Land of the Caraboa, home of the beaver
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 11:31 am
Massively improved performance last night from our "2nd string", against a more or less full strength Covvy.
New keeper Jonathon Mitchell looks decent and balls out his defensive line. Made a few decent saves, getting down to low shots quickly, and catching shoulder height shots rather than just parrying them. His distribution was good too. I would have liked to see him come for crosses a little more, but 1st game in and you could almost physically see his confidence growing as the match went on. Good acquisition on this evidence.
Cameron Norman is much better than Tony McMahon in every sense. Quicker, more attacking, better positionally, and a decent throw in.
Garbutt looked much better with Gavin Whyte ahead of him and Whyte played pretty well linking the defense to the forward line.
Shandon Baptiste has done his chance of a start on Saturday no harm whatsoever. He is in much better form than Ruffels. He is strong, quick and covers a vast amount of the pitch. His passing is good and he is prepared to do the hard yards closing the ball down.
Mousinho had one of his best games for us. No sign of his customary major error per match.
Dickie looks better on the right of central defence.
Brannagan had an improved performance as well.
Marcus Browne was my MoM. Worked hard all game until subbed. Created chances for himself and others and was very dangerous running at the Covvy defence with the ball. Once again we were let down by soft refereeing as time and again the Covvy defence felled him when they couldn't take the ball fairly.
Henry played well albeit slightly within himself, and worryingly had a fair pack of ice on his knee after he was subbed.
Obika had an improved match as well, but still didn't really look like he would ever score. He had a couple of tame shots on target, and one decent shot into the side netting. His finishing was showed up by Gavin Whyte's goal, which was virtually identical to one that Obika shot directly at the keeper. But in fairness to Obika, his work rate was very good.
Of the subs, Sam Smith was probably the most effective. Lopes looked slightly between positions and occassionally wasn't sure whether to come forward, stay back, move inside. Jamie Mackies till looks unfit.
Robinson was yellow carded for having a go at the lino, who was somewhat inept at spotting offisdes.
It will be interesting to see us play Covvy again in the League in a few weeks for comparison. Barnsley are a very good side who have made virtually no changes since last season. Continuity and understanding are such a big part of football. Fleetwood are a bunch of cheats and conmen, who on another day with a tougher ref might not have been so fortunate. Covvy looked much weaker opposition, but maybe this is all part of the settling in process and reflective of our improvements.
As Ty has said, a manager needs time to gel a side together and we have quite a few talented players in our squad.
New keeper Jonathon Mitchell looks decent and balls out his defensive line. Made a few decent saves, getting down to low shots quickly, and catching shoulder height shots rather than just parrying them. His distribution was good too. I would have liked to see him come for crosses a little more, but 1st game in and you could almost physically see his confidence growing as the match went on. Good acquisition on this evidence.
Cameron Norman is much better than Tony McMahon in every sense. Quicker, more attacking, better positionally, and a decent throw in.
Garbutt looked much better with Gavin Whyte ahead of him and Whyte played pretty well linking the defense to the forward line.
Shandon Baptiste has done his chance of a start on Saturday no harm whatsoever. He is in much better form than Ruffels. He is strong, quick and covers a vast amount of the pitch. His passing is good and he is prepared to do the hard yards closing the ball down.
Mousinho had one of his best games for us. No sign of his customary major error per match.
Dickie looks better on the right of central defence.
Brannagan had an improved performance as well.
Marcus Browne was my MoM. Worked hard all game until subbed. Created chances for himself and others and was very dangerous running at the Covvy defence with the ball. Once again we were let down by soft refereeing as time and again the Covvy defence felled him when they couldn't take the ball fairly.
Henry played well albeit slightly within himself, and worryingly had a fair pack of ice on his knee after he was subbed.
Obika had an improved match as well, but still didn't really look like he would ever score. He had a couple of tame shots on target, and one decent shot into the side netting. His finishing was showed up by Gavin Whyte's goal, which was virtually identical to one that Obika shot directly at the keeper. But in fairness to Obika, his work rate was very good.
Of the subs, Sam Smith was probably the most effective. Lopes looked slightly between positions and occassionally wasn't sure whether to come forward, stay back, move inside. Jamie Mackies till looks unfit.
Robinson was yellow carded for having a go at the lino, who was somewhat inept at spotting offisdes.
It will be interesting to see us play Covvy again in the League in a few weeks for comparison. Barnsley are a very good side who have made virtually no changes since last season. Continuity and understanding are such a big part of football. Fleetwood are a bunch of cheats and conmen, who on another day with a tougher ref might not have been so fortunate. Covvy looked much weaker opposition, but maybe this is all part of the settling in process and reflective of our improvements.
As Ty has said, a manager needs time to gel a side together and we have quite a few talented players in our squad.