Mossley vs Witton Albion(FA Cup)

First Team On the Park
21

I’m not sure why we went through 50,000 pre-season games playing 4 4 2, then change to 4 5 1 or 4 2 3 1, or whatever it is we are playing now. If this is how we intend to set up, then why didn’t we play it through pre-season? The personnel is largly the same. Also, if it the system that Oggie thinks is best for us, then why in 2 games out of 3 has he changed it very early in the game. Today it has cost us at least one subsitution, and come back to haunt us when we have been forced to finish the game with 10 players on the pitch.

I think that having Terry Murphy scouting opposition is resulting in us trying to be too clever for the level we are at. It looks as though we are setting up to nulify the opposition, rather than going out to win games our own way. This is in no way a slight on Terry, there aren’t many more clued-up football men around, but are we perhaps changing our system to justify having had the opposition scouted?

I feel sorry for Christian Miller, he has started 2 games but has yet to complete more than about 60 minutes in total over 3 games! I don’t think he has been bad in any game, he has just been the guy hauled off when the manager has realised the system isn’t working (fair play to Oggie for realising his mistake, but we can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes all season).

So a decent money-spinner for the Club has now gone for another year. A chance to further raise the profile of Witton Albion has been passed up yet again. It’s so frustrating. We saw what a good cup run can bring when we saw the Scum get their moment in the sun last year. I’m not greedy, i didn’t expect us to win the thing - semi finals would have been fine :wink:

On a positive note, Carl Frost looked very lively when he came on. He is probably the one player who can be proud of his performance tonight. I hope he can get a run in the side, as he could very well be an asset for us this season. We all know how good a fit Carl Frost can be, so fingers crossed we will get to see that this year.

22

Knutsfordian wrote:

Ironically I thought we were better in the last 20 minutes with 10 men than we have been in the previous 70!

We were poor from 1 to 11, the only person to come out of this game with any credit was Frosty who looked very lively and caused their defense more problems individually in the time he was on than we had as a team.

The only word I can find to sum up the performance was “sloppy”, we could not string two passes together at times. Conditions certainly didn’t help but they as always they were the same for both sides.

We had three good chances to level it and had we have done we may have had the momentum to go on and win, certainly we would have looked good to take it to a reply. Mossley were poor but we were poorer.

You can’t play Kinsey as a lone striker, he is a decent footballer but does not have the pace to lead the line on his own. I’ll be sorry to see Danny Warner go but the bizarre choice not to start him in the last three games means he will want to be playing elsewhere.

We certainly can’t and should not make knee jerk reactions but this underlines the amount of work there is to be done. For a start if we can stick to 4-4-2 and get a system where the players can gel then we’ll give ourselves a better chance.

It’s probably a good thing that we have a game so soon on Monday so that we have chance to get this one out of our system, however Warrington will be tougher than Mossley (but a flat pitch might help)!

23

Frosty was the only player on the pitch that showed he wanted to win the game rather dissapointed

24

Sorry for the late posting but my broaband has been down all night.

These are my views of the game:

Today’s Teams:

MOSSLEY WITTON ALBION

  1. Peter Collinge (c) Matt Cooper

  2. Ben Richardson Matthew Holt

  3. Kris King Matt Wood

  4. Aaron Chalmers Brian Pritchard

  5. Andy Watson Ian Kearney (c)

  6. Chris Rowney Phil Parkinson

  7. Dan egan Peter Heler

  8. Daryl Weston David MacPherson

  9. Michael Oates Andy Kinsey

  10. Connor Hampson Christian Miller

  11. Lee Blackshaw Josh Hancock

  12. Matty Kay Chris Smith

  13. Mike Fish Scott Moffatt

  14. Jordon Goodeve Adam Foy

  15. Mike Jones Elliott Ledwards

  16. Steve Settle (remember him) Carl Frost

  17. Matt Chadwick Ben Harrison

  18. Osebi Abadaki Joseph Brobbin

Difficult to make out Wittons formation. I think it eas either 4-5-1, or 4-4-1-1, but definitely not 4-4-2… We tried this last Saturday before reverting to 4-4-2 in the first half.

Mossley started the game kicking with the slope, with the wind blowing mainly across the pitch. The game did not really settle in the first 15 mins, and was very scrappy.

5 Mins - Connor Hampson booked.

15mins - Mossley free kick went over everybodies heads to the unmarked Lee Blackshaw who hit it powerfully on the volley, but well saved by Matt Cooper.

20 mins - Mossley’s Dan Egan found space at the edge of the box, but pulled his drive just wide.

29 mins - Connor Hampson shot over the bar.

31 mins - After the first bit of sustained pressure from Witton, Christian Miller just cleared the bar with a shot from outside the area.

37 mins - Chris Rowney and Michael Oates combined cleverly before putting Lee Blackshaw through on a one on one with our keeper. Matt Cooper saved his first attempt but was powerless to stop his second attempt.

43 mins – Following a foul on Peter Heler, the free Kick was headed in by Ian Kearney. As the ball was going wide, Pritch did a scissors kick back into the box, but the danger was cleared.

HALF-TIME 1-0

45 Mins – Chris Smith on for Christian Miller, which made us look more like 4-4-2.

46 mins – Michael Oates through on goal, whilst Andy Kinsey was flat out, but his effort was weak.

49 mins – Matt Wood caught in possession, which resulted in a 3 on 1 situation, but somehow we survived.

55 mins – A great cross from Peter Heler was nearly turned in to the goal by a diving Andy Kinsey, but his header grazed the outside of the post. This brought the Witton fans to live, and got them cheering for the first time in the game.

56 mins – I think this was the turning point of the game when a hand ball by a Mossley defender was refused by the officials. A stone-wall penalty not given!

57 mins – Carl Frost on for Andy Kinsey

58 mins – Matt Wood was obviously not right today, following some food poisoning the night before, and needed to be replaced by Elliott Ledwards.

65 mins – Mike Fish on for Michael Oates

70 mins – Witton were enjoying their best spell in the game, and the fans were doing the bit to lift them further. Another Peter Heler cross was met by a Josh Hancock header, but it was easily saved by Peter Collinge.

71 mins – Chris Smith through on goal but shot tamely.

72 mins – Josh Hancock shot fro outside the box was deflected on top of the net.

73 mins – Carl Frost burnt the keepers fingers with balzing shot from outside the box.

74 mins – If the turned down penalty was not the turning point in the game, then when Phil Parkinson went down with a serious hamstring was. Unfortunately, we had used up all our allowed subs, so we were down to 10 men.

75 mins – Matt Chadwick on for Lee Blackshaw

77 mins – A great run by Josh Hancock finally gained us a corner, but nothing came of it.

80 mins – Matty Kay on for Connor Hampson.

The last 10 mins saw Witton throwing caution to the wind, as they looked for a equaliser. However, they were nearly caught out be some quick counter attacking by Mossley

91 mins – The last counter attack of the game saw a 4 on 1 situation. Mossleys’s forward pushed the ball towards goal for his colleague to run onto, but then suddenly realised he was off-side. He shouted at him to leave it, and ran on to score himself. The linesman quite rightly flagged for off-side as the colleague had made an attempt to get the offside pass, but the referee overruled his linesman.

FULL-TIME 2-0

I was sat next to Nige Deeley in the stand, and I asked him for his MOM

For Mossley he gave Aaron Chalmers, closely followed by Andy Watson

For Witton he gave Brian Pritchard

( All central Defenders)

25

I’ve watched most games and don’t really understand the manager’s tactics. We constantly start with something that looks like 4 – 5 – 1, although at times it appears that no one is up front. This clearly doesn’t work and it doesn’t need a rocket scientist to figure that one out. I feel sorry for Kinsey who really needs someone to play alongside him; yet shortly after Smith is brought on to give him a strike partner Kinsey is substituted – he must really be confused. Perhaps Mr Ogden has 5 midfielders he likes and wants to fit them in.

An interesting point is that when we start playing with two strikers, the midfield either don’t seem to realise or have not been given instructions to change the way their tactics. The central midfield seem to ignore any cutting passes through the centre and always want to play the ball to the flanks. Hancock is right footed and when playing on the left he quite clearly is looking, not to provide but to come in and shoot and others are also lining up to have a long shot on goal. The odd shot like this will go in and some may look spectacular but it will not happen very often. Most either go over or wide of the post and at best give the crowd something to briefly cheer about. What we are not doing is playing the early ball to the front 2 or 1, either through the middle or getting an early cross in. Smith plays well off the last man but the defence always have time to settle and get comfortable with their back to their goal before the ball is played into the box; any ball into the box almost becomes a set piece favouring the usually bigger centre backs. This is not the most exciting football and if it is the manager’s plan to do play that way he should have invested in a 6’ 2” plus forward. To be fair to the players they tried really hard but the tactics played a big part in the defeat. If we continue in this vein morale will be low, goals scarce and we will end up chasing every game and treating a draw as a good result.

26

Didnt expect that result, and listening to the comments have we got a tinker man in charge ? I like a settled team ! decide on your formation and work on it ! improve players for that formation by coaching & signings if needs be but be clear about what you want out of each position, given what we have, I would be tempted to push Pete Heler forwrd to add pace, a cutting edge and goals to to front 2, probably with Kinsey as a partner, Ad Foy on the right, macca and Parky in the middle and possibly Josh on the left, Any way its up to Oggie to do it his way lets hope he gets it right today ?

27

C.J. wrote:

I take it you weren’t there on Saturday then.

28

Not being at the game makes it difficult to comment on what went right or wrong on the day. Coming off the back of a drubbing in their previous game maybe Mossley thought they had something to prove and it’s always dangerous when facing a team in that situation.

I didn’t expect that result either & I don’t suppose many others did but it’s gone now and we move on to the next challenge.

It was apparent in pre-season that we were lacking in goals but Oggie has been around long enough now to know when something isn’t right & I would back him to address the problem if he feels it’s necessary to do so.

29

It won’t make much difference who he signs as a forward or puts up front - the service to the strikers was dismal. Mossley gave us a lesson in the first half on how to play attacking football. They created chance after chance for their strikers and had our defence chasing back and struggling; Pritch got booked after bringing down their striker when he was caught out, arguably when there was a goalscoring opportunity, by early link up play. Oggy needs to sort out the link up play, in particular the simple early ball, as a priority but I suspect he will see the answer in new personnel or a different team selection which will only unsettle things further.

30

Not sure i agree with that, i don’t remember our keeper having much to do (apart from the goals). I would say we created more chances than they did in the second half (again without testing the keeper).

Bit early in the season to starting a crusade against the manager.

31

Robbo no I was not there so I guess Heler wasnt very good ? i based that view on what he did last season and what ive seen todate, and dont think i have any crusade against the mgr because i dont behind him 100% just trying to have a discussion on the team and selectiion

32

I dont mean you on the manager CJ…

I would give Heler a generous 2 out of 10 for Saturday.

But then again, i’m not one of those who think he was our player of the season last year. He wouldn’t have been in my top 10 to be honest. He had 5 or 6 good games before Christmas, and a few very average ones over the season. The bulk of the games i thought him our worst player, and my opinion hasn’t been swayed in the first few games of this season. But i do seem to be in the minority on this one.

I like the guy, he seems to have Witton at heart. I just don’t see him as being our saviour.

33

Do you know if Stu is still coming training later?

34

think the 2 out of 10 is a bit harsh robbo
he made quite a few decent runs
the only down side of him is he needs to pass more instead of running all the way from right to left then leaving the right weak

The was a bad performance for the whole team really I wouldnt say he was the best player in the team but he contributed alot more than some of the others.

I was very disapointed with the right back (unsure of his name tall and slim) from what friendlies i had seen he looked very impressive but has ability to make a pass on saturday was extremly poor
when him and heler broke down the right and heler laid it of to him to wip in the cross but instead he passed it straight back to him (when he was clearly offside) when he had all the time in the world.
then there was the back pass to pritch straight across the goal mouth where anyone could have intisepted it but pritch managed to slice it clear whilst under alot of pressure which could have led to a goal.

I dont think we have a bad team but 2 league games and the FA cup game isnt enough to go by we need to give them time to bond.

35

Robbo Yes and maybe Chris if thats ok, I quite like Heler my option was to try and add something in the last third but maybe it is the midfield supply, something to ponder on today

36

I think Heler is very capable, but he is a ‘confidence’ player and also his best position is wide right. A couple of good performances and he could find his form.

37

Mossley v Darlington FAC4th Qualifying Round - Bugger! but some consolation that they have done so well in the competition!