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Post by hatter_in_macc on Aug 11, 2019 18:15:11 GMT
A first night under the lights in SK3 this season - leading, hopefully, to a first three-point haul!
Post all the usual malarkey here...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2019 18:31:59 GMT
I think we need the win, however it is achieved. We're off the back of two very good away draws but my worry would be about the potential damage to confidence the longer the winless run continues.
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Post by countyfan on Aug 12, 2019 11:42:44 GMT
I hope we win! If we do the goals will probably come from the midfield or a defender from a set piece. Im growing more and more frustrated with Mulhern and so hope we can bring in a decent striker on loan soon.
Fingers crossed A goal from midfield Comes in the 63rd minute To give us our 1st 3 point haul of the season
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Post by gazz on Aug 12, 2019 12:36:06 GMT
Mulhern will open his account tomorrow night in a 2-1 win!
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Post by countyfan on Aug 12, 2019 12:41:38 GMT
Mulhern will open his account tomorrow night in a 2-1 win! Why? Is he changing banks? Are they open at night? hahaha
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Post by hermannsays on Aug 12, 2019 21:57:51 GMT
Barrow just beat Eastleigh so I'm sure JG will, like always, have studied the video which handily covers our next two opponents! Due to the four games that follow, tomorrow night and Saturday seem to have a heightened sense of importance for getting those points on the board.
On a personal level, I'm looking forward to getting back to EP - first time since that amazing Curzon game! Oh, and we have those new ST cards to scan... how very modern!
Good luck to JG and the boys!
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Post by gazz on Aug 13, 2019 20:40:50 GMT
Get in!
Well done, boys!
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Post by bringbacklenwhite on Aug 13, 2019 20:52:12 GMT
Dead right, Gazza. Get in.
That was nerve racking just following the tweets.
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Post by irishcountyfan on Aug 13, 2019 20:54:37 GMT
Great win with a few squeaky bum moments by the sounds of it lol.time to push on now
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Post by hermannsays on Aug 13, 2019 22:39:44 GMT
A 1st half lacking in enough effective/clinical forward play as a collective versus a hugely improved showing in that regard in the second half. It's the difference between zero goals and three goals. But, obviously, there was more to the night's events than that.
Barrow's first goal came after a series of mini-events all linked by a lack of concentration from us. Minihan foul-throwed in our half. Too many then took too long to get into position for their throw, resulting in them gaining 10 easy yards. Finally, it was thrown square to their big lump Quigley - we may as well have rolled a red carpet for him such was the passive nature of our defending. Wake up, County.
We had 'pretty' moments of tippy tappy stuff between Dimaio, Osborne and Mulhern and they might have felt good for the players themselves as it was training ground intricate stuff... but it was largely ineffective football for the amount of ball and territory we had.
Mulhern dropped too much and too often, compressing play and making it easier for them to defend Dimaio with the CBs naturally coming up towards DM areas. To be honest though, Dimaio didn't really outwork anyone enough to show us much of the ability we know he possesses and I was a bit frustrated that he didn't choose to vary his output, such as at least running beyond Mulhern and posing questions of their defensive communication and passing on of players. Defences should fear a player with his ability...but he has to make it that way, just having quality isn't enough.
On one occassion Thomas bust a gut to penetrate beyond and the ball was threaded centre left for him. It was fantastic movement and hinted at how things could be with sufficient willingness of everyone to mix it up that bit more to stretch a team. Thomas also put a ball front post when wide right but Mulhern, sliding, couldn't turn it onto goal under challenge.
Barrow were clearly not the greatest footballing side but they had a variety in attack with threatening pace and power. Their collective attack looked more threatening than ours. Cowan looked the part against an accomplished o paceman...but then let himself down with two incidences of going to ground needlessly and giving FKs away. Quigley continually pulled to Minihan and they should have got more joy from it but,thankfully, they mostly hit dreadful diagonals. It was clearly a tactic and it would have been difficult for Minihan to be dealing with such a powerful player should anything with any quality isolate the two.
As boos rang out at HT (for the ref), the players were applauded off. We weren't a million miles off but overplaying doesn't score goals - quick, purposeful collective play where we commit properly does. The HT messgae was probably to remember our principles and that 'pretty ruthless' beats 'just pretty'.
And it wasn't long after the break that the same Thomas cross from the first half came to that front post. But this time there had been no overplaying and slow build up to allow defenders to get into position. It was sharp play and Mulhern committed, beating his man to it. A perfect reminder of how being our brutal best can be unplayable. Mulhern off the mark. Well done.
Keane got our second, stepping forward and unleashing with great technical control from distance. Just superb.
A diagonal towards Minihan's side was again poorly executed by them, but Minihan's miscontrol led to them stealing and running towards our box. I think it was Osborne (sorry if it wasn't) who stretched out a foot and brought their man down, quite central and maybe 25 yards out. It looked like the FK went in on the wall side so I don't know if it went over or through.
Minihan had done some good work but it must have felt like the world was ounishing him for his two errors in both their goals!
Fear not though. Keane expertly won the ball as they tried to look for a winner, the ball ended up with Bully on the left and he cutely threaded in Kirby down the left channel and into the box. The ball was centred and finished well. So Thomas had assisted and scored, Bully had done his part in the final two goals, as had Keane. We had played so much more actively going forward and I really enjoyed it.
Of course, the dropping deep thereafter wasn't great nor were some bizarre moments with Hinchliffe's kicking decisions...oh and throw in a hit post from Jason Taylor and an unbelievable miss from a free header 8 yards out... and Palmer going to sleep on a long punt...and... you get the idea.
We weren't our best but the heart was there and when we got the most out of ourselves it was great.
Well done JG and the boys.
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Aug 13, 2019 23:02:53 GMT
back home in decent time, despite a brief sojourn west to prestwich and white city because they're still f***ing about at simister island. i think they've resurfaced it about 14 times in the last year, generally coinciding with county's evening games at EP.
great chance for county early on - might have been jackson played in inside the box at an angle, but the 'keeper blocked it, they went up the other end, and thirty seconds later they were ahead. looked poorly defended to me, with two county players in front of the eventual scorer. i might be being hyper-critical, but i also thought that hinchliffe was beaten a little tamely.
after that, county were on top, but not looking like they could finish their collective dinners. there were various efforts from various ranges, but they were mostly snaffled up by their 'keeper. barrow employed 'game management' from fairly early, and were also pretty sly. felt like virtually every decision went in their favour, when a number looked to be clearly county's free kick. loud boos at half time, followed by loud applause. i suspect that confused the players (i think mostly aimed at the officials, who got another dose near the tunnel), but we should have been going in at least level.
second half started with a bang - i really like the type of goal we scored (look, i'm grateful for any goal, but i really like the...geometry or something of a low cross and a precise first time finish) with thomas playing in a low ball for mulhearn (who earlier had a bit of an 'afters' running battle with jason taylor). we took the lead when a corner, initially defended, was played to keane, some distance out. he lamped it past the 'keeper and into the corner of the net. very good hit, but i would always question the 'keeper's positioning and/or reactions from that distance...
...as i did a bit later when barrow fired a free kick into the bottom corner past hinchliffe. i expect him to be superman, and tonight...put a pair of glasses on him and call him clark kent.
despite that, county pushed on and eventually got the winner. i wasn't watching the build up but looked up in time to see adam thomas receive the ball in the box and sweep it in. for a set of fans who had been giving it 'you're not singing anymore' a few minutes before, the barrovians were strangely quiet. one of the many hubristically risky songs of football, that.
and then we sh*t ourselves. barrow pressed us back, and we were darting around, panicking. apart from nyal bell, who appeared to have played a full match and extra time elsewhere before coming on as a lateish sub, because he moved like he was carrying a fridge on his back, ambling between their players rather than shuttling, giving them ample time on the ball. jason taylor (only realised it was his shot after reading maccy's report) nearly ruined our evenings in the 4 minutes of injury time by hitting the outside of the right hand post. hinchliffe blotted tonight's copybook further by trying a throw out to a county runner which if he'd executed it correctly would have got us up the pitch. instead, it was easily cut out and another wave of barrow attacking began. we did have the amusement of hinchliffe clearly fingertipping a late shot over, resulting in a...goal kick...and that was mostly it. not necessarily pretty, but done, and deserved. nice one county.
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Post by hermannsays on Aug 13, 2019 23:22:01 GMT
I like Bell and think he has a good shot at a career. But tonight was texting in a performance and, as a near 40-year-old non-playing man, I can genuinely assert that I would have got closer to closing down their defenders. Then I would have died. True story. Hope that's the last time we see the energy of Mulhern replaced in auch a lacklustre way.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2019 23:27:58 GMT
I thought that was a good game but there were hints towards the end that fit as the players are, they were struggling after such a tough opening to the season against full-time sides. Obviously very pleased with the result. It's always particularly pleasing to beat teams indulging in blatant time-wasting and to shove it up the numpty who scored Barrow's second leading his team-mates attempts to wind the Cheadle end up after his goal, and ffs! Where do they get these refs from?
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Post by ceefer on Aug 14, 2019 20:15:04 GMT
Their GK was time wasting from the off until County took the league. The groundsman pointed out to me that he was poor when the ball was put in low across goal. 5 Minutes later we created 2 goals crossing on the ground. Was it divine inspiration or did he know something I didn't - probably the latter.
Ive said it a number of times but why do we not have a defender on each side of the goal to defend close range free kicks? Again we concede whereas a defender could have stopped Rooneys goal. I'm not a manager but how many are we going to concede like that.
Pleased with the team performance especially digging out a win. Tired legs all over the pitch.
Can we make it easier for ourselves by scoring first in the Eastleigh match?
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Post by dudleyhatter on Aug 14, 2019 21:59:30 GMT
From the video I would really have to question their keeper’s positioning for the first goal. Their free kick was well struck and to be fair if we had done that we would say that the keeper had no chance.
With regards to players on the line for free kicks then that opens up the whole penalty area for their strikers so for me it creates more problems than it solves.
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