DangerousSausage

Right now I'd be happy with a draw away to Wrexham, but like others have said, playing in front of an expectant home crowd brings pressure with it. We should concentrate on our own game, playing with the required tempo and not leaving gaps at the back rather than worrying about the opposition.

Well that was an anticlimax. At least we didn't lose. A good result on Monday night and it'll be quickly forgotten. I only listened on the radio, but for all the possession we had after the sending off, we didn't seem to test their keeper much. Of course the timewasting from Torquay was annoying and at times ludicrous, but let's be honest with ourselves - if the roles had been reversed, we'd have wanted our players to do exactly the same. We brought it on ourselves by falling behind to an unnecessary goal. I was a bit confused by Charlie Slater saying "the man" in the second half, until I realised he was referring to Nemane. Maybe I'll just call him The Man in future to avoid confusion.

I'm leaning towards a home win too with our home advantage and Torquay having so many changes. The Barnet game was nice, but it doesn't tell us a lot about how the rest of the season is going to go and I'm expecting Torquay to give us a much sterner test. I don't think IB will play both Taylor and Nemane, he seems to want one of our wing backs to be defensively minded. Could imagine him playing Chicksen and Nemane and then switching to Taylor/DKE for Wrexham. If I were him I'd probably want to bed the new team in a bit before switching around.

I think it'll be nil nil. No way will we score without a 20-Goal-a-Season Striker (TM)

Can only agree with the above. In my heart of hearts I always felt we were too vulnerable and error-prone to go all the way. Part of that was due to the very attacking style we've adopted recently, but that was Ian Burchnall's way of getting the best out of the squad and without it we'd have likely not reached the playoffs at all. It was part of the gamble. Then a couple of hours later I watched the Denmark game and nearly saw a young man die live on TV. That put all of our "worries" into perspective. We had a one in six chance of winning the playoffs, we missed out, next season we'll have another chance.

I agree with the changes above and think they're likely too. In theory I'd like a bit more height at the back alongside Ellis, but in practice we've worked best with Brindley and DKE when playing this system. JOB also makes us more balanced in midfield. The previous two games against Torquay were extremely tight and I don't expect this to be any different. We might have a psychological edge after the late win against Chesterfield, while Torquay fluffed automatic promotion at the last. But on the other hand, they've got home advantage.

This one will be interesting. We sit in fifth, which would ensure a home tie in the play-off quarter finals. Only Wrexham can overtake us, and only in the event that they win at Dagenham and we lose at Bromley. A point will do for us. Finishing sixth wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would mean missing out on the twelfth man at Meadow Lane. There's also lots riding on it for Bromley - they can only reach the play-offs if they win. So it could be a more open game than our last encounter. This has a bit of a phoney war feel to it as we've already qualified, but we really shouldn't let our standards drop now. I'd like to see Rawlinson in there if he's fit again so he's sharp for the play-offs, and maybe a few moe minutes for the likes of Sam and Griffiths too.

Excellent performance, three nil was flattering to Weymouth. Perhaps a bit wasteful now and then, but Weymouth were saved by the bar a couple of times too. Great entertainment, thoroughly enjoyed it. We look like a different team. So now we need a point at Bromley to get fifth. In a way it's good that something is riding on it, otherwise there's a temptation to field a weakened team and maybe lose some momentum. Prediction league is over now mate, sorry ????

Excellent result, 4 goals (that's 7 in two matches) and back in the playoffs, great stuff. Really good that Rodders has hit form too. Interesting that, instead of basking in the win, IB immediately voiced his annoyance with the team relaxing after the last goal in his interview. A bit more intensity and concentration would certainly do us good. As far as making the playoffs is concerned, it's in our own hands.

5-3 to Notts. Goalie Michael Doyle struggles in the first half and is replaced by Jimmy Knowles at half time, who steadies the ship. We turn it around in the second half with a scintillating display of attacking verve. Paul Bolland will score two, along with goals from Bob Catlin, Shergar and that Miller bloke (when attempting a back pass). Burchnall will say we played well in the second half.

It's really jarring to listen to fighting talk in interviews, only to listen to the commentators almost crying with frustration at the lack of urgency on matchday. Looking at the table, we've still got a very real chance of making the playoffs, but we seem to have given up. IB isn't to blame for our weakness in key areas, of course, but part of the art of being a manager is getting the best out of what's at your disposal, and so far he's failing lamentably. It's getting to the point where you wonder if it goes a bit deeper than a poor spell of form. I wonder if we have a number of players who knew they were leaving at the end of the season, but were giving their all for Neal. Now he's gone, they're phoning in.

It's just an automatic post made in advance. Time hasn't been kind to them ????

When it was pointed out that their form was so much better than ours, I thought we had a chance. Football has a habit of turning the form book upside down like that. Sickening to lose out in the last minute like that, but encouraging to hear of the improved performance. How did Steele get on?

If there were a pill that makes you lose all interest in football, would you take it?

I truly hope we stop the experiment with wing backs. We simply don't have the players to do it. I think a return to 4 at the back is likely, and Doyle will probably start too (hopefully in place of Reeves instead of alongside him). So we've lost 3 on the trot, while Torquay are on a great run. All the more reason to play without pressure and turn the form book upside down.

Why do we insist on playing wing backs when we have no wing backs at the club? Either they can't defend or they can't cross. Some can't do either. The squad has obviously been set up with a 4-2-3-1 in mind, so we might as well play that if we're to avoid playing round pegs in square holes. Mind you, if no-one's going to make themselves available to receive the ball or make runs it doesn't really matter what we play. I thought about buying the stream, but the sun was shining so I thought I'd get some vitamin D and do some weeding in the garden while listening on the radio. Good decision. The weeding was much more fun than the "football".

Great result, especially after dropping behind. Today and Friday have shown how vital it is to have someone who can come on, run at the opposition and change the game. With Knight and (hopefully) Roberts, we now have two players who can help us move up a gear if it isn't going our way. With that we gain two points on Sutton and Hartlepool and another three on Wrexham, so not a bad day's work. Looking at it now, we should aim to make the top three and then see what's possible - Sutton can still be caught, but there's little room for error. The rest of this month will be massive - Hartlepool away next, Torquay away and a double header against Eastleigh.

That was a very positive afternoon and an excellent result. I only listened on the radio, but it sounded like we grew into the game and played a bit further up than we usually do. Knight sounds promising and I'm looking forward to seeing him play. With Roberts we have someone who scares the opposition to death and creates space for others - it'll be fantastic if we can have him starting again, he's like a cheat code at this level. It's good to see defenders mixing it up at set pieces a bit more, and it's also interesting to see Chicksen in the team again - IB seems to rate him more than Ardley, who'd sooner have played the mascot in that position. For all our recent struggles the table doesn't look bad, the gap to Sutton aside. Now let's build on it at Woking!

Sounds like more of the same tonight, especially with the lack of chances created. We were already in a hole confidence-wise, and changing the manager doesn't seem to have helped at all. There doesn't appear to be any reaction because half the team has nothing left in the tank. They seem exhausted mentally, if not physically. For all the loanees we've brought in, tonight's team virtually picked itself. Wootton and Reeves cannot be dropped because we have no alternatives. The new manager has a hell of a job on his hands to get this team playing quicker, more bravely and with self-belief.

What an absolute shambles that was. For the first ten minutes, despite the team selection, I hoped we'd see something a bit different - we tried to get in behind them from the off, and had a nice tempo to our play. But soon we were back to the ponderous build-up play we're all so sick of. At times in the second half we couldn't get out of our own half. Hornchurch were positive and played hard, but their press hardly looked difficult to get out of - there were huge gaps there, yet we still couldn't cope. I've got no desire to recall the game and give a blow-by-blow account, Ellis and Rawlinson being given the runaround by a man with a beer gut and a double chin tells you all you need to know. If we'd gone out against Morpeth, I wouldn't have cared much. It was a weakened team, and we could have claimed we were concentrating on the league. But this was different - a chance to reward the fans with a trip to Wembley and win a trophy. It was an important game. I'll give the new manager a pass on this one (although how he can watch several of our matches in full length and decide another 90 minutes of the Doyle and Reeves show is a good idea I'll never know), but the players need to have a word with themselves. That shower won't win promotion in a million years. There's always someone worse off than yourself though - some of our fans are of the Irish persuasion, and rounded the day off by watching their national team lose at home to Luxembourg...

Well, isn't this absolutely pathetic?

That really was pants, starting with Barnett shinning the ball out of play with our first touch of the match (and doing the same thing in stoppage time when we had a promising break on), all the way through to Reeves(?) messing about and finally passing it backwards in the LAST SECONDS OF STOPPAGE TIME when he should have been putting the ball into the box. Halifax were a typical NL team that came to press us and put us under pressure, and increasingly sat back as the game went on. They were bang average, yet we barely tested them. We never look good when trying to play 4-3-3 as the gaps between the players are just too big. But regardless of what we play, our midfield pairing is stifling us - they always play too deep, they slow the play down, they offer nothing in an attacking sense and now they've forgotten how to pass too. They're also two of too many players we've got who know they'll always play 90 minutes of every game, come what may. We know what this league is about now. We need to be positive, we need to get in the opposition's faces and take the fight to them. That is how we will control games. What we shouldn't be doing is attempting to tiki-taka the ball to the opposition's six-yard box in painful slow motion. It does not work. If we don't learn that lesson, we'll be lucky to finish in the top half, never mind the play-offs.

I prefer to focus on the positives. Slocombe caught the ball nicely a few times. The stream is smooth. My sofa is comfortable and the beer tastes good. That's it.

I don't think some of the more extreme doom and gloom is justified after 13 points in 6 games, but it is frustrating to work ourselves into an extremely promising position, only to slip back again. It's now very obvious that our lack of goals or attacking threat in general is a serious problem. Our only goal in the last 270 minutes of football was a long-range punt (albeit a very nice one). It's not just a lack of goals though - we just don't put the opposition under any pressure (when did we last win a penalty?) and instead rely on individual quality instead of creating chances from team moves. It's tempting to think that the return of Cal Roberts will help, but I fear our problems go a bit deeper than the personnel.

Well that was rather pleasant, wasn't it?! Leaving two up front and staying positive was definitely the right decision, but to be fair it was also the only decision - parking the bus for 70 plus minutes with an outfield player in goal would have just been an invitation for the visitors to pepper the area with crosses and shots. Great stuff from the whole team. Meadow Lane would have been bouncing. I hope we can take some momentum from this, and fingers crossed for Luke Pilling in goal over the next few games (those FA Trophy appearances should come in handy now). Unless Schmeichel Doyle wants another go? Looking at the table, we're now 11 points behind Torquay with 4 games in hand. In terms of points per game, we're potentially a win away from catching them. And PPG could matter this season.