MATCHWATCH : Mansfield Town (h)

[dave the magic moron]

I’m just going to say it. Despite being 5-0. Wing has been shit again. Everyone else excellent

Yeah, agree with that. Also not very impressed with Lisbie, but whats with the booing of Dorset?

Lisbie was great tonight and could have got a goal + he's only 19. What were you watching

[Brogue]

I’m just going to say it. Despite being 5-0. Wing has been shit again. Everyone else excellent

Yeah, agree with that. Also not very impressed with Lisbie, but whats with the booing of Dorset?

Lisbie was great tonight and could have got a goal + he's only 19. What were you watching

He’s 22. But yes agreed

[WestYorksRoyal]

Marriott's 2nd was a piece of individual genius that wouldn't be out of place in the Champions League, but I actually took more satisfaction from Brown's. Win the duel, lay it off, get in the box and tap it in. Textbook CF goal.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Nice to see jigsaw puzzle bits that fit together

May the ‘optimism’ finally begin

[When Hicks went up...]

Do we count as Mansfield’s bogey team?

Not been in the same zone of competition for a good while but the results are ridiculous.

No, we’re Doncaster’s bogey team really, they’ve managed just 1 win in about the last 50 years against Reading.

But what a win if it was THAT one you're referring to.

[windermereROYAL]

I’m just going to say it. Despite being 5-0. Wing has been shit again. Everyone else excellent

Yeah, agree with that. Also not very impressed with Lisbie, but whats with the booing of Dorset?

Lisbie was great tonight and could have got a goal + he's only 19. What were you watching

He`s number 19, good knows what game some of these people watch.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Obviously those not at the game, and missing some of the ‘off the camera” and off of the ball running, effort and positioning

[bakerlou]

Back home from the game. Poor 25 minutes, once we scored Earthy finally caught up with the pace of the game, and bossed it until he went off. First half MOTM Rino, he was immense.

El Gato - over-doing it with the footwork at times. Rightly booked, the ref had a long chat with him only five minutes earlier. Not sure he was completely in control of the ball when they had their disallowed one.
Dokes - good steady game, looks a decent player.
Dorsett - best I've seen him play. One poor sliced clearance, otherwise pretty steady, and a sublime through ball to Lisbie. It was "shoot", he wasn't getting booed. Did a great block of a goal-bound McGoldrick shot early on in the 2nd half.
Ward - OK
O'Connor - OK at best
Rino - excellent, carried the team on his own for the first 30 minutes
Wing - steady, had a hand in the first two goals, not at his best but always involved. I'm surprised at some people thinking he was sh1t, maybe they're new to football.
Lisbie - exciting, good end product. Took an on-field bollocking from Marriott for not passing, and set up the third almost immediately after. Good attitude.
Lane - excellent, steady game, looks a vast improvement on DK. If he stays fit, he'll get a long run in the team
Earthy - utterly anonymous for the first period, it was just passing him by, but excellent afterwards we'd scored. Always available, used it well. Looked really decent....after a shaky start.
Marriott - playing at least one division too low. A menace every time he had the ball.

[Uke]

Nice to see jigsaw puzzle bits that fit together

May the ‘optimism’ finally begin

[leon]

Back home from the game. Poor 25 minutes, once we scored Earthy finally caught up with the pace of the game, and bossed it until he went off. First half MOTM Rino, he was immense.

El Gato - over-doing it with the footwork at times. Rightly booked, the ref had a long chat with him only five minutes earlier. Not sure he was completely in control of the ball when they had their disallowed one.
Dokes - good steady game, looks a decent player.
Dorsett - best I've seen him play. One poor sliced clearance, otherwise pretty steady, and a sublime through ball to Lisbie. It was "shoot", he wasn't getting booed. Did a great block of a goal-bound McGoldrick shot early on in the 2nd half.
Ward - OK
O'Connor - OK at best
Rino - excellent, carried the team on his own for the first 30 minutes
Wing - steady, had a hand in the first two goals, not at his best but always involved. I'm surprised at some people thinking he was sh1t, maybe they're new to football.
Lisbie - exciting, good end product. Took an on-field bollocking from Marriott for not passing, and set up the third almost immediately after. Good attitude.
Lane - excellent, steady game, looks a vast improvement on DK. If he stays fit, he'll get a long run in the team
Earthy - utterly anonymous for the first period, it was just passing him by, but excellent afterwards we'd scored. Always available, used it well. Looked really decent....after a shaky start.
Marriott - playing at least one division too low. A menace every time he had the ball.

agreed on Rinomhota - he looked lively and committed with that bit steel we've lacked for ages. Lane had a good game - again got about the pitch and defended/intercepted well. Bit harsh on Earthy I thought he initially looked tidy but grew into the game.

Disagree on Wing - he looks a shadow of his former self. Tended to play it safe/backwards, close passing was poor and seemed to be getting more frustrated as the game went on. Which is a shame because with Rinomhota central midfield looks a little more settled.

Marriot - well what is there to say. He's a goal machine in the vein of Cureton or Le Fondre. Lovely stuff.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Nice to see jigsaw puzzle bits that fit together

May the ‘optimism’ finally begin

yeah, I know but


Who are the imposters posting like Ian tonight?

[morganb]

People have mentioned the team is now a good mixture of youth and experience - Jack Marriott was doing a lot of on-field coaching of Earthy throughout the game, talking to him, gesturing where he should be from their goal kicks, etc. It was good to see

Also liked the way Pereira did the end-of-game celebrations with 1871 then after everyone was heading back to the dressing room Lisbie came over and did his own version. He seems a good character

[AthleticoSpizz]

People have mentioned the team is now a good mixture of youth and experience - Jack Marriott was doing a lot of on-field coaching of Earthy throughout the game, talking to him, gesturing where he should be from their goal kicks, etc. It was good to see

Also liked the way Pereira did the end-of-game celebrations with 1871 then after everyone was heading back to the dressing room Lisbie came over and did his own version. He seems a good character

yep, it can mean a lot…….harking back to the Selles thing….regardless of results

[tidus_mi2]

Definitely agree about this version of Marriott being one division too low but I think that's because he's made of paper.

[West F]

For the first time in god knows how long, Reading played with natural width. Funnily enough, we looked balanced and were able to stretch a team from out wide. Maybe, just maybe the penny has dropped.

[Hound]

Both wingers made a number of poor decisions but overall a big positive. I really liked both their performances - hopefully this is the real Lane now

Strange game - we were so poor for 30 mins - and even for the first 15 in the second. The goals changed everything in both. Ended up going as well as we could possibly hope for - some cracking goals in there as well. Thought Brown looked a lot better

[Clyde1998]

Win fully deserved in the end, but 1st goal really was key. Mansfield could just have easily have got it and then the game looks very different.

I guess the challenge for all teams is to have enough for those moments can go against you but you know you're good enough to turn it round and come out on top. Teams who can do that will get promoted.

Agreed. Mansfield looked the better team right up until the first goal, but from then we grew in confidence and it ended in a very comfortable win. Once we were ahead, it didn't feel like we'd lose it (although I do think we got away with their disallowed goal, which may have changed things).

There was some good vertical football last night. Our attacking players looked good, especially Lisbie and Earthy (once he'd got going). Rinomhota really showed his worth. It was nice to be in a position too that allowed our key players to be subbed off, protecting them ahead of Saturday.

One thing I saw on the Mansfield forum, apparently they made six changes and one of the remaining five was being used in a different position from their game on Sunday. I don't know if that contributed to the outcome, but probably worth keeping in mind so we don't get too ahead of ourselves.

Hopefully we can carry this onto Saturday.

[Hound]

It was their reserve keeper wasn’t it? Which explains some of it

Mansfield looked a half decent side just having a very big off day. Think they’ll be top half.

[Stranded]

I’m just going to say it. Despite being 5-0. Wing has been shit again. Everyone else excellent

Was he?

Or is it more that as the team is more balanced this year we aren't as reliant on him doing something incredible (for our level) to open up a defence or turn a game - so he is playing a bit more of the Harper style role, just keeping things ticking over with some nice "standard" passing and letting the front 4 do the damage?

Therefore he is a bit more unnoticed and "shit".

According to the stats on WhoScored - he played 4 key passes, played more passes than anyone else (62) with the 2nd best pass completion rate (85.5%) - only Earthy had better from 25 passes - put in the most crosses and won 3 tackles - tied with Rinohmota.

So yeah, he was "shit".

[Stranded]

Anyway the 1st half hour, Mansfield looked like a team riding a wave of confidence off the back of a 5-2 win whilst we looked like a team still trying to find a league win and as such didn't look massively confident.

However, as soon as we scored, the roles totally reversed and we could have had 6 or 7.

Great result to get up and running, the key is to follow it up - often feel (as happened to Mansfield last night) that the game after a big win can be a massive banana skin.

Blackpool have started well, being 3rd early on but we will jump ahead of them with a win on Saturday.