Lost [ Tue 22nd Aug ] v Bedworth Utd, KO 7:45pm NPLD1M HOME

[fentiger79]

Of course it wasn’t the result we wanted but it could have been different maybe. Awful goal to start with but we are having no luck at all, the shot was going way over until it catches the defender and it’s in the back of the net. If the penalty goes in who knows! As for the team we are not good enough especially in midfield and im sure Chris is doing all he can to fix that problem but it’s not easy. Money being offered at the moment by other clubs even in leagues below is crazy. Even Alex Ferguson couldn’t do much with what we have. It’s tough at the moment but Chris has my full support in fixing this. Shanks and Dean are must starters, they at least gave us something going forward. Easier said than done but a couple of new faces in this team and our fortunes will change. Please don’t pile in on our management, team or club. I’m sure there is not one person who isn’t hurting at the moment and the determination to put it right is there.

[diamondsteve]

Was a hard watch that, at 0-3 they dropped a gear and meant we had some dangerous attacks.

Anyone know why we had a Glennon as CB when we had Tagoe on the bench? Was he not well?

[Dazzler]

[Dazzler]

[AFCRD_Dan]

Chris is not to blame for the current predicament, his hands are well and truly tied with the limited budget. Is promising to hear we may get some loan signing in soon.

Was good to see that we were trying to get forward and create chances, but Bedworth kept breaking up our play by falling over at every opportunity, and getting on the refs back.

[rickthediamond]

The scoreline of last night does not tell the whole story. We matched them for most of the game and had much more of the ball. The goals were sloppy and that has to be nipped in the bud if Harriman is not going to be fit every game. The more worrying thing is our threat in the final third. We can’t keep hitting long balls up to Johnston and Anderson, they aren’t going to win them (the long ball from kick off needs to stop too). As soon as we got John Dean on the wing and played the ball on the floor wide, we looked a real threat. For me, we need to go to a 4 back and play two out and out wingers, Dean and Anderson, with Shanks down the middle. I just don’t think Anderson can cut it centrally, I think he can have a much bigger impact out wide. It’s very easy being a backseat coach though!! The important thing is Chris has acknowledged it’s not working and is going to tinker.

[AFCRDPete2011]

I’ve stewed on this to avoid being reactionary. To say it’s been a poor start to the season would be nothing sure of an understatement, and although I didn’t go to the game last night, very disappointed to see us lose to a team that we should be nailed on to beat! A real eye opener as to where we’re probably going to finish this season - I really do think we might be on for back to back relegations if this carries on! We wouldn’t score if we played for 90 days let alone 90 minutes (summed up by that penalty), we leak goals like there’s no tomorrow and it doesn’t look like we really have much a clue when it comes to even the basics. What are we doing going long direct from kick off? It really does confuse me. Then again, given where we are as a club at the moment, perhaps it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for us to go down again - we look miles off it here and the rebuild may well have to go deeper than first thought. Hope that’s just me being pessimistic.

[Biggles]

very disappointed to see us lose to a team that we should be nailed on to beat

Strange statement, why are we nailed on to beat certain teams ?

we leak goals like there’s no tomorrow

Apart from last night we had only conceded 3 goals in the League and against 2 of the best teams in our Division.

I think your pessimism is a bit strong at the Mo, need more time to access and i think we should make mid table by the end however its not the start we wanted but the 1st two games were going to be a challenge and the results have not helped keeping the floating fan from attending on a regular basis.

[fentiger79]

A team is only as good as its weakest link and at the moment we have a few. I’m not going to put names on here as the guys are trying their hardest but we all know where we need to improve. I still believe defensively we have the best centre back in the league and others who could hold their own in any team but we need to strengthen around them. It’s not easy and it takes time, I have no doubt that Chris Nunn is spending every minute looking for some solutions to our problems. I thought Dean and Shanks added something positive to our attack yesterday and that again bodes well. I really like listening to Chris’ plan of building the team and adding some experience and quality as we go. Players who want £200 at the beginning of the season will soon drop that asking price if they are not getting games or have not been picked up. It’s something that we as a club have done well with over the Peaks years but the big difference then was the team was built over a period of time with some great additions as and when they became available and I think what Peaksy achieved was great, he deserves his success. It’s a totally different prospect for Chris as he had had to practically build a team from nothing. That’s hard, probably near impossible but he is doing it under some tough restrictions. It’s going to take time but when a standard player is being offered 150 to play in the league below what can we do, we can’t get into a bidding war and pay out 200 for each player at the moment when we have had to fight hard to survive the summer. It takes knowledge, experience, personal connections and contacts to find the right player in our predicament and I can’t think of anyone better than Nunn to make that happen. Has my full support. As does the board who have moved mountains to enable us to even have a team, yes, I believe it has been that serious and we need to remember that. The good times will come again we just need to stick together.

[Adrian]

This is a strong league with big spenders in it, before a ball was kicked it was clear that making the play-offs would be a big achievement, even if we had won all our opening games 5-0 I would still think the play off's would be a good achievement.

Elliot Sandy is well equipped to guide Spalding to promotion, big spenders always have blips but his post on Twitter the other day mentioned he signed for K*ttering 10 years ago so I would assume he was there when they were in the Southern Division One equivalent to this and signed lots of ex conference players, a prolific striker from Rugby and still stuttered over the line - that experience should benefit him as a manager this season.

Gary Setchell at Corby has some good players and a decent budget, they will only get better and he will bring in some more experience in a few months when players from the league above become available.

Mitch Austin at Harborough, has brought in a few players who have won promotion from this league, the signing of Lee Tomlin shows they have money and like Spalding are desperate for success.

It's wrong to say there are teams in this league who we should be 'nailed on to beat' if a team finished 20th last season, we don't know how well they have recruited this season or if they may have more funds to spend this year.

Here is how I measure it... look at the Spalding, Corby and Harborough starting line ups - how many players in those teams have you heard of and can say are very good signings for this level - at least 6 in each team, well... all 11 at Spalding.
Look at our own starting line up - apart from those we saw last season and the signing of Tom Lorraine, how many of the new players had you heard of and can say are very good for this league because they've played a lot of games in this league or the leagues above... 2 or 3.

There is nothing about our line up that justifies anyone to think we've spent big or got lots of experience and expect us to win every game. That's not me being critical of the team.

They are young and don't have bags of experience under their belts yet, I'm not panicking or hurting because we've got off to a poor start, I would be if we had spent big and found ourselves in a situation where we can't bring anyone in. It's a newly assembled team so it's bound to take time.

Last season Chris had been here for 3 months, made a load of signings and we were still rubbish and expecting to lose every game, it eventually clicked into place and we finished the season expecting to take 3 points from games, the fans got behind him and the team and knew it would take the signings a while to click, let's all remain patient and supportive again this season.