Stockport County

Administratively, it was easier and quicker for staff to glance at a postcard for an answer rather than to have to open an envelope. In the late 60s and early 70s, I remember sending in my entry for "goal of the month" on a postcard to Match of the Day. If your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices matched the choices of the adjudicator, often an ex-player, you could win premium bonds to the value of £100.

I'd start Ryan Winder, one of our most consistent performers. Most other posts of yesterday are about right. I'm guessing that in Oliver Wood, Scott Harries we will have lost two of our biggest earners and therefore some playing budget is freed up. In winning the League last year, we may still be a small club but we aren't as small as we were last year so perhaps we could pick up a couple from the First Division North and see if they could step up. If they don't then they'll just drift back, but the next Jordon Connerton may just be found. Kurt Willoughby at Clitheroe is on 15, and Bowman at Kendal's knocked a few in, maybe we could try them.

For me, the worst aspect of Saturday was that we have now produced three successive below par performances at home--and I assume that the display at Darwen wasn't out of the top drawer. We desperately need to recover some form or, with a busy holiday programme coming up, we are going to be in danger of sliding down the table.

I hope that's the end of the experiment of playing Williams up front. He's an excellent centre half, but not quick enough for a striker - especially if playing as a lone striker. And we do need a way of accommodating both Ryan Winder and Sam Bailey. I would bring Sam into mid-midfield with Winder on the right. Not sure who on the left - maybe Sumner if he ever returns. Until then maybe Charlie Bailey.

Team: Powell; Steel, Williams, Mercer, Dugdale; Winder, Wills, Sam Bailey, Carney, Sumner; Kilifin

Subs: Hudson, Akrigg, Charlie Bailey, Tam, Clark

I'm also of the opinion that giving the captaincy to CC hasn't really helped his game. Why Ricky had it removed from him I don't know, I can only assume it was down to him being injured, but I'd certainly look at reinstating him as skipper. He's certainly a more obvious choice and more of a natural leader imo.

For me the team sheet told the whole story even before a ball was kicked, we basically set ourselves up like rank outsiders, which we weren't, and handed the initiative to Stockport right form the start. An analysis of the team sheet reveals the following:-
1. A breakdown of the 10 outfield players shows - 4 central defenders, 2 fullbacks, 2 holding midfield players and 2 creative midfield players - ie not an out and out attacking player in sight - I'll come to Steve Williams later.
2. Of the 5 substitutes 1 was a fullback and the other 4 were what I would consider to be the most attacking players on the team sheet.
3. We started out with 5 at the back, 4 in midfield and poor old Williams playing a solo roll upfront effectively marked by 2 and often 3 experienced defenders - I for one supported the idea of trying Williams as a target man but I don't think this was the sort of game for that experiment and neither do I think he offers you the necessary skill on the deck to play as a lone striker, his ability is in the air and that means having players around him to feed of what he supplies - there was none of that on show on Saturday.

Moving on from the team sheet, which effectively determined how we played, we come to decisions as the game unfolded. We go a goal down after about 30 minutes and then somewhat unluckily it has to be said, go 2 down before half time. We start the second half with the same negative formation until on 53 minutes the 'halfpenny' drops and Ryan Winder, who I agree should have been on from the start, enters the fray and, with his first kick, scores comprehensively from the spot - this was the moment to seize the opportunity to salvage something from a game we had never been in, take off one of your holding midfield players, probably Billy, switch Sam Bailey into central midfield, bring Killer on up front alongside Williams and tell Carney to roam, in other words let them worry about us for a change. Sadly we waited and when the move was made to bring Killer on it was at the expense of, for me, the wrong player in Sam Bailey. With 5 minutes to go and the tie getting increasingly out of sight, we bring on Hannu Tam, I would venture to suggest that having sat on the bench all that time on a freezing cold day that could only be viewed as a token gesture.

The only other thing I want to comment on is the captaincy issue, which has already been alluded to here. If Craig is a leader of men I'm the 'Man in the Moon' - he is a very good player when he's on his game, which this season hasn't been often enough for me, and it is a fair question as to whether or not the Captaincy has adversely affected his game although I do feel he wasn't consistent enough prior to that. As to the question of why Ricky lost the captaincy, I suspect we would need to look into the dressing room for the answer but I don't buy into the injury theory.

I was stood with a few Stockport fans who were impressed with Sam. I explained that they were lucky to be seeing him as he's usually on the bench or dragged off. Low and behold, and no lie, two minutes later the predicable happened to the Stockport fans surprise, but not ours. Also what Killer has to do to get a start I really don't know, he's out top scorer having played and certainly started a fraction of the games some other players have. I've also been calling for Williams to be started up top, but not on his own, and the distance between him and the midfield in the first half was huge and having watched that I can now, to some degree, understand why Wood was struggling. I've spoken about the captaincy so no need for me to go there again. Got to agree about Ryan, he gives us more going forward, including goals so for me he should be starting more often. AIso still don't know what has happened to Melle, certainly nothing has been said by the club to my knowledge and it also looks like we're gonna sign  Paul Jarvis according to Chorley, so who drops out is anyone's guess as it then becomes a huge pool of midfielders fighting for, what increasingly looks like, one shirt.

Craig Carney's goals keep him in the team and they have done for a while. He's capable of the spectacular and has scored some cracking goals this and last season. I was joking against Coalville the other week that he scores a goal and it guarantees his place for 3 months, as he'd been crap, and he then went and scored 2 belters.

However, his all round performance is not consistent enough, some of his decision making is appalling at times: i.e. attempting a spectacular effort of which he is good enough to produce, but at the wrong moment.

Pretty sure he's Phil Brown's love child.

Winder Bailey Wills Bailey Jarvis - that is an exciting prospect of a midfield 5 which I would pick but we will not see.

We rarely see a Bailey-Bailey never mind a midfield 5.

I predict a midfield 5 of Bailey Carney Jarvis Akrigg Winder