Barrow v Southport match thread

[barrowaberdeen]

2 wins and a draw at home. Enough to keep our head above water. Get something at halifax and the start wont look so bad.

[boyliegladbach]

Well it's 3 points.
Dixon MOM, apart from him no one else impressed me.

Andy Haworth. Why does he shoot every time he is within 20 yards of goal.
Biggest threat we have got but he's lazy when hadn't got the ball,can't tackle,
Where's the toilets gone?
Why are the stewards targeting a certain group of fans?

[Gazza]

I know that throwing money at a player or a couple players is necessarily the correct thing to do and when I say throw money, I mean going and paying a decent fee for one or two. Bearing in mind what Paul Casson's hopes are for this season and our financial position, I really cannot believe that we have not gone out and got that midfielder and top class centre half to really strengthen those areas which would make all the difference. Whether he would have been the answer or not, we really missed the boat with Andy Bond for what it would have cost to get him, even on a short term deal initially. We are so lacking in midfield it's unreal and I do not think Grand is the answer with Livesey at this level.

[boyliegladbach]

Women running the line was awful. No place in football for women.

[Jim]

Re attendances, I would think that an average around 1400 would be the best we could hope for, so allowing for the occasional 2,000 and the occasional 1,200 I don't think there is much wrong with yesterday's attendance on a day when there were plenty of other distractions.

Re MoM, I think it should be for performance over the 90 minutes, not one piece of brilliance. Radio C thought Harvey put in a good shift.

Having seen the team only once this season, I can only go on Radio C commentary, but I got the impression yesterday that we were very much in control, with 65% possession according to BBC stats, but created very few chances. Partly, this may have been due to Southport playing deep and not being very adventurous, but our lack of creativity seems to be the problem. It would be different if we had missed a hatful of chances, one would say it was just one of those days, but if we dominate games but don't score we risk the situation where the defence makes one mistake and we lose the points. Edmo himself in the post match interview said quality of ball in final third is our main problem, but I don't know how you train that into people.

Fans need to accept that the team is very much a work in progress. I expect a mid table or bottom half finish this season, possibly a few anxious moments, then some strengthening over next summer and a better finish in 2016-17. Have a look at Forest Green's positions over the last 5 seasons since they escaped relegation in the AGM lottery.

[Hadrian]

According to the BBC page, stats are from Opta Sports this season. From a quick look at the Opta website though there's no mention of Opta covering the National League. Perhaps they still take PA data at this level?

[tictactoe]

Regarding motm award, Phil collier should be able to decide when it is chosen etc or any other decisions because it looks as though he's the only one ever going to sponsor it - change it to the Phil collier man of the match award

[saltcellar]

Women running the line was awful. No place in football for women.

I thought the lines woman had a good game.
Certainly a better one than the man in the middle.
She gave Barrow several free kicks that the referee was not going to.
Her offside decisions were also mostly spot on.

[Bingo]

Edmo was very happy with the lines women apparently he went up to her patted her bum and said good game love

[Bingo]

Re the attendance I thought it looked a few more but lots of regulars missing I know a couple myself

Re man of the match doesn't bother me at all if the guy pays to sponsor the award it's his choice

[Wintergreen]

I know that throwing money at a player or a couple players is necessarily the correct thing to do and when I say throw money, I mean going and paying a decent fee for one or two. Bearing in mind what Paul Casson's hopes are for this season and our financial position, I really cannot believe that we have not gone out and got that midfielder and top class centre half to really strengthen those areas which would make all the difference. Whether he would have been the answer or not, we really missed the boat with Andy Bond for what it would have cost to get him, even on a short term deal initially. We are so lacking in midfield it's unreal and I do not think Grand is the answer with Livesey at this level.

Before the game the RC team were all in agreement that none of the new players had yet made the impact that was hoped for and that we are still relying on the key players from last season's campaign. And they are right, but as John Goodwin said 'Let's judge them after 12 games.'

[Ste Story]

Pretty poor game yesterday, thankfully Southport were awful as we certainly didn't look particularly good ourselves.

ARH had his worst game for us for a while IMO, and Lacey, though tenacious, isn't the most creative, meaning our passing and range of play was extremely limited throughout. We didn't get much out of second gear, but that's more due to the fact we didn't seem to know how to rather than the fact we didn't need to, and indeed but for an absolutely sensational save from Joel Dixon in the dying seconds we may have dropped two points (incidentally, Joel is getting better and better every game, really pleased with him as goalkeeper, been a while since I've felt comfortable and confident about a goalkeeper in a Barrow shirt)

Thought Haworth looked dangerous but maybe chose the wrong option one too many times. BVDB didn't do a great deal to impress, though given his time out etc he probably deserves a bit more time to settle. Cook and Walker were good but feeding off scraps for most of the game. Like the look of Williams the right back, and Grand/Livesey were fine yesterday. Ashton looks a bit short of pace against some of the quicker wingers, but more than makes up for it with his positional play and experience.

We badly need more incision and adventure or goals this season will be very hard to come by. One of the big frustrations yesterday was how many times we found ourselves in good positions only to pass the ball right back through the team to Dixon. I can kinda see they're trying to retain possession in light of how many times we seem to have given it away in previous games, but the net result was just that Dixon would leather it back up the field and we'd lose possession anyway! I'd like to see us vary our play a bit more and try to hit teams on the counter rather than cautiously building for 5 mins only to launch it forward and out of play which seems to be our default setting.

Dunno what Grimes needs to do to get a game, looked excellent in a couple of the pre-season games and played 27 games in League 1 last year!

Thankfully though it's all pretty immaterial as we got the three points, which sets us up nicely for Monday where another three points are well within our reach, we'll just need a fair step up to get them.

[spirit of 1990]

Can't really see the problem with when the MOTM award is given. Firstly it's down to the person/group sponsoring the match and secondly, if it's announced after the final whistle people will complain no one heard it as we were all on our way out.

The attendance was poor but as others have said, a few other events on, bank holiday weekend and Southport aren't going to be high on the floaters list of games to attend. The football for the most part on show yesterday also won't do much to get people back either. What I don't understand is, we look half decent when it's played on the deck so why do we persist in launching it forward?

Regarding Haworth and his shooting, it wasn't too long ago (a couple of years) we were saying week after week on here that our players need to shoot more often when in and around the box, Howarth does that and still gets slated! He's probably our biggest goal threat away from Cooky and Jase & half the time when he gets into a decent area there are very few options better than taking on the shot himself.

[Moribund]

Dunno what Grimes needs to do to get a game, looked excellent in a couple of the pre-season games and played 27 games in League 1 last year!

He'd been ill during the week with tonsillitis. The team will be changed quite a bit for Monday, I reckon.

[Jim]

Pretty poor game yesterday, thankfully Southport were awful as we certainly didn't look particularly good ourselves.

Highlights video won't be very long this week then