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Linnets August 30th

richard webb

I Live Here
5
Aug 7, 2013
893
753
I am sure everyone knows everything about Linnets, but in case not and you didn't get a programme today here is the info used in there.

ClubRuncorn Linnets
Game DateMonday August 30th
Game time15.00
Ground addressAPEC Taxis Stadium, Stockham Lane, Runcorn, WA7 6GJ
(May need to use WA7 6HP in some sat navs)
Home coloursGreen and yellow shirts, green shorts, yellow socks
DirectionsNOTE these have changed since my last visit to Linnets.
A533 to Runcorn. After crossing M56 take second exit from large roundabout into Murdishaw Avenue. Pass Aldi and Queen of Hearts pub before turning right into Stockham lane. The ground and parking is at the bottom of the lane.
Parking facilitiesLarge car park at ground
Railway stationBy Train (Runcorn East): Leave train station via the ticket office and catch a bus at the top of the steps (Arriva service number 1 is the most frequent) to Halton High School. From this stop cut through the wood, and the ground is over the road, opposite the chapel.
Please note it is Arriva Service 2 from Halton High School that will return you to Runcorn East Station up until 6pm.

By Train (Runcorn Mainline): Leave train station and catch a taxi from the rank to High Street Bus Terminus. From the bus terminus catch either of the following buses to Halton High School:
Arriva Service 110
Arriva Service 79c
Halton Transport Service 61
Halton Transport Service 14
From the stop cross the busway where safe to do so and cut through the wood, and the ground is over the road, opposite the chapel.
Please note: for return journey to Runcorn Mainline Station on weekday evenings, only the 79c is in service (except bank holidays).
Taxi's: Local taxi company:
APEC: 01928 575757

BusHalton High Bus Stop is nearest ground. There are no direct buses linking Runcorn & Northwich.
Admission Prices£8 Adults £5 Concessions (65+ & 18-23) Free (Kids 18 & under)
Programme price£2
Disabled access and toiletsGate can be opened to allow disabled fans to enter if they are unable to use the turnstile. Wheelchair spaces located within the seated stand. Disabled toilet located inside of the clubhouse.
CarersI could not confirm whether carers get free access as the carers who attend currently pay for entry. I assume this wouldn’t be an issue however.
Food at groundStandard football food, Pies, Hot dogs, Burgers, Chips, Chocolate, Crisps
Drinks at groundSoft Drinks, Tea, Coffee, Bovril, Water, Draught Lager, Draught Cider, Lager and Cider.
Local restaurantsQueen of Hearts, Beefeater, Subway, Perky Grinders (Coffee Shop)
Are dogs allowedYes
Local pubsQueen of Hearts
Local places of interestRuncorn is not a very exciting place when it comes to landmarks, I’m not sure whether you would include:
Silver Jubilee Bridge
New Mersey Crossing
Norton Priory
AcknowledgementsThanks to Jack Walsh at Linnets.
 
Castner's & The Heath must be gutted not to make the top 3
 
I think I should have gone to Shopping city.
 
Poor today. Couldn`t string a pass together and never won a ball in the air from the high balls we were pumping up.
With the players we have i really think we should have a bit of a target man up front - would give us loads of options but i have thought this for a few years...
 
Disappointing today no shots on target in 90 mins, they were well organised but looked dodgy at the back, we need to create more without a doubt, need to do better Saturday, hope jonah is ok guessing he had a knock, hopefully do them at home.
See you all Saturday.
 
My first game of the season & it was a strange experience.
A crowd of 729 virtually silent with just a small cheer for the goal.

The whole game had a pre-season feel to it.

In the pre-season games I saw we looked sharp & pinged the ball around.
Today with our full-backs pegged back by Linnets wingers we just never got our passing game going.
The wingers got no service, Jake had to drop deep looking for the ball & Scotty was isolated.

And despite that we still should have taken our two clear chances.
 
And I thought Linnets weren't really that good either.
At the back they looked shaky.
 
Sorry but it was a poor performance today. Very flat and to be honest unexciting. No wonder it was so quiet from 74 fans - little to shout about. Scotty all alone up front with very little service (only confirms what I have always thought that we should have a striker alongside him). Too many passes going astray and too slow going forward. Far too much emphasis on playing from the back. Without naming players I’m afraid from what I’ve seen so far one or two are not good enough at this level.
On a plus side thought we defended quite well. No complaints about the win Runcorn were much better on the day ( but not brilliant !!).
 
Lost to a better team on the day. 1-0 flattered us really. I think we lacked ambition, we seemed afraid to go forward and penetrate. I think we do have the players but I agree that a couple out there we're today not good enough. With the current injuries I think we are stretched as a squad.

A call out again for BigT . He made some good saves today and seems to be growing in confidence. He's got a massive kick from his arms so why not use it to the wingers every now and then? I am all for playing out from the back but today they put so much pressure on us we struggled to get out of our half for long periods especially in the first half. On a few occasions we were pressured so much that it resulted in Jack at the back kicking it long but it was coming straight back.

It took Matt Wooley to come on and change the play and then at least we moved forward more. As said above when you don't have a shot on target how can you expect to win.

Overall we need to realise that Linnets will be up there at the end of the season so this is not too bad a loss. There are other teams that we can beat in this league. Having said that it could have been so much different if Scotty would have put the early chance away. That's how silly football is!!

Looking forward to a great away day on Saturday where you never know in the cup!
 
Lost to a better team on the day. 1-0 flattered us really. I think we lacked ambition, we seemed afraid to go forward and penetrate. I think we do have the players but I agree that a couple out there we're today not good enough. With the current injuries I think we are stretched as a squad.

A call out again for BigT . He made some good saves today and seems to be growing in confidence. He's got a massive kick from his arms so why not use it to the wingers every now and then? I am all for playing out from the back but today they put so much pressure on us we struggled to get out of our half for long periods especially in the first half. On a few occasions we were pressured so much that it resulted in Jack at the back kicking it long but it was coming straight back.

It took Matt Wooley to come on and change the play and then at least we moved forward more. As said above when you don't have a shot on target how can you expect to win.

Overall we need to realise that Linnets will be up there at the end of the season so this is not too bad a loss. There are other teams that we can beat in this league. Having said that it could have been so much different if Scotty would have put the early chance away. That's how silly football is!!

Looking forward to a great away day on Saturday where you never know in the cup!
I said that our performance on Saturday was flat, lifeless and predictable but got shot down by others who got giddy about the score line, despite us playing 10 men and a 5’6” stand in keeper.

Linnets - without being impressive - were adifferent proposition completely and kept pressing us, in doing so stopped us from playing our usual game and forced us into making errors.

But until Matt came on we were nothing as an attacking force. Time and time again we got the ball wide but rather then be brave and take the man on and give the Linnets defence something to think about we took the easy option and came back inside which let their defence re-group and re-gain their shape.

And Scotty was so isolated when he did get the ball he had no-one to lay it off to or have support from. So why not, say, put Mike Koral alongside him for the last 10 and go 3 at the back?

The lack of ambition was summed up to me when in the last minute we got a corner but Big T was not allowed to go forward into the box. Ok, the chance of him scoring was minimal, but what did we have to lose? He’d at least have offered something different and less predictable - which we were for much of the game.
 
I said that our performance on Saturday was flat, lifeless and predictable but got shot down by others who got giddy about the score line, despite us playing 10 men and a 5’6” stand in keeper.

Linnets - without being impressive - were adifferent proposition completely and kept pressing us, in doing so stopped us from playing our usual game and forced us into making errors.

But until Matt came on we were nothing as an attacking force. Time and time again we got the ball wide but rather then be brave and take the man on and give the Linnets defence something to think about we took the easy option and came back inside which let their defence re-group and re-gain their shape.

And Scotty was so isolated when he did get the ball he had no-one to lay it off to or have support from. So why not, say, put Mike Koral alongside him for the last 10 and go 3 at the back?

The lack of ambition was summed up to me when in the last minute we got a corner but Big T was not allowed to go forward into the box. Ok, the chance of him scoring was minimal, but what did we have to lose? He’d at least have offered something different and less predictable - which we were for much of the game.
Despite me saying all of this, would I have been pleased with 7 points from our first 5 games? In a word yes, absolutely.

But I do worry that we are a bit predictable and one-dimensional and don’t really have a Plan B if we come against sides who press us high and stop us from playing - which we are bound to meet on an increasing frequency this season.

I know that this is probably not the way that Bo or Goody want or like the team to play - ditto me in fact - but I do think that we need a big physical guy to play up along Scotty to give us something different, even if it is just for the last 10-15 mins if we are trying to get back into a game.

Fully aware that unlike others we can’t just throw money at the problem, but maybe the solution might be to take a risk and bring someone in from the NWCFL?
 
Lost to a better team on the day. 1-0 flattered us really. I think we lacked ambition, we seemed afraid to go forward and penetrate. I think we do have the players but I agree that a couple out there we're today not good enough. With the current injuries I think we are stretched as a squad.

A call out again for BigT . He made some good saves today and seems to be growing in confidence. He's got a massive kick from his arms so why not use it to the wingers every now and then? I am all for playing out from the back but today they put so much pressure on us we struggled to get out of our half for long periods especially in the first half. On a few occasions we were pressured so much that it resulted in Jack at the back kicking it long but it was coming straight back.

It took Matt Wooley to come on and change the play and then at least we moved forward more. As said above when you don't have a shot on target how can you expect to win.

Overall we need to realise that Linnets will be up there at the end of the season so this is not too bad a loss. There are other teams that we can beat in this league. Having said that it could have been so much different if Scotty would have put the early chance away. That's how silly football is!!

Looking forward to a great away day on Saturday where you never know in the cup
Interestingly, I can't claim this honesty! That is from Jack at Linnets

I think I should have gone to Shopping city.
Me too, but that little 5-4 inch No 10 ran us ragged !.
 
Can't argue with most of the above and if you read the Linnets report on their website its very fair and bang on, oh well we will get another crack at them later in the season.
See you all saturday.
 
I know that this is probably not the way that Bo or Goody want or like the team to play - ditto me in fact - but I do think that we need a big physical guy to play up along Scotty to give us something different, even if it is just for the last 10-15 mins if we are trying to get back into a game.
We had Ash Woods on the bench yesterday as well, we could have taken Sam Hare off and gone to 4-4-2 with Ash and Scotty up front which would have given them something to think about defensively
 
One thing that is blatantly obvious to me so far is that we just aren't physical enough particularly in midfield, we have some great players with real quality on the ball but that's not much use if your not being allowed to get on the ball and keep it for any length of time, we need 1 or 2 players similar to what we had with Chappie and Lee Jones who would put a tackle in to allow us to get on the ball, also from what I've seen of us so far I don't think we have won much in the air so far this season and we're slower to second balls, I don't know whether our current players are able to find that physicality that we need or if we need to bring a few more players in but that's where we need to improve on if we're going to stay in this league and then in time move up the table
 
One thing that is blatantly obvious to me so far is that we just aren't physical enough particularly in midfield, we have some great players with real quality on the ball but that's not much use if your not being allowed to get on the ball and keep it for any length of time, we need 1 or 2 players similar to what we had with Chappie and Lee Jones who would put a tackle in to allow us to get on the ball, also from what I've seen of us so far I don't think we have won much in the air so far this season and we're slower to second balls, I don't know whether our current players are able to find that physicality that we need or if we need to bring a few more players in but that's where we need to improve on if we're going to stay in this league and then in time move up the table
I think that you make some fair observations there Josh, but we are only a few games into the season and we are doing ok. We knew that the step up would pose some challenges and so it has proved.

But we’ve surely got to let the lads who got us here have a chance to prove that they can play at this level - which I believe many can or have the capability of doing so - before we start thinking about drafting in any new players.

We also need to consider that we’re still missing the likes of Lucas Weir, Harry cain and Aaron Smith. I think that in particular we’ve really missed Harry’s direct, pacy style of play since he got injured in the opening game at Clitheroe.
 
Now back in exile down here. That was a muted display (on and off the pitch) on Monday (particularly given previous more fiery encounters with Linnets), but to be fair it was never going to be an easy game to get anything from. If we end up with the current mid-table mediocrity I shall however be happy this season. Survival and consolidation has to be paramount. I do share the concerns about not creating many chances or winning much in the air up front though.
 
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