victorturner

He was the main striker but he wasn’t picked even after scoring in previous matches. He wasn’t suited to be a lone striker but we preferred to stick to the system our new manager insisted upon ( and Monk had seemed to prefer it too) and when he did play he was a solo. Our manager started this season often playing one striker until a review led to a more sensible approach with two up front. Gregory is not preferably a lone striker either and he likes the crosses which we never laid on for Rhodes.

Difficult to praise SH for bravery in that position at Stadium of Light.

Even when DM arrived, we continued to play with only 1 striker. Although DM said on arrival he had to get the best out of Rhodes, he hardly ever picked him to start even though he was the only true striker on the books, unless you assume that Windass and Paterson are strikers. We could not find room for him.

I thought Cook implied if he had been offered the job it would only be until the end of the season ie under 10 weeks. Not sure being irritated at the time was that irrational.

Yes he volunteered something which obviously must have been the objective in the camp. 1-2 other players have also implied it. Those posters who said they were grateful/ would have been grateful for/ stability were not demanding enough. They had lower expectations than the players! We had an enormous squad. We are all different…being excited by lots of goals against weak teams and enjoying it in league 3 is understandable but the club ought not to escape from appropriate ambition nor from criticism for failure.

Play offs are a lottery as you imply. We failed our biggest test and I am not consoled by scintillating football and thumping wins vs Cambridge and Burton. We had to get by Sunderland because a tasty prospect of WW at Wembley would have been a golden chance to be promoted. We did not play well and we made several horrible mistakes on the field, in making substitution and in selection. Being still disappointed and not taking DM’s salve of talking to our loved ones does not help some of us forget this serious failure. An inquest from fans at least is normal.

Completely agree that supporters will still be angry and disappointed. If Windass did not look fit, why was he playing? He’s not a partner for our red hot centre forward Gregory in any case. Storey was left horribly exposed by decision to replace Hunt with N ML whose specialism is running at defences with the ball. I assumed at the time that Palmer was out of position for the goal but he wasn’t. DM’s liking for trying players in different positions from their own is summed by N ML being used as a striker six weeks ago and now he is a rwb!

Thanks for the thoughts. The dust is still swirling around and if you saw the match you will know we failed our final exam. There have to be lessons and they may be painful. We have a very large squad which financially may be trimmed next season while this season, despite all the talk of injuries ( Windass and a couple of the cb’s were serious losses) the manager often had to choose between players expecting to be picked especially at the business end , and next season his loan players , very shrewdly acquired in more than half the cases, may not all return. Our local neighbours, Rotherham, in the meantime got automatic promotion! Even after our acquiring one of their key loan players from the previous season in Lewis Wing. That does make us think.

We can see now that the usual alternative to Hunt at rwb, Palmer, was put into central defence, and NM-L was put on as the rwb , when he does not have the defensive abilities to play that position. Storey was over exposed covering the wing.

Suspect this is right. Always thought wing back is a very demanding position to play, obviously because you need real ability in going forward and also in defending, and in matches where the opposition has some quality, you get found out. But DM prefers to have them. Ours only look good vs weak opposition or naive managers. In the hurly burly and excitement late in the match and getting ready for extra time, , I did not realise that NM-L was being asked to play that position instead of Hunt. Even when Clarke made his twisting run and cross, I assumed it was Palmer he beat, not Storey . Then I realised N M-L was being criticised for not tracking back as the rwb. He had been put in the wrong position. Palmer has moved from emergency cb to being preferred to Dunkley there!

Stewarding needs to be more high profile

True he's not and partner isolated also partly because he is a solo dasher who excites the crowd but often ignores his team mates. Notable foul mouthed rant at Pelupessy when Joey requested the ball in a scoring position late last season. Knowing Gregory is in a hot streak, we needed someone to support him . DM said he was freshening things but it only worked superficially.

Do you mean that the wing backs were under orders not to attack too much?

Suspect our midfieldwas undermanned, and our central defence over manned with Stewart their lone striker.

On Moore, I did not realise from TV that Palmer was being placed directly into Hutch's place, which I understand to be the case. I rather assumed that he would play on the right side of the centre back trio so he would be covering their left wing. Clarke attacked where we were weakest with Storey on the right without Hunt to assist him, a guy who has played rb before being converted into a wing back, and it was N M-L in Hunt's place. I also question the choice of our key player's partner upfront. Gregory did not need a dasher and needed a guy he had worked with before. I haven't worked out whether we needed three centre backs against their one striker but I suspect we had to have three because DM likes wing backs. However, we needed another midfield player rather than the third centre back. Our midfield was struggling in both legs.