Brief Synopsis (Sponsored by Bromleigh House Ltd)

Argyologist":nwwwgoso said:

Couldn't watch the stream tonight, what was Lloyd Jones like for them?

Click to expand...

He did well. However we made it easy for him by pumping aimless long balls at him and his colleagues, and not taking them on along the ground. I didn't see anything to make me think he's a Lowe type of CB, or that he's likely to be targetted as an upgrade on what we have. Think he won a header in the lead up to the 2nd goal.

Argyologist":10e6glfi said:

Couldn't watch the stream tonight, what was Lloyd Jones like for them?

Click to expand...

He had a Pretty solid match I thought.

It's another game where we showed our soft underbelly, inexperience and lack of leadership. We're just too nice.

The Lincoln game might be a one off where we've come from behind to win.

It's great having these young talented Premier League loanees but next season we need to mix in one or two seasoned pros to give the team some leaders and experience, especially in defence. Lowe has signed just one centre-back (Aimson) on a permanent deal during his time as manager through 4 transfer windows.
Gary Sawyer has been missed this season.
Consistently inconsistent.

I’m getting increasingly frustrated with Fornah - he’s playing like he’s a centre half not a holding midfielder. He needs to play incisive passes to players further up the pitch from him, at the moment he’s just passing to Aimson and Watts and then either of them play the ball forward, usually a long ball which as we’ve no genuine target man inevitably gives possession back to the opposition very quickly. We need to pass through the thirds as Lowe says, this starts at the back and Fornah needs to be able to pass quicker and to an advanced midfielder ... he’s so frustrating to watch with his pedestrian backwards passing. When Reeves came on we looked like we had a midfield again. Just like when Conor Grant went to play holding midfield against Lincoln. Please Mr Lowe drop Fornah -he’s our weak link that is wrecking this passing philosophy that you have. It won’t be very effective whilst Fornah is in the team....

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

xmastree":zd10mvxh said:

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

Click to expand...

Probably recovered, but not match fit.

briangreen":38uy8hw0 said:

xmastree":38uy8hw0 said:

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

Click to expand...

Probably recovered, but not match fit.

Click to expand...

No competitive games being played for him to get up to speed.
Lowe has tunnel vision when it comes to signing defenders and prefers tippy tappy possession footballers to the more physical sort.

mutley marvel":3f7akp24 said:

Well from the highs of Saturday to a severe reality check. Tonight was a night to forget. We have a severe mental block against teams that play ugly. We have no plan B when faced with niggly, frustrating. constantly fouling , negative teams. The boys were very pedestrian with no urgency (did they think they would just turn up & win). Northampton were no great shakes but they sussed us out from the first whistle with there negative gameplan. Lewis was abject in the 1st half & his decision making was rather naive . Coops could not have stopped the 1st goal but we adopted the predictable malaise in the 2nd half & Northampton shut up shop as soon as the 2nd went in . RL made the subs to late & Northampton knew it- they almost sucked the life out of the game .But the icing on the cake was Woods moment of madness what the ********* was he thinking in the 90th minute - game had gone & he does that - certainly a great impression to make in your 1st game. It will be interesting to hear RLs thoughts- he may well be rueing the decisions he has made. I can take losing but not in that fashion- the game will be consigned to the games to be forgotten archive but i expect better on Saturday :banghead:

Click to expand...

Great post, summarises what went on, in my view.
I wonder if RL will be reviewing his own role in last night's performance, in particular his woeful use of subs (not for the first time, every one of them made far too late - something of a pattern developing here).

oldage":17r51ile said:

briangreen":17r51ile said:

xmastree":17r51ile said:

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

Click to expand...

Probably recovered, but not match fit.

Click to expand...

No competitive games being played for him to get up to speed.
Lowe has tunnel vision when it comes to signing defenders and prefers tippy tappy possession footballers to the more physical sort.

Click to expand...

Looking at the quality on the ball of our 3 defenders last night, I think we need more of the latter quite frankly. Their distribution was woeful. Couldn't get our strikers into the game.

oldage":1lat4zb8 said:

briangreen":1lat4zb8 said:

xmastree":1lat4zb8 said:

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

Click to expand...

Probably recovered, but not match fit.

Click to expand...

No competitive games being played for him to get up to speed.
Lowe has tunnel vision when it comes to signing defenders and prefers tippy tappy possession footballers to the more physical sort.

Click to expand...

As I see it Opoku is physical but he can also play 'tippy tappy', which makes him exactly what RL likes. I thought Woods was pretty much looking the part yesterday, until he lost control and got himself sent off.
I wonder if RL will try and get in an emergency loanee CB?

Dan Ellard":1977ovae said:

oldage":1977ovae said:

briangreen":1977ovae said:

xmastree":1977ovae said:

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

Click to expand...

Probably recovered, but not match fit.

Click to expand...

No competitive games being played for him to get up to speed.
Lowe has tunnel vision when it comes to signing defenders and prefers tippy tappy possession footballers to the more physical sort.

Click to expand...

Looking at the quality on the ball of our 3 defenders last night, I think we need more of the latter quite frankly. Their distribution was woeful. Couldn't get our strikers into the game.

Click to expand...

Aimson's distribution in particular was appalling, so many overhit balls. Thoughts Watts' was better, although often gave possession straight back to them.

If we had 51 points on the board I would be happy to play Law and Tomlinson to see whether they are potentially up to it but I still have nightmares from the 2018 season.

Before I completely lose my marbles though please give Ben Reeves a decent run in the side rather than ten minutes here and there. He gets the ball down and he can actually drive us forward by passing through the middle towards the opposition goal rather than just backwards and sideways ad nauseum.

There is a part of me that wonders whether Lowe is very good or very lucky? He is undoubtedly very lucky that Jephcott returned from Truro and has been on fire until recently but what of the goal returns to date from Hardie and Ennis? We look toothless in attack if Jephcott isn’t scoring.

I appreciate Lowe can’t score for them but is he developing them? Hardie if anything seems to have gone backwards and Jephcott looks a shadow of his former deadly self lately. Camara seems to have stagnated and his powerful bursts forward are only glimpsed rather than a regular occurrence.

Thankfully Danny Mayor who is our one creative spark signed from Bury and has largely been consistently good. George Cooper prior to his injury was a shadow of the player he was last season.

I suppose this is a league higher better quality and that is a big factor but if we are to seriously think about consolidating and maybe pushing towards challenging for promotion the side needs a major overhaul particularly at the back in the close season and a prayer that Danny Mayor signs a contract extension.

philevs":12snsprw said:

oldage":12snsprw said:

briangreen":12snsprw said:

xmastree":12snsprw said:

On the subject of Sawyer, Lowe seems to have been saying for weeks and weeks "Gaz Sawyer is almost ready". Is he fit, or likely to be in the next week or two?

Click to expand...

Probably recovered, but not match fit.

Click to expand...

No competitive games being played for him to get up to speed.
Lowe has tunnel vision when it comes to signing defenders and prefers tippy tappy possession footballers to the more physical sort.

Click to expand...

As I see it Opoku is physical but he can also play 'tippy tappy', which makes him exactly what RL likes. I thought Woods was pretty much looking the part yesterday, until he lost control and got himself sent off.
I wonder if RL will try and get in an emergency loanee CB?

Click to expand...

Only keepers can be emergency loan signings.

Probably a naive question from someone who didn’t watch the game, and apologies if already mentioned, but. How can a game be lost when Argyle has so much of the possession?

saffronwalden green":11mbsey9 said:

Probably a naive question from someone who didn’t watch the game, and apologies if already mentioned, but. How can a game be lost when Argyle has so much of the possession?

Click to expand...

Because it was backwards and sideways possession in front of Northampton with virtually no idea how to create an actual opening.
It was almost disrespectful, as if we just needed to show how many times we could pass across the back and Northampton would stand aside and applaud us on our way to goal