Cobblers Today.....

[ComeOnYouOs]

Second half we looked reasonable, but we lack a cutting edge. JMD must start IMO, as he adds a lot of invention.
Wilko played well , 100% effort, and decent skills, and Angol is very skillful & tricky, though possibly a little lightweight, and gets knocked off the ball by 15 stone CBs.
If Ross wants to play Ruel, he must play him in the centre, he's wasted out wide
Brophy is a winger/forward, as he showed today, and Coulson is finished at this level.
Judd was good today, & miles better ( see what I did there?), than Ling jr
Dayton look good too, covering every blade of grass

[Top of the JES]

Some good comments so far, we really dont look like getting in behind them no creativity. Definately should have has a penalty though.

Angol has done well (superb free kick) so far but apart from that very little to get excited about, Widdowson has struggled.

I thought Widdowson played well
He was involved a lot going forward can't see how you can say he struggled
What did he do to illustrate that in a friendly match

By the way I played left back and though not professional I was selected for ilford schools district and school football captain - so one thing I do know is the exspectations of a left back

Whilst you may have been OK for Ilford schools thirty years ago its a million miles away from what you watched today, whatever was expected from you then bares no comparison at all with modern day professional football, dont embarress yourself by claiming it does. If you were watching you would have seen Widdowson give the ball away a lot in the first half and looked hesitant in the tackle. Northampton got in a lot of crosses from his side of the pitch, but he was better second half.

[NuneatonO's]

Totally outclassed by a much better-organised team.

How did Happe miss heading in from that corner?

Unfortunately, up front/striker-wise, we're clearly as desperate as a p!ss in a knotted co*k.

[BIGRON]

I still think we are couple of coaches short, i reckon we will struggle with our current head coach, he's pretty mediocre

Corrected your errors Big Ron hope you don't mind.

[Top of the JES]

Totally outclassed by a much better organised team.

How did Happe miss heading in from that corner?

Unfortunately, up front, we're as desparate as a p!ss in a knotted co*k.

Not sure we were outclassed, but they were certainly much better organised than us, Not that much wrong with our forward players its the lack of creativity and chances that hurts us.

[faith1234]

Still lacking a good centre half as you could clearley see with there goal, dont get me wrong played ok good run out for the boys but there goal should have been cleared agess ago

[NuneatonO's]

Not sure about players; I think we're still a bit light on coaching staff, to be honest.

As an aside, Northampton Town just have Curle, Colin West (Asst.) and a Goalkeeping Coach.

[tuffers#1]

Judd beaten to the ball for the goal

I think he will be out for the start of the season due to that

[Story of O]

Why not try 442 for once. we have the players to do that and who knows, it may work.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Why not try 442 for once. we have the players to do that and who knows, it may work.

Think we basically did once Brophy came on

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Second half we looked reasonable, but we lack a cutting edge. JMD must start IMO, as he adds a lot of invention.
Wilko played well , 100% effort, and decent skills, and Angol is very skillful & tricky, though possibly a little lightweight, and gets knocked off the ball by 15 stone CBs.
If Ross wants to play Ruel, he must play him in the centre, he's wasted out wide
Brophy is a winger/forward, as he showed today, and Coulson is finished at this level.
Judd was good today, & miles better ( see what I did there?), than Ling jr
Dayton look good too, covering every blade of grass

Summed up well.

For once I’m not gonna be the negative one here. I thought we looked solid and actually had more of the ball second half.

But as soon as we got near their box we looked like we didn’t know what to do. Wilkinson has good feet and looks clever but as soon as he gets the ball in the box he panics.

Agree angol is still a bit lightweight. Good footballer but needs to gain more strength for this level.

Defensively I thought Widdowson struggled. Happe switched off a couple of times and let his man get behind him.

The best thing was that we had a lot of fight and worked hard on and off the ball. That was lacking a lot last season.

Overall, it’s hard to tell as Northampton are a division higher now but also not played as many games as us. I thought we competed ok.

[RedDwarf 1881]

We are just really blah. Probably won’t go down. Definitely won’t go up. Just a very very average bunch of lower division players.

Nothing we didn't already know. I reckon we'll struggle this season if we don't strengthen our defence.

[gshaw]

Second half we looked reasonable, but we lack a cutting edge. JMD must start IMO, as he adds a lot of invention.
Wilko played well , 100% effort, and decent skills, and Angol is very skillful & tricky, though possibly a little lightweight, and gets knocked off the ball by 15 stone CBs.
If Ross wants to play Ruel, he must play him in the centre, he's wasted out wide
Brophy is a winger/forward, as he showed today, and Coulson is finished at this level.
Judd was good today, & miles better ( see what I did there?), than Ling jr
Dayton look good too, covering every blade of grass

So basically the shape doesn't suit our best players.

Wilkinson and Sotiriou playing wide rather than upfront
Brophy / JMD on the bench as the strikers are taking up the wide spots

As above it's pre-season where you want to get fitness up and try things out so why only the same rigid 4-3-3 every time? Where's the Plan B

[AckneyAwks]

Considering it's just a friendly i thought we did ok in phases but overall i think we lacked intensity. Would have to see goal again but it seemed a bit too easy, midfield created nothing of note and forwards showed some nice touches with no cutting edge.
The introduction of Brophy creates something different he runs with ball and adds that extra pace to the attack.
The definite i got from this game is we miss Jobi's qualities badly.

[Tent Keague]

Unless you're talking World Class athletes, I've never really seen a team do well with a fluid formation.

Successful teams all know their positions and roles. They work on it day in and day out and build up partnerships throughout the team.

All this talk of wide strikers and narrow wingers, full backs and wing backs, holding midfielders and attacking midfielders is all just too confusing and ultimately ends up with nobody knowing the best formation, what formation we're playing or who fits in where.

If you ask an O's fan where Brophy, Wilkinson, Dayton and JMD should play and you'll probably get two or three positions for each player.

To me Northampton looked streets ahead of us in terms of organisation and what was expected of them. And that was their first game together. One player only joined them yesterday.

We only really got a look in when they started subbing people, bringing kids on and some trialists.

Bear in mind that this team of ours has had an entire year playing together and they still didn't all look on then same hymn sheet.

[Tent Keague]

To add to the above, I don't expect to see slick football or anything groundbreaking from Pre-Season. But a bit of organisation and leadership would be nice.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Judd beaten to the ball for the goal

I think he will be out for the start of the season due to that

Yes and replaced by Ling who’s worse. We could do with a new RB.

[tuffers#1]

Judd beaten to the ball for the goal

I think he will be out for the start of the season due to that

Yes and replaced by Ling who’s worse. We could do with a new RB.

Thats an Opinion .
The Fact Judd didnt win the ball aginst the goal scorer

Lets just deal with that to start!!

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Judd beaten to the ball for the goal

I think he will be out for the start of the season due to that

Yes and replaced by Ling who’s worse. We could do with a new RB.

Thats an Opinion .
The Fact Judd didnt win the ball aginst the goal scorer

Lets just deal with that to start!!

A tad harsh I think. Our two CBs look to have been pulled out so Judd was the last man and got pretty tight to him, it was just a really good finish.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Unless you're talking World Class athletes, I've never really seen a team do well with a fluid formation.

Successful teams all know their positions and roles. They work on it day in and day out and build up partnerships throughout the team.

All this talk of wide strikers and narrow wingers, full backs and wing backs, holding midfielders and attacking midfielders is all just too confusing and ultimately ends up with nobody knowing the best formation, what formation we're playing or who fits in where.

If you ask an O's fan where Brophy, Wilkinson, Dayton and JMD should play and you'll probably get two or three positions for each player.

To me Northampton looked streets ahead of us in terms of organisation and what was expected of them. And that was their first game together. One player only joined them yesterday.

We only really got a look in when they started subbing people, bringing kids on and some trialists.

Bear in mind that this team of ours has had an entire year playing together and they still didn't all look on then same hymn sheet.

They might have been together for a year but two or three of our players are only National League standard. Our defence needs strengthening while Brophy and JMD should be kept out wide . Playing players like Sotoriou and Wilkinson on the wing is a waste . All our strikers should just start up front unless in game tactics require changes

[tuffers#1]

Yes and replaced by Ling who’s worse. We could do with a new RB.

Thats an Opinion .
The Fact Judd didnt win the ball aginst the goal scorer

Lets just deal with that to start!!

A tad harsh I think. Our two CBs look to have been pulled out so Judd was the last man and got pretty tight to him, it was just a really good finish.

If you cover space you need to cover it
Not let the man in front room to score easily .

If judd was half as decent defending as he is going forward he could be a player.

Trouble is he's not .

[DuvB]

I see us ending up no better than 15th. We simply don’t have an attacking threat without Brophy.

[Thor]

To add to the above, I don't expect to see slick football or anything groundbreaking from Pre-Season. But a bit of organisation and leadership would be nice.

so no change from what Ross put out last season cos we lacked organisation last season, we also lacked a decent and settled formation and tactics fit for purpose.

I accept it is pre season, but he needs to put his stamp on his team pretty damp quick. Find the shape, tactics and personal and drill them till it hurts. Then we should fund what we are looking for.

I think it was a previous post of yours which highlighted how they were more organised than us despite only just starting pre season.

[Orientbabe]

Vigouroux has got a few errors in him too hasn't he.

Sloppy touch and loose control in the two games so far this season. Definitely gonna get caught out at some point.

Totally agree with the above.
Kicking wasn't great today also makes a meal out of every simple save, think Vigoroux has potential mind.

[KC & sunshine band]

when we play the meaningless under 23 friendlies it means nothing they are young men being coached to a certain type of football and learning the game. The os are stronger and more football wise having played in our leagues against tougher opposition
today we looked like the under 23 team, easily knocked off the ball, going through the routine, against a tough team well drilled with seasoned professionals knowing their job in every position
when we beat spurs under 23s Ross said Im off to the bar to celebrate my first silverware has os boss
Im off to the bar now to celebrate doing the washing up properly !
( dish washer my saviour )
watching and listening to the boss is , bullshit jingo, the same ole sayings, the scratch behind the ear, the ums and urs, anf the season aint started yet.
any way lap of honour around the garden for clean spoons
Need to get a proper manager in who knows what hes doing
we will always be thankful for Nigel and Kent for saving us, but be careful with the boy mascot and Uncle Ling cos theirs no loyalty in football other than us fans