Consistency

[catbrock]

Having watched Morecambe for over 50 years I stopped coming after watching the pathetic effort which was last years FA cup where no one seemed to care whether we won or lost. I was persuaded that things had improved so returned on Saturday. Could I congratulate the management team on their consistency. Jim was right at the beginning of the season when he said we will just keep doing in pre-season what we did last year it worked so well. A good consistent attitude, this was followed by re-signing our 2 most consistent players Kevin Ellison and Barry Roche, one who is way past his sell by date and one who is a fantastic shot stopper but cannot deal with crosses unless you count the number of times he can palm the ball out to the opposition who promptly put it in the back of the net. Saturday was as I expected because we are consistent, fail to score in the first 20 minutes then watch as the opposition promptly go on the attack and with their first effort on goal score with a cross that no-one dealt with again a consistent theme. The second half and we really came into our own in terms of consistency, lets pass the ball twice then pass back to our playmaker Barry who can hoof the ball down field so that the centre backs who have not let anything pass can gain some valuable heading practice and get so proficient that they feel confident enough to start passing the ball to each other and make the opposition look like a bunch of schoolboys. What we will then do a consistent theme is back off and back off until the opposition have a clear sight of goal and score yet again, never mind we can go to plan B which is the same as plan A only we get the ball back to Barry quicker so he can hoof it down field and return it to the opposition as we do not have anyone who by that stage wants it. Jim you are right we keep doing the same things and guess what with the same result, we are consistent but sadly like many others I will not be paying my money to watch a team that seems determined to keep repeating what does not work, but hey that's the benefit of repeating what we did last season, consistency.

[Morecambe Jack]

At least we are consistent.

[marky No.1]

lets pass the ball twice then pass back to our playmaker Barry who can hoof the ball down field

This is top of the list of my pet hates. I can understand if doing so kept us in possesssion, but it rarely does! It was almost guaranteed that every high long punt upfield was going to be won by a yellow shirt.
We often don't challenge for the first ball as we are obsessed with winning the second.

The passing back found a new level when we were 5 yards in their half in an attacking situation and it was passed 50 yards back to Baz! Grrrrrrr

[KenH]

Sad to say but I agree with the comments here. The hoofball from Barry and the defenders is beyond a joke now. Jim can't blame the players - it's what he and Ken are telling them to do from their box.

Also, sad to say that this must surely be Kev and Baz's last season. They've been great for the club, but the time has to come to retire gracefully. Kev may be "fit" as Jim keeps telling us but his reaction time is pretty poor these days.

[cragbankshrimp]

I'm certain that if you go to the training ground today, tomorrow or any other day you wont see them practice this as part of their game, so why do it on a Saturday. Along with not closing the opposition down quick enough or not at all, it absolutely infuriates me.

[parkyboy]

what do you expect from the players signed in pre season ,with odd exceptions they are players that other clubs in this league or above wouldnt touch with any amount of money

[Freez]

Young players, inconsistency.

[KenH]

But it's not just the young players nor those recently signed that you say no-one else wants.

Kev, Baz, Flemmo and Moly aren't young nor recent signings, but they are VERY inconsistent.

When you add Winnard, Rose, Murphy, the team isn't all youngsters at all. Edwards is in his third season as a regular starter here.

I think Jim has done wonders to get a good mix of young and old, but the problem is they ARE under-performing and there ARE some dubious team selections, substitutions and tactics. You can't blame the lads themselves for all the problems.

Time and time again, they start having a go at each other and the officials when things start to go wrong instead of concentrating on the game. You can't blame them because Jim and Ken do the same with the linesman and 4th official, so the players are just copying the management. I've said many times that Kev has a crap game when he starts getting stressed and complaining to the ref - recent games have been no exception. They all need some counselling/coaching into just accepting it and moving on - far too many of them seem to hold a grudge for the rest of the match which does affect their performance.

[shrimp riddle]

There has to be other reasons for all the hoofing and poor play- IMO think the team can't handle the stress and expectations of playing at home-and its now become a self fulfilling prophecy- sure they are desperate to give the team something to sing about. We all, including Jim and the team, now expect to lose not win. IMO this is the reasons why the team plays betters away and better against bigger teams because the expectations are lower and as a result this lessens the pressure they feel - they have less to lose in this scenario.

[Christies Child]

[quote="KenH"]Sad to say but I agree with the comments here. The hoofball from Barry and the defenders is beyond a joke now. Jim can't blame the players - it's what he and Ken are telling them to do from their box.

Also, sad to say that this must surely be Kev and Baz's last season. They've been great for the club, but the time has to come to retire gracefully. Kev may be "fit" as Jim keeps telling us but his reaction time is pretty poor these days.[/quote

Too bloody right..... Time they both got off the players backs during a game and let the players take control.

[steve mfc]

To be able to play the ball out from the back when the opposition works hard at closing you down in your own half requires a level of quality that we just don't have but not many teams do at this level, that I can understand but what I cant is why we don't do the same to them and force them into playing a hopeful ball forward, we usually drop deep giving them time to pick out a pass especially out wide, how many goals have we conceded in the last couple of seasons because the fullbacks drift inside allowing the ball to be crossed into the box.

[George Dawes]

you only have to look back to when we got Davies back on loan and how people raved about him and his distribution and the quality of football that people felt improved in Roche's absence when out injured .

coincidence ?

[SimplyRed MFC]

On a slightly lighter note last Saturday, did anyone notice Kev in the first 5 seconds AFTER our kickoff ?

Just in the last few seconds BEFORE kick off the much smaller Stevenage right winger slowly walked up to the half way line awaiting the whistle, looked up at the revving Big Kev in a sort of nervous, respectful manner as Kev seemed to ignore him

The whistle blows, Kev is off like a rocket and gives the static guy a massive slap on the side of his face as he roars past him !!

Absolutely bloody hilarious even by Kevs standards - we will miss his antics when he finishes

[Christies Child]

On a slightly lighter note last Saturday, did anyone notice Kev in the first 5 seconds AFTER our kickoff ?

Just in the last few seconds BEFORE kick off the much smaller Stevenage right winger slowly walked up to the half way line awaiting the whistle, looked up at the revving Big Kev in a sort of nervous, respectful manner as Kev seemed to ignore him

The whistle blows, Kev is off like a rocket and gives the static guy a massive slap on the side of his face as he roars past him !!

Absolutely bloody hilarious even by Kevs standards - we will miss his antics when he finishes

Some lucky club and their squad will one day have Kevin as their manager. One thing for sure it'll be fun but he wont take any crap form from any of his squad. The guy is an out and out winner and will take no prisoners that's for sure.

Would love to see him one day in charge at The Globe.....