criticism of our young keeper, but no I won't. Goalkeeping with 100% hindsight is dead easy and that's what people are using here.

Tyrer had come a long way. He had got high in the air. It was the last minute. He was under some challenge. He could have caught the ball but he chose the safety first option and his punch was decent. It went a good distance and it went high, so it didn't only give Dan Gardner chance to get on the end of it EVERY CHESTERFIELD DEFENDER HAD TIME TO GET INVOLVED and they were statuesque as they were on several occasions in the game. Now where I would quibble with the young keeper was in his save of the follow-up shot. His view was at least partially-obscured and the shot was difficult, BUT however little time you have to think, as a keeper you know that if you can't hold the ball your responsibility is to knock it into a safe area ..... spilling it isn't a thing ..... but it happens. It did because he had become indecisive and he was no longer clear in his mind. My opinion is you only drop the ball when your mind isn't fully focused on catching.

The goal should have been disallowed. It wasn't because throughout the game the refe ree was of an appallingly low standard. Playing Division One of the Sunday League years ago I can assure you we ALWAYS were given better referees (by miles) than that idiot boy, who even ended the game because he didn't know what to do about a pitch invasion and wanted to get back to the dressing room.

BUT none of that properly explains why we didn't win. We didn't win because we were pants and Oldham, defensive as they were, often looked more likely to score than us. We were an uncreative blunt instrument, totally happy once we had gone into a 1-0 lead. Kitching was clearly the best player on the field and gave us more trouble than we could handle. We have the best right back in the league in King, but he wasn't there and we aren't the same side without him. We miss him both defensively and going forward. He scores, gets assists and often sets us on the route to goal. Sheckleford tried and sadly failed, Williams defended, I like him but he doesn't bring what King does despite his temperamental faults.

We improved in the second half for one reason - Mandeville decided to turn up. With a centre forward who is only a goal scorer your other attacking players have to be functioning. Colclough tried with little assistance. Dobra was off it. Oldaker was present and at least his hair looks better. Naylor is good but I think we need him at the back, play Jones to handle defensive midfield and handle your creativity from that improved base. Oldham set out to stop us. Largely succeeded and could easily have won. Nevertheless we were cheated by pathetically poor officiating.

And as for our young keeper, take a look at Jordan Pickford letting in four if you want to see a keeper who unsettles his defence. Absolve the young lad and learn the many lessons we need to learn from that game!

[SaltergateBorn]

And let`s not forget the saves that Harry Tyrer made at Oxford on Tuesday that saved us certainly 2 and possibly 3 points. Quid pro quo, as they say.

[Devongone]

On almost any goal he concedes a goalkeeper will look for and find things which might have made a difference. They may be very marginal, but he will be conscious of them. Tyrer could have made different decisions. He knows that, but if he is sensible he'll realise colleagues all over the pitch were making decisions, almost all of which will be forgotten in the to-and-fro of play. Only the keeper is left with a can full of unhappy memories for the rest of his life. I can remember some brilliant saves and bits of heroism, but I can still remember mistakes, bad goals, and goals I conceded trying to pull friends out of the sh1t. Tyrer isn't a problem and if we hadn't signed Ryan Boot no-one would even be dwelling on Saturday in the 97th minute.

[spireitematt]

Tyrer should have caught the ball instead of punching it back into play but the Oldham players were offside and were interfering with play. The goal shouldn't have counted but there we go.

[Devongone]

If Tyrer had fumbled the ball everyone would have asked why he didn't play safe and punch ....... with only a few seconds to play!

You only think he was wrong because you know the outcome. If Dan Gardner had slipped everyone would have been saying Tyrer played well again.

Those who have walked in Tyrer's boots and worn the gloves can, like Tyrer, himself have opinions, the rest is just verbiage. Tyrer WILL blame himself. None of it should disguise the fact that we got exactly what we deserved! Dancing is right when he points out the stupidity of sitting on a 1-0. Even Man City get that one wrong!