Gateshead V Southport - Match Thread

[Port on the Kent]

I cannot remember a more predicatble season, we can see off the poor sides and as soon as we meet an actual football team we may as well save on expenses and not bother.

I am not commenting on the tactics because I will be copy and pasting from other defeats. If people can't see it by now then they never will.

[Ralphy Rylance]

I can't remember the last time we came back to win a match having gone behind but it feels like a long time ago.

3rd October 2020 v Morpeth.

[Route66]

Even first half. Again missing Newell. I don't know what has happened to Ali? Very poor game. Got totally drawn to the ball for their second allowing Garner far too much space. He just seems off the pace? They thoroughly deserved their win. Enjoyed the commentators who were very fair in their comments.

[Brianm]

Paulisi has said it all as it is.

[Kenickie]

I can't remember the last time we came back to win a match having gone behind but it feels like a long time ago.

3rd October 2020 v Morpeth.

Not that long at all then

Do you know when it was in the league out of interest?

[Brianm]

The Manager has had 25 games this season to sort his team out! Squad is totally unbalanced with too many defenders and not enough midfielders. Bainbridge is a good centre half but not a midfielder. I am beginning to feel sorry for him. The forwards are totally ineffective. Archer is our only real goalscorer. Marcus Wood should be paid off. He will not be fit for weeks. No room for sentiment! He is wasting a valuable place in the squad. Bring in a decent midfielder. How much more obvious can it be

[YELLOWTAXI]

I dont think we played badly but Gateshead had a striker who was on fire. Very dodgy penalty for them. Plus we should of had one. 3-2 would of been a fairer result but Gateshead will be in the playoffs at the end of the season I reckon. Excellent stream and commentary I thought. Archer has to start.
Hey ho, it is what it is!

[MrC]

Judge us after 10 games said Liam, so here I go with my first post this season!
Basically, we are no better than last season. The defence is overrated, the midfield undermanned, and the attack firing duds or missing free headers at corners. Morgan is well worth his money and captaincy, but the rest need to pass to yellow shirts, learn to trap skied balls and close people down faster. One forward in the pen area for a decent cross will not do. Sort it Liam and Jon.

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

We played as well as we have all season for 40 minutes, but it's worrying that whenever anyone half-decent puts it up to us we fall apart like a leper in a wind tunnel. It happened against Spennymoor and York and has happened most spectacularly today - I know we are over-stocked with young centre-backs but Winnard really should start when available (in a back four please) because we lack any kind of leadership. Poor Mo had a terrible time today but I don't think our defenders know where they are meant to be half the time. To concede exactly the same goal twice either side of half-time is pretty galling - Hanford could really have done better.

It has been a long way from a bad start, but it does feel like everyone is saying exactly the same things after every game now. I blame Swedes.

Very good stream and commentary.

[SteH90]

Ali was brought in as a left sided defender, but playing on the right. Anson plays on the right or in the middle. Hates playing on the left.

I believe the rather depressing reason for this is that a right footed centre half playing the ball forward with his right foot only has a third or the pitch to hit it long into. And vice versa for a left footed left sided centre half. Playing on the opposite side means your better foot has two thirds of the pitch to play into.

[Swedes]

Ali was brought in as a left sided defender, but playing on the right. Anson plays on the right or in the middle. Hates playing on the left.

I believe the rather depressing reason for this is that a right footed centre half playing the ball forward with his right foot only has a third or the pitch to hit it long into. And vice versa for a left footed left sided centre half. Playing on the opposite side means your better foot has two thirds of the pitch to play into.

When a lot of balls are just aimlessly launched forwards anyway, I don't think it matters too much. If it means our centre backs are going to get turned inside out like what happened to Ali today then it really needs to stop.

[george]

we have become what i predicted and feared,a mid table conf,North team
to think that when i started to watch Southport regularly,they where a top half conferance team.
what we need is easy,a sugar daddy with shit loads of money to waste on Football

[cobby7]

I thought we passed it around and played ok with men out wide for a change in a very even game.
We got in good places in the first half but were shot shy.
Watson tried to beat three men when he should have shot before the first.
The ploy of keeping us waiting in the cold four minutes
after half time worked resulting in a mad 10 minutes.
Then credit to them the rest of the game they stuck at it
and created a good few chances.
Ali seemed to be involved in all their goals.
He has gone off since he went off with a head injury a couple of games ago.

[John Glendenning]

we have become what i predicted and feared,a mid table conf,North team
to think that when i started to watch Southport regularly,they where a top half conferance team.
what we need is easy,a sugar daddy with shit loads of money to waste on Football

We have been worse and at lower level George, trust me on that Sugar Daddy came along relatively recently, made big plans, told us all about them: and then wandered off back to Yorkshire. He did leave us some very helpful sponsorship behind though.

Having watched and (apart from the score line) enjoyed the stream today, here are the impressions I was left with.

A young and injury hit Gateshead side set up to frustrate. Not in a boring "nob cobbling" sort of way, as it happened, but likely based on having us watched. They put pressure on the ball whenever one of our lads had the thing. This led to rushed passes, not too much hoof and hope, but misplaced ball was fairly common. To be fair to our boys, there were times during the match when we did something similar, the difference being in consistency of approach. When we had the ball around the 18 yard line or nearer, defenders cut the space by closing down, this meant that most shots were effectively blocked or charged down. Central defenders, meanwhile, protected the six yard box and young goal keeper well meaning that crosses, corners etc, more often than not, found a Gateshead player within range of its flight path. At the other end, the main contrast was (for me) that Southport defenders did not cut the angles as well by standing off a little too much. For 40 minutes, I thought that we mostly did defend effectively but I noted that we seemed more reluctant than usual to put a foot in (result of several recent free kicks I imagine).

The goals from open play probably wouldn't have happened IF the defending player had been just a few feet closer to the attacking player. Not on top of him, just close enough and goal side enough to narrow the angle between player and target. Whilst it has been said already that Dan probably should have done better with the second just after half time, he pulled off an excellent reflex one handed save during the first half which prevented what looked a certain goal from an excellent cross and powerful header. I would also maintain that the second goal resulted from a very well struck and directed shot from young Garner and that because of that angle thing (see above), Dan was possibly slightly unsighted.

I do not think we were exactly "played off the park" today but I do think that Gateshead thoroughly deserved the win. We must also give some credit to our lads as they did not give up despite any chances of getting something out of the game being smaller than the chances of a Frenchman living next door to a knocking shop deciding to move house by around about the 60 minute mark.

Charlie Oliver had some nice touches and IF we are patient, I am sure he will repay that in spades (by the way

[Sandgrounder SE]

JG - we have to be more ambitious than this. Yes, there were moments when we weren’t so bad, and football is a game where things can go wrong or right almost by chance. But after ten games it’s difficult to see any progress from last season.
I know we’ve been lower than this, but what kind of consolation is that? Quite a few of us remember being in the third tier of the Football League. Mid-table (and probably lower mid-table at that) in NLN just isn’t good enough.

[Big Mac 1985]

JG - we have to be more ambitious than this. Yes, there were moments when we weren’t so bad, and football is a game where things can go wrong or right almost by chance. But after ten games it’s difficult to see any progress from last season.
I know we’ve been lower than this, but what kind of consolation is that? Quite a few of us remember being in the third tier of the Football League. Mid-table (and probably lower mid-table at that) in NLN just isn’t good enough.

I completely agree with the sentiments around ambition and a clear lack of progression from last season. However, we don't have a divine right to be somewhere because we were before. So many clubs have overtaken us due to a varying array of factors.

[Ste_B]

Can’t comment on the performance but that’s a terrible result. We shouldn’t be getting beaten 4-1 by anybody in this league.

[Redrobe fan]

what we need is easy,a sugar daddy with shit loads of money to waste on Football

We’ve had one of those.

If only the money had been spent wisely!

[Dewsnip]

Actually thought we looked quite good first half, against a decent team (who are way ahead of us tactics wise). Certainly much better than last week. Who said Doyle should take corners ?? (when set pieces are so vital to us). Thought Anson played well. Think that’s it.

[John Glendenning]

JG - we have to be more ambitious than this. Yes, there were moments when we weren’t so bad, and football is a game where things can go wrong or right almost by chance. But after ten games it’s difficult to see any progress from last season.
I know we’ve been lower than this, but what kind of consolation is that? Quite a few of us remember being in the third tier of the Football League. Mid-table (and probably lower mid-table at that) in NLN just isn’t good enough.

Writing as one of those who witnessed the end of the era of Billy Bingham, who watched greats like Big Eric, Andy Provan, Jim Fryatt. and many more Port legends. Who jigged in my place on that old white wall that used to run around the pitch as we won the fourth division championship taking us up into the nose bleed lands of the old Division three, I retain my fantasy that I will one day witness our team back in the EFL. BUT, to coin a presently fashionable phrase [...]" It is what it is" TO add my own, "We are where we are" With a scattering of better funded and supported teams within our division, the difficulty associated with clambering out of NLN has increased. It seems to me that there are two, maybe three possible paths to follow. Path one requires a "sugar Daddy" to resource a squad of well proven players, invest a sizable chunk in infrastructure and a Mother of a Marketing campaign to increase our regular support base - not an easy task as previous attempts have shown. Path two which it seems to me to be the path we are presently on, is to build up a squad of relatively young and unproven players (at this and upper levels), sprinkle in a handful of older more experienced heads (a place we are not quite at just yet) and allow them a little time and patience to see if the sapling might grow into a nice stout tree of success which can be built upon in future seasons. Like I wrote above, the problem is, it has actually become more difficult at our level as other clubs attempt to tread the same "path two" competing for "unproven talent" and those experienced heads to kick said talent up the proverbial bum from time to time out on the pitch. Meanwhile, a stubborn handful of clubs against which we compete at present already have larger fan bases and more resources; meaning that they can continue to flirt with "path one" above.

I am not exactly content to see our club bumping along mid table where we are, but, perhaps because I also happen to be more stupid than most, I am happy just so long as our club continues to exist and compete. I dream, as already said, that greater things await SFC and I remain willing to help in any way that I can.