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Post by hatter_in_macc on Sept 24, 2023 16:35:43 GMT
Here's Maccy, teeing it up for Accy!
You know what to do...
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Post by autistichatter on Sept 26, 2023 13:10:35 GMT
Well, well, well, almost a quarter of the way into the new season and we face Accrington Stanley, on whom I did a note a while ago (Who Dey?) so I'll limit myself here to the usual stuff I tend to post.
They sit in 12th with a record of P 9 W 4 D 1 L 4 F 13 A 13 - all rather symmetrical and that. Their H record is reasonable P 5 W 3 D 1 L 1 F 10 A 6. The Ws are Newport County 3 0 on opening day, Harrogate Town 2 1 also in Aug and Sutton United 4 1; the D was Barrow 1-1 back in Aug; the L was to Mansfield 0 3. So they scored a few against mid or lower table sides but not quite so many against better teams.
Since my last note they signed MF Ben Woods, a product of the academies at Manure and Bur*ley who had a brief run at Inverness (7 sub apps) and also QPR D Joe Gubbins who decided it was his turn ( a-ha ha) to have a go at the season-long loan arrangement. Meanwhile veteran MF Sean McConville had to be stretchered off with multiple ligament tears against Harrogate and is expected to be out for 3 months. He had scored twice in 4 apps so I guess they may miss him.
Top scorer status is shared by 5 players all on 2: - 6ft 3 forward Josh Andrews (Season-long etc from Birmingham City), MF Tommy Leigh, the afore-mentioned Sean McConville, MF Jack Nolan and long-time Shrew F Shaun Whalley. A further 3 players have each scored once. So all in all they look to spread it round a bit.
They look to have gone some way to fixing their dreadful defence of last season (GD -37!), in spite of which they were only 3 points away from staying up. Hmmm, I'm gonna say that this could be a very cagey sort of game: normally after an epic performance such as last Saturday 5-star showing the next game sees a bit of a fall off so I'll say this will be a D - 1 - 1 pr 2 - 2 that sort of thing.
Elsewhere in L2 -
8th place AFC Wombles v Tranmere
Barrow v Disappointing Donny
Cole U v 1st place Notts County
4th place Crawley v Sutton
2nd place Gillingham v 3rd place Mansfield
5th place Swindon v Grimsby
7th place Wrecktum v 6th place Crewe Alex
So two fixtures where things could help County continue the rise up the table. As ever, fingers crossed.
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Post by hermannsays on Sept 30, 2023 9:32:41 GMT
Our last three results have been excellent and much needed in moving us into a decent league position. Last weekend especially was a real high with an unusual level of goals per shots.
Any management team watching those highlights will surely not do what Parkinson did, and so it can't be expected that we'll have an opponent face up so favourably for our pacey attackers.
Given we had also scored at least 2 in each of the 4 league games before Wrexham, I think we will have to be prepared for a group of games where teams are focused on maintaining their discipline in shape, making it much harder for us to break them down.
Stats are showing Accrington are down the league (20th) for number of passes pg, while we're 6th, and so they should already have had decent practice at playing without the ball! It's fair to expect that we'll have plenty of the ball today.
Accrington also seem to hit long as much as anyone in the league and are highest for aerials won per game. They've won the most fouls pg of any side but have also conceded almost as many as anyone. They're up near the top for set-piece goals while we've been as bad as anyone at keeping goals out from set-pieces. One only need to stand behind our goal at set-poeces to see how hard it is for many of our players to compete with the taller/heavier players. Accy aren't shy of long shots either... though with the extra midfielder having moved to the back 4, hopefully we're on top of snuffing that out.
We're yet to keep the opponent out on the road and so to make it back-to-back clean sheets would be very welcome. Touray in his more natural LB position has looked much better and youngster Pye will hopefully continue in his development to help make the back 4 solid. I thought he did well against Wrexham, who heavily rely on their long throw tactic (still).
Good luck, DC and the boys!
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Post by autistichatter on Sept 30, 2023 16:46:12 GMT
Well that was nice, until the late goal, although that wasn't too much of a spoiler.
So with September in the books that's P 5 W 4 D 1 L 0 F 15 A 6, not a bad little run that, involving several teams from the top end of the table.
So the future is looking much brighter than it did a few weeks back - but what about October I hear you ask. Well, in terms of League 2 fixtures, it looks like this (all positions at the time of posting)
Tue 3rd H v Forest Green Rovers (22nd)
Sat 7th H v Disappointing Donny 21st)
Sat 14th A v Harrogate Town (16th)
Sat 21st A v Grimsby (19th)
Tue 24th A v Crewe (7th)
Sat 28th H v Tranmere (23rd)
Now I'd call that an opportunity to pile up more points, although in all likelihood there'll be a hiccup or two in that spell.
Anyway, onwards and upwards, fingers crossed.
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Post by autistichatter on Sept 30, 2023 17:07:50 GMT
Aaand by way of comparison this is County's L2 campaign so far with all positions as at today:
Sat 5th Aug H v Gillingham (4th) L 0-1
Sat 12th Aug A v Walsall (13th) L 2-1
Tue 15th Aug H v Bratfut (14th) D 1-1
Sat 19th Aug H v Barrow (10th) W 1-0
Sat 26th Aug A v Mansfield 5th) L 3-2
Sat 2nd Sep H v Crawley (2nd) D 3-3
Sat 9th Sep A AFC Wombles (6th) W 1-2
Sat 16th Sep A v MKD (11th) W 1-2
Sat 23rd Sep H v Wrecktum (9th) W 5-0
Sat 30th Sep A v Accy Stanley 15th) W 1-3
So that's 6 of the top 10 sides (the others being Notts County, Swindon, Crewe and County) in the first 10 games. The lowest placed side is Accy Stanley at 15th, and we also played the sides in 11th, 13th and 14th. I remember looking at that fixture list before the season began and thinking that looks a bit tough does that but if anything it was even harder than I thought.
So a record of P 10 W 5 D 2 L 3 F 20 A 13, which if anything is a bit disappointing, will do just fine for me - Multiply that up by 4.5 and with one game to go we should be on P 45 W 23 D 9 L 13 F 90 A 59 GD +31 Pts 78 which would probably be an automatic spot, and I'd take that.
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Post by bringbacklenwhite on Sept 30, 2023 18:15:29 GMT
Basically, County are 3 points of top position after a relatively poor start and with 3rd best goal difference in the whole league.
Crewe looking useful this term and Notts Co having a hiccup today. All very interesting
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Post by gazz on Sept 30, 2023 22:28:22 GMT
How quickly things change! It does seem to tie in with the change in formation, which MSH & Sarc in particular seem to be revelling in, so long may it continue.
I wonder if DC looking to leave had anything to do with the sudden change in fortunes? Anyone else remember Rusk's parting shot where he said he wanted to play a back four? I'm wondering if DC has had a chat with he who shall not be named to insist on calling the shots with the first team selection and tactics?
Just a thought.
Anyway, congrats to DC, his staff and players for another fine win!
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Post by ceefer on Oct 1, 2023 7:26:38 GMT
Awful conditions for playing football and I felt for the County fans getting soaked behind the goal. Highlight of the day was the excellent steak and pepper pie for just £3.00.
Good win, congratulations to the players and staff. Bringing on the subs showed how little depth we have and we conceded a poor goal. Looking forward to players coming back and DC having a team selection headache.
I'm not sure how Accy survive as their support was really poor.
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Post by ceefer on Oct 1, 2023 7:33:09 GMT
We have songs for a lot of players but why not Croasdale.........
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Post by gazz on Oct 1, 2023 8:05:33 GMT
We have songs for a lot of players but why not Croasdale......... What about AC/DC - Whole Lotta Croasie? Replace the "Angus!" with "Croasie!" But on reflection, maybe not  |
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Post by ceefer on Oct 2, 2023 17:36:24 GMT
Lol maybe not....  |
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