It would be a good bet for our visitors to win on Sunday, just as it would have been against Peterborough; an experienced League 1 team up against a side looking to find its feet in a new place. Then we defied the odds and we may do again.
DF said and I have seen, how hard-working Scunthorpe are and their good organisation enforces the effect. I think we still believe that we have more talent than most of our opponents at this level, but it is a team sport and they have yet to prove that they are an effective entity over 90 plus minutes. Last season they were richer in the necessary attributes than most of those they encountered so their inability to completely restrain their opponents was washed away by the final score. There will be high pressure attacking and their vulnerability to precisely that must be overcome if they are to get anything out of a match against a side like Scunthorpe.
They also badly need to sustain the confidence in each other (which we hope is still present) that produced such polished displays of attacking so often last season and a win, even an ill-gotten one, will be immensely valuable.
It is a local derby and they often defy form, so perhaps at least a point ought to be achievable. So I’ll go for a 1-1 draw even though I wish for more, with the scorer either Whiteman or Butler if Whiteman does not start. 8500 is my guess at the crowd.
DPL Scunthorpe
posted on 17/9/17
Difficult to know what to say. Didn't expect to win the game and after the first half it was hard to see how we might get into a match after 45 mins of being out-muscled and out-run. Much better second half but it has to be said that their defence was rock solid and I suspect they were content with the one goal. Matty Blair rang himself ragged and spent more time in midfield than at full back. Richly deserved MoM. The other bright spot is that we won't play many sides as hard to beat as Scunny.
posted on 17/9/17
Typo - Matty Blair ran rather than rang....
posted on 17/9/17
Well that was nothing short of poor.
Lawlor ok his distribution could have been better.
Wright Butler ok.
Mason ok but why put him at left back when he is much better elsewhere.
On blair ....for me ladt season he was probably our best player.
Today he worked hard but looks devoid of ideas perphaps that maybe not his fault.
Rodney is not ready to play at this level.
Whiteman his worst performance thatt I have seen from him.
Marquis poor....williams not much better both had a good chance to score.
May....made little difference as did Mandy.
Rowe our second best player today.
26 our best ....mom for me.
Ref poor
posted on 17/9/17
Agree with pretty much all that Lanza
I will be glad when the Arsenal game comes and goes as know one were bothered about putting a tackle in incase of becoming injured. Plymouth now becomes a must win as does a tough game with Shrewsbury the following Tuesday.
posted on 17/9/17
Having watched the game I wished I'd stayed on the Danube! We seem slower than last season - or is it League I players just don't give you as much time to think. We seem to get harassed off the ball too often. Don't they ever talk about throw-ins in training? We seem to throw to the opposition more times than to our own players - when Scunthorpe had a throw they had plenty of options to throw to their own players.
For me there are too many long balls over the top - often having just played backwards. The one time we had a great through ball on the ground Williams blazed over.
The biggest disappointment for me was Rodney - in earlier appearance he seemed to have real talent, but today seemed totally out of his depth.
I thought we improved when Blair played more forward, but he seems to not reach the level of last season.
We did not have many real chances as often the final pass was poor, plus Scunthorpe defence plated well.
We certainly need to improve in many areas.
posted on 17/9/17
A defender on posts at corners.
It may be old fashioned but its time we went back to basics at defending corners
posted on 17/9/17
Looking on the bright side, we are playing much better than the season before last and we have three important players missing - Andrew, Baudry and McCullough. As for Mason playing out of position at LB, I couldn't agree more. Which makes me wonder why we still have Toffolo on loan if DF doesn't rate him
posted on 17/9/17
Albi thank you.
posted on 18/9/17
My comments are going to be critical because I don’t have to motivate the team and in any case I think it is time shortcomings are addressed. The highlights show that the goal more or less replicated the second one at Rochdale with Lawlor the obvious one best placed to intervene, but simply watching it go past him into the net. On another occasion the iFollow commentary recorded that “He came out and missed” and another “Lawlor flapped at it and put it at the feet of Wallace”. So, it is perhaps time to see what Marosi can do.
Scunthorpe were obviously a more effective force than we were, but we will surely have to cope with better teams, which on this showing will be beyond us.
We seemed to set out to "win ugly" by playing ugly with long high speculative balls which usually came down on a defender's head. What control existed amidst the ping pong of a scrappy game was in Scunthorpe's hands.
We looked better when we tried to pass the ball on the floor, but lacking the courage to take on the defender, usually opted to go backwards. When the goal was in our sights one shot on target out of 8 suggests that taking aim not did not figure in the shooting process. Just Marquis and the post was the only really creditable attempt it seemed. Is there a lack of confidence causing panic?
We still seem poor at tackling, bad at covering defensively and not very effective at winning balls in the air which are basic skills which need improvement. If there were any impressive moves out of defence into attack after we had successfully regained possession they were not part of the iFollow offering.
Now to the DPL and most of us are on a losing streak, like our team, apart that is, from Uthred who will gain some consolation from his bonus-earning prediction of 0—1 which takes him from mid-table into a six-point lead.
Scunthorpe 0-1 Loss Att: 9227
..........Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo…… 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 28…..... 28
PDXMickey. 3..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 3.... 17....... 20
Yorks Lad.. 1..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 1..... 8......... 9
BVZ……….… 3..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 3.... 21....... 24
Crazy………. 4..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 4.... 22....... 26
Uthred…... 0..... 3..... 3..... 3..... 10..... 19.... 17........ 36
Mooligan…. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 30....... 30
K Chomprr. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 13....... 13
Small Azza, 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 16....... 16
Aussie Lad. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 5........ 5
Azza….…... 1..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 1..... 12...... 13
Chltnham.. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 0........ 0
Nookie.….. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 3........ 3
Selby………. 1..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 1..... 13...... 14
............13.... 3...... 3..... 3..... 10..... 32.... 205...... 237
posted on 18/9/17
I think if things dont improve and we are in the bottom 4 at the end of October then there can really be only one thing that can happen.
Hope we are mid table and looking solid with Mcullock and baudry back.
We have to recruit players that are capable of playing at this level not keep bringing in players that not ready or not good enough