Gainsborough Trinity away

[cdp]

I WAS at the game and my thoughts are - firstly the colour clash of kits was ridiculous- both teams wearing almost the same colours should not have been allowed. We were the better team for the first half hour, dominating possession and passing the ball quite nicely without creating much in the way of clear cut chances. The game turned completely in a ten minute spell between the 32nd and 42nd minutes. Gainsborough’s first goal was a howler by Brad Wade - a long range speculative shot he should have easily saved. Then Denton missed with a header from 3 yards which hit the post when it was easier to score and from the clearance up field Kendall wiped out the Gainsborough winger and was sent off. Composure was lost for the next few minutes and Guiseley conceded two more goals which effectively ended the game by half time. The second half was a non event. We looked decent before going behind and much better than Saturday when I personally thought we were awful even though we won.

I thought Phillips comments after the game were actually very balanced and I have some sympathy for him insofar as he hasn’t got all his best players available yet. But I cannot understand the chopping and changing of players eg Conway so early in the season and the team looks disorganised and unsure of what is expected of them. Our best period last season came from playing a high tempo pressing game. Now it’s lump the ball towards Denton and hope to pick up the scraps from whatever ball he manages to win - and there doesn’t seem to be a plan B if that doesn’t work. A long way to go and plenty of time to turn things around but we look bottom half material so far and the pressure is already on. In 10 days time we could easily be four points from six matches and out of the FA Cup. As some one else has said on this thread Phillips record is worse than Ellis’ leading up to when he was sacked.

[adambrid]

More reaction to the loss:





AB

[GAFC 1909]

Aug 24, 2023 14:09:28 GMT 1 danmartin said:

I didn't see the game, and it's still very early days, but I think there have been a number of warning lights flashing about this manager for a while, and they're certainly not going away. Last season he was justified in claiming that he didn't have his own players (though his best run of form came before he'd had chance to bring in however many hundreds of players he did). This season he simply doesn't have that excuse, and things aren't looking any better.

I'm willing to cut him some slack, as it is still very early, and he does have key players out, but all the recruitment so far has looked very much like a case of bringing in a number of good players with little or no regard given to how they fit together as a team. On top of that, rather than giving the players a chance to gel and learn the system (is there a system? I'm not sure "kick it hard in the air" really counts as a system), he's chopping and changing the players and formation every game.

As far as I can tell from my position on the sidelines, we've got an extremely limited manager with zero tactical awareness and no way of changing things other than shouting and then replacing people. I don't know what he does when that doesn't work either.

Hopefully I'm wrong and good performances are just around the corner, but I'm not impressed at the moment. I at least liked what Ellis and Forrest were trying to do and they seemed like nice people.

Agree with most of what is written here. Personally I think that a manager should always be given a minimum of 1 full year before a club considers a change, unfortunately many seem to be much quicker on the trigger - ourselves included when we sacked Ellis. I would still like to give Phillips the chance to turn things around, probably allowing until the new year to see where we are. If we are not pushing for playoffs by then, it will probably be time to part ways.

Also agree it seems we are a little one dimensional with the long ball tactic not being a fan favourite either - the management team need to come up with some different options as it feels to me that teams have already sussed us out - Kitty's post match interview clearly indicating as much.