Crewe? I've had a Whisper.

Devongone · 26-12-2017, 14:45

Well we've hardly got a team to scratch together, they are massively inconsistent, but even though he must be 94 George Porter worries me and a Jordan Bowery goal would be an intervention from the TARDIS.

It seems they need to get a goal to become at all confident in themselves.

We are good at conceding a goal to teams who need one, so we might be their match made in heaven.

We need to win to stay where we are. They need to win to avoid falling apart completely.

I think the EFL would be poorer for losing either of us, but it could on track to lose BOTH.

WHISPER it quietly but I'll watch the racing from Kempton for as long as I can before finding out the score. WHISPER IT QUIETLY.

bluepooch · 26-12-2017, 15:16

Well Henderson has the favourite but it wont be the first time a trainer has run two and won with the outsider .

Devongone · 26-12-2017, 19:30

Well Whisper, like us, jumped like a crab, but George Porter took just seven minutes to prove all my worst fears well-founded.

Sorry!

Playing CO'G you would imagine we'd be more likely to score but I'm afraid we seem less.

Ricky German must have really lost it totally not to be worth a gamble in these circumstances, if we're going to play two front men ........ though it seems the team and Dennis are more successful when he's on his own.

bluepooch · 26-12-2017, 22:45

After today Ive seen enough of O Grady to make the opinion we need to offload if at all possible .He just isnt doing it I'm afraid and for someone on his alleged exalted wages we need to be seeing more .

Dancingwilldoit · 26-12-2017, 23:00

I don't remember us winning a single game where COG has started. He has some nice touches but then has the touch of a baby elephant when passing to a team mate.
We were absolute 5hite first half and gifted them 2 goals which I thought were both own goals. The introduction of Dimaio towards the end of the first half steadied the ship and until he came on they were bossing the midfield with us just standing off them. Considering we supposedly picked an attacking line up, we were woefull going forward and Rowley for most of the game was a passenger. Second half we at least managed to string a couple of passes together but it was still uninspiring.
We need to get our act together and quickly. JL has shown what he can do and needs to get his house in order because today we looked like a GC team and there's only one way that will take us and it isn't up.

**spireitematt** · (This post was last modified: 27-12-2017, 04:07 by spireitematt.)

Happy Christmas you guys, hope you had a good one.

Got FM18 for Christmas and started managing Chesterfield, I've kept the same team we have in real life and not made any big changes and so far got 7pts from first 3 games. Got a partnership going between Dennis/German and O'Grady and it seems to be working. The main formations I am using are 4-4-2 attacking, 4-2-3-1 and 3-5-2.

Now to talk about reality:

January is going to be a very big and important month as we need to strengthen and its a must . We need an experienced goalkeeper which is self explanatory, a Left Back who can also play on the left wing and need possibly 2 Centre Backs. Drew can play at Right Back and also on the Right wing which is good. Also we have to remember that confidence and form go hand in hand, losing 5-1 away at Stevenage 2 days before Christmas must have really be disheartening especially after such a great run of 7 games unbeaten. January is also going to be very tough looking at the forthcoming fixtures as we've got Coventry, Accrington and Luton back to back and they've all been doing great so far at the top end of the table.

I don't think much really separates Forest Green, Morecambe, Barnet, Crewe, Yeovil and ourselves and I think it will be very tight come the end of the season even though I hope we are about mid-table when it comes to April. I'm still confident Jack can turn this around and keep us in L2.

So lets be optimistic and get behind the team and Jack for 2018.

UP THE SPIREITES!!!!!!!!

Dancingwilldoit · 27-12-2017, 12:38

Crewe were a poor team. Even so thankfully Bowery hasn't improved his finishing or it would have been 3. They just had us sussed from minute 1. As soon as one of our defenders had the ball they pushed 3 men up and harried our back 3 making us resort to long balls which they just picked off at will. COG cant jump to save his life so why we kept pumping long balls to him is beyond me. Until Dimaio came on our midfield was none existent, he got stuck in and played some good balls forward and should be in the starting 11 on Sat IMO. Crewe harried us and didn't give us time on the ball whereas when they had the ball we just let them play it at will, COG and Dennis were nowhere to be seen as was our midfield. Kellet got in some good positions and got some crosses in but there was nobody there most of the time. If we are going to play 2 wingers as we did yesterday you need to have people in the box - basic stuff and we couldn't even do that right.
Rumours on the ground are that the take over is a done deal. I hope to god it is and that we can at least bring in players with a basic grasp of the game, on a bloody cold freezing day I want something to get me off my seat and cheer about, it was like a morgue yesterday.

bluepooch · 27-12-2017, 17:09

Happy Christmas to one and all too !
I think the atmosphere was flat due to the hangover from the 5-1 defeated.I felt deflated as Im fairly sure a lot felt like me .The team really didnt do anything to lift the spirits either .A lethargic first half followed by a slightly improved second but we didnt really go for it as I thought we should have done which was the most disappointing thing and that has been an aspect of Jacks reign so far, the fact that we havent rolled over for teams, but the last two games it seems the fight wasnt there and like Dancing said ,it was like being back to the Caldwell days.
So now's the time for fresh impetus from fresh faces ,from top to bottom.Time for Jack to stamp his mark and start to create his own team.
Jack has brought an easy on the eye attacking style to the team and long may that continue ,hopefully adding that bit of steel and quality to move us forward.

Devongone · (This post was last modified: 28-12-2017, 16:15 by Devongone.)

I was astonished every time Jack won because he'd had to work within the very tight limits of the squad GC created. Jack sounds 100% the manager. In fact he sounds Premier League. But there is more to management than sound bytes. He has proved he can motivate a truly poor team. He's shown he can get them playing decent football. But the element of surprise was on his side then, we were down and out ....... Now he has to build a team, recruit players, fit them in, discard players, maintain and improve team spirit, manage setbacks, manage the fans who are one moment ecstatic, the next in despair ........ and he has to do this against a background of rumours that the club has been sold. (Is that a good thing? If the sale happens slowly does that mean there is no owner to invest in the January window? Does it mean we become less attractive to players hoping to build, or resurrect, a career? Does it make Jack feel there's a future, or he's pissing in the wind off the Rother?) I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWERS BY THE WAY! I can't share Matt's optimism either, but I'm no less hopeful because of these defeats. They just proved the obvious. To be a manager Jack has to turn teams round after they've lost a few - he's done it once. On Saturday when we've beaten Colchester will we again be calculating how many points to the play-offs, or might we realise that ALL the other teams are trying to do similar things to us? None of them are superstars. None of them have astounding resources. All of them are fallible.

IMO that the question for us is have we asked ourselves too many questions this season that we are not going to be able to answer?