Weston Super mare (A)

comrade powell wrote:After the very high standards Mellor set for himself at Ferriby, he doesn't need people on here to point out that he has been very poor at both Basingstoke and Weston.

.......should have stopped there then.

I meant that a player at this level should be aware of his weak areas and be working to improve. I wasn't suggesting that forum members had no right to offer constructive criticism - that is what a forum is for!

I'm not sure Howells' interview with the Chron will help much either.

I suppose it depends on your view of managers being publicly critical of their players. I thought the comments were spot on and will hopefully encourage Jason to improve further in this area. Having struggled in most games with his distribution, I thought it had improved of late but I do think his game seems to suffer after a mistake.

Nothing in those comments Howells or Adie haven't said before, just the Chronicle making click-baity headlines from them. He won't progress above this level unless the kicking becomes consistent, we all know that.

Palms wrote:Nothing in those comments Howells or Adie haven't said before, just the Chronicle making click-baity headlines from them. He won't progress above this level unless the kicking becomes consistent, we all know that.

My problem with comments like this is that Jason's kicking has been awful for two seasons. Does Archie believe he is deliberately not trying to get better? What is going to change in the next ten games?

Why do players pass back if they know the keeper is dodgy? Why don't they put it in row Z?

Why doesn't someone else take goal kicks?

Disappointing evening all round. Never ceases to amaze how low key our encounters against WSM seem - no thanks to their meager support. A valuable 3 points were up for grabs last night, but even at 2-1 up I never felt that we would run out winners. WSM looking dangerous with every attack, and a dodgy Mellor looking woefully exposed.

Of course disappointing to see Stearn being introduced in the later stages. I feel he is actually at his least effective when we are chasing a game because he tries to pull off the spectacular too often and wastes good positions.

comrade powell wrote:I do think his game seems to suffer after a mistake.

I think that is the real issue. For while it looked as if his kicking was getting more consistent but as soon as he gets one wrong in a game you know that he will suddenly struggle for the rest of the match. And the issue at our level is that the pitches are always going to be a mis-kick waiting to happen. Even after the shocker last night (which I thankfully missed as I was checking my photos) he got a number of clearances away fine so to me it is more of a mental issue than one of technique. And I guess this is harder to overcome.

For what it's worth I still think his pluses outweigh the minuses so I would be disappointed if he did get released.

I also think the focus on Jason's mistake has distracted from Walsh's sending off. Listening to the commentary it sounded like he was the architect of his own downfall (and thus ours).

It isn't fair to focus on Jason when there have been a number of individual cock ups within the defence this season resulting in goals conceded and defeats.

Some people seem to get away with it.

yuffie wrote: For what it's worth I still think his pluses outweigh the minuses so I would be disappointed if he did get released.

I would agree with that wholeheartedly. As I put earlier, it is a once every 4 game mistake it seems, but he can be superb as well. Would agree with your comment about his confidence, as once one mistake occurs you can visibly see him wilt sometimes. Not sure what can be done about that, but why the defence persists on passing back to him when his confidence has gone is beyond me.

I didn't see Walsh's first booking, but the foul for the second was stupid, Walsh just upended the man after he'd been done, left the ref with nothing else he could do. I still feel Keary was unlucky to get dropped for Walsh, but to be fair to Phil (and the rest of the defence) a few notible exceptions aside, they have been pretty solid.

Seeing Jason at the Ferriby games, and close up in the 1st half of the away game for a change, he almost single handledly got us to Wembley, certainly kept us in it. I dont think the improvement needed is insurmoiuntable, though as we have said about others if he was that good he wouldnt be here.

Also lost in the Mellor discussion is Dave Pratt's 20th of the season, runnining out of adjectives to describe his tireless, self less application to the cause.

I think people are being a little harsh on Jason. We all know that he has had problems with his kicking, but it definitely improved after he worked with Steve Phillips. I am sure somebody will put me right, but I don't recall that it has cost us that many goals, and the saves he has made during the course of the season (not least at North Ferriby) have prevented far more.

Lee Howells' comments on this are another example of why he should stay a long way away from a microphone.

If you can bear it here is a video of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d1KfXL_0Es

Good coverage of our goals and chances as well. Interesting to see that Weston's first was an own goal by Chas.

Let's hope we can cut out the defensive howlers today...

Decent coverage.

Boy am I glad I didn't go. Four avoidable goals, music after they score etc. Urgh. Why is Mellor wearing a WSM kit?

Why don't we have a player on the far post for corners these days ? Weston's second goal and Basingstoke's opener might well have been cleared if we had. It seems to be the fashion now not to have someone defending both posts. A mistake in my opinion.