Goal scoring. That's what its all about!!

[diamondgirl]

We have "managed" to score 23 goals in 15 league games, including 4 (Twice) in one game.
Rene has got 10 and the nearest to him has got 3 (2 players, one of which is our centre back!!)
An average of 1.53 per game. It does not take a genius to work out that this is where our problem lies. Simples. >:(

[gulltastic]

What problem? We are in the play off placess, much better than this time last year

[diamondgirl]

What problem? We are in the play off placess, much better than this time last year

Agreed, but only by the seat of our pants. Last season, from game 15 to game 30 our record was: P16 W13 D2 L1, and we just made the playoffs.
I cannot see, any way, that we can match that record, this year, simply because we are not scoring goals.

I could be wrong, I hope I am. After all play offs/promotion is all we have left this season.

[ChineseGull]

1.53 x 46 = 70.38.
70 goals would be 7 more than we scored last season and 4 more than Shrewsbury scored last season.

The only thing letting us down at the moment is our away form. Pick up a few more points on the road and we'll be right up there. No, we probably won't replicate that 16 match run but we don't need to, we just need to consistently pick up points over the course of the season.

[stevegull]

To quote countless Match of the day pundits, it's the sign of a great team when you win games playing badly.

[ferrarilover]

Take the mathematics out of it, and a different picture emerges. I'm not sure there's been a game this season where we haven't managed to miss at least one chance that Diamondgirl herself would not be ashamed to get wrong. Two from, as near as makes no difference, right under the crossbar against Harrogate spring immediately to mind. We missed a dozen one-on-ones in the Cheltenham match, we missed more in other games. It's not unreasonable to suggest that we could have had 15 more goals this season and be sitting top by miles, as well as being though to the next round of both the Paintpot and the FA Cup.
While we have more points than last year, it must be noted that the standard of opposition has been considerably lower this year. Port Vale were all huff and puff, Fleetwood had fewer tricks than Tommy Cooper (because he's dead, so can't do tricks, see?), Rochdale were just generally useless, as were Wycombe, Morecambe and AFCW. Rovers, apparently, had their best game for a generation against us and still only stole a 3-2 win. The only two sides from our division to impress this year have been Cheltenham and Gillingham.
If we could just stick these seemingly unmissable chances away, we could walk away with the division. We can't keep dropping silly points or not taking advantage of the teams which offer us two dozen chances a time. Sure, we're fing better than last year, but let us not forget, last year wasn't quite good enough. Indeed, think back to the very last game of last year, we should have been 10-0 up at half time against Chelts, they went on to win 2-1.

I'll fare that we create more of what Opta would call 'goal scoring opportunities' than any other L2 side, and if we took the same proportion of them as the average, I'd wager we'd be top as the table stands now.

Matt.

[diamondgirl]

To quote countless Match of the day pundits, it's the sign of a great team when you win games playing badly.

We have won one game (Morecambe) playing badly, this season. The rest we have failed to win.

Fleetwood (A) Drew
Port Vale (A) Drew
Plymouth (H) Drew
Rotherham (A) Lost
Wycombe (A) Lost
Brizzle Rovers (A) Lost


Glass half full/empty?? Who knows.

[Richinns]

We have won one game (Morecambe) playing badly, this season. The rest we have failed to win.

Fleetwood (A) Drew
Port Vale (A) Drew
Plymouth (H) Drew
Rotherham (A) Lost
Wycombe (A) Lost
Brizzle Rovers (A) Lost


Glass half full/empty?? Who knows.

Not true. We were toss against AFC Wimbledon and won!

[AustrianAndyGull]

I think the Vale game we did ok and were unlucky not to win, the rest on the list are correct. We played like a sewn up bag of pigeons trying to escape in each.

[Dave]

Not so sure scoring goals is the overall problem, below I will put the home and away goal differences for the top seven.

Home

Gillingham... F.18 -A. 5
Port Vale......F.18 -A. 7
Cheltenham...F.14-A.10
Fleetwood.....F.10-A.9
Bradford.......F.16-A 5
Rotherham....F.16.-A.8
Torquay.......F.17-A.10

Away

Gillingham... F.12 -A. 5
Port Vale......F.15 -A. 9
Cheltenham...F.8-A.7
Fleetwood.....F.11-A.4
Bradford.......F.8-A.13
Rotherham....F.7.-A.9
Torquay.......F.6-A.8

At home as far as scoring goals our team is up there with the best in the league, only Burton with 19 goals have scored more than any team in the top seven at home, away from scoring goals does seem to be problem however it was last season, the only difference we seemed to have a knack of scoring a goal and picking up a 1.0 win.

I think so far we seemed to have let in far to many soft goals, the biggest loss with doubt was Bobby.O , don't get me wrong think Pokey is a top keeper at this level, however Bobby was a different class all together, think we have struggled in the full back positions aswell, think if we can get a few extra goals out of the team away from home a general tighten up a bit at the back, this could be one hell of a season for us.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I think it is the SPREAD of goals throughout the squad that is the problem. Take Howe out of it and Downes is up there amongst the rest and he's a defender.

[Dave]

To be honest I don't think it matters who scores the goals or the spread, last season if memory serves me right Nicho scored 7 and Ellis scored 4 or 5, so far this season there has not been as many scored from the midfield, however you can point to Danny Stevens who scored again if memory serves me right 10 goals last season but has missed a fair chuck of this season through injury, Mansell I think scored 14, again has had the shackles on him due to Damon Lathropes injury.

With Stevens now starting to look sharp again, Lathrope back, all we now is Bodin to find form ( and yes boo boys their is a very good player in him) and the picture can and will soon change.

[AustrianAndyGull]

God Dave you're so positive!

[Dave]

God Dave you're so positive!

Well indeed, I wasn't Saturday.The thing is Andy I really don't think our team has performed anything like to the level it is capable of, I think the team/squad is better than last seasons just been having some shall we say teething problems, a few key injuries, and Billy Bodin who is capable of being one the best players in this league has found his form and confidence in the toilet.

Thats the frustrating thing promotion is right there for us, but unless we can find some consistancey we could easily finish outside the top 10, if that makes sense.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Pretty much encompasses what i feel Dave although i do hold Lingy accountable for deploying negative tactics far more often than he should given we have Bodin, Howe, Thompson, Jarvis, Stevens and Yeoman.