Rochdale Game

[FrankMoody]

No one on here want to talk football anymore??????

Game today was a painful watch

Very surprising team selection, gamble by the manager which did not work

Hunt not fit
Taylor not fit
Murthy contributes nothing in midfield
Naismith flatters to deceive with lovely touches but absolutely no end product
McCarten not ready/good enough

2nd half we just completely lost our shape and discipline

We looked very disorganised at set pieces.

Rant over. On he lash

[Ghostbuster]

Torn between wanting us to go on as we are or count our losses and move on-here are my opinions/reasons; Carry on as we are: James Beattie seems like a total gent and all round good guy, has brought good players to the club, brought class to the club. I want him to turn it around with this young and in my opinion talented squad.


Change things: Part of me also wants JC back to save us, but it would hurt (you may laugh but it would be like taking your wife back after she has gone off with another better looking bloke who got fed up with her) But he knows what we are about, when I have spoke to him he has told me stories of being on the dole in the 80's, dragging himself up to becoming a teacher and then football manager..ie off his arse to become as a success like our club.


The only thing I know is that although supporting Stanley is a tough hobby, when the second Rochdale goal went in I felt an emotion that I have never previously felt at the Crown embarrassed!....please let me know if I am alone with these thoughts.......

[DAV007]

I'm finding it really hard to not discuss our managers ability, but I promised him 10 league games before I make my judgement so I will bite my lip for now.

Today

Bettinelli - 6/10 didn't have a lot to do in all honesty, but did concede 2 goals
Aldred - 7/10 best defender, mopped up a lot of their attacks alone with no midfield support
Winnard - 5/10 not great, very limited with the ball at his feet
Hunt - 5/10 though he was poor going forward as was his crossing, looked knackered with 15 minutes to go
Naylor 6/10 - shaky at first but grew into the game, lacked fitness but promising
Murphy 2/10 - utterly useless yet again, the game passed him by. The guy has no positional sense and is slow to get back to support the defence. Has no footballing brain whatsoever, cant read anything.
Joyce 4/10 - better than murphy but he has no invention, is not great defensivly. Strange he is the captain as he does not influence the game or his fellow players. Was caught out ball watching in the 1st half.
Naismith 4/10 - some effort and to be fair to him he does try to beat his man and show some invention, but the second he goes past them its as if he is waiting to get tackled.
Physically weak and does not impose himself, comes inside to often. Not sure he is football league standard?
Mahoney 4/10 - to early for him to be thrown into the first team, he had nice ball control but produced little.
McCartan 2/10 - other than some neat touchs, the guy is a waste of space as a football league player. Very disappointed with him in the first half when he had the advantage over the keeper to run onto a through ball and didn't fancy getting involved in a tackle so slowed down to avoid contact.
Bit of a pre-madonna
Odejayi 7/10 - won a good number of the long balls upto him, took his goal well. Only criticism was his decision making at times with the ball at his feet. On at least 2 occasions he tried a through ball which was played well ahead of the runner despite having time on the ball and having better options.
Other than his goal, I can only think of one other good ball he received all day. Felt sorry for him, getting such rubbish service from the wings and no good passes or support from the midfield donkeys of Joyce and Murphy.

Gray - 5/10 - probably not a criticism of Gray but the manager as when he came on for Naylor we looked less effective as the team was unbalanced. Did little of note, had no effect on the game.
Hatfield - 5/10 not enough time to make an impact, did nothing of note.
Richardson - 5/10 not enough time to make an impact, did nothing of note.

Beattie - 1/10 - some major flaws in tactics, team selection and ability to change a game and react to events in a game.
No further comment


One last thing, I arrived 5 minutes late. In the town centre at 2.50PM where plenty of people and youngsters wearing Man Utd, Burnley, Barcelona, man city shirts.
Real shame.
The town of Accrington probably doesn't realise how blessed it is to have a football league club.
It puts the town on the map.

[smobile]

Great post DAV007 - the last bit really f***s me off. Kids roaming round town in premier league kits, who've probably never been to Old Trafford or Anfield, when they have League Football two bus stops away for the price of a can of coke and a bag of Monster Munch.

[yonmon]

Originally Posted by FrankMoody

No one on here want to talk football anymore??????

Game today was a painful watch

Very surprising team selection, gamble by the manager which did not work

Hunt not fit
Taylor not fit
Murthy contributes nothing in midfield
Naismith flatters to deceive with lovely touches but absolutely no end product
McCarten not ready/good enough

2nd half we just completely lost our shape and discipline

We looked very disorganised at set pieces.

Rant over. On he lash

To be frank Frank...some 'positives' were apparent to the discerning eye..
Bettinelli again displayed the attributes which will make him a sought-after goalkeeper in the near future.
The young Mahoney when he develops a bit of muscle will also IMHO prove to be a decent forward...pity he tired towards the end !.
Tom Aldred stood out as being by far the best defender on view, and didn't deserve to be on a losing team !
As to 'losing shape', it was difficult to see from the kick-off what JB's preferred shape for the visit of Rochdale actually was !... no better example than the defensive marking at the Corner-kick leading to the first goal !.
But unlike the pundits on Radio Lancs who were ,following the match, determined to write The Stanley off as total failures,again IMHO there is enough in the squad to find some success... as to avoiding the drop, well some change in luck ( and Refereeing decisions !) is sorely needed !..
But Frank...we must go on believing...and supporting our team. It's what is required of us don't you think ?.

[Haggis316]

At least in the second half I could tell which team was down to 10 men which was more than could be said for Sheffield Wednesday v Yeovil last week.

[HiHoUpTheStanley]

I have to agree. JC could have come back in the summer and i for one have to wonder why we didnt snap him up. He has been one of the best things to happen to this club. James Beattie is a nice guy and does want the best for us but he doesnt look cut out for managing yet. We need to get JC back before its too late he will fight for every point get the players back fighting. 1 point from 7 is in no way acceptable. Get JC and JB back before its too late!

[Haggis316]

Rochdale scored with embarrassing ease. We only seemed to get any sort of grip on the game when we were two down. Odejayi apart we offered little threat up front apart from McCartan's great run and cross shot in the second half and the curling volley they brilliantly headed off the line. Too often particularly in the first half passes weren't anticipated quickly enough to cut them open and Odejayi had insufficent support.

Players were too often caught out of position and losing possession.

[shakermaker]

Originally Posted by FrankMoody

No one on here want to talk football anymore??????

Game today was a painful watch

Very surprising team selection, gamble by the manager which did not work

Hunt not fit
Taylor not fit
Murthy contributes nothing in midfield
Naismith flatters to deceive with lovely touches but absolutely no end product
McCarten not ready/good enough

2nd half we just completely lost our shape and discipline

We looked very disorganised at set pieces.

Rant over. On he lash

Agree with everything there.

Objectively speaking you can't account for the first goal as it's a fluke - an open net after coming back off the crossbar. But a result of sitting too deep. The second is conceded at a set piece because the back four - however experienced - have never played together.

So disappointed with our performance after the sending off though. Seething in fact.

Naismith was a passenger today when it should've been his opportunity to impress. No positional sense or discipline; a waste. As much as I love Peter Murphy he was completely ineffective today. McCartan rushed and hurried but Hatfield's quality would've been better alongside the magnificent Odejayi.

Ultimately though - I'm so sad that we failed to penetrate an average side with over 45 mins to play. If the manager can't motivate the players enough to want it we might as well give up now.

Sack the bad suits and faux professionalism. Get real. If you want to stay in the league, act like it.

[chris57]

Dave007 is spot on, as for attendences we do need some kind of a promotion drive, If we cant' muster at least 2000 home fans for a home match there is something sadly wrong. i don't knoe what the answer is but it needs to happen.

[shakermaker]

And what the cock is going on with the amount of announcements over the tannoy for away fans?!?!?!

ASFC = club for rent

[Redraine]

I thought at the time that the ref did us no favours in sending off Donnelly as Dale were going to sit back in numbers and try to hit us on the break. We just do not have the quality to open up a packed defence. It has been obvious from well before the season started that Joyce and Murphy as central midfielders are just not up to L2 standards and we won't get out of the current situation without replacing them with players who have the ability to directly take on defenders head on and thus create gaps in the defence. No one has the drive and skills to go marauding into the box from the central positions and the number of cross field passes played in front of their defence was painful to watch. I thought Naismith was very disappointing, and don't let anyone try to tell me that he's a winger. Never once did he try to go outside his man and get in a cross. I thought the new big man up front was great and I'm sure Jeffers, for one, would have had a field day getting onto his knock downs. We can still turn this round, but not unless we can find a Proccy-like player at his attacking best somewhere.

[cashman]

Think webber is the man to play off the big lad, agree oer Joyce @ Murphy certainly not up to the mark. Stanley need to come outa the traps from the start, Think the first goal can be crucial on a poor run.

[football19]

Wasn't good today,but in reality we should have got something from the game.I counted at least five clear cut chances,and we failed to convert any.
Once again we haven't given any credit to rochdales young organised team who had a bit of pace and good movement.
Playing 4-4-2 with two wide men and fullbacks who weren't fully fit was always going to cause problems in central areas (due to being out numbered).
Joyce coming short,murph trying to get forward,gaps started to appear when wingers/number ten don't fill those spaces left.
I understand the idea of wingers staying wide and getting crosses in,but without the ball,you have to know your roll and not switch off.
For me,now we have a target man,4-3-3 would suit us more,and use wide men as impact players as required.

[DarwenRed]

Same old thing, plenty of effort but a lack of quality!

Aldred and adadayi (you know who I mean) the only players who looked like they'd played football before!