Away to Bromley match thread

[Pedro]

We were a set piece team ourselves only a few months ago. In fact apart from Luke James set pieces were the only real source of goals towards the end of last season.

The sides we play at this level will predominantly play direct offensive football and this is reflected in the size of the opposition. Its only my opinion but I do believe its easier for teams with limited resources and perhaps a proportion of essentially part-time squad members to play route one successfully than it is to try and play attractive football with the ball on the ground. So what Ian Evatt is producing is as rare as it is good to watch.

However, playing our way is a system that can be countered pretty effectively by playing blunt uncompromising football both up front and at the back. This is the dynamic we are now facing and it leaves the supporter generally with a sour taste because playing ugly can be productive. But its a survival technique only. You wont get out of the NL simply by having someone like Tom Denton (Chesterfield please note) in your team. Put the ball on his head and he'll score. Deny him possession and its like playing against ten men.

A couple of posts above have advocated changing our style. Pardon the language but this is complete bo**ocks. We perhaps need to play tactically a bit smarter against these teams, reflect the need for some height and strength in some positions (as anyone would know if they'd watched Aswad Thomas bully and chastise young Holden for Sutton recently) and perhaps be prepared to use a more direct approach on occasions but as a weapon rather than adopt it as a style of play.

Most of us I think not only appreciate our current style of play but also understand that it is so much more difficult to sustain especially when the resources at our disposal are often young rookies who are themselves here to develop not only professionally but physically. I'm generally a cup half empty guy, but I think think the job Evatt is doing is frankly brilliant. As a way of playing football it also offers the prospect of progress and improvement as opposed to the limitations of the "thou shalt not pass" approach. Lets not lose it.

Completely agree. The manager has done a fantastic job with (mostly) players from a lower level. He knows Barrow would have zero chance with the lack of size of the players he has at his disposal to try and match any team by playing long ball football. The fact that he's managed to get a reasonably successful team by playing decent on the ground football is a great credit to him. It wasn't great on Saturday but you could see what he's trying to do and with a little bit more height in a couple of places he'd have a very competitive team. As individuals, I don't think we have a central defender as good as Livesey, a fullback as good as Anderton, a midfield player as good as Yates, a striker as good as Harrison or Bennett or a winger as good as Williams but he's still produced a team which plays a better brand of football than Paul Cox managed with those players.

Really well summed up,I was hoping he was going to be a player manager when he came,would make a big difference

[SKIPPER]

Much of he problem at the back is lack of stability. I think it was Josh Granite who mentioned on RC that we had only played the same back four on four occasions this season.I think we have also used 8 or 9 players at various times in that area. Trouble is that finding the right combination is the problem because there doesn't appear to be much between any of them.

[DaveP]

just out of interest how many managers have we had in the last ten years who were defenders and/or centre halfs yet we regularly get undone from set pieces and have done for a number of years.

Can't really understand it to be honest.

Oh for Jonahesque defending; head on ball into row z

[Jonty]

Quick run through match vids and here’s the breakdown of goals for and against to date.

———————————————-—————-For ———————-———Against
Penalties————————————————0————————————1
Open play inside box—————————15 (inc 1 header)——10 (inc 2 headers)
Open play from edge/outside box—5————————————3
From Corners———————————— —0————————————3 (all headers)
Direct from free kick—————————0————————————1
Free kick set piece move——————-0————————————1 (header)

[Suffolk Blue]

Quick run through match vids and here’s the breakdown of goals for and against to date.

———————————————-—————-For ———————-———Against
Penalties————————————————0————————————1
Open play inside box—————————15 (inc 1 header)——10 (inc 2 headers)
Open play from edge/outside box—5————————————3
From Corners———————————— —0————————————3 (all headers)
Direct from free kick—————————0————————————1
Free kick set piece move——————-0————————————1 (header)

Those are amazing stats. Every Barrow goal scored from open play in the first 16 games of a season and only one with the head. That must be unique. I'm gobsmacked. The away goal breakdown looks pretty normal by comparison though headers/set pieces do feature prominently.