Superb Comeback!!!

[Northern]

I tell you something, after 25 minutes I thought we were going to get absolutely hammered! :eek:

We weren't closing them down and Ward and Lester looked like they were going to tear us to shreds, they could've had 3 or 4 in the first 25 minutes and we hadn't even tested their keeper properly!

Lee's free kick changed it all though, a cracking strike that seemed to take a deflection but it gave us that bit of confidence to get back into the game! From then on I thought we were the better of the two sides! We put them under pressure and Nicky Law (I think?) put a superb ball into the box for Boulding to header in!

I thought we bossed the second half too, both teams had chances, Boulding should've had a second when one on one with their keeper, Ward should've scored for them with a similar chance!

The only problem I noticed was our full-backs were put under far too much pressure when our wide midfielders (Nix and Daley) went walk about meaning we were caught 2 on 1 far too many times!

In the end though a great run from Law and a stupid lunge from their number 12 gave us the game! I must admit I **** myself when I realise Bazza was taking the pen and not Thorne, but he finished it well!

Last 10 minutes were so nerve-racking! Even against 10 men we were inviting them onto us but we held on for a superb win! Conlon was the sponsors MOTM but I felt Nicky Law and Tom Clarke in midfield were great!

Evans - 7 - couldn't do much about the goals, did every else right, particulary narrowing the angle when one on one with Ward.
Moncur - 7 - good attacking play, I thought he had a good game
Lee - 8 - great goal, solid, good distribution
M.Clarke - 6 - a little dodgy at times, arms wrapped around Lester but he coped fairly well
O'Brien - 7 - another good game, his attacking play is superb he sometimes gets caught though.
Daley - 6 - went on a few good runs, dived again, had a couple of good shots but went missing from his position far too much.
T.Clarke - 8 - some stray passes but I thought he was everywhere today, really impressed.
Law - 8.5 - MOTM for me, passing, tackling, great assist for Boulding, great run to invite the challenge and win the penalty.
Nix - 5 - not a winger, went missing from out wide far too much leaving full backs exposed, didn't seem to feature much
Boulding - 7 - good goal but could've had 3, he had one of his better games though.
Conlon - 8 - held the ball up well, some nice passing and movement, very cool with the penalty!

All in all a superb come back and a deserved 3 points! Well done lads! jump:

[Jantje]

Very fair marks , i agree, we thought Tom Clarke was immense in the second half and Nicky Law & Bazza never stopped working hard for the team

[Giantstrawstacks]

What did Bazza have written under his shirt? He took his shirt off after putting penalty in, it looked like the number "100" to me...

[Mallorcabantam]

What did Bazza have written under his shirt? It looked like the number "100" to me...

It was his 100 league goal -- Yellow carded for showing it

[Bantam Kitchen Gunner]

No way I knew we would come back. ye have little faith..... COME ON CITY. Love you. so much believe in you.

[Bantam Kitchen Gunner]

What did Bazza have written under his shirt? He took his shirt off after putting penalty in, it looked like the number "100" to me...


100 goals he told us at agm, his next goal was his 100th.Keep up

[Giantstrawstacks]

It was his 100 league goal -- Yellow carded for showing it


Knew he'd get a yellow for that - it's automatic for shirt removal. He might as well have let everyone have a butchers - I think only the Kop would have seen it. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, as they sayjump:

[Edwin Fitzgerald]

Knew he'd get a yellow for that - it's automatic for shirt removal. He might as well have let everyone have a butchers - I think only the Kop would have seen it. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, as they sayjump:
yeah I saw it. Knew straight away he'd get booked and knew straight away that it was and is a bloody stupid rule. Well done to bazza though! Cooly taken.

[London Bantam]

No way I knew we would come back. ye have little faith..... COME ON CITY. Love you. so much believe in you.

Love you too babylove:tup:

[Giantstrawstacks]

yeah I saw it. Knew straight away he'd get booked and knew straight away that it was and is a bloody stupid rule.

Is it enforced in womens footie?love:

[Edwin Fitzgerald]

Is it enforced in womens footie?love:
depends if they have women officials i suppose!

[Jantje]

No way I knew we would come back. ye have little faith..... COME ON CITY. Love you. so much believe in you.

Don't be so blinkered Nick & give Chesterfield some credit. They came and run us ragged for 20 minutes in the first half.

We are all City fans Nick but you have to look at both teams.tdwn:

[Edwin Fitzgerald]

Don't be so blinkered Nick & give Chesterfield some credit. They came and run us ragged for 20 minutes in the first half.

We are all City fans Nick but you have to look at both teams.tdwn:

They're a similar team to us in that they seem fairly leaky at the back, but i thought they did counter very well and ward displayed a lot of pace and talent. I've rated both Currie and Lester for years now; you can't deny that they thoroughly dererved their lead, and likewise that we deserved the win.

[lee]

Everyone played like mongs in the first 25 minutes and everyone was excellent after that IMO. I can't really single anyone out as having a bad game. I thought we fully deserved the win which was surprising given how I felt after half an hour.

The ref was utterly crap again! Thought it was worth mentioning.

[Northern]

The ref was utterly crap again! Thought it was worth mentioning.

He was fairly consistant though! :p

[emj]

The only problem I noticed was our full-backs were put under far too much pressure when our wide midfielders (Nix and Daley) went walk about meaning we were caught 2 on 1 far too many times!




Daley - 6 - went on a few good runs, dived again, had a couple of good shots but went missing from his position far too much.

Nix - 5 - not a winger, went missing from out wide far too much leaving full backs exposed, didn't seem to feature much


We were playing a diamond formation. Daley was playing behind the strikers, Nix centre mid. Tom Clarke was playing just in front of the centrebacks to try and stop the runs Lester and Ward make of each other.

I was moanining most of the first half for stuart to change it back. Can anyone say it didnt work when we won?
I didnt think it did.

[Northern]

We were playing a diamond formation. Daley was playing behind the strikers, Nix centre mid. Tom Clarke was playing just in front of the centrebacks to try and stop the runs Lester and Ward make of each other.

I was moanining most of the first half for stuart to change it back. Can anyone say it didnt work when we won?
I didnt think it did.

I wondered that, because T.Clarke seemed to always come and help out when the full backs had two to deal with!

I didn't think it worked, I thought both Daley and Nix were poor, and we seemed too narrow! Like I said there were so many times when Moncur and OB had two men to deal with and they were given too much time to find a pass!

[jimmy]

We were shite and deserved **** all from the game as a whole and the only reason we are second is because of the number of goals we have scored.Our defence is the shittest in the league and if the goals dry up, we will be in free fall.

[panther]

We were shite and deserved **** all from the game as a whole and the only reason we are second is because of the number of goals we have scored.Our defence is the shittest in the league and if the goals dry up, we will be in free fall.

can't remember his exact words but macca actually said something similar... not in those words of course..

[Northern]

can't remember his exact words but macca actually said something similar... not in those words of course..

Aye, he's said it before too! The fact we have to score 2-3 goals to even get a point means we're making very hard work of it!

[Spoonhead]

If we're getting a bit of luck this season then we're probably due it!
We could really do with making the defence a bit tighter now though. We can't keep coming back like this. Against Rotheram last week we were lucky not to be 2 or 3 down at half time. Got to be tighter at the back.

[panther]

Aye, he's said it before too! The fact we have to score 2-3 goals to even get a point means we're making very hard work of it!

tup: and it may be our downfall... hope not but it could

[mowgli]

On the League 2 highlights on sky from the weekend McCall said we can't afford to start slowly against teams like we did at Rotherham, his players obviously were not listening. Fantastic result but again not the most convincing of performances at the back and as Northern says we were too exposed due to our midfield at times. I was unsure where Nix was supposed to be playing as Omar did have a go down the wings but Nix just seemed to never hold any position.

When Thorne came on Boulding just dropped behind him and Bazza, almost a 4-3-3. I thought Barry played some very clever balls tonight although they didn't all come off. Boulding played well and the difference was the kind of balls played to him. When we hoof it direct from centre back to centre forward the opposition central defenders get the better of him but when we play a diagonal ball for him to run onto he's different class. Give him chances and he'll put the ball away as he showed from the great cross by Law. I know he hasn't been great lately but he's feeding on scraps and hasn't become poor all of a sudden.

When they played the diagonal ball that got Ward 1 on 1 with Clarke I was thinking oh **** and he should have scored really but so should Boulding later on. Defence was better 2nd half but it shouldn't take 2 goals for us to wake up and start playing. Surely there has to be some changes in defence now, we can't go on like this as we're terrible at the back.

I love how at 2-0 down Nick still knew we would win. :confused: If someone had given me odds of 100-1 for a 3-2 City win at that point i'd still have laughed at them and I was thinking we're in trouble and could be looking at a cricket score loss as we were being torn apart. Great free kick from Lee, great header from Boulding and calm penalty from Big Baz. Fantastic fight back and brilliant to see us 2nd in the league. If Stuart can get our defence sorted we'll be definitely promoted. It's frustrating knowing we can score goals but never having the confidence in keeping a clean sheet.

Bring on the Orient. tup:

[Bantamtim]

We were playing a diamond formation. Daley was playing behind the strikers, Nix centre mid. Tom Clarke was playing just in front of the centrebacks to try and stop the runs Lester and Ward make of each other.

I was moanining most of the first half for stuart to change it back. Can anyone say it didnt work when we won?
I didnt think it did.
It worked going forward, as they had trouble actually picking up Daley, and when they managed to do this then it created a lot of space for the rest of the team as it meant that another player had been dragged out of position. However, defensively the fullbacks were a bit too exposed for my liking.

[Parrot]

We were shite for the first & last 20 mins of the game but in between we played some great attacking football that tore a decent Chesterfield side apart at times tup:

Its ok slagging the defence off tonight but they will seldom play against players as good as Lester, Ward & Currie in this division....Chesterfield hadn't lost for about 7 games in which they had scored about 18 goals!

Good win against a Good team IMO tup:

[mowgli]

We were shite for the first & last 20 mins of the game but in between we played some great attacking football that tore a decent Chesterfield side apart at times tup:

Its ok slagging the defence off tonight but they will seldom play against players as good as Lester, Ward & Currie in this division....Chesterfield hadn't lost for about 7 games in which they had scored about 18 goals!

Good win against a Good team IMO tup:

Very true, I can see Ward moving to a championship side in January and Lester is probably still better than League 2. tup:

[Yeadon Bantam]

TL DALLAS STAND CHANT OF THE GAME:

tune of amarillo

Tra la la la la la * clap clap*

Tra la la la la la * clap clap*

Tra la la la la la * clap clap*

Barry conlon lets have sex jump:jump:jump:jump:

[Yeadon Bantam]

Law was awesome tonight, looked like he had a free role

[Newborn Bantam]

Like someone mentioned, we were definitely playing a diamond tonight and some players benefited from it, others didn't. The shocking start showed it was taking the players a while to adjust to the system - our strength is usually in our wing play.

I thought Tom Clarke shone in his holding role in front of the back four, although his dangerous passing around the box let him down a bit. Nicky law also had a great game on the right of the diamond as it allowed him to take control in the centre of the pitch and still make dangerous runs down the wing.

Evans - 6
OBrien - 6 - Struggled strength wise, especially in the air tonight, but made great bursts down wing
M Clarke - 5 - Lack of pace showed
Lee - 7 - Stunning bullet of a free kick! Made some vital challenges
Moncur - 6
T Clarke - 7 - Took control in front of defense but let down by dangerous passing.
Nix - 6
Law - 8 - Buzzing all over the pitch
Daley - 7 - We immediately looked less dangerous when he went off.
Boulding - 7 - Unlucky not to have a hat trick.
Conlon - 8 - Great all round performance capped with a cool penalty.

[Yeadon Bantam]

We were shite and deserved **** all from the game as a whole and the only reason we are second is because of the number of goals we have scored.Our defence is the shittest in the league and if the goals dry up, we will be in free fall.
I think our problem is Matt Clarke.....tdwn:

[Jantje]

I think our problem is Matt Clarke.....tdwn:

he tackled like a trojan in the second half. The problem Adie is the defence get no help from the midfield. Tom Clarke did a fair stint in the second half last night but we usually sacrifice a defensive midfielder by using 2 wide players

[beerbantam]

We were shite and deserved **** all from the game as a whole and the only reason we are second is because of the number of goals we have scored.Our defence is the shittest in the league and if the goals dry up, we will be in free fall.

Very, very harsh. Is that a wind up?
The second half i thought was a good strong team performance, we looked full of goals and created a host of good chances.
The defence held really well and Clarke, after a shakey first 1/2 hour was immense.

Even at 2-0 down, i never doubted last night as we are a team who are full of goals at the moment.

I despair as to what a paying fan wants from a game if people are to moan after an open game where your team comes back from 2-0 down to run out comfortable 3-2 winners:confused::confused:

[Jantje]

As a game it was a cracker for the neutral. Easily could have been 6-6 as mentioned before. After Lee's free kick i sensed we would fight back but Chesterfield always looked dangerous on the break. A bit harsh on the defence last night as Lester and Ward are the 2 form strikers in the division.

In the second half, Tom Clarke dropped off to protect the defence and he was superb tackling everything in a Blue shirt . Nix also grafted hard before tiring near the end but massive credit for the workrate in the second half chasing and tackling

[Tills]

I thought this was a tremendous result for us after going 0-2 down, playing a formation we were not used to, with players having to play out of position and probably 6 or 7 first choice players out injured at the moment.

I think Chesterfield showed last night that they are more than capable of playing some good quality passing football and have two front men who should be playing a league above this. All the more reason to celebrate our 3 points IMO.

[Kop Kred]

I thought this was a tremendous result for us after going 0-2 down, playing a formation we were not used to, with players having to play out of position and probably 6 or 7 first choice players out injured at the moment.

I think Chesterfield showed last night that they are more than capable of playing some good quality passing football and have two front men who should be playing a league above this. All the more reason to celebrate our 3 points IMO.


That's two decent victories with a scratch team against teams that are doing OK in there own right(Dongs and Spireites) and one less inspired win against the Millers. Maybe these players have more fight in them?
Time will tell.. but without Omar on Saturday I hope they can step up to the mark again.

[Devil's Advocate]

We've skirted around the actual issue. The system we played to try and nullify their attacking threat did not work. Oh and why set out to nullify their threat at home? Surely we should impose our game and let them worry about us.

Through a bit of fortune, getting a free-kick in range for Spike (Lee) we were able to get a sniff of a chance. A few players dragged us through a tough first half (Nix, Daley and Boulding IMHO).

Regroup at half time, yet persisit in playing the same system, and still giving them acres of space out wide. Law stepped up to the mark, and I reckon it's only the tireless efforts of Law, Nix and at times T. Clarke that we managed to buy a result out of a shocking tactical mistake. It looked far better at 4-3-3 when Thorne had to replace Omar, and to be fair after shaky starts the likes of Moncur and M. Clarke improved leaps and bounds.

Contrary to what the hypocrits around me were cheering about I think we were lucky, but that will go down as a good result against a good team. I cannot sit where I sat again, the negativity that is then masked by sheer delight when we score, only to rear its head again as soon as we don't "close 'em down" or "clear it" or "hit him". FFS it was worse than being on here. A more sophisticated clientele in the BB, methinks! tup:

[beerbantam]

FFS it was worse than being on here. A more sophisticated clientele in the BB, methinks! tup:

where did you sit?

[Devil's Advocate]

Upper Tier, right of the goals as you look at the pitch. About 10 rows back. It was depressing, I actually felt brainwashed by the subliminal messages into thinking we actually were truly shite and the football league must quite rightly be upside down!

[Jantje]

We have some real shockers at VP, we really do.

The stupid twot that sits 2 rows behind me and Edwin is a pain in he arse with his perpetual whinging and moaning

His latest **** is calling the team f**king peasants if a pass goes astray. The guy is a complete knob

Not one word of praise if the team does anything well though

[Devil's Advocate]

At least we have a constructive dialogue in the slightly dearer seats! Especially when Beer and I discuss the merits and flaws of fat Baz as he heads in to give us the lead! :D

It was the same stuff every single time something wasn't perfect last night. People forget we are not Man Utd, and they also forget that we are actually second now! "Same every week" was one shout! Aye, course it is. That's why we've won 5 at home and only lost once! Yes, inconsistent we will be, and yes the tactics were shocking to start with last night (cue people calling me a miserable twat for questioning McCall's strategy!) but the players did try, and let's be fair Chesterfield were a good team. Criticise, fine, but it has to be fair and relevant, these guys are not full internationals!

[beerbantam]

but it has to be fair and relevant, these guys are not full internationals!

Omar istup:tup:tup:

[Devil's Advocate]

Fair point, he never got criticised last night! Maybe they're right and I'm wrong! The rest of them are shocking and we are clearly doomed to fail. I really want to see the day McCall makes a substitute after 4 minutes, which was their other big shout of the night! :D

[beerbantam]

Simon Parker MOM watch......

in his words...."Super Barry Conlon got the award from the sponsors but i thought Micky Boulding shaded it with an excellent game"

[Devil's Advocate]

Beer, I though Mickey had a great game for once last night, without getting the goals he should have.

For once Parker got it right, although I'd argue Nix deserved more than a 6 and I don't think T.Clarke was the giant he made him out to be, in the first half he looked all over the place!

[Northern]

Beer, I though Mickey had a great game for once last night, without getting the goals he should have.

For once Parker got it right, although I'd argue Nix deserved more than a 6 and I don't think T.Clarke was the giant he made him out to be, in the first half he looked all over the place!

I disagree with every point there SFB! :p

Boulding had a decent game but I thought he was nowhere near MOTM!
Nix was our worst player again imo!
T.Clarke was superb after his early error and I thought he was a contender for MOTM!

[Jantje]

i thought Nix put a decent shift in but tired badly in the last 20. Tom Clarke was immense in the second half as he protected the back 4 and won countless tackles. Nicky Law also worked his socks off without being flash until the great run for the pen.

Matt Clarke must have had a bollocking too as he was a lot better second half.

[beerbantam]

I disagree with every point there SFB! :p

Boulding had a decent game but I thought he was nowhere near MOTM!
Nix was our worst player again imo!
T.Clarke was superb after his early error and I thought he was a contender for MOTM!

Its all personal opinions...

I thought it was between TC & FB for MOM.

Nix had his best game i'v seen all season.

[Parrot]

Tom Clarke or Baz my MOTM.

Parkers a useless **** tup:

[BantamLad89]

I love how you say thingy was outta position alot when he was clearly clearly clearly clealy playing some other role not even to do with playing winger hahaha.

Why would Omar suddenly start playing in the center if he was playing as a winger!? I know he's not the smartest but..