Pre season so far!

[Chris darlo1883]

First 3 games haven't been the best yes it's pre season and lads are new and finding there feet, but still means we should beat teams like Newton aycliffe and play better football than we did, we havent passed the ball well in any of our 3 games From my point of view last night Amar should have been up top as he is more physical and more of an aerial threat than Johnson maybe put Johnson wide with Amar central. Defensively we look shakey and have conceded some cheap goals. Robinson right back for me is much better centre back if I remember rightly Gott played there last season 4-5 games and did very well and thought with Harrison leaving that maybe Gott/hunter would be the new right back as both are good technical players. It's early stages yet and Ino some of our better players are away on holiday hopefully a better performance Saturday

[JPearson97]

First 3 games haven't been the best yes it's pre season and lads are new and finding there feet, but still means we should beat teams like Newton aycliffe and play better football than we did

Does it?

Every game we have made 7-8 changes. We have 4-5 trialists on our books and have introduced several youth team players. I think people are expecting too much, especially given what happened last pre-season.

From my point of view last night Amar should have been up top as he is more physical and more of an aerial threat than Johnson maybe put Johnson wide with Amar central.

So you're suggesting we go 4-5-1 again, then? Personally, I'm struggling to see why we went with just one up-front last night, because with Dowson away it would have been a great chance for Purewal and Johnson to impress up top. It's always a risky game playing Johnson on his own as he has to constantly drop deep, meaning that he doesn't get as much service.

Defensively we look shakey and have conceded some cheap goals.

Which is to be expected given the sheer amount of changes we have made. Last night we started off with Robinson, Hunter, Brown and Poole, then finished with Mitchell, Hunter, Robinson and Prendergast. We'll start to see a more settled defence towards the back end of pre-season, no doubt.

Robinson right back for me is much better centre back

Agreed.

thought with Harrison leaving that maybe Gott/hunter would be the new right back as both are good technical players.

I'd have thought Hunter would have been given the chance to impress at right-back, although it looks like Robinson is going away in 7 weeks so maybe we're getting as many games with Hunter at centre-back under the belt as possible? Just a thought.

It's early stages yet and Ino some of our better players are away on holiday hopefully a better performance Saturday

I feel you're being a little negative in all honesty. There have been many positives to take out of all three pre-season games regardless of the result.

[Robbie Painter]

Its pre-season, it doesn't matter.

[MikeinBlack2]

I think the problem is that up until now, we have almost forgotten what it's like to lose! We expect to beat everyone we play and if we concede one, we'll score three! Poor performances and defeat seem so long ago...... our bench mark has been set very high now, and to keep it there we will need to perform consistently well, which I'm sure we will before too long.

[Darlo_Manc]

Its pre-season, it doesn't matter.

Exactly this, for the current players its all about getting minutes for fitness and for the trialists its about impressing. The score isn't something to worry about until the real games begin.

[cameron-darlo]

First 3 games haven't been the best yes it's pre season and lads are new and finding there feet, but still means we should beat teams like Newton aycliffe and play better football than we did, we havent passed the ball well in any of our 3 games

Seriously, what do you expect with trialists and a lot of substitutions? we're not going to play settled football and pass it well until the season starts and we've got a settled team.

Maybe you're right, we should be beating sides like Aycliffe, but does it really matter? its Pre season and a meaningless friendly which is purely for fitness.

[divas]

I think the problem is that up until now, we have almost forgotten what it's like to lose! We expect to beat everyone we play and if we concede one, we'll score three! Poor performances and defeat seem so long ago...... our bench mark has been set very high now, and to keep it there we will need to perform consistently well, which I'm sure we will before too long.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, even last season with a brand new squad we stream-rollered the opposition. However as it was a whole new team last season I think Gray was more focused on bedding them in that trying youth/trialists as we've done so far this season. He knows what his key players can do and what they can bring already so it's more a case of giving a chance to those he doesn't know that well.

I expect in the last 3/4 friendlies we'll see a more serious approach taken in terms of selection in readiness for the new season.

[jimmyht]

I expect in the last 3/4 friendlies we'll see a more serious approach taken in terms of selection in readiness for the new season.

Exactly........experimenting in the early ones is the sensible thing to do, if we pick up one good new squad member from trialists in these early games then its worth it

[TFDM]

Can only speak for the Aycliffe game as I missed the first two with being away but you could argue on another night we might have got a draw or even a win yesterday evening. We were the better side going into the break but the changes didn't help us or add anything to proceedings. Despite that we still hit the bar two and had a couple of really good chances from corner kicks which we should have done better from.

Like Divas says I would expect the final few friendly games to see a more consistent, closer to a first eleven look. I'd also expect a few trialists to start dropping by the wayside after the RA game tonight and Sunderland at the weekend. I'm not concerned at all about results in pre-season. Martin will already have a rough idea of how he wants to approach things. These first couple of weeks of pre-season are about fitness and looking at trialists. Nothing more.

Basically, relax.

[Maurice_Peddelty]

I expect in the last 3/4 friendlies we'll see a more serious approach taken in terms of selection in readiness for the new season.

Exactly........experimenting in the early ones is the sensible thing to do, if we pick up one good new squad member from trialists in these early games then its worth it

I would expect Martin Gray to keep a number of triallists until he gets bodies back from holiday.