Mansfield 1 Morecambe 0 LIVE thread

[dannymorc1]

This is one of our worst performances for along time. Not creating anything. Need to play to feet, stop the head tennis. Don't see us getting a goal from anywhere. The comeback on Tuesday was a bit of a fluke. We need that spirit now.

[paulshrimp]

They are also much stronger physically than us

[Andy D]

Sully has been off par today, nice to see Smithy coming on!

[Keith]

Mansfield player shoves Morecambe player over, no foul, no comment at all.
Five seconds later, Morecambe player shoves Mansfield player over, no foul, they complain like mad that it was a blatant foul!

Okay, they aren't too bad compared to some away commentary teams [Exeter & Bolton!] but they definitely only see things one way.

[Angler1]

Got to say we are very poor today. Nothing at all up front. We could gave dine with a result today we have some tough matching coming up...

[Born again Bill]

AJ howler !

[dannymorc1]

We didn't deserve anything, an overall poor performance. Our expectations have been raised very high recently so we are expecting to win virtually all our games.
We will bounce back better from this, the lads will be as disappointed as us.
On to the next one.....

[Keith]

That was bloody dreadful. We could play until next Saturday and not score. Did we have a shot all all game? Worst game for a long time.

[Born again Bill]

Thankfully not much damage done looking at the table , still well in the mix just need forest green to get beaten later !

[redrobo]

DA straight onto the field on the whistle and straight to the ref to complain about something.

Some games you have to admit that the better team won...and so it was today.

Never got going and too many aimless punts up field to nobody.

Got into our faces from the go until the end.

Not very good.... even with all our club strikers on still couldn't muster any real threat.

[tim-sanchez]

Very poor performance, we still don't look like we've recovered from losing Phillips. Our performances in February:

• Stevenage 2-2 Morecambe - poor performance against a team in a relegation battle
  
• Bolton 1-1 Morecambe - Off the pace for the first half, got back into the game after they had a man sent off (which was lucky as it was subsequently chalked off)
  
• Bradford 2-1 Morecambe - Scored through a fluke cross/shot, then barely made the goalkeeper work
  
• Barrow 1-2 Morecambe - A good win, but Barrow were an extremely poor side and I thought we made it tough on ourselves
  
• Morecambe 2-1 Salford - Great comeback, but we again had a poor first half and only troubled their keeper in the last 10 minutes
  
• Today - Another match where their goalkeeper hardly had a save to make

I'd say Barrow is the only decent performance in the month, and that was more because of how terrible they were than how good we were

[black morse]

Thankfully not much damage done looking at the table , still well in the mix just need forest green to get beaten later !

Yes. Carlisle and Exeter lost and Newport and Salford only picked up a point.

Very disappointing result though.

[Little Shrimp]

Worst performance in a long time, very possibly the worst of the season so far. Hangover/comedown from Tuesday?

Our distribution was really terrible, with barely any decent balls into Stockton. Thought we weren't as organised in our defensive shape either against a decent but relatively unspectacular Mansfield side. This, for me, also contributed to our attacking issues as most of our better attacks come from counters, which come from being organised and nicking the ball.

What I would say Mansfield did very well was transitioning into defence. Our biggest threat is countering (usually from midfield) and getting the ball up the pitch quickly. They worked extremely hard to shut us off whenever we got a chance to break. It was already a poor performance, but this made it worse!

If AJ had slammed in that volley on the turn then it would have been a thoroughly undeserved point!

[Redalert1970]

Still 5th in the league... We aren't going to win every game

Massive week coming up with home games against Crawley and Carlisle

[Born again Bill]

Still 5th in the league... We aren't going to win every game

Massive week coming up with home games against Crawley and Carlisle

Boltnob moved up into playoff spot with a late winner over Barrow ( bet that went down well) they are on a right run !

[Bare bum]

Worst performance in a long time, very possibly the worst of the season so far. Hangover/comedown from Tuesday?

Our distribution was really terrible, with barely any decent balls into Stockton. Thought we weren't as organised in our defensive shape either against a decent but relatively unspectacular Mansfield side. This, for me, also contributed to our attacking issues as most of our better attacks come from counters, which come from being organised and nicking the ball.

What I would say Mansfield did very well was transitioning into defence. Our biggest threat is countering (usually from midfield) and getting the ball up the pitch quickly. They worked extremely hard to shut us off whenever we got a chance to break. It was already a poor performance, but this made it worse!

If AJ had slammed in that volley on the turn then it would have been a thoroughly undeserved point!

Yes, agree with all of that. Very disappointing. Too many players looked dull and jaded. A few new faces to start Tuesday?

[Screenster]

Very poor performance, we still don't look like we've recovered from losing Phillips. Our performances in February:

• Stevenage 2-2 Morecambe - poor performance against a team in a relegation battle
  
• Bolton 1-1 Morecambe - Off the pace for the first half, got back into the game after they had a man sent off (which was lucky as it was subsequently chalked off)
  
• Bradford 2-1 Morecambe - Scored through a fluke cross/shot, then barely made the goalkeeper work
  
• Barrow 1-2 Morecambe - A good win, but Barrow were an extremely poor side and I thought we made it tough on ourselves
  
• Morecambe 2-1 Salford - Great comeback, but we again had a poor first half and only troubled their keeper in the last 10 minutes
  
• Today - Another match where their goalkeeper hardly had a save to make

I'd say Barrow is the only decent performance in the month, and that was more because of how terrible they were than how good we were

Bit of context though, Bradford and Bolton have been on impervious form, Salford and Barrow were great wins. The only two poor performances for me were Stevenage and today (and today was really poor, no denying that). Granted February hasn't been a great month when compared to December but with 9 of our last 15 games being at home I really still think we could be up there at the end of the season.

[Screenster]

Bit of context though, Bradford and Bolton have been on impervious form, Salford and Barrow were great wins. The only two poor performances for me were Stevenage and today (and today was really poor, no denying that). Granted February hasn't been a great month when compared to December but with 9 of our
last 15 games being at home I really still think we could be up there at the end of the season.

Just to add, we started the month of February in 6th. We end the month sitting 5th. Not that bad at all.

[Keith]

I wonder how much the pitch was a problem for us today? Mansfield easily won the aerial battle. Cole had very little impact in his usual 'hold up the long ball' role. But the pitch was really bobbly, which may have been why we made so little effort to keep it on the deck? Plan 'A' wasn't working and we couldn't try Plan 'B'?

Shame AJ didn't finish our only real chance of the game, the dinked ball over from Carlos deserved a finish, even if a draw would have flattered us.

[marky No.1]

Havnt had a win against Mansfield for 5 years now in the League, not surprising really, still in a decent position just above the chasing pack, just hope we are in with a chance on the final day against Bradford

[Andy D]

Havnt had a win against Mansfield for 5 years now in the League, not surprising really, still in a decent position just above the chasing pack, just hope we are in with a chance on the final day against Bradford

plus Nigel Clough must be the most decorated Manager in L2

[halfwayprawn]

Mansfield could not believe their luck when started by playing hoofball and head tennis, when will we ever learn.

[RapidShrimp]

Mansfield could not believe their luck when started by playing hoofball and head tennis, when will we ever learn.

I agree that our often aimless hoof-ball played right into the hands of Mansfield, and it was probably the worst performance of the season, but saying “when will we ever learn” is a bit ridiculous. We don’t usually play that style of direct football - it’s usually a mix of neat and quick passing play, and getting the ball to Cole when other avenues are blocked. Blips happen, you can’t perform well and at full throttle every games, especially in one of the most congested periods of Saturday-Tuesday football we’ve ever seen.

Derek clearly saw Mansfield’s pressing threat, and how they crowd the penalty area will 5/6 bodies on every attack, and decided that long balls were the way to win the game - but Mansfield defended superbly and limited us to barely a single opportunity. Considering we are 5th in the table after losing our top scorer, penalty taker, FK taker, sometimes corner taker etc, I don’t think we suddenly need to “learn” anything. If anything, I think it’s our lack of clinical finishing that’s letting us down.

[redrobo]

DA has been superb for us in his tactical approach to games but yesterday was one day when he got it wrong which he is entitled to do. Everybody could see that the long ball game was playing into their hands so surely we should have changed our tactics to give their defence something to worry about.

Not being critical of DA by any means but for me he got it wrong....for possibly the first time this season.



As usual DA tells it as it was in his post match interview on our OWS. You have to admire DA for his honesty which is the complete opposite to how other managers view games.

[Little Shrimp]

DA has been superb for us in his tactical approach to games but yesterday was one day when he got it wrong which he is entitled to do. Everybody could see that the long ball game was playing into their hands so surely we should have changed our tactics to give their defence something to worry about.

Not being critical of DA by any means but for me he got it wrong....for possibly the first time this season.



As usual DA tells it as it was in his post match interview on our OWS. You have to admire DA for his honesty which is the complete opposite to how other managers view games.

I completely disagree that DA got it wrong in any big tactical way yesterday.

Clough is an excellent manager for this level and while I can't say this with too much certainty as I don't watch Mansfield regularly, I'd be pretty sure he worked on a plan to immediately jump on/press our counter attacks to shut them down. It worked, and they did a good job of hassling us on the ball which, on a pretty terrible pitch, ultimately forced us to hit more long balls.

That said, we are usually pretty direct. We have the second lowest pass percentage and play the second fewest short passes per game in the league (interestingly, Carlisle are first for both). I don't think DA instructed us to go any more direct than usual yesterday. I just think Mansfield had a very good plan to deal with us, the players were poor/sluggish (possibly a bit blown out from Tuesday) and the pitch made things very difficult.

A big reason I don't think we were trying to go particularly direct is because our long balls to Stockton were super poor and inaccurate. To me, that comes from reasons above rather than it being a plan to go more direct than usual.