Top of the league again

[Ancient Colin]

You never saw Mike Salmon in goal against Birmingham then, I defy anyone to come up with a worse performance than that.

Mr H Busby at Wycombe in his sweatshirt?

[A-Ro]

You never saw Mike Salmon in goal against Birmingham then, I defy anyone to come up with a worse performance than that.

Mr H Busby at Wycombe in his sweatshirt?

Good effort but no cigar. Nowhere near as bad and we've had the whole team in rubbish shirts before - a la Watford.

[Myles Francis]

It's difficult to criticise the tactics though as there were enough chances created to win the game and Kiddy didn't create much really.

Whilst I don't fully subscribe to this point of view, I think this better reflects what happened on Saturday than some posts on here which seem to what baby dispatched with bathwater.

A lot of the frustration, IMHO, is not because we were really poor, but because that is a game we could and should have won, despite the referee's best efforts. Finishing was a big problem. I can think of at least five good chances which were hit straight at the keeper. Also, Kernow is spot on about the set-pieces being poor, corners in particular.

We're simply not going to see a first XI between now and the end of the season, and I think the selection for this game reinforced that. Even at kick off, I could see probably three changes which would be made for Tuesday night. Wilder has been keen to stress that we have 20 decent players and that it is a squad game, and we are now going to see this in practice.

[Kernow Yellow]

I was also happy with our defence in general, apart from Batt, who for the first 45 minutes gave one of the worst individual performances I can recall in 25 years of watching Us.

You never saw Mike Salmon in goal against Birmingham then, I defy anyone to come up with a worse performance than that.

Yes, I was there for that. I might have exaggerated a little with my comments re Batt, but in the first half he was woeful. He didn't do a thing right

[GodalmingYellow]

I actually thought we were better 2nd half than 1st. Although maybe that's because I was sat towards the fence end in the south stand upper so got a better view of the attacking portion of the 2nd half. Where do you sit GY? We should have scored at least 3 2nd half alone.

What disappointed me was the general negativity, I sense a decent proportion of the crowd are expecting another failure, a choke, for us not to be good enough again and are mentally preparing for it already. We are in a fantastic position but I thought (again maybe this is just the SSU) the fans were over-eager to criticise and I barely heard anything other than sporadic encouragement. Seems at home we'll always need an early goal to calm our own fans down, which is ludicrous. Can't help but think that if we were 5th in the table trying to chase the leaders the support would be more positive.

Anyhow, we were a bit disjointed throughout but I think the biggest problem with the team at the moment is a lack of pace. None of the front 3 are quick and Cook was barely involved at all. Kiddy played offside a lot and I thought we should have started with Green to counter it. It's difficult to criticise the tactics though as there were enough chances created to win the game and Kiddy didn't create much really.

I sit in SSU about half way back just about on half way line.

[GodalmingYellow]

Playing our best XI in a straightforward formation which gets the most out of our players.

What's the best eleven and formation though (in particular, I don't think there's an obvious formation for the best eleven players)? If you backed me into a corner and demanded, I suppose I'd swap Creighton in for Wright, put Midson up top with Constable but I've no idea on the midfield four ... and then 4-4-2 demands width ... Dearing and Potter can beat people but that's two little ones, Clist and Bulman in midfield are tigerish, but that's two little ones ... do you try to fit Murray in to provide some sort of creativity (oh, that's another little one) or Hargreaves for height and fight (bugger it, there goes the creativity). Do you try to fit Matt Green in to give pace and a bit more height (bugger, there goes the defensive cover). I'm not sure I can put this jigsaw together neatly. Be interested to see people's line-ups, be surprised if there were much consensus.

This is indeed the difficulty. The players we have signed in midfield, don't match the players we need in midfield.

[GodalmingYellow]

You never saw Mike Salmon in goal against Birmingham then, I defy anyone to come up with a worse performance than that.

Mr H Busby at Wycombe in his sweatshirt?

Good effort but no cigar. Nowhere near as bad and we've had the whole team in rubbish shirts before - a la Watford.

What about any of Diaz' performances?

Or the lad who played 15 minutes at Kiddy and didn't touch the ball once?

There's a lot of competition for this accolade.

[DLT]

I will stick my head above the parapet (I'm far enough away these days to limit riskof being shot).

From what limited play I have seen, all the changes in recent months have been 'workmanlike' signings. Good solid battlers who get stuck in but have excessive amounts of flair or speed.

If you want to break down teams whose tactics are to be solid, defensive and unadventurous then you need a reasonable degree of flair or speed to create openings.

Maybe Matt Green will return to form in the spring.

For me the signing of Hargreaves was a dire move.