[lesgeo]

After 32 years of writing up refs with marks, I chose the Covid period as my time to call it a day.
Rather wish I hadn’t, now.

[lesgeo]

When you have sat alongside a ref for decades – you learn a bit.
When you sit alongside someone, who for years, lined throughout the Premiership and in two cup finals as well as reffing in the Conference – you learn a whole lot more – especially when negotiating the final mark to be given.
If you sit with match assessors – as I have done on a number of occasions – you get into the thought patterns and do not make hasty decisions.
Your final sentence will apply to some, Ferrite, but I may respectfully point out that it is hardly applicable to me – someone who has had a working lifetime endeavouring to give fair and balanced assessments.

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inspector

[lesgeo]

Has anyone looked specifically at penalties for and against us this season?
How many dubious ones have we had? – How many dubious ones to the opposition?

My gut feeling is that there is a huge imbalance and to our significant detriment.

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SDH57

[lesgeo]

Clinical finishing and decent defending won us the game. Super!

The other bits were not so good. It’s a long time since we have misplaced so many passes; there were often few outlets when a player stuck in possession was looking to find a man; movement off the ball was ponderous and the intelligence we have come to expect was sagging a bit. (And yes, I know it was windy.)
This game was about getting rid of the rustiness.
With players staying fit 7th in the league can yet become a reality.

Harrogate have a few good players – and that cheating forward looks a real find but overall, we should now be expecting to beat teams like that on a regular basis.

[lesgeo]

I thought two or three players looked as if they had a pound of lead in each boot.
The performance ought to be better on Tuesday. Good job we were only playing Harrogate, today.

[lesgeo]

I have been wondering the same for quite a while.

[lesgeo]

Foul weather in February, eh?
Funny what that would have done to the plans of those wanting ‘a mid-season break’.
Such plans almost always target January.
British weather is never easy to pin down.

[lesgeo]

Oops.

[lesgeo]

1° – 2pm.
1° – 3pm
1° – 4pm
0° – 5pm.

On that basis – will probably go ahead.

[lesgeo]

Two small strikers?
As I recall, they brought a physically very small side. They skipped lightly across the snow and frost.
It is correct that they had four shots and scored four times.
It sounds totally daft after losing 4 – 0 but I thought we had looked a far better side, on the day.

The only other time we ever got a thumping and I thought we were the better side was again against Rochdale but at Spotland. Was that 4 – 0, maybe? I’m hazy on the details. Anyone?

[lesgeo]

I’m not worrying about this.
All my waking hours are concerned with our fishy friends facing relegation.
It’s a long time since anything was causing me as much deep anguish.

[lesgeo]

Surprised nobody has been in for McAtee.

[lesgeo]

Yes – quite the rarity!

[lesgeo]

Just thinking back to our defending. It was just so good:-
Players each doing their job.
Awareness of location of other defenders.
Putting bodies on the line.
Attacking every loose ball.
Thinking quicker than attackers.
Bodies in line for blocks.
Intelligence showing through.
Great anticipation.
Midfielders and forwards dropping back in support.

Really nice to see. Little wonder the clean sheets are piling up and Howard is starting to show some confidence.

[lesgeo]

Disagree with you on the Taft mark, BS, but I think you’ve pretty much captured the rest. (Unlike you to be kinder on the ref than I would be, though.)

This was the first time we’ve seen a FB who has been too good for Green. I wondered if he was a bit ‘leggy’ after the last week coz his pace usually gets him away from defenders.

[lesgeo]

Much has to do with not having established a spine to the team from the start – with some allowance made to cover injuries. A spine eventually appears – and lo – the squad starts to hang together. How many times have I written the words ‘catalyst needed’, I wonder?
For quite some time now, I’ve been trying to get the point across that the squad is not full of total duffers like quite a few have been claiming.

Take last night. I would be delighted to see all those players with us at the start of next season – and that probably also applies to the bench as well as KVV and McGahey.

Even the GK is looking like the custodian his playing history tells us he ought to be.

The manager stops playing one up front and there is a great improvement.
Who’d have guessed?

This squad is not all that far from being a promotion contender next season. Most is going to depend on how well we do in hanging onto our better players.
I’ll be heartbroken if Gilliead goes. He’s the kind of player I would go out of my way to watch.

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DarrynStampGoalMachine, inspector

[lesgeo]

Ref was singularly mediocre second half; first half had me reaching for the swearwords. (Not something which is all that common.) I gave him a 3 overall.

Great defensive performance and Howard showing good GK skills.

Sadly, all the wonderful hard graft on the other parts of the pitch was cancelled out by some truly dreadful retention of the ball. Can’t blame the pitch for that – they kept the ball far better than we did.

We deserved to score one goal – which we did.
They deserved to score zilch which they did.
3 points to us? – Fair result.

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IRONINTHEBLOOD

[lesgeo]

Decent.
Which were the absolute shockers – was it the commentators at Sarfend?
Harrogate were not so hot.

[lesgeo]

Only featured four times all season. Crocked or legs have gone, I’d guess.

[lesgeo]

How often has a single striker ever really worked for us other than in the odd game?
Not all that many other League Two clubs do it – even away from home.

[lesgeo]

Cox said we are not interested.

[lesgeo]

In both halves, the ball was pumped into our box with scary regularity.
The GK played well but the CBs were terrific which is why we got away with a clean sheet.
If I had to guess, I would say that the ball was lifted into our penalty area, on average and at the very least, once every three minutes. In part, we got away with this because the Vale strikers were not all that good.
A reasonably competent attack might well have given us a thrashing.
When the ball is in your crowded box that often you can always expect ricochets and the like.
It is easy to blame the FBs but Vale were really good at pushing crosses towards the penalty spot from a variety of different angles and varied positions on the pitch. We had no idea how to stop this. The formation change hardly helped at all in that respect.

[lesgeo]

Who is that player up front with some support around him?
Obviously can’t be Lofty coz so many people have insisted that he has no talent whatsoever.

WHY has the manager taken so long to figure it out???

[lesgeo]

What is the source for all of this?

[lesgeo]

Now resigned for The Terriers.

[lesgeo]

Yeah. Tom Newey gave MOTM to Loft.
I am happy enough with that but surely Lofty must start heading really good crosses below the level of the crossbar.
With support – he looks a totally different player.

Glad if anyone can work out what the formation turned out to be … but, it was forward-minded and that meant that I was happy.

Stuffed cod all round if you are feeling peckish.

[lesgeo]

” … this has destroyed my love of football outside of Scunthorpe.”
Yup. Me too, DSGM.
Fortunately, no damage done to my love of cricket.
By the way – dunno how many have got Sky Sport.
Expensive, innit?

PS. If you are able to play it – then use the old fart card.
I rang ’em up about my £56 pcm package a few months back and told ’em I was too old to afford it and was going to have to cancel.
Whaddya know? – Am now paying £26 for the same. Smile.

[lesgeo]

Yeah. Right players but I’d swap Hippo and Eisa. Nothing to stop the two switching throughout the game – provided that we can inject a little bit of imaginative thinking, of course.

[lesgeo]

Ah yes, those halcyon days of Dickie Rooks managing the team to glory.
I sigh with a profound nostalgia.

Rather more seriously, Norris, Sproates and Charnley could not have made it into our present team. The late Alan Sproates was a decent Division 4 player for Darlington but had precious little to offer us at the end of his career.
Simpkin was a has-been and Collier was a slow-moving, slow-thinking plodder who could pleasantly surprise you every now and again.

I could not see any one of these being considered fit to replace any current first team player in our present setup. The big question would have been how many could have made it onto the bench?

The top end of our current squad are simply better. They may not be playing better; they may not be being played intelligently; they may not be played to their strengths but – generally superior.

A modern day Sproates to replace Spence? – No thanks.
Norris better than Howard? – Get real!
McGahey – our best CB to be replaced by Simpkin?
Collier to replace Beestin or Karacan? – No, ta!
Charnley to replace KVV or Olamola?- Hardly! – I would even take Loft ahead of that lad.
But, a Dud Roberts to replace Loft? – Ooh. Yes, please.

[lesgeo]

You should not have published this!
A side with 4 CBs in it might give certain people ideas.

[Author]

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