Shrimps 0 Accrington 2 at The County Ground

[Crazeenick]

What did people think about our performance today in the rain against Accy?

Positives for me:

Lewis Alessandra looked sharp
Shaun Miller looked quite lively in the second half
John O' Sullivan looked a decent acquisition
Tutte and Wildig both played, so presumably injury-free
We played some good passing football at times, especially in the first half
Most players got some more minutes under their belts
No new injuries

What did other people think?

[al1]

We need to find a good penalty taker!

[Vinny]

We need to find a good penalty taker!

I have concern about the approach by JB has on his penalty takers. It was a prominent problem last season and cost quite a lot of points. It was very noticeable to me in the post-match video of the pre-season friendly v Everton U23's after Jordon Cranston had successfully put away a penalty, that JB instead of congratulating Jordon, thought fit instead to ask him how many he had missed last season! Now that is NEGATIVE coaching! Players performances and success depend on POSITIVE coaching. I wonder what the advice was from Brian Ashton's confidence coaching talk?

[Westgate Wanderer]

How many attended? I didn't go. It seems to me we are struggling to score goals and as usual easy to score against. Poor Cranston thought he had only missed one penalty, but JB seemed happy to remind him he missed two! But collectively we have a poor penalty taking record recently. All the fun stuff is over now it's the real think starting on saturday. First hope is it doesn't rain, second hope is that the club is ready for the majority of season tickets to be collected on match day!

[Gone_Shrimping]

How many attended? I didn't go. It seems to me we are struggling to score goals and as usual easy to score against. Poor Cranston thought he had only missed one penalty, but JB seemed happy to remind him he missed two! But collectively we have a poor penalty taking record recently. All the fun stuff is over now it's the real think starting on saturday. First hope is it doesn't rain, second hope is that the club is ready for the majority of season tickets to be collected on match day!

I think I saw the attendance as 448. Seemed like more and would have been in 4 figures if the game had stayed at the Globe but as the weather turned out probably better that we didn't use our hallowed turf.

[Andy D]

How many attended? I didn't go. It seems to me we are struggling to score goals and as usual easy to score against. Poor Cranston thought he had only missed one penalty, but JB seemed happy to remind him he missed two! But collectively we have a poor penalty taking record recently. All the fun stuff is over now it's the real think starting on saturday. First hope is it doesn't rain, second hope is that the club is ready for the majority of season tickets to be collected on match day!

im sure I read you can collect season tickets from the club shop this week.

[redrobo]

Can only pass judgement from the highlights on the OWS but once again and a continuing worry carried forward from previous seasons was the lack of close marking which allowed their man to score with yet another shot from the edge of the area AND yet another occasion when Baz allowed a shot to get past him as has happened on too many times over the last couple of seasons.

Baz does appear to have a problem with saving shots from a distance.

Not sure how many pre season goals against have been scored in this fashion but it would appear that it continues to be an area that JB and Co seem unable to put a stop to.

However overall the performance seem to provide some encouragement going forward but the real test starts next Saturday.

Have to say that I found JB's team selection surprising in that he didn't opt to play Stockton and Miller together if only to see how the preformed as a dual strike force. Surely not a return of the single striker playing up front on his own that was so negative at the start of last season. There are goals in the players we now have, so why not opt for a least 2 up top.....with Lewis just behind

[Little Shrimp]

Thought we were very good at times yesterday and unfortunate not to get at least one. Last season, we switched to 4-4-2 and we looked good in it, but were a bit rigid and often relied on the pace/trickery of Collins. With a full pre-season geared towards playing 4-4-2/4-2-3-1 (they're basically the same with someone like Alessandra up front), we look a lot more fluid.

Was really impressed we some of our passing and movement, and the little combinations we created. Could do with maybe a little more incisiveness but I hope that will come. Accrington were a decent side and I imagine that was close to a full strength line up for them - let's not forget we were playing players who were getting set to compete in League One!

Shame we missed the penalty - our heads dropped a bit and then they scored. We changed to a back three, looked all over the place and they scored again. Roche has flattered to deceive with long shots but there was little he could have done with this one if I'm honest. It's usually low shots that bounce a bit that seem to trouble him.

When we first switched to a back three, Cranston was at RWB and we looked all over the place. He looked super uncomfortable and we looked a lot more balanced when he switched to the left. Still wasn't convinced with the formation on the whole though. Our front three never really seemed to work out how to orientate themselves and were too easy to bypass, leaving our midfield very exposed.

Overall, came away feeling positive! We played some really nice stuff. Alessandra looks excellent - very skilful, and smart with his passing and movement. Miller looked very good when he came on but lacked service and had to come deep too often. Stockton had a good half too - he's excellent at holding off defenders and orientating his body to shift them out of the way.

Another big positive for me was Brewitt. Bit of an unknown quantity to most of us but he looked really good in the centre of the park when he came on. Good in possession and generally seemed to be a step ahead of the opposition - looked to be always planning out what his next move was. Loved how he stepped up to nick passes of the Stanley players too. Him doing this got O'Sullivan through for the penalty. He looks a belting find by Jim, so well done to him!

[Castaway]

Are the highlights edited in favour of us? Looked like we were playing a lot of the football.

I'm happy that we appear to have plenty of footballers in the side going forward. If Miller or Stockton have their shooting boots on I think we could score plenty.

[Gone_Shrimping]

Can only pass judgement from the highlights on the OWS but once again and a continuing worry carried forward from previous seasons was the lack of close marking which allowed their man to score with yet another shot from the edge of the area AND yet another occasion when Baz allowed a shot to get past him as has happened on too many times over the last couple of seasons.

Baz does appear to have a problem with saving shots from a distance.

Not sure how many pre season goals against have been scored in this fashion but it would appear that it continues to be an area that JB and Co seem unable to put a stop to.

However overall the performance seem to provide some encouragement going forward but the real test starts next Saturday.

Have to say that I found JB's team selection surprising in that he didn't opt to play Stockton and Miller together if only to see how the preformed as a dual strike force. Surely not a return of the single striker playing up front on his own that was so negative at the start of last season. There are goals in the players we now have, so why not opt for a least 2 up top.....with Lewis just behind

I was right behind the McConville's shot for their 2nd goal and no way could Baz get near it. Baz kept us in the match with 3 or 4 reflex saves.
More worrying were the free headers we let Accrington have from which Baz made some brilliant saves.
I like the look of Brewster who was confident and always demanding the ball and I can see him being on the starting team-sheet next week.

[RapidShrimp]

Can only pass judgement from the highlights on the OWS but once again and a continuing worry carried forward from previous seasons was the lack of close marking which allowed their man to score with yet another shot from the edge of the area AND yet another occasion when Baz allowed a shot to get past him as has happened on too many times over the last couple of seasons.

Baz does appear to have a problem with saving shots from a distance.

Not sure how many pre season goals against have been scored in this fashion but it would appear that it continues to be an area that JB and Co seem unable to put a stop to.

However overall the performance seem to provide some encouragement going forward but the real test starts next Saturday.

Have to say that I found JB's team selection surprising in that he didn't opt to play Stockton and Miller together if only to see how the preformed as a dual strike force. Surely not a return of the single striker playing up front on his own that was so negative at the start of last season. There are goals in the players we now have, so why not opt for a least 2 up top.....with Lewis just behind

I was right behind the McConville's shot for their 2nd goal and no way could Baz get near it. Baz kept us in the match with 3 or 4 reflex saves.
More worrying were the free headers we let Accrington have from which Baz made some brilliant saves.
I like the look of Brewster who was confident and always demanding the ball and I can see him being on the starting team-sheet next week.

Just to play devil’s advocate, it could be Barry’s positioning that’s his problem from long-rangers, but I’d pick Baz over Mark, he’s just an all-round better keeper in my opinion.

As others have said, it seems to be the simple things, like not closing the opposition down, and letting your marker drift away into oceans of space from FK’s, that are costing us daft goals. Hopefully it’s a simple fix but this has been a recurring theme over the last few seasons and Old and the full backs seem to struggle from free kicks.

I agree about Brewitt (not Brewster, he’s the Liverpool kid ), as you say, he seems eager to get the ball, good on the ball, good positionally and very versatile and hungry to improve. Think he could be a hidden gem if he manages to break into the first XI

[BerlinWaller]

Can only pass judgement from the highlights on the OWS but once again and a continuing worry carried forward from previous seasons was the lack of close marking which allowed their man to score with yet another shot from the edge of the area AND yet another occasion when Baz allowed a shot to get past him as has happened on too many times over the last couple of seasons.

Baz does appear to have a problem with saving shots from a distance.

Not sure how many pre season goals against have been scored in this fashion but it would appear that it continues to be an area that JB and Co seem unable to put a stop to.

However overall the performance seem to provide some encouragement going forward but the real test starts next Saturday.

Have to say that I found JB's team selection surprising in that he didn't opt to play Stockton and Miller together if only to see how the preformed as a dual strike force. Surely not a return of the single striker playing up front on his own that was so negative at the start of last season. There are goals in the players we now have, so why not opt for a least 2 up top.....with Lewis just behind

I was right behind the McConville's shot for their 2nd goal and no way could Baz get near it. Baz kept us in the match with 3 or 4 reflex saves.
More worrying were the free headers we let Accrington have from which Baz made some brilliant saves.
I like the look of Brewster who was confident and always demanding the ball and I can see him being on the starting team-sheet next week.

Just to play devil’s advocate, it could be Barry’s positioning that’s his problem from long-rangers, but I’d pick Baz over Mark, he’s just an all-round better keeper in my opinion.

As others have said, it seems to be the simple things, like not closing the opposition down, and letting your marker drift away into oceans of space from FK’s, that are costing us daft goals. Hopefully it’s a simple fix but this has been a recurring theme over the last few seasons and Old and the full backs seem to struggle from free kicks.

I agree about Brewitt (not Brewster, he’s the Liverpool kid ), as you say, he seems eager to get the ball, good on the ball, good positionally and very versatile and hungry to improve. Think he could be a hidden gem if he manages to break into the first XI

I noticed in one clip of an Accy attack that we had 5 or 6 players trying to chase one of their lads down. It looked like a scene from a school playground.