Stop Saying 'We Were Unlucky'...

[Keith]

And I very much include myself in this. I've believed for most of the season that we've 'been unlucky' and 'not got the rub of the green', but yesterday made it clear, this is nonsense.

We lost to a deflected goal, again... How many times this season have the opposition got a deflection or some other 'luck'? But it is really, much more basic. Other teams shoot. Simple.

If (for argument's sake) one in thirty 'long shots' will take a deflection and go in. Opposition sides have ten 'long shots' per game. Then we will concede a deflection, one in three games.

Meanwhile, we have two shots from distance, per game. So we will get a 'bit of luck', once in every fifteen games. Opposition teams will score five times as many deflections as we will. Or, deflection that fall to an attacker, or handball for a penalty, or...

Yesterday, Gillingham looked awful. If they were slightly lower, their fans would be worried. But we managed to be even worse. Hoof ball, with no 'plan B'. Midfield that couldn't pass the ball when they weren't craning their neck to watch it fly over their head. Perhaps unfair to single out Macadam, when everyone was poor, but did he complete a decent pass all game? How many times did he give the ball away cheaply or over hit it straight out of play?

When we beat Fleetwood, we played with the ball mainly on the deck, and even long balls were intelligent passes, rather than aimless long clearances. We got the ball wide and some decent crosses in. Basically, Fleetwood were given different things to think about. Yesterday, Gillingham simply had to win the hoof out of defence, then bring it back at us.

If we play like that again on Tuesday, we don't need luck, we need a miracle. No live coverage of us in the National League next season.

[dannymorc1]

I would suggest that we make the players and manager watch a replay of the Fleetwood match to remind them of how well we did,and can play. Remind them of that 'winning feeling' again.
I'm sure that it would give them a boost. Play the same selection from the start and attack from the first whistle.
COME ON YOU MORECAMBE REDS.

[Billy bodger]

I’ve been advocating the same thing since before Christmas as what has been mentioned here in this post. We play well when we keep the ball down. We have some footballers no worse than the vast majority in this League and I think we are just better playing that than hoof the ball up for it to come back. To me that’s dire, when is it going to sink in it does not work.
Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion armchairs mangers don’t sway Derek, I fact it makes him dig his heels in.
The same goes for substitutions, he won’t listen, he stands on the side time and again, it’s 0-0, 1-0 or 0-1 and it’s DOH! He keeps telling us his bench is much stronger, I just think he doesn’t believe it because he doesn’t use it as early as he should. The Doncaster game was terrible management from our prospective.
There is Still hope but it’s wearing thin, after this week it could be wafer thin. Yes it could go the other way and we could be out of the bottom two, it’s tight but I just think those two things would be better than Hoof the ball up.

[Keith]

Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion armchairs mangers don’t sway Derek, I fact it makes him dig his heels in.

To be fair, I don't expect Derek to read armchair manager's comments, let alone be swayed by them, for better or worse. I just hope he saw what the rest of us saw, no matter what he says in interviews, and goes back to what actually worked, not the garbage served up yesterday.

[Billy bodger]

Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion armchairs mangers don’t sway Derek, I fact it makes him dig his heels in.

To be fair, I don't expect Derek to read armchair manager's comments, let alone be swayed by them, for better or worse. I just hope he saw what the rest of us saw, no matter what he says in interviews, and goes back to what actually worked, not the garbage served up yesterday.

Yes your right he won’t read armchair managers comments or let alone be swayed by them, which is a worry as I am really beginning to believe he doesn’t see what you or I and others see.
Maybe he should sit with someone like you and me up in the Stand on Tuesday night, at least we could show him what we mean.
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN

[Andy D]

Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion armchairs mangers don’t sway Derek, I fact it makes him dig his heels in.

Good example of that was not playing Charlie Brown, and since Brown as made no impact at Stanley, so Derek was right.

[CityShrimp]

I agree with the sentiment of your post Keith.

Sometimes I think we’ve got a solid competitive squad that just lacks a little bit of quality and we’ve had rotten luck to end up in the bottom 2, with other teams constantly getting scabby, undeserved points against us.

More recently I’m coming to terms with the fact that we are simply a poor team and we are exactly where we deserve to be

Survival is still possible but the players have to now deliver; ‘effort’ alone will count for nothing.

[Redalert1970]

We do have quality in the team we will only know if it's enough to keep us up

I was at Gillingham and without the deflected goal the game finishes 0 0 in my opinion

We have had 13 1 nil losses but have been in most of them games

We keep going

[KenH]

Personally, I think DA has changed the style of play to protect Burgoyne, i.e. keep hoofing it long in the hope that we've the midfield and defenders with plenty of space to tackle any attacks rather than relying on the (third choice) goalie. The change in tactics seems to have coincided with Schofield being injured. It's too much of a risk to get too many players going forward with the ball on the deck and leaving Burgoyne exposed.

[Billy bodger]

Personally, I think DA has changed the style of play to protect Burgoyne, i.e. keep hoofing it long in the hope that we've the midfield and defenders with plenty of space to tackle any attacks rather than relying on the (third choice) goalie. The change in tactics seems to have coincided with Schofield being injured. It's too much of a risk to get too many players going forward with the ball on the deck and leaving Burgoyne exposed.

I go along with that to some extent, except we only have 12 games left and I just see us hoofing it the ball long means it comes straight back, because it doesn’t stick. Let’s play it on the floor a bit more we can play like that quite well, even keeping the ball and if we have the ball they don’t, they don’t shoot, they don’t score. Just maybe the ratio of chances changes, we have more shots the opposition has less shots, maybe just maybe the result might be the other way around.