Harriers Chatter

koro wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:02 am

I would like to see AMS given a bit more time to show his worth. He needs a run of games in the team He is not an all out striker, but I think he is a decent target man and disrupter. Alex Penny also needs more first team involvement. I'm sorry to say that we can't depend on KL these days. Montrose not as good as Carrington. Should have kept Prosser.

Looking at the highlights, is there no question about Gateshead's first and third being offside ? You can't tell from the highlights. Officials at this level are not great, are they ?

With regard to the first, I looked across at those in the East Stand who were in line and there didn't appear to be the outrage usually seen when a borderline decision goes against us.

Didn't we have a penalty shout in the first half when one of our players, was it Hemmings?, appeared to be tugged back? It wasn't in the highlights.

My feeling at the time was that neither goals were offside.

Highlights are inconclusive/lend it to being onside and Lowe just being slow out of the traps.

Think the only way he could play regularly at this level now would be in a back 5, with others to cover his lack of pace.

As pointed out above, re the offsides, I just think it was superb forward play. Blackett especially was targeting Lowe with diagonal runs across the line, and of course Langstaff did the same for his goals. Credit to them, they identified it and executed it

harry211 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 1:30 pm

Highlights are inconclusive/lend it to being onside and Lowe just being slow out of the traps.

Think the only way he could play regularly at this level now would be in a back 5, with others to cover his lack of pace.

To be fair to Lowe, I think it's Bajrami who loses his man for the third Gateshead goal?

Which isn't to say that Bajrami doesn't look fantastic overall.

To be fair to Bajrami he was our only CB on show and the only player who could keep pace. Lowe 30 yards up the field and too slow to get back. A wheelie bin would have been a better defensive partner. Lowe has been good for us but playing now is not doing him or the team any favours at all.

To be fair to Keith it may be that he was the fittest centre back available and that's not to say he was fully fit. He looked far from it. Some very harsh comments on here. I think we were dealing with something of an injury/suspension crisis last Saturday. We wisely didn't advertise the fact but it didn't take the opposition long to work it out.

Mac wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:13 pm

To be fair to Bajrami he was our only CB on show and the only player who could keep pace. Lowe 30 yards up the field and too slow to get back. A wheelie bin would have been a better defensive partner. Lowe has been good for us but playing now is not doing him or the team any favours at all.

Keith Lowe did look out of sorts. Whether he was too quickly rushed back into the team, as a necessity, and whether he was truly match fit we may never know. It may be that age has caught up with him, but to make comments such as that is disrespectful.

But one thing we do know is that Keith Lowe has served this club well, during two spells and appears to be a decent professional who merits better than comments such as the above.

I'm with Spongebag. I love Keith. And am so glad he stayed on this season. I really wouldn't have liked to see him go out without crowds.

As for his lack of pace, I think too much is made. Slow centre-backs are an issue any level. Harry Maguire for instance is helluva lot slower than many centre forwards he faces in the Premier League. Safe to say to a great degree comparatively speaking, as you don't see many with high, high level pace in this league. But that doesn't mean he doesn't belong playing. Far from it. Vestergaard would be a better example for his time at Southampton. Playing frequently in a very high line.

For me tactical execution just has to be better. And also if you're going to take a brave approach, you've got to accept there will be instances. Though I will say I'd like to see him in better shape. I don't know how often he trains now, but he's 36, he's not 40. And you've got defenders like James Curtis in the league still playing at 39.