Accrington Stanley v Blackpool Official Matchday Thread 19.12.20

voyeur said:
23 points from the last 11. Keep that up and we will make the play offs.
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Keep that up and we'll go up automatically 👍🏻
The defence were brilliant today, think its time people got off Turtons back now.
Midfield still no problems apart from Dougall being tired.
But.... we need to be sharper up front Yates and Madine just didn't gel today let's hope it was a blip #UTMP

As a footnote, there is no way that Accrington will mount a promotion challenge on that glue pot!!
 
Gave the ball way far too easily today, however another clean sheet, no injuries another point away against a team above us, so overall a decent result. For me Maxwell was MOTM for most of the game he dominated his area, although his distribution at times could have been better, but no-one really stood out today.
 
I reckon we can start the new year in the top half and we have a great chance of at least making the playoffs. Still need a sniffer in my opinion and we need to find a way past these spoiling teams and their gobby managers.
 
bollieboy said:
Ref very poor today. Stanley players in his ear all match and getting a free kick every time they fell over. Only thing he did in our favour was when Yates clipped their player on the edge of their box and he waved play on leading to us nearly scoring.

Blew up numerous times for free kicks to us when we were going forward and had a bit of space.
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Thats exactly how bent officials influence games. I bet if you had a repay of all the times we got a free kick today we already had possession or the ball had already broke in our favour. The linesman on the far side was even worse. Why did he flag when we hit the post.. no offside, no foul?? Same with the Madine shot that went wide, not offside or a foul..neither goal would've counted.
 
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Mark_GT said:
I reckon we can start the new year in the top half and we have a great chance of at least making the playoffs. Still need a sniffer in my opinion and we need to find a way past these spoiling teams and their gobby managers.
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Not only was the pitch a quagmire
Chissy was highlighting how strong the wind was, so long passes over the top for CJ to run onto were often misplaced.
Happy for the point as it shows another string to the bow of this team. They hate losing as much as we do
 
Given the conditions and the opposition, this is a very good point. Sunderland next up, let’s get all three there.
 
If we keep current form we might end up with around 85 points. Touch wood. Enough for POs but probably a few points shy of automatic. I think our 6 losses early in the season will be just too much to recoup.
 
kuriousoranj said:
Well that was disappointing but not helped by the ref and his assistants. As the commentator said "he let everything go in the first half but blew for everything in the second" and they killed the game between them.
Happy with a point on that showing. Midfield never had a grip on the game. Dougall looked poor again, Virtue looked sluggish. Hamilton should do better in those conditions. I think part of his problem is he doesn't show himself as much as he should. What happened to his heroic defensive game today? Good job Turton had a blinder. I think Ward should've started ahead of Virtue or Dougal today. This game was tailored for Robson too.

Maxwell 6 Turton 8 Ballard 6 Ekpiteta 6 Garbutt 6 Hamilton 5 Dougall 4 Virtue 5 Anderson 6 Madine 6 Yates 5
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Your ratings are so cock eyed. Didn't you see the rain, wind or mud today. A decent, very even game in shocking conditions. Not sure what sort of game you were expecting
 
tangysider said:
Not only was the pitch a quagmire
Chissy was highlighting how strong the wind was, so long passes over the top for CJ to run onto were often misplaced.
Happy for the point as it shows another string to the bow of this team. They hate losing as much as we do
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Chissy?
 
tangysider said:
Not only was the pitch a quagmire
Chissy was highlighting how strong the wind was, so long passes over the top for CJ to run onto were often misplaced.
Happy for the point as it shows another string to the bow of this team. They hate losing as much as we do
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Tangy. That's pretty astute of Chissy to spot how bad the conditions were from Stoke.
Or did you tune into Blackburn by mistake? 😉
 
Thought Turton was outstanding today. We are blessed at full back and CH, and any mix will make little difference. Maxwell was more decisive off his line today, which helped.

We struggled in midfield, chasing as opposed to controlling and creating. Virtue had a better 2nd half, when the pace dropped. He struggles for pace and games can happen around him, but a good squad player. If Dougall had a choice of midfield partner it would surely be Ward or Robson.

It was a hard won point on a horrible afternoon, and thought we showed great resilience. Add that to our quality and 2021 is looking positive.
 
Maxwell 8 - did really well in horrible conditions
Turton 8.5 - some great moments
Marv 8 - always an 8!
Ballard 8 - did well after his absence
Garbutt 8 - he's going to improve us when we really start to maximise his uses
Dougall 6.5 - not his usual self but still involved a fair bit
Virtue 6.5 - improved second half, good work rate, will improve with games if he gets them
CJ 6.5 - not his best game but some good moments
Anderson 6 - I like him, he battled as usual, but the game wasn't conducive.
Yates 6.5 - he works hard but still not really clicking for him and today wasn't going to be the day
Madine 6.5 - messy game, maybe we could have used him more effectively on those conditions.
 
Just heard Coleman on Radio East Lancs saying we are a good team and will be up there at end of season and generally praising pool. Hee also said they had a blatant pen turned down!
 
Good point that against a decent team. We didn’t play particularly well today with a one or two having an off day, may be that was due to the way Accy played. We’ve had some tough games recently so a mid week rest from a game will do us good.
 
SirHarryThomson said:
Just heard Coleman on Radio East Lancs saying we are a good team and will be up there at end of season and generally praising pool. Hee also said they had a blatant pen turned down!
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What was the penalty they should have had?
 
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Insider said:
Semi positive post.
Can you please expand on the positions we need to strengthen?
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Reiterating what I've posted on several occasions. A goalscorer as neither Yates or Madine are natural, clinical finishers.
Extend Ballard's loan, or if not possible, sign another decent centre back.
A creative midfielder or one who has goals in his locker.
Ideally, an experienced back up keeper, although an emergency loan may cater for any absence of Maxwell.
 
if it was the """"""foul????""" that the ref gave towards the end of the game on the edge of the area, first it wasnt in the area and second it was about as much a foul as a duck is a fish
 
62years&counting said:
Reiterating what I've posted on several occasions. A goalscorer as neither Yates or Madine are natural, clinical finishers.
Extend Ballard's loan, or if not possible, sign another decent centre back.
A creative midfielder or one who has goals in his locker.
Ideally, an experienced back up keeper, although an emergency loan may cater for any absence of Maxwell.
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We all agree on the striker and Ballard.
Not so sure we can accommodate another mid-fielder.
The Manager has already addressed the goal-keeper position which will be covered by an emergency loan.
 
Insider said:
We all agree on the striker and Ballard.
Not so sure we can accommodate another mid-fielder.
The Manager has already addressed the goal-keeper position which will be covered by an emergency loan.
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Although we have plenty of midfielders, none are particularly creative or add goals to their game. The final third is where we tend to break down.
 
Insider said:
We all agree on the striker and Ballard.
Not so sure we can accommodate another mid-fielder.
The Manager has already addressed the goal-keeper position which will be covered by an emergency loan.
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In complete agreement with that.

We have the personnel for midfield already in the building.

Interesting to see that every partner we’ve put with Dougall has struggled to impose themselves on the game, I’m not quite sure why that is, even Dougall has dropped off the last couple of games.

Much like the improvements we’ve made with the defensive unit, which was frankly awful for the first 3/4 games, the midfield unit needs something similar, generally the personnel are there something just needs to click or the odd instruction tweaked.
I think once this improves and if we can bring another potent central striker we could be scary in this division.
 
Rektseasider said:
In complete agreement with that.

We have the personnel for midfield already in the building.

Interesting to see that every partner we’ve put with Dougall has struggled to impose themselves on the game, I’m not quite sure why that is, even Dougall has dropped off the last couple of games.

Much like the improvements we’ve made with the defensive unit, which was frankly awful for the first 3/4 games, the midfield unit needs something similar, generally the personnel are there something just needs to click or the odd instruction tweaked.
I think once this improves and if we can bring another potent central striker we could be scary in this division.
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In my view our current crop of midfielders lack creativity and goals.
 
If we didn’t need a break before, we certainly do after that game on that pitch. A well earned rest for all.
 
62years&counting said:
In my view our current crop of midfielders lack creativity and goals.
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The whole team lacks creativity to a certain degree and definitely lacks goals.

My point was at one point the defence lack any semblance of composure and awareness now I’m surprised if we let a goal in.

So I can see the same thing happening for the midfield unit, I’m not sure I’d say Anderson, Robson or Ward lack creativity. We’re just struggling for a bit of cohesion between these lads and their link up with the forwards.

It might actually not come this season, but I’m far more confident than i was three months ago that we have a chance of turning us into a prolific team.
 
62years&counting said:
In my view our current crop of midfielders lack creativity and goals.
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As I see it and based on how we set up, the role of our central midfielders is to break up play and link into our wide players and forwards. That is where our threat is, and we’ve been doing it well, against the best teams. I think we need a more settled 2 in the centre or 2 from 3.

Up front, I can’t remember Yates ‘missing‘ a chance. He’s hit the post 3 times from half chances and he’s banged in a few. In other words, he’s shown himself to be the striker many said he wasn’t. Madine is a handful and together they are a threat, but much depends on service and that starts from central midfield.

I do though agree that we might be 1 light up front in terms of squad strength, although NC can utilise Keshi and CJ differently. Limitation on squad size means that we can perhaps do something with 1 or 2 out in January.
 
Another excellent blog.
Like I said on another post I have a soft spot for Accy and would like to see them do well.
There weakness will be lack of strength in depth whereas I think that will be our strength, if we can keep Ballard and find another target man.
 
Supply to the forwards needs to be better but the way we play it's not really coming from central midfield, we play with two in there who mainly keep us solid. I would say Ward and Robson are capable of being creative though - getting forward and making things happen, if allowed. Dougall mainly nicks the ball and feeds people, but he can thread a through ball too. Madine and Yates do not not seem to thrive on through balls though, they don't seem able to run beyond and get shots away - and I think it would improve us if we had strikers who could. We've not been getting terribly good service from our wide players either, though CJ makes a fair bit happen. And Garbutt is starting to do it. We haven't really sorted this stuff out yet IMO. You could see exactly how our attacking play worked under Holloway, pretty quickly, but this has happened yet with this new squad of players - Ollie inherited a lot of the people who could do what he wanted to do.
 
Rektseasider said:
The whole team lacks creativity to a certain degree and definitely lacks goals.

My point was at one point the defence lack any semblance of composure and awareness now I’m surprised if we let a goal in.

So I can see the same thing happening for the midfield unit, I’m not sure I’d say Anderson, Robson or Ward lack creativity. We’re just struggling for a bit of cohesion between these lads and their link up with the forwards.

It might actually not come this season, but I’m far more confident than i was three months ago that we have a chance of turning us into a prolific team.
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We have improved since Dougall, Ballard and Gretarrson arrived. Goals, however, seem generally hard to come by, hence the need for more creativity and someone to take chances.
 
kuriousoranj said:
Well that was disappointing but not helped by the ref and his assistants. As the commentator said "he let everything go in the first half but blew for everything in the second" and they killed the game between them.
Happy with a point on that showing. Midfield never had a grip on the game. Dougall looked poor again, Virtue looked sluggish. Hamilton should do better in those conditions. I think part of his problem is he doesn't show himself as much as he should. What happened to his heroic defensive game today? Good job Turton had a blinder. I think Ward should've started ahead of Virtue or Dougal today. This game was tailored for Robson too.

Maxwell 6 Turton 8 Ballard 6 Ekpiteta 6 Garbutt 6 Hamilton 5 Dougall 4 Virtue 5 Anderson 6 Madine 6 Yates 5
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Turton had a blinder.........what game were you watching? Every time their winger got the ball, Turton was nowhere to be seen.
 
It appears to me that a lot of posters on here are underestimating Accy. They, to me, appeared to be a very cohesive and well-drilled side. A number of times they broke through and with better finishing could have scored, Nottingham was quite impressive and I'm sorry we let him go. A point away there was a decent result, particularly when you take into account the weather and the pitch, which will give the home side an advantage at every home game.
 
Accy are a good side. I was frustrated we didn’t seem to ever want to actively change our approach to the game, but who knows doing that could have played into their hands. A point isn’t to be sniffed at.

The main positive for me was Ekpiteta, growing in confidence each game and clearly becoming more vocal too as he seemed to be in the ref’s ear a lot. Garbutt proved he could step up defensively as he didn’t do much wrong. Ballard solid and dominant in the air especially defending set pieces. Can’t make my mind up about Turton, he does some things brilliantly but he’s ridiculously wasteful in possession and lets crosses in far too easily.

Dougall wasn’t at his best but I put that down to his centre mid partner. Can somebody please tell me what kind of player Virtue is meant to be? He’s clumsy and wasteful on the ball, shirks tackles and is rarely in position. Robson and Ward, much better options.

That was probably the best I’ve seen Madine defended against, granted they had 3 centre halves and our game plan seemed to be constant long balls, but he didn’t get much joy. Yates couldn’t impact the game due to the way we played, shame really because there’s been games recently where Yates hasn’t started I thought would have suited him, whereas today didn’t.

Anyway, a good point. Next four are against teams lurking around the relegation zone, so if we want to be up there at the end these are the games we need to be winning.
 
Lanc_seasider said:
Accy are a good side. I was frustrated we didn’t seem to ever want to actively change our approach to the game, but who knows doing that could have played into their hands. A point isn’t to be sniffed at.

The main positive for me was Ekpiteta, growing in confidence each game and clearly becoming more vocal too as he seemed to be in the ref’s ear a lot. Garbutt proved he could step up defensively as he didn’t do much wrong. Ballard solid and dominant in the air especially defending set pieces. Can’t make my mind up about Turton, he does some things brilliantly but he’s ridiculously wasteful in possession and lets crosses in far too easily.

Dougall wasn’t at his best but I put that down to his centre mid partner. Can somebody please tell me what kind of player Virtue is meant to be? He’s clumsy and wasteful on the ball, shirks tackles and is rarely in position. Robson and Ward, much better options.

That was probably the best I’ve seen Madine defended against, granted they had 3 centre halves and our game plan seemed to be constant long balls, but he didn’t get much joy. Yates couldn’t impact the game due to the way we played, shame really because there’s been games recently where Yates hasn’t started I thought would have suited him, whereas today didn’t.

Anyway, a good point. Next four are against teams lurking around the relegation zone, so if we want to be up there at the end these are the games we need to be winning.
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Virtue got better as the game wore on and is returning from a lengthy injury
 
midfield general said:
Turton had a blinder.........what game were you watching? Every time their winger got the ball, Turton was nowhere to be seen.
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I disagree, I was one of Turton's biggest critics at the start of the season but he has emerged as a genuine leader on the pitch. This game was a battle from start to finish, Accrington are a big physical side but can also play some good stuff at times. They also seem to want to referee the game and a weak referee failed to stamp out that part of their "game management" early on. Their crowding the ref trying to get Virtue sent off was unedifying to say the least. I was impressed with Colby Bishop, at 24, he held the ball up well and is young enough to improve further.
 
I just don't see it with Madine and Yates, Madine offers you hustle and bustle, i thought today Yates did not work hard enough for the bits and is lightweight, they both lack mobility, speed and that bit of devil you need up front. I love our battling qualities especially in defence this has been the biggest difference since the start of the season, a good point today. A striker of higher quality in January would take us to another level.
 
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