Boston @ home

First home game of the season. Really need to put in a performance, not only to get the 3 pts, but also to create a feel good around the new 3G. After SW went with Shiels and Ainge, I'd expect a similar attacking line up but who knows. Has JP done enough or is he fit enough, and anyone want to guess a gate number as we need to see that rising.

I'm guessing JPP will not be fit enough to start this one but should be good off the bench if needed. Shame its an evening game, so maybe 600/700 with good weather.

Be interesting to see how SW rotates his striking options and midfield. Hopefully we will have a team out who play ball to feet and move it out from the back with the occasional long pass if it's on.

Certainly think we need to shuffle the pack tonight. I personally would play

Crook
Turner Ellis Shiels Parker
Emmett Platt Burrell Thanoj Leesley
Knowles

Robertson. ??

Ainge ?  Sheils was not at his best on saturday

Need to get at em tonight and get scoring again (ie forwards crafting goals from a partnership – Solihull excelled at that last season) – so for me no Knowles on his own. We also need to get more of a partnership going between Chib/JP/Robertson. So two from those three tonight. Ainge and Ellis at the back. Intrigued to see if the Diamond works – can anyone confirm if we did play that formation on Saturday?
Shame the match and FC United are midweeks – by chance that both had crowd ‘issues’ last season and this season they are both midweek? Bit cack for getting the average gate on the up.

Just driven past the ground - it's all remarkably low-key outside ! Just one placard up to announce tonight's fixture to passers-by.
Surely the council would let 'Town' put a banner across Wetherby Road announcing 1st match of season on our newly laid pitch ... just for a couple of days. Placards for 'Harrogate Street Theatre' and 'Knaresborough Feva' (even 'Woodlands school Xmas Fair') are allowed and up for weeks !?

Boston v Stalybridge highlights

Boston v Stalybridge highlights.
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Christ, hope Boston don't get that many chances with us. Want that back door firmly locked and bolted.

All the very best for the 1st league match on the 3g surface this evening. 3 points should be in the bag.

Really enjoyed watching town tonight. Loads of positives- thought workrate and closing down was superb, intricate passing and 1 touch really good, shifted the ball well and looked threatening up front and fairly tight in defence. Thought Leesley was MOM, ran his socks off but all the players put a shift in with Burrell covering right back really well. Negatives - the ref must have been on commission 1st half as never seen so many cards. Also think we need to close down and cut out crosses before they get into the box and try to create a bit more space for the shot around the opposition box. Would like to see the aydvertising ramped up as we can start to build on gates with performances like that. Let's get highlights out on YouTube and start advertising altrincham game from tomorrow and see if we can clear 1000 gate on Saturday. Forza town.

Lovely performance in places - last half od second half some really good stuff.

Crook was MOM for me. Some great saves to keep us from going a goal down.

Kerry brilliant, like his goal. Leesley showed some great pace at times and nice set piece deliveries. Brendon who?

Great to see Knowles get off to a goal start. Should have been two if Robertson had left him the ball in the second half.

Jackie Emmett was his brilliant pocket rocket coming on.

Bodes well for Saturday. Pitch was great with a bit of rain on it.

Exciting game of 'foot'ball. Loads of chances for both sides and speccies got their money's worth compared with the big yawn in Bromsgrove.
Leesley was my MOTM by a country mile. Based on what i've seen so far his set-pieces are equal or better than what Daniels gave us - but what, to my mind, puts him in a class above Daniels is his tireless running and team commitment, notoriously missing from much of Daniel's play.
I get the feeling we'll meet better teams than tonight's Boston, but that'll do for now !

Agreed Fulham and carefree. Stats on possession would be interesting but 1st half excellent shifting the ball to feet. Start of 2nd half we looked a bit tatty but to be fair Boston were putting us under a lot of pressure. Crooks was very good between the sticks and has improved his distribution no end. Ainge solid and Thanoj spraying to be ball around. Just lacked a little bit in and around the box to create that 1 yd to get a shot off. Hopefully turner isn't badly knacked but ref was really poor. He'd dished out that many cards in 1 st half that he had nowhere to go 2nd half. Another positive is we can rest a couple of players or change the system for Altrincham and still bring top notch quality on like Colbeck, Ellis or platt and Chib. Still think Gascoigne is a few yds off the pace and too many passes astray but hopefully it'll come for the lad. Did you work out which system we were playing carefree?

I thought overall that we have to improve 100% with our attacking display. We have widened the pitch  but only use the wings for 20/30 mins when Jack comes on and nobody is on the other wing. We dont seem to give the forwards many clear chances to shoot. Playing so narrow like we do for 60/70 mins per game till Jack arrives is boring to watch.M O M decision by Jordan was a joke [ how much had he drunk ? ] It became embarrassing because nobody clapped the decision as Gascoinge left the field.
Hoping for a big improvement on saturday.

Bloomin eck garage! Personally thought first half performance was as good as I've ever seen. Agreed that Jack makes a massive difference when he comes on, especially against tired defenders and we just lacked that guile around the box, but it's an excellent foundation to build off. Also think the new lads really bossed the show and are forcing other players to raise their game. If Leesley keeps it up he'll be player of the season. Got the lad from north ferrets to intergrate yet. Good to see the confidence instilled in the team with the ball getting passed around and through the middle on the ground rather than loosing possession with lots of hopeful punts down the channels.

GARAGE wrote:.M O M decision by Jordan was a joke [ how much had he drunk ? ] It became embarrassing because nobody clapped the decision as Gascoinge left the field.

Only a couple of pints yesterday.

Decision was explained at the presentation after.

Very impressed with Leesley last night. His work rate is immense and his deliveries always seem to cause problems. Hopefully the injury to Turner is not too serious albeit thought Burrel filled in well when needed.

What has happened to Tom Platt?

Jordan

Never a dull game against Boston! Lacked the goals of recent encounters but a match full of incident, and the right result! Thought we were superb in the first half as others have said, could have been 3 up easily. Very poor start to the second half had me worried, but we came back into it,. and won easily in the end. Great goal by Kerry (what a player he has been for us since last season), and Knowles took his goal superbly well, he looks transformed as well.
I really like Gazza and I'm delighted he is back playing, but MOM? At least 4 players deserved it more: Leesley, Crook (how valuable his saves were), Knowles (scored and worked his socks off), and the great Lloyd Kerry! Had to be Kerry for me.

Really good attendance as well: 702 on a miserable wet night, very encouraging. 1000+ Saturday please. Alty will be a real test for us, hard to tell if we beat a good team in Boston or if they have regressed from last season, I suspect it might be the latter. And even a comical referee to liven things up!

The formation is of interest certainly!

It works wonderfully with Gazza or whoever bursting through to join the front two. However, it was a bit labour intensive at times in the first and beginning of second half getting the ball into the front two and, more importantly, getting shots away.

Also means Kerry and Thanoj seem to be a bit too far back for the game changing abilities to really shine.

More worrying was the way Boston started to get wise to our narrowness and push their full backs on - early doors second half it was very apparent.

When we really did start to play with a cutting edge was when we were playing the hybrid of half the pitch with Jack on the wing and the other as a diamond. unorthodox but worked nicely. Would love to see us do a wholesale switch when opposing legs are tired and stretch play with Jack and Joe C doing there thing out wide.

I think we have the talent to play like for like on a 442 against opposing teams and see them off as opposed to negating a hugely important area of the pitch, especially as a home team, where we can pull a defence left and right to create more space than was certainly not available last night for large chunks of the game.

Boston managers thought's.
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Leesley was fantastic - great work rate. MOM for me. Emmett adds a different dimension when he comes on to the pitch. Referee dreadful.

Can we say a word of praise for the young lady who entertained the crowd at half time with her acrobatic skills. Maybe a Town player for the future?