By theimps.tk
September 19 2009

Another day, another defeat for City and it continued our poor home record over the last three and a bit years. With the announcement of a new manager expected soon, the defeat did little for Simon Clark's chances of securing the seat on a permanent basis. I'm going to start this reaction by giving you a few stats about our home record since Keith Alexander left.

Home League Games : 73

Wins : 29

Draws : 18

Lost : 26

Scored : 99

Conceded : 92

That is a shocking record and how can a team realistically expect to stay in the League. This club has been going backwards for years and ever since we went top against Swindon on October 28^th2006, you can probably count on one hand the amount of times that City have actually put in a decent performance. Funnily enough, I was talking about the good old days with a friend at the match. We spoke about how many memories we have from Keith's era, the memories we have from the early part of Schofield's era, but no decent memories since Jackson became our manager.

You can't really expect to win many games when complete and utter wasters such as Lenell John-Lewis are consistently getting in the squad. John-Lewis is one of the most lazy, uninterested and quite frankly crap so-called "professionals" that I have ever seen. You could count the amount of decent games he has had for the Imps on one hand. Maybe if he spent less time trying to look like Dany N'Guessan, shave off that stupid Mohawk, stop going down the gym and actual practiced how to play football, or at least to touch the ball without it going 20 metres in the opposite direction.

Don't get me wrong, he's not the only one and talking of players who constantly mispass the ball and not look bothered, Richard Butcher is not the same player as the Richard Butcher who left in 2005. He has yet to put in a decent performance since coming back I can now see why Notts County fans were consistently describing him as a player that may score every now and then, but otherwise goes though the games largely anonymously.

One of the most worrying things is the lack of strength in depth and this brings me onto a bit of harsh reality for some people, not all players are automatically good because they are on the verge of the first team. Hutchinson looks half-decent but other than him, with the possible exception of Luca Coleman-Carr, not any of the current fringe players actually look capable of forcing their way into the starting XI. Everyone says that in recent years there have been many decent additions to the squad from the youth team, but for every Frecklington and Hone, there's an Ollie Ryan, Leon Mettam, Ayden "I don't dive" Duffy, Owain Warlow or Gary King.

We shouldn't be promoting players from the youth team simply because we haven't got enough players to fill a bench, we should be doing it in a similar way to how we used to do it, feed players in gradually and one at a time, such as Lee Frecklington. The way we developed Frecklington was brilliant, have him start a few low-key cup games every now and then, upgrade him to coming off of the bench every now and then, to being a first team regular. However, now we seem to have developed a habit of just going straight to the coming off the bench part of that process, regardless of whether the player is actually any good or not.

Switching onto the race for management and it's obvious that Simon Clark is tactically poor. Last week we were 3-1 down at Bournemouth and he brought on Andy Hutchinson, only to then play him at left back. Hutchinson is the only player currently on the fringes of the first team from the youth team that actually looks like he will become a decent member of the first team. Then we get onto today, the midfield are failing to create anything yet again, and he sends Oakes to warm up, only to bring on Clarke instead. Clarke struggles to get the ball off of the ground, so what is he going to achieve.

A lot of fans have been excited by the prospect of John Pemberton, but as both Clark and Schofield showed in the past, coaches don't necessarily make good managers. That is my big concern with him, his lack of experience as an actual manager as opposed to all those others who had interviews. My personal favourite is still Brabin, two very good seasons in a row with different clubs on different budgets.

Oh well, onto our next game against Bury next week, a team who have yet to score at home this season.....a fact that will have changed in 168 hours.

UNOFFICIAL PLAYER RATINGS

Rob Burch - Could do nothing about either goal and made one or two decent saves. As he said on the radio, it'd be nice to see a game where he rarely touches the ball. 8/10

Cian Hughton - Much improved from last week, not fantastic though. He is one of those players whose performance depends on who he's facing. 6.5/10.

Janos Kovacs - If it's in the air then he's good, if it's on the ground then he's diabolical. Guilty of just booting it as hard as he can up-field without actually looking where he's playing it. 4/10

Moses Swaibu - Unlucky to give away the penalty but should have also picked up Robinson when the striker scored a simply tap-in. 6/10

Aaron Brown - He is seriously not a left back, consistently out of position and that will cost us goals all of the time. Not that it's his fault that no manager seems to realise that left-back isn't his position. 5/10.

Scott Kerr - I love his attitude of shouting at other players when they make mistakes and don't play well, but it's just a pity that whenever he makes the same mistakes that he just looks like he doesn't actually care. 3/10.

Richard Butcher - I really want him to do well but he hasn't put in a single half decent performance so far. He often passes without looking at now it makes you wonder how much he relied on Peter Gain to look good. 2/10

Lenell John-Lewis - What a complete and utter waste of time he is. Yet again he was just crap. What favours (of any nature) does he do for the manager in order to be constantly picked in this squad? 1/10

Sergio Torres - I actually thought he did well under difficult circumstances. Having to carry the whole midfield is harsh on a new player, but he did it reasonably well and appeared to be the only midfielder who cared. 7/10.

Chris Fagan - He has the finish of a decent player, no-one argues that, but what else does he offer? He can hold the ball, can't control it, can't pass and doesn't really make many intelligent runs.  3/10

Rene Howe - Won headers that went to no-one and had one of our two shots on target. Other than that he was pretty anonymous. 4/10

Jamie Clarke - Beat a player every now and then after coming on, nothing special though. 4/10

Stefan Oakes - Was one of the few players on the day that could play a pass to his own player. However, he didn't have long on the pitch to do much. 6/10

Andy Hutchinson - Wasn't on the pitch long enough to do anything. 5/10 by default.

Reaction to the Shrewsbury defeat

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 19/09/2009 21:42

theimps.tk
19/09/2009 21:42

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I Blame Paul Mayo
20/09/2009 10:21

jamie clarke was our best substitute, beat his man and actually crossed the ball well. cant understand your 3/10,

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Dave Imp
20/09/2009 10:32

Sorry Heath Imp but Hutch was far better. Jamie Clarke is utter shite. Played well against Darlo (mind you so did LJL) He doesn't have any kind of end product and his final ball is poor if he hasn't lost it by then. Oakes was oaky.

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kevin6
20/09/2009 12:30

Yesterday Thommo on the radio was really critical of Rene Howe, who kept drifting back into midfield.
This left Fagan totally unsupported whenever he got the ball.
The other thing I noticed was when Clarke and Hutchinson came on, Howe reverted to the centre forward position, and stayed up front.
I for one, could not work this out.

Thought the balance of the side was totally wrong yesterday. We had no creative players in midfield. Oakes should have played from the start, and without Clarke we get no penetration down the flanks.

I like Butcher, but yesterday he was truly abysmal. Kerr wasn't much better.

Hughton had a reasonable game, but was at fault for their first goal. For some unknown reason he ran into the area leaving the winger totally unmarked.

Swaibu and Kovacs were under pressure all game from Hibbert, who really ran them ragged.

Shrewsbury had much more guile and experience.

Without a decent creative player, this team is going nowhere.

We need that appointment very soon.

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skeggyimp
20/09/2009 16:57

I must be the only one who thinks the players do try, but they just haven't got a footballers brain between them. That's why when Oakes comes on he looks good, the only one who looks up and tries to find a team member.

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Normanstanley
20/09/2009 18:55

This team is the worst City have had for years.

Kerr, kovacs, J. Clarke, Butcher, Brown and LJL need to be outed asap.

Every day that goes by without a manager, saving the club a few quid, sends us nearer BSP.

I predicted at the beginning of the season we would struggle and was jumped on by many on here, this is now a reality.

The club needs a clean sweep, getting rid of deadwood and staff that have favourites. I think Clark must go too, if he thinks LJL is a footballer, then he has no place at this club.

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MaineRoad_96
20/09/2009 20:29

Makes for depressing reading. With Lincs you can accept that they wont be the best team in the world, but the apparent lack of passion from the players hurts the most. Even the Cods seem to be getting their act together with a couple of wins.

As an exiled Imp Im home for the Aldershot game but I think I'll find something more interesting to go and do. Like watch the kettle boil.

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StratfordImp
21/09/2009 09:09

It has got to a worrying state of affairs, Shrewsbury were nothing special and we couldn't break them down!!
I think on this showing Clark has all but blown his chances of getting the job and removing Torres I thought was a bad substitution.
Kovacs is a concern, he was battered by Fletcher last week and Hibbert caused him a lot of problems yesterday....time for 3 at the back or the return of Hone.
Kerr and Butcher are the worst central pairing we have has for years, I don't remember Butcher making a decent pass, tackle or header in the whole game and why it took so long for him to come off is amazing.
Torres looked impressive and played a simple ball every time, he was behind any attack we had.
Howe is out of the game more than in it anf Fagan is a good striker that makes intelligient runs, shame no-one picks them up but he needs to beef it up a bit.
Overall rubbish game and doesn't look like improving. Oh and LJL is the worst I have ever seen him!!! Jamie Clarke did do well when coming on, maybe we have found his calling?! Bring him on when the full backs are knackered and he can finally get a cross in!!

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