Substitution

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Right, this is going to be slightly critical so I'm going to format this message with the "fantastic performance" followed by the "but..." routine. Here goes:

Great match, superb effort by the lads against a strong Wrexham side who probably won because they and their manager, took us seriously, unlike Wesley and his buffoons in the last round. Once again the lads left everything they had out on the pitch. But...

...why did Lovell come on instead of Greenhalgh? By that time, Flish and Bodkin were knackered, surely what we needed most at that point was a new runner up front. Also, although Lovell has done well in a couple of cup games, he is woefully short of match practice so that was a big ask for him to come on and try to make something happen at that stage. I didn't see the subs list at the start, and I was so surprised at that substitution that I presumed Greenhalgh wasn't on the bench. Obviously he was.

Any thoughts?

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I understand Ben had been suffering from tonsilitis, and anybody who has every had that will know it's very debilitating.

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Before the penalty I thought we should have brought on Greenhalgh and played him on the left, pushed Flisher up front and taken off Jay May. I was half proved right when we pushed Flish up front because he started to trouble their centrebacks where Jay May hadn't and within a few minutes had scored.

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Dec 7, 2014 9:32:46 GMT @testosterstone said:

I understand Ben had been suffering from tonsilitis, and anybody who has every had that will know it's very debilitating.

Aaah that answers that then

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Dec 7, 2014 9:33:28 GMT nws said:

Dec 7, 2014 9:32:46 GMT @testosterstone said:

I understand Ben had been suffering from tonsilitis, and anybody who has every had that will know it's very debilitating.

Aaah that answers that then

Except he didn't seem to have any trouble with his throat during the interview on Football Focus, and was ready to play. I reckon Jay felt we needed a physical presence to challenge the hulking great Wrexham centre backs.

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Dec 7, 2014 9:32:46 GMT @testosterstone said:

I understand Ben had been suffering from tonsilitis, and anybody who has every had that will know it's very debilitating.

Why was he on the bench then? Fit enough to sit on the bench, fit enough to play.

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Interesting answers but I don't feel we have really got to the bottom of it. I presume tonsilitis explains why he missed a couple of games recently, and yes I know it's a pretty miserable thing to suffer but as above, if he's fit enough to be on the bench then why not use him? Ben doesn't need to physically batter centre-backs, he has the pace and guile to run round them and we needed that to try and get back in the game. Ah well, it's all academic now, the match is over. Massive league game coming up so let's concentrate on that.

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Never used this forum before but have enjoyed Maidstone for some time. Great display by 10 men and we nearly made it. But...what were those last 2 substitutions about? The word is Greenhalgh was over tonsillitis some time ago, otherwise what was he doing on the bench. If throwing him on against Stevenage can work then why not against a lesser team like Wrexham? Flish was doing really well up front and with Greenhalgh on the left we would have been much more of a threat in the last 10 mins., plus we would have and a player who could have done much more running than...Anyone understand it, let us know

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Lose one game and start to doubt the manager.

We are football tarts!

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Dec 7, 2014 9:33:07 GMT nws said:

Before the penalty I thought we should have brought on Greenhalgh and played him on the left, pushed Flisher up front and taken off Jay May. I was half proved right when we pushed Flish up front because he started to trouble their centrebacks where Jay May hadn't and within a few minutes had scored.

I thought we should have done that after 15 mins but certainly at half time but there you go!

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JDL I am not questioning Jay, he has been brilliant for us but this forum is all about debate and I think it's reasonable to ask the question about those substitutions. I suspect a lot of Stones fans were thinking the same thing, and I am sure if I hadn't raised the subject here, someone else would have done sooner or later.

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The system we've been using recently often works well but when it's not switching Jay for Ben and putting Flish up top is probably the best option we've got. That was the set up we were using when our season really got going and the fact Bodkin, Greenhalgh, and Flish can all switch around at any time gives us a lot of options and a huge amount of flexibility.

Bringing Lovell on wasn't what I expected but in his defence it was when he joined the game that the ref got stupid and stopped play constantly, even giving a free kick against us when our player was fouled.