Thetownend.com

Well that was painful. Our worst performance so far, little control, proper L2 clogging. I only spotted two consistently good performances among all that dross. Let's see if you agree.

Jono and Conroy my top 2...

Wollacott is my player of the season at this very early stage...

Are you for real? Wow.

Wollacott. Easilly. Kept us in it.

I don't think he's far wide. We were poor today. But RF seems to be overlooking what we did well today so 'dross' is a tad unfair.

Let's hope that Wollacott's performances do not attract the attention of the 'bigger' lower league teams.  

Problem? Only Jojo and Conroy played to their potential. Everyone else was below par.

Like Salford :-)

When your keeper is MoM for 2 games running there is obviously something not right.

Don’t know what sell on City have on JoJo but what the hell. What a keeper!

Not poor in my opinion. No problem. Just see it differently. Thought they did well

Wollacott by a country mile again.

Without Wollacott in the first half we would have been dead and berried. He continued to remain strong in the second half too. Inspired the rest of the defence.

Wollacott 9
Kept us in the game. Couple of super saves. Only one untidy one, but kept us in the game. Looks so solid at the back

Iandolo 6
Looked good going forward in the first half, but run ragged in defence with little help from Payne.

Conroy 8
Thought he was immense at the back. Several goal saving challenges

Critchlow 7.5
Aerial command superb. Always in the right place, except for a 5 min period at the end of the first half, where he was all over the shop

Odimayo 6
Solid if unspectacular. Offered little going forward. Caught up the pitch a little on a couple of occasions but bailed out by Conroy

Reed 7
Very very defensive midfield performance. Solid in front of the defence. Did well at that. Didn’t really venture forward, other than to press a couple of times

Grant 6.5
Shithousing well again. Blasted over a shot in the first half. Tried to protect the back four. Didn’t link well with KKH today.

Payne 7
Scored. Looked threatening in the first half when facing their goal, but was pressed into mistakes a number of times in our half with his back to goal.

Gladwin 5.5
Couple of sublime interactions with others, one of which brought the goal. However, the only time he was in the game was when the ball was on his toe. He was so far off the pace again and I really think his legs have gone. I hope not, as I really want him to do well

KKH 6
Didn’t get into the game much today. Did better in last 20 mins of second half, but not as threatening as he has been.

Simpson 7
What a conundrum this fella is. Did some really good hard work harrying and hustling off of the ball. And a couple of good bits of link up play, including sliding in Payne for the goal. But, he is a wide player and not a CF imho. He’s doing his best in that role and trying hard. But he is often on his heels, doesn’t anticipate well and doesn’t win headers.

Subs:
Hunt
Brought on to solidify the left. Parked at LB. No attacking.

Williams
Moved around nicely. Shithoused well.

East
Reed was totally knackered. Came on to defend for a few mins.

Simpson's got something about him. And let's not forget he got an assist today. If it was a goal you'd say it was well taken.

But that 'something' isn't a goal scoring something. I reckon he could destroy this division if we found the right position for him, we just need to figure out what that position is.

KKH wasn't as impressive today.

I reckon he's wasted in a forward position. I think his potency lies in his ability to run with the ball from deep positions causing teams all sorts of tactical problems.

Simpson will either get one then go months before he hits another one or he’ll get one and two, three and four will soon follow and he’ll get going

Woolacott, Conroy and the 761.
Work in progress, clean sheet and smash and grab.
Take that all day long.

Wollacott. Easy choice today.

JJW did his job.
Best keeper since Wes?
Maybe too early to make a direct comparison yet.

Yep.

.......just like Fjortoft.........hopefully.

Oh yeah, wouldn’t that be ace? Hopefully not take til game 15 to hit the onion bag.

Having seen the (extended) highlights I voted for JJW.

Most one-sided MoM vote to date, unsurprisingly. Seeing the highlights again a few times, it really is an extraordinary reaction save.

Couldn't give it to anyone but Wollacott. Conroy was a rock apart from one or two moments where he got caught out.

Iandolo was a huge liability defensively in the first half and got torn to shreds. Whatever they tweaked at half time certainly seemed to help. I thought Grant gave the ball away far too cheaply, and although Simpson worked really hard his touch let him down on a couple of occasions. Didn't help that he was pretty isolated by our inability to cope with Salford's high pressing.

Williams looked a cut above when he came on. Was able to find space that others couldn't, and that made it much easier to hold the ball up and to transition from defence to attack.