The Hotel End

Always love going away to Plymouth. Haven't missed a Cobblers game down there for a while, but will be doing so this time around - will be following from a day out again around Worcester!

Roger with a candid but spot on assessment of the Cobblers and what to expect on the Argyle forum (PASOTI).

Plymouth Argyle 1 - 3 Northampton Town.
Att: 8,897 (236)*


* Nostalgia purposes only!  ;D

We have Craig Hicks reffing this game and he had a major influence on our fortunes last season. We had him for our 1-2 defeat at Cheltenham, before that for our 4-1 home victory over Crewe but it was first game we had him that was so vital as we won 1-0 away at Swindon. Andy Williams scored the late winner when clearly offside. Hicks considered Williams to be onside when the long ball was played forward from inside our own half despite the ball taking a change of course when another of our forward players diverted it into Williams path.
He was probably the only person in the ground not to see that Williams was offside.
If we had drawn 0-0 and got 1 point instead of 3 we would not have qualified for the play offs and would currently be playing Barrow, Stevenage, Morcambe etc. So thank you Craig Hicks for our promotion last season but I hope you have since visited Specsavers and can you be equally as generous to us at Plymouth.

4-0

Any predictions who our 4 goal scorers will be?

Nugent 2, Nuttall (Norrie) 1, Hoskins 1 (pen).

'He was probably the only person in the ground not to see that Williams was offside'   ......oh no he wasn't 8)

Nah, I didn't see it either... was in the toilet!  ;D

Ive got a very bad feeling about this game.
3-0 loss
Curlios probably got 4 or 5 games left

4-0 green army, another nail in Curle’s coffin.

Now there's an optimist!

3-1 (Hoskins)

To join the doom-mongers, I've got a bad feeling about this game too. 2-0 Plymouth.

4-0 Plymouth.

Have to agree 4-0 Plymouth. Cant see us creating much and very little confidence in the defence.

Are there any easier games to come?  :-*

1-3 Cobbs.
Freestone hat trick with a marauding Dean Peer supplying the third chance, sorry assist, from the right wing.
For Freestone and Peer, read Rose and Sowerby.

I can still see Dean Peer scoring against Watford away, early 2000s, wunderbar.

Oliver and Morton brace each  :P

5-1 Plymouth  :'(

I imagine the new lad Abraham’s will get a couple

I was there too and remember one of our fans who obviously hadn't considered Watford's colours, kicking off at a policewoman about the 'Nazi' home fans with German flags! She threw him out ;D

0-2 To the mighty Cobblers.

History is repeating itself, last season we also had 4 points from our first 5 games and in the 6th game we beat Plymouth. They are due a home defeat as their last one was on new years day. We sprang a surprise by winning at Shrewsbury with an injury decimated squad and we can do it again. KC turned it around last season, no reason to doubt that he can do it again.

7-2.

Which way?
Win 7-2 and end up lower mid table?
Lose 7-2 and win the league?

Like Villa peut etre! No.

Plymouth 1-2 Cobbs  Hoskins, Seal

David Seal? Ain't he down under?

1-3 I have a hallucinogenic feeling about this one...  ;D

Should we get something from this game you may have a merry time with the doomsters :)

Not going to bother with ifollow again. Watching us lose every game is getting old.
My new turbo ironing board is more fun.

Team :

Arnold; Horsfall, Bolger, Martin; Harriman, McWilliams, Sowerby, Watson; Hoskins, Korboa, Rose.

Subs: Mitchell, Racic, Adams, Chukuemeka, Smith, Ashley-Seal, Marshall.

That’s a relegation starting 11 I’m afraid .

442? but without Adams or The Marshall.

Very odd starting line up

Why? No big up front, so in theory more football should be played. Is it a 4-4-2 or a 3-4-3 or 5-3-2??

Will be interesting to see what kind of formation Curle is going for. Looks like a back four at first glance. Could it be the 4-2-3-1 which many have called for?

                            Arnold

              Harriman  Bolger  Horsfall   Martin

                           McWilliams   Watson

                       Hoskins   Sowerby   Korboa

                                     Rose

  No Mills or Missilou in the squad. Injuries?

I like the look of it.

Where’s the width?

You might be right but be courteous enough to advise your match winning side?

Don’t mind the width , feel the quality.

Good to see McWilliams back. Feels a long time ago since he was the next big thing (the current next big thing is on our bench).

It's surely it's got to be impossible to try and hoof it with the current personnel on the field, right?

Wrong  ::) :o

If it's the formation Bungle has named the width will come from Hoskins and Korboa. However, if it's wing backs the width will come from them.

No iFollow for me this time and no sharing at a mates house.

Content to get updates along the way.

I do hope my relative lack of interest is proved foolhardy ???

Disappointing that not one of the four goalscorers against Southampton have made the starting XI.
Difficult to see where the goals are going to come from if not the bench. But at least there's no Smith so expect to see less hoofball.

feel a bit sorry for Marshall. To me he's been one of the few bright spots of late - but he can't seem to get a game

Good start.

Agree, playing well and keeping it on the ground which is giving us more possession.

Weird game this one. They look better aerially than we do, but they're determined to play 'proper' football, which we seem comfortable defending against. We actually look better with the ball on the deck than they do, especially when Hoskins and Korboa get it into feet, but we'd rather kick it up in the air despite the fact our centre-forward is 5'7". ???

Sack 'em all!!!

Curle Out

Woeful defending.

He's got to go.

FFS where’s the marking

Dunno who's fault that was, McWilliams for losing his marker or Bolger not playing the offside trap. Poor communication whichever.

Well played CJ.

Bolger, don't look at McWilliams and throw your arms up - he's the centre-forward, he's your man, and that was abysmal.

Poor defending, we are going to struggle With defending like that because we’re not scoring goals.

Plymouth seem to have cottoned on to the fact that they've got the better of us in the air. Once teams start to get a whiff of being able to go toe-to-toe with us physically, we've got nothing on them.

Down to 23rd.
Curle gone in 4 games

BRING ON BERNARD

Just as I had foreseen.
Can Kelvin Thomas sack himself at the same time?

And again, a defensive blunder.

Watson booked for the fourth consecutive game......already close to a ban.

We were free scoring in the cup game, where Ashley seal and Chuck got a couple each. Why not play them? It's not all about big names, rose is ok but you select the players that are scoring not the ones with goal droughts.

Keith - swallow your pride, put your s*** hoofball on the backburner and tell Watson and McWilliams to start getting the ball into Hoskins and Korboa's feet. The 2016 Ricky Holmes would have looked ordinary in this team, being asked to win aerial challenges against a big centre-half first in order to actually do anything with the ball afterwards.

And for f***s sake, sign an experienced centre back or two.

Watson needs to be dropped anyway, his performance have on a pa4 with Smith. After 30 mins I thought we might get something from the game but think we’ll ship another 2/3 today

Rose is our most threatening player.
We really shouldn't be playing three at the back though, we arent good enough for that.

I'm sure he'll be good if we were playing the ball into his feet rather than at his head.

Was actually thinking we have been pretty solid today. And then that goal happened. And the game has been lost. Dreadful defending and keeping. No excuse for that goal.

Anyone else massive annoyed by Hoskins taking all set pieces when they've all been dreadful?

We have absolutely nothing going forward currently. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if we didn't leave the bottom four again this season unless there is major changes.

It's frustrating, because Bolger might need dropping, but it feels like changing the defence every single game is not helping them understand each other very well.
At least we played a little bit of football in the first 15.

Disagree on Watson, Williams needs to up his game though. First game back and it shows.

Yes on Hoskins. Woeful.

Sadly the issue is we aren't very good.

Hoskins should be nowhere near free kicks
Get Marshall and Adams on, Curle really is clueless in this division, horribly out of his depth.

Yes, Hoskins it not a set play player. Pity Mills or Marshall or Adams not on the pitch to take the three free kicks we’ve had in promising positions

This.

We currently have no routes to goal other than Hoskins' woeful set pieces. Rose has had no service.

Our best bet is to get some proper width on and get some crosses in.

Come on fellow posters keep your chins up.
We might be getting tonked every week and heading straight back down to our rightful basement level but things are different this time.....
We are returning to league two with tremendous housekeeping and that is something the supporters should be rightfully proud of.

Peterborough and MK may be much better than us on the pitch but they’ll never have our housekeeping.

I bet they’re gutted

Hanging on now, great save Arnie.

MK Dons are as s*** as us this year mate, not the best comparison.

It's really frustrating as we are trying to pass it from the back a little bit, and little trianges in midfield for a few passes and then every time we're trying to play a killer through ball straight through the middle and it's not getting close to working. Need to just hold on to the ball a little bit.

Not as gutless as the Posh performance but normal unimaginative tactics  and a comfortable Plymouth victory (even if it stays at 1- nil) - only bright spot so far is a good ref and a good commantary team from Devon

FFS Hoskins, pass it!

Hahahahahahhahhhaaahahhahha WTF was that Hoskins.

f***ing Brilliant goal. Get in.

RRRRIIIIICCCCKKKYYYYYY

Cheers Keith ;D

Yeeesss.
First decent ball through and well put away.

Hoskins best player for Northampton according to the commentary ......

Good work from Hoskins, and great finish Korboa.

Get in there!!!

Cracking finish. MUCH BETTER TOWN.

The Korbmeister

Thank f!!! Hoskins passed it that time. Korboa did really well. What is Oglethorpe on, 1st League goal for us, I’m sure he scored against the Dons!

That goal is given us confidence

Cobblers only 33 % possession but with more shots on target !

Could still win this

Didn't know Tammy Abraham had a brother called Timmy, terrific stuff. ;D Hope there's a third one called Tommy.

f***ing rubbish

f*** right off!!!

Wtf was Arnold thinking?

Another nail im afraid

Inevitable.

Zonal marking or just s***e marking - either way it will put us down

Pity, we have made a game of it second half. More encouraging raging than recent performances, 2 big games coming up though

As long as we keep conceding 2+ goals every game, there's only one way we're going. It's not like we're being done by worldies, either. We're actually lucky Nouble hasn't has two or three himself.

It’s a shame but inevitable.
We couldn’t sign the players needed to compete at league one level
We have to face facts that under the current ownership we will only ever be a league two side masquerading in league one.
No point getting rid of Keith as he will be ok next season.

Into the Bottom Four ......for the duration ???

Bolger is an absolute bloody clogger, isn't he?

Inclined to agree with this but my god, Keith frustrates me sometimes. If we'd been getting the ball into Hoskins and Korboa's feet in the first half like we have done in the second, we had a chance today, and you could see that was what we needed to do after 15 mins.

Frustrated more than anything, we really should hVe had something from that game but we managed to lose it. Arnold partly at fault for the 2nd but we left the player unmarked too!

Absolutely agree Nut.

Some positives this week for me in the way we played for around 15 minutes in the 2nd half. We need more of that if we are to ever win a game again though.

Defence and goalkeeper at fault for both goals which is so poor.

Plymouth had nearly 70% of the ball, you can’t give another team that much opportunity week in week out and expect to win.
What’s more shocking is Curle has no clue what his best team is, how can he leave our best two players on the bench in Adams and Marshall.

As much as we have been clamouring to see matches....it's definitely a blessing that we are missing this season.

We look like breaking our normal record of only  getting relegated in our second L1 season.

You have to question our recruiting policy over the transfer window.

I think it's on the record on the Chron to say we didn't land our top targets.

And we got more shots on target today than the last 3 games combined.

To me this says that we were either looking at the wrong players or we weren't prepared to pay enough to land those targets.

I dunno about that maybe, I think we probably should be looking at players that attracting interest from other clubs really, but I imagine we won't offer a lot because our wage budget is at a minimum substancially enough below £2.5m wage cap. If you look at crowd sizes, it's no longer like League two where we up there, there's a LOT of clubs that absolutely dwarf us at this level, or are sugar daddied.

I actually thought that was our best performance of the season so far the league and we were unlucky to lose, at least deserved a point. It was nice to see us playing out from the back, for a change, rather than hoofball and passed the ball around nice at times. Ultimately, two defensive mistakes cost us dear and we are nowhere near the standard of last years solid unit. Still ,some glimmer that things could soon improve results wise, hopefully starting Tuesday.

At least a definite improvement on previous games apart from Shrewsbury. Korboa had a so-so 1st half but much better 2nd; scored a good goal. Hoskins did well driving thru midfield. Midfield ok Watson battle hard and Sowerby offered some quality. Based on 2nd half both Benny and Chuck seemed to offer more so might as well play both next Tuesday. We do miss a dominant striker and half back.  Pity that McW went off
as he did ok - Racic out of position at RWB -would play him at as defensive Mid Field? Underlying impression I got was that the team was a little unlucky to concede a 2nd and deserved a point overall.

For the life of me, I couldn't understand why at least one of these didn't come on.

It beggars belief mate, I just don’t get Curles team selections

The nightmare continues...

The wall is being erected. It’s only short matter of time before the writing appears on it.....

The first half we were crap, offering nothing going forwards but in all honesty I didn't think Plymouth were much better and if it wasn't for some dreadful defending we'd have gone on all square.
Second half was a good deal better. Sowerby was decent, so was Korboa, we saw both the good and the bad from Hoskins and I was impressed by Chukwumeka. Arnold looked ok for most of the game but then made a howler for their second goal.
I do worry about our defence though. In our first few games I was quite impressed but since then they've been all over the place. Bolger is useless and Racic is an absolute liability. I still think Horsfall might be a useful addition, but it's difficult to say with certainty when he's playing alongside the other deadbeats. The fact that Martin is (justifiably) in the side ahead of Racic says it all.

We did enough to warrant a point. Much better play than the last 3 games. Defence still a concern. It’s a real disappointment as Plymouth we’re really no5 much better than us! Feel a bit more confident about Tuesday, think Marshall or Adams should start though

Sounds like you know something's brewing?

Unfortunately, we cant look beyond the keeper for the reason why we lost today.

Lots of talk about bad defending, but I reckon we conceded 4 chances to them. 2 of which went in because of crap goal keeping. The other two...were both free kicks, one which was well saved, the other which never came to anything.

We deserved a point and we had the better chances.

Id like to see Mitchell given a chance in goal Tuesday, and Id even start Chuck. Theres a real player in him, I tell ya...

Agreed

I'd like to see what Nuttall can do, don't think it's going to happen  though.

In truth I feel that most of us are in shock - it was not a professional performance. I have no sympathy for the Manager and his on "field tactics and substitutions". Once they scored their opening goal we visibly "melted away". To me today result ranks of bad management...why?

1)Poor substitutions through out 2nd half.
2)Poor team tactics - after they 1st goal we should have reacted positively.
3)Where was the fight?
4)Where were the leaders on the pitch.
5)Players confidence now shot through.
6)Players (may) probably now have no confidence in Manager
7)The mistaken belief that one up front works with a 5' 7" forward in League 1.
8)Talking about Hoskins - his goal tally is awful and he missed again and again today.
9)They scored 2 goals could of been 4/5- this happens quite regularly - too often now it seems.
10)They brought on  players who made a difference
11)We need a commanding centre half - no frills - another Watson.
12)We need a solid and competent midfielder, someone capable of lifting the team.
14)Why not play wingers

I dont believe it is all about money - there are plenty of teams above us without any and are doing ok.Nor do I attach blame to the Chairman.
The manager has persisted with mistaken League 2 tactics, do you see anyone else play like that?

Finally we where the better team second half, for 15 mins they never gave up, unfortunately we did. We should learn from their free running midfield who were impressive at times.
I personally feel that this season's start and results have now caught up with the manager. The damage has now been done.


when you rest a case it should stay rested, this one has

BMON, I think I know your thoughts on this matter.

With regards to league 2 tactics and does anyone else play that way. Answer - Wycombe Wanderers, now of the Championship.

Disappointing result but improved performance, deserved a point.
Some signs of our style of play evolving, perhaps because we didn't get the new target man we wanted. Plymouth's defence was unconvincing especially when Hoskins, Korboa, BAS and Chukky ran at them, we looked more dangerous on the counter attack.
Subdued but even first half spoiled when we switched off, left Nouble unmarked and Arnold reacted in slow motion to the header.
Second half we were much better, some decent passages of passing football, good move and cool finish for our goal. Thought we might go on and win after that but although Plymouth responded to being pegged back it was sickening to concede from a corner. A big mistake by Arnold although he may have been slightly impeded. If he was he should have made more of it, we are already seeing that other teams are cuter than us in this league and players go down at the slightest contact. We have to smarten up, fast, because we will be facing much better teams than Plymouth this season.

He’s proved to be a good addition so far  ::)

Agreed, I wasn't a fan of Arnold last season, good backup keeper. Give Mitchell a run and see if he can boss the defence

Yes, but apart from that we were ok!

Swindon on Tuesday anyone?

No we weren't - best 1st half for 3 games. Wasn't good but certainly a modicum of improvement.

I think we , along with Wycombe, were very fortunate to gain promotion.

It required substantial team strengthening over the transfer window  ...and yet our team is so much weaker than  our Play-offs team.

I hope KC can make us into a team that can hang in here .....starting with the defence, which is barely good enough for L2.

 

Sorry but their big centre forward had a completely free header for that first goal. Second goal, no-one was on the back post in anticipation of Arnold not winning the first ball. Arnold could have done more, don't get me wrong, but we can't exonerate the defence here.

Unfortunately no.. I’m just assuming that once we come out of this COVID cr@p, any chairman worth his salt will not want the double whammy of relegation as well. League one has some big away followings and quite a few stadium + hospitality fillers from our perspective. Losing league one status has to be avoided if the club are going to make any serious attempt at recouping any losses from the current situation.

I would have thought every league one chairman is thinking the same, salt or no salt.

Following KTs recent statements, by my calculations we are losing over 50 grand a week, possibly 60 whilst their are no fans? Given that we were losing a million a season before Covid there is no chance of recovering those losses by operating profit at any point in the immediate future? It won’t happen, league one status maintained or not? So what’s the answer? The truth is we were alright against Plymouth? However, alright isn’t really going to cut it. We had our short comings last season, but what we could often do was take games by the scruff of the neck. There were some big personalities on the pitch, McCormack obviously, Goode, Turnbull etc and I don’t see that same influence so far? So on the one hand there is a need for more influence on the pitch, on the other there are the very real financial risks that are staring all clubs in the face? It’s all well and good demanding this and that and pointing out the short comings but be under no illusion, any extravagant spend contractually or otherwise also comes at a massive risk? With hindsight the answers will be a lot more obvious, but the decisions have to be made now. There were clearly clubs who were far more cavalier in their approach than NTFC, our apparent missing out on a number of transfer targets perhaps bares this out? However, the second wave of Covid will undoubtedly be mounting the pressure on these more financially cavalier clubs now the second wave has hit the UK? For me financial survival has to be the primary objective? I understand this comes at a risk and is massively frustrating given our history of promotion followed by often immediate relegation? However, the difficult decisions without the benefit of hindsight are the ones that you hope those in charge are willing and capable of making? I think coming up with a budget that gives the club as much financial longevity as possible was the correct decision to make? The quality of the squad reflects that decision and that may result in a season that we all wanted to avoid? At the end of all this the supporters who are crying out for a more aggressive recruitment strategy may well be proved to be right? Having said that, given the massive losses being incurred by all clubs at this time, significant comparable budget restraints is the right decision, irrespective of any shortcomings on the pitch?

All the Cornell bully boys seem to have gone quiet .
There were plenty crying out for Arnold last season .
Looks weak to me .

That side picked today will not win many games in this league .

In response to your comment there, I'd still have Arnold over Cornell 100%.

Cornell is sh1t.

I’d have Arnold in the side ahead of Cornell 100%. Arnold has made some good saves this season to keep some of the defeats respectable, saves that I’m not sure Cornell would have kept out (Forest green away anyone). Don’t think you can blame him for the first, defence went AWOL and for the second he was partially at fault but no defender intervened to prevent the shot.

I wouldn’t be a double whammy if you’re not fighting relegation, or indeed relegated.

We are already in a position at this early stage in the season where KT must have reservations around KC's ability to succeed at L1 level. KT will need to act early if he has any doubts. Where as under normal circumstances he might have a bit more time to weigh it up.

Cornell all day long over Arnold .
Another position on the pitch where we are are weaker this season than last .
No argument about it in my view .
Maybe time to look at the lad from Derby .

I’m not sure why there is so much analysis on the GK - both options look fairly average to me but I very much doubt they will be decisive on us avoiding relegation. We conceded the goals yesterday with poor goalkeeping and ineffective marking. We lost the game and will continue to do so by lack of creativity and for me it’s not the lack of players it’s KC seemingly inability to use then effectively (or at all). Last season, with of course the exception of two games we were generally uninspiring to watch and this season with pretty much the same tactics (but in my opinion a worse back line) we are well and truely being found out. We didn’t deserve a point yesterday and the win at Shrewsbury was very lucky. It’s going to be a difficult season

Pay off his contract and bankroll squad changes out of free agents whilst all this is going on, I doubt it Hammy? When Wilder went he had to pay off 4 contracts on the bounce and brought in god knows how many players following each change before he settled on KC? I can’t see it whilst they’re losing this kind of money? The only time there may be be a change is when there’s typical income to soften the blow?

KC won’t be sacked no matter what imo...

No match day income for the forseable & no fans to boo after every defeat makes the decision a non starter...

Decent pay offs needed for KC & all his back room team...

As usual we’ve fvcked up with the contracts offered to KC and his staff...

Should always (even more so in the current climate) have been either a 1 year or rolling contract yet we offer a two year deal  ::)

Just gotta hope he somehow turns it around...

If he’d been allowed to keep Turnbull and Oliver we might stand a chance but with U23 prem kids, youth teamers and Very average L2 players there’s no chance.

Agree Arnold is nothing special nor was Cornell, the difference being that Cornell had a half decent defenders in front of him, Arnold has Racic (utter garbage), Bolger (makes the tin man look mobile) and Horsfall who we plundered from Macclesfield, Cornell would have let more goals in without doubt, Arnold kept it respectable against Boro and Hull.

I think we were a little unlucky not to get a point. The first goal I think Arnold could have done better but we were caught out, the same as the previous week, with not having a full back, just 3 central defenders. After we equalised I thought we might go on and win but, this is the really worrying thing, teams manage to score against us when they don't look like they are capable of a goal. Again, you have to question Arnold about that one, it might be time to give Mitchell a chance. Despite yesterdays performance I still think that Arnold is a better keeper than Cornell.

it was a much better performance yesterday than of late, and nice to see KC try to put out a team to play a bit of football, eve if it took till the second half to happen. We know hoofball won't often work in this league and with these players, so credit to him for trying something else. I think we deserved a draw, and while I agree with the general feeling that our central defence is nothing like as solid as last year's, I think they did much better yesterday barring the first goal.

I agree we should have used Marshall or Adams at least part of the game to give us more width and we also need to use an out and out striker for most of the game. One of Benny, Chucky or Nuttall are going to have to make their mark. Korboa and Hoskins aren't going to score enough between them.

It is going to be a struggle this year, but not necessarily because our players aren't good enough, but more because we have so many new players who need time to learn each other's games as well as being new to this division in many cases. Some of them are also very young and relatively inexperienced, so overall the squad is a bit raw. It may well also be true that KC didn't get all the players he wanted to be able to play how he wanted and is now having to adapt. All these things mean some patience is required and as long as performances are improving, I'm a long way from calling for KC's head. He's proved us wrong before.

Re Arnold, he's made some very good saves in the last few games, but is also as suspect to mistakes as Cornell was. The first goal yesterday was poor defending but if a goalkeeper dives into his goal rather than across it and manages to parry the ball, as Arnold did, it goes in. That is a basic goalkeeping error. The second goal was a clear mistake by him. I'm not anti-Arnold, but I don't think he's an upgrade on Cornell either. He was at least more vocal yesterday trying to gee up the defence (something Bolger doesn't seem to do much of for a captain)

I have to agree with the calls to go 4-4-2 we have a very new squad that might eventually adapt to playing a back 5 but it will be too late by then. Just looking at the current squad it looks far more suited to 4-4-2

Plymouth Argyle manager Ryan Lowe revealed his team paid extra attention to corners because he felt they could exploit Northampton's zonal marking ahead of Saturday's League One fixture at Home Park.

And Lowe's work on the training pitch eventually bore fruit when, just four minutes from time, Kell Watts ghosted in unmarked at the back post and volleyed home the winning goal.

“We always knew we could get a goal from a set-piece today," said Lowe. "We had worked on it all week – they use zonal marking from corners against and we felt we could get at that.

From the Chron,

Keith Zonal marking dosen't work

Most teams play a three in midfield, so with 4-4-2 you can get exposed in the middle of the park.

Bungle's formation from yesterday would be a good option 4-2-3-1 - two deeper midfielders with an attacking midfielder and two wider players supporting the striker.     

The loss was caused by defensive errors and your analysis is not correct as it was not caused by lack of creativity but by lack of professionalism/discipline. With so many  new players it will take time to find the best mixture. Oh dear we are so uninspiring but made the play offs! Plymouth did not break us down easily but relied on good fortune to win the match. Then you finish with 'we didn't deserve a point at Plymouth and lucky to win at Shrewsbury' with no reference to 'hard luck' for the team at Argyle.  Bit biased?

You may disagree with my analysis but that doesn’t make it right or wrong. We didn’t lose just because of defensive errors (although I thought that is part of the game that opponents legitimately try to exploit) - we lost because they scored more goals than us. Sure we played a relatively effective defensive game but it wasn't great to watch was it?
The Shrewsbury game, again if you think we were the better footballing side then we will agree to disagree but all credit to the team for grinding out a result.
Last season please tell me the number of times you left a game buzzing like after many Carr/Wilder games.
I know you always bite on any perceived  negative comment about our team but sometimes you have to accept comments in a grown up fashioned rather than defending for the sake of it or simply saying that viewpoint is wrong. Life and football is not polorised and there are many glorious shades of grey.

Maybe, if we had a strong striker who could hold the ball up I would tend to agree more, although depending how high the attacking wide players play and how deep the #10 is there isn’t a huge difference between 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1

Really? 'Good fortune'? We were not unlucky yesterday. We switched off from a set piece late on and gave them a free header a few yards out.

Arnold is to my eyes just on a par with Cornell, no better and no worse, if he plays all season I'll probably change my opinion one way or another. Yesterday he was fine apart from two mistakes, which cost us two goals, every other player on the pitch made at least two mistakes as well. It's a harsh reality of life for goalkeepers.

Pretty clever reply if a little muddled. Buzz feeling - wins at Salford , Macclesfield on damp, cold and windy days. FA Cup Run and that win at Burton. Also Plymouth, Exeter (all games), Crewe , Stevenage and of course Carlisle. Quite a few others too!

To me reading your post it appeared to be an unhappy one, with anguished doomsday expressions. Regrettably, no positive constructive comment either. Surprised that an established correspondent decides to follow the unhappy few.  Still there is always Tuesday and Saturday 8)

I'm not sure I'd describe both as mistakes. The second from the corner when he came for it was a mistake, but for the first goal he just wasn't good enough to keep it out. If there was a mistake for the first it was that no one was picking up Nouble, giving him a free header.

 As it happened too!

2 unmarked finishes - no idea where mcwilliams was for the first and for the second, absolutely pathetic from ryan watson - disgraceful. Such a soft touch.

Let's test this theory ;D We seem to be keeping it on the ground more and that bodes well