Sowerby was not so good 2nd Half and McWilliams didn’t make it through the 90.
So, Tyler M gets my vote.

Everybody moaning about Walsall’s time wasting is annoying me!
NTFC are just as much to blame as the ref / the opposition.

I couldn’t see one ball boy on duty today. The result was the players retrieved their own balls - at times it was like watching a game on the fcuking racecourse!
On one occasion there was a 30 second wait while their player looked on and waited for someone in the West stand to chuck the ball to him - they didn’t so he got it himself!
Then, late on, we had the ludicrous situation of their goalie going all the way over to the East stand to get the ball and then saunter back and take a goal kick on the opposite side of the 6 yd area!!

I reckon a lack of ball boys cost us at least 3 minutes of game time today.
That said, I don’t think we would have scored today if we played for an additional 300 minutes!

Surely we can find some lads (and lassies) from the junior teams to help out!?
Sort it out JB!

Proper Div 2 promotion winning performance. UTC

Never been a half full type of bloke - I’m going 10!!

Always been quick off the mark to say I told you so, but …. I told you so!
10pts gained from this difficult run of games - although to be fair, without the postponed Mansfield game in the mix!

I think this represents a small success considering we end this horrible run of fixtures still in the top 3 and with a lot more of our key players fit and still with the Mansfield home game to come.

Carlisle (H) - Won
Mansfield (A) - Drew
Swindon (H) - Lost
Orient (H) - Won
Salford (A) - Lost
Stockport (A) - Lost
Mansfield (H) - Postponed
Barrow (A) - Won

Well done the Brady Boys.
I’m feeling a lot more confident than I was!

Are his initials TS?

Thiago Silva?
Teddy Sheringham?

Taylor Swift?

There is no doubt, we’ve reached a critical stage in our season ….

We’ve been excellent so far this year and continue to look like we could / should beat anyone in this league.
I honestly Can’t remember a team that has took our trousers down this season - even when we’ve loosened our belt!!

We always knew the fixtures were going to be tough for us in December and January but 3 losses in 4 and a pattern emerging of us being on top and not scoring combined with our ability to turn off at the back means the 9 gap cushion to 4th is now gone (when games in hand are won).

While we have an excellent squad we don’t seem to be able to get our key players fit at the same time - and this mystery reoccurring illness adds to the frustration.
We are seeing our main Playoff competitors ( Salford, Swindon and Stockport) being very busy in the transfer market as they eye up the only prize that 10 teams are focussed on (including us) - 3rd place.

Mr Thomas says there is money available but as usual we have been very slow in making significant signings during the transfer window. If we want to match the ambition of our key competitors we need to get out there and procure some players to help with our injury challenges and break this pattern of battering teams and losing / drawing.

There is certainly no need to panic and, apart from a goal scorer (!), we don’t need to make any vast improvements in the squad but we need some quality in depth.

Even with Little or nothing coming in in January, it might be enough to see us through (I fear not though as there are just too many good sides who are willing to speculate to accumulate just underneath us) but our not panicking and keeping the squad “as is” will send out another negative message of short term thinking.

So no need to panic Mr Brady but cool heads are needed and some quality will need recruiting.

I would say wishing ill on us when we are in terminal decline, which some of what above looks like, goes beyond understandable feelings of disbelief and mourning of a promotion effort scuppered by a weird circumstance brought on by our own inept manager, squad and financial situation.

It's been an emotional time and I posted while under such emotions. A couple of others have clarified and/or apologised. After letting go of the emotion, I can say that of course I would not wish the same situation on Northampton or any other team, barring MK Dons, maybe.

All the best for the promotion push, and hopefully it's not marred by Gillingham or Rochdale losing heavily on the last day, causing another weird GD glitch!

Sorry friend, I know you are hurting but what Hill did in May 2022 he did as Sc***horpe manager and with the full blessing of the club and it’s officials - anyone could have stopped him / had a word in his ear. They didn’t!
And still I don’t hear an apology from anyone to do with Sc***horpe - including their supporters (you).

I will be at Meadow Lane on March 21st, I will be wearing my Cobblers scarf and I will be cheering and praying for County to win 8-0.

I know that makes me pathetic and unempathetic towards my follow fan but heh, that’s what your appointed and sanctioned club managers and officials did to me 8 months ago.

Look on the bright side; at least it's not a Celtic badge!

(For the record, there's no sectarian bias there, I just went to a Celtic match once and amongst all the drunken thuggery, theft and anti-English/pro IRA singing going on I developed an intense dislike of the club and its supporters!)

Odd - although I think that pretty much makes my point.
Yours was a political (pro English) and bigoted (all Celtic fans are dislikable) decision.

Manny is telling us all about himself - it’s a badge of honour.
We shouldn’t take offence as Cobbs fans as it really is nothing to do with football. Just like your hatred for Celtic is nothing to do with football.

Live and let live but don’t confuse football club love with political posturing.

Here’s a contrast for you. I hate Sc***horpe like you hate Celtic but I hate them for what they did last season. In fact I hate the Club so much I’m going up to Notts County in March to cheer on the Pies and put another nail in their coffin. Can you see how my reason for hating a football club are different to yours?

This is fun …..

Doesn’t bother me Shoey.
If anything it adds to the drama / fun that is Manny.

Also, we need to realise that folks (especially south of the border) that staunchly support Celtic or Rangers do it for reasons that transcend sport / football. Their allegiances are more about tribal bigotry and political statement than they are a sporting preference.

Mind you, I would like to think that Manny has a NTFC badge on his signature when he’s on the Rangers site.

This. Yesterday's defeat was primarily due to a lack of central midfield control in the first half. In the absence of a fully fit Sowerby, I would rather that JB had played someone like Dyche as an emergency defensive midfielder rather than persist with Pinnock in the centre where his lack of pressing capacity is always painfully exposed.

If Harrop is getting released on the 31st then I think we need to get another centre mid body in, even if it's on loan. 4 players to cover 3 slots isn't enough cover and McWilliams is likely to be a few more weeks away.

I like Pinnock but he should be competing for a spot as wide forward, not shoehorned in as a number 10. His game is all about his crossing ability and capacity to drift inside and get shots off: capacities which are completely curtailed when he's played in a central role. I'd be playing Hoskins, Appere and Eppiah as the front three on current form and would be challenging Pinnock to match his creative contribution from last season to win back his place.

Spot on Bungle.
Every time Mitch plays in the middle we struggle.
Not sure if it’s correlation or causation?
Do we struggle because he really isn’t a centre mid?
Do we struggle because we miss his crosses from the wings?
Do we struggle because if he’s playing CM it probably means Sean isn’t playing?

A lot of criticism on here for the referee and his lino who got some big decisions wrong so we hope for better at Stockport when Rebecca Welch will be officiating. When we had her last season I thought she had a decent game and was better than several male referees we have had.

I think you are being very generous to the male s***ty refs we get in this s***ty division.
I remember her from that game and I would say that she was one of the best ones (of any gender!!) we’ve seen at Sixfields in the last couple of years.

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/Apollo_11_TV_Tapes_Report.pdf

Oh Manny - God love you!

“ Every single argument claiming that Nasa faked the Moon landings has been discredited.”
Institute of Physics

Unlike your heroes BJ and DT you really do, at some stage, need to wake up and join the world of facts, truth and data.
I know it’s against everything a Brexiter truly believes but sometimes experts and facts do actually trump biased opinion and bigotry.

I think we need a John Taylor/Jason Lee type experienced forward to move the game further up the pitch and show good physical hold up play that allows the younger runners to break through.

Isn’t that exactly what Danny H was brought into do?
If we really want one of them wouldn’t we be better off persevering with DH?

No complaints on the scoreline at halftime, second half we were hard done by. I don't like complaining about officials and decisions because it smacks of sour grapes, so instead I'll just repeat what the Sky pundits have just said:

- it was a sending off.
- it was onside.
- it was a penalty.

With respect it wasn’t the pundits saying it - it was photographic evidence and the rule book. No debate about any of them! Well done to Brady for keeping his cool on camera - I’m not sure I would have?!

For as bad as we played first half, we definitely deserved something out of that!
Still feeling confident though - the awful refereeing decisions will even themselves out.
We had a strong ref against Orient last week - we get a weak pathetic one this week!
Huge game coming up next week. We need Burge, Sean and Sowerby back for that!

Brady is going to have to watch what he says when he talks to the TV - could be a fine / ban coming up!!

[1. Major improvement needed on set pieces.]

A hugely frustrating game.

The first half was Mansfield deja vu: complete dominance, good interplay between the front three and the midfield followed by conceding a goal from the opposition's first shot on target. Appere, Pinnock and Hoskins played well but were sometimes guilty of overelaborating when a simple pass, run forward or cross would have been more effective. The arrears were then compounded by a fortuitous long-ranger from their left-back: the type of goal that happens once in a blue moon in L2 and one that we could do very little about.

The subs in the 60th minute disrupted our shape and meant that Swinedon were able to dominate the midfield for the remaining 30 minutes. Fox should have stayed on the pitch. Brady needs to learn that there's no point in chucking forward after forward on if there is no control or possession in midfield; his approach here was premature and naive with 30 minutes still to go. (Particularly as Eppiah is still some way from being match fit.)

What needs to change? On another day, the luck would have been with us and we would have drawn or even won that game. However, IMO there are a few tweaks which need to be made to ensure that elusive promotion:

1. Major improvement needed on set pieces.  


We had 15 corners tonight and didn't look like scoring from any of them. Last season set pieces were our main source of goals. What's changed? The departure of Horsfield is a factor no doubt, but work is needed on the training ground to add variations (out swingers, short corners etc) to make us less predictable. IMO Magloire played well when he came on and may provide some more aerial threat if manages to unseat Shearing in the starting X1.

2. Keep the integrity of the midfield three

I think we would have got a draw today if Brady had kept Fox on and shuffled the forwards rather than disrupting our shape. However, IMO Sowerby and McWilliams are our best centre mid pairing and it's between Fox and Leonard (and possibly Harrop) to compete for the most advanced role.

3. Sign a striker in January

For me, this game underlined the need for us to sign a striker in January. Funnily enough I was kind of wanting Brady to bring on Hylton earlier because I think he might have sniffed out a goal and got on the end of one of one of those crosses which flashed past the post. However, the fact that he didn't come on until the 85th minute when we were chasing the game like that just underlines that he's not really trusted to produce the goods at the moment.

We definitely need someone up there who is a bit more aggressive and preferably clinical and can give us another more direct option on nights like this when the pretty interplay isn't working.

Overall, just like Covid-stricken defeat to Swinedon this time year, this is far from being the end of the world. We are a decent side with a decent manager and I have faith that our quality will shine through in the end.

Yep, that’ll do ….
When you have 15 corners you need to have at least a couple of near misses!
Agree Sowerby is missed. Couple that with Sean having his worst game for months!
I’d give our big money man a chance up front with Louis next time.

As everyone has said - one of those days!
I thought Swindon deserve some credit for their positive approach and the way they competed for everything.
9 days out of 10 we would have won that but heh … onwards and upwards.

The wonderful news is that Santa must have visited Sixfields last week …
We’ve only gone and got a fully working screen now. The missing oblong is now un-knackered and we are whole once more.
Cracking news to end the year with!

Normally go to Mansfield - my excuses:
It was on iFollow so I could still watch it.
Amazon had all the Prem games on during the day so a bit of a football fest
Family visiting
By midday my blood alcohol level was not something I was proud of!

Anyway, enough of this attendance bollox - we played them off the field and thankfully will have a lot better awayday places to go next year when they’re still in Div 4 and we’re not!

UTC