Away from home

[Billy bodger]

Away from home, how can we play so we pick up points? We are back home this weekend against Salford and the pressure is on to not only keep up our home form for that game but the whole season. If we don’t get our away form better we will need 10-13 home wins and some draws to add to the pitiful away points if we don’t change something. My own thoughts are do we put a few more experienced players in the team away from home? last year I thought some of the young players fell behind after Christmas and did not kick on. With the squad being small we need those young platters to last the season. What do you think? are we equipped to get 20+ points away from home. I always work on at least 45 points so away form is crucial to get right.

[RedRedWine]

Regarding away form - I tend to agree with Derek; it hasn't been great over the last two years.... but we've been playing the likes of Barnsley, Derby, Ipswich and others as a League One club. On balance of probability, we wouldn't ordinarily expect to be picking up points from those fixtures - and it certainly adversely skews peoples perceptions.

This season is a fresh slate at a different level; we must assess it separately. So far there have been two away league two games and one away cup tie = 3 games. The league game at Mansfield Town was always going to be a tough side, they have assembled a very good squad and will be there or there about come the end of the season IMO. The Harrogate performance, although disappointing overall (too many players higher up the pitch not at the races) - was always going to be a game decided by the first goal between two evenly matched teams with a similar setup/style. I'm not convinced that it was a penalty for the opener, and we also got the rough end of some other questionable decisions in the game. That said we had one shot on target, which is not good enough at any level. In the cup, we played well at Rotherham and went out on penalties.... so at this stage early we need to have some perspective.

I do agree that we need to perform better on the road. Maybe, as Derek has admitted in interview previously (he is a meticulous planner), we overthink things and worry about the opposition too much to the point it negates our ability to impact the game at times. I actually think against the likes of Mansfield and the more fancied outfits, its almost an invitation to have a go; we lose 3-0 when we try to keep things tight and make life too easy for sides comfortable in possession.... lets give them something to think about.

Looking for improvement and points at Barrow.... but before then continuing our great home form will give us a bit of confidence.

[Keith]

The league game at Mansfield Town was always going to be a tough side, they have assembled a very good squad and will be there or there about come the end of the season IMO.

Mansfield have conceded nine goals in four games, including two against Doncaster, for Doncaster's only point of the season so far. We didn't have a solitary shot on target against them, and have mustered one shot on target in two league matches, away from home.

I basically agree with the crux of your post, but I don't agree with trying to dress-up the Mansfield defeat as anything other than poor. Also, as an excuse last season, listing the top sides, we also played Accrington, MK Dons, Cambridge, Oxford where we could/should have been picking up points. Cambridge away in particular, was garbage, in a game we really needed to win. In fact, had we done so, we'd have stayed up, instead, we let them dominate the game entirely and we were very lucky to get a point.