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Being a football fan is a weird and depressing business. It's been obvious for weeks that Walker + 1 isolated striker isn't remotely working. But we've been doing it every game and have barely scored any goals. Now we're 15th in the form table and looking shaky for the play offs. And all that from a really strong position a few weeks ago.
Now we're in a position of having to find another way of playing with only 16 games left in the season.
I thought today was the day to give Walker a rest. He’s gone from an impact sub to starting every game and I don’t think he’s ready. Murray’s interview showed his stubborn streak where he’s not prepared to admit it’s not working.
90% of our play today seemed to be hitting long balls towards the corner flag for the whippet to chase. In our best patch of the season (December) we weren’t playing like that.
We’re definitely not getting the best out of Devine, shame to see him subbed today. I still don’t know what’s happening with Ryley, he was top 1 or 2 on the park for several weeks for me - now mainly anonymous.
Our best attacking play almost always involves Owen Evans at the moment. He’s great, although got beat for the cross on their goal. A rare error.
Not sure what the answer is, but we can definitely get more out of this group of players.
The one thing I did agree with AM on was that they’ve proved they can do it - went toe to toe with South Shields and Fylde and came out on top.
We need to find a way of beating these teams lower down the league who come to spoil. I know every NLN game is tough but other teams seem to manage to dismantle them - we just can’t seem to do it.
Boring, sterile, predictable….
Everything goes out to the wide men and the delivery occasionally ends up in the box. From there we are clueless.
Midfield is anonymous. Ponderous at best.
Murray has made a lot of mistakes with player recruitment. I do not remember a single trialist pre season who was a striker. Do we trust him to solve the issue in the summer? Heaven help us if AMS is signed!
I think we will make the playoffs, but lack of scoring ability will see us remain in this league for another season of joy, and visits to the likes of the mighty Curzon Ashton.
Depressing - did their 'keeper make a serious save? Incidentally I was not impressed by the keeper's preference for punching the ball - but we did not capitalise on it. A younger AMS would have really tested him but sadly those days have probably passed,
Listening to AM's interview equally depressing - felt like he was blaming the forward players as a knee-jerk reaction. I accept that signing a proven goal scorer at this point in the season is never going to happen but puzzled by his comment about being maxed out on loans. We had 5 loanees playing today - and if my memory is correct, Onamaye was here at the same time as all of them. Have I forgotten somebody? Anybody on here know the rules on loanees?
If AM is correct, we have effectively gambled on Hemmo and Waldron - and at the moment neither of them is delivering the goals.
At least the ref was consistent - consistently off the pace.
Marine on Tuesday will be an interesting test of AM's management - I don't think that we have beaten them since they came into this division.
Harrier1994 wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 7:09 pm
Strikers aren't going to solve anything when we give them absolutely nothing to work with. Our final ball is atrocious with our only plan to go out wide. We have nobody in the middle who can split a defence
100% agree. It was another frustrating watch. As someone has already pointed out we are regressing to the type of football that were playing at the start of the season. They were well off the pace today - too many over hit/underhit balls, AH doesn't suit the lone striker role. DW looked quite lively when he came on but with no support. He also played quite deep too and wasn't in the box that often. He looks like the kind of player who prefers the ball on the ground rather than having an aerial dual with the opposition defenders . We are crying out for a creative midfielder who can play passes to open a defence. We are definitely far too predictable at the moment. I thought that overall Walker was kept well in check by their defence. We seem to be relying too much on set plays but even when we get a free kick/corner it mostly comes to nothing. It's also frustrating that teams around us dropped points today and we weren't in a position to take advantage . After the stellar performances against Telford and Morecambe, I really thought that we had turned the corner but it looks like back to square 1 again. Marine have already embarrassed once this season so I'm not too confident of our chances on Tuesday if we turn in another performance like this.
I'll post in more detail later or tomorrow. But Murray isn't up to it. The system cannot and will not work. Death by statistics. He is out of his depth.
Can’t bring myself to watch the post-match interview. Tend to agree with Harry above. To get out of this division I think you need a much more pragmatic manager and a couple of big strikers who’ll get you 30-40 goals a season. John Eustace wasn’t going to get us promoted but the football was good to watch. This feels like the worst of both worlds.
Genuine question. Is Stuart Watkiss still at the club?
There was talk of him having to step down when he lost his accommodation.
The side was transformed when he joined after the Radcliffe game. Over the last three weeks we have reverted to the performances that we endured in August, September and October.
TrialistA wrote: Sat Feb 21, 2026 9:25 pm
Genuine question. Is Stuart Watkiss still at the club?
There was talk of him having to step down when he lost his accommodation.
The side was transformed when he joined after the Radcliffe game. Over the last three weeks we have reverted to the performances that we endured in August, September and October.
That is a good question.
Murray after merthyr I thought he watched a different game to me. Stubborn in yday interview.
Strange decisions yday taking hemmo and devine off, keeping the innaffective walker on. Keeping system yhe same. More concerns rather than confidence.
Last time a striker scored was november v chorley and both Kurt and Gyasi arent at the club anymore
Creativity is an issue as is the tactics. Weve two strikers who will bag given the service.
Goals for column always been a massive concern. It’s a joke total. Not won fot a while and were suddenly have darlo hot on our tails abd third place looks a pipe dream now especially given maccs games in hand
if you couple goals with clean sheets you've a recipe for success
Tired of the hoof and hope tactics,
Tired of the illogical substitutions.
Tired of the of lack of accountability and arrogant ‘I know better than everyone else’ pre and post match interviews,
Tired of hearing about our ‘xg’ and ‘entries into the opposition box’ statistics.
Tired of seeing other sides do the basics better than us and work harder and fight harder than we do.
Tired of the lack of composure, and the calamitous defending.
Tired of seeing attacking players come in, not be played to their strengths, and/or be isolated by the formation or tactics (Willoughby, Waldron, Hemmings AMS, Gyasi, Mooney, who are are all decent players at this level, haven’t been able to make any meaningful attacking impact in this side - surely this points to the use and deployment of the players rather than the players themselves)
Tired of the tactical inflexibility and the lack of will/ability to change things when what we’re doing isn’t working - we’ve not evolved, learnt or grown as a side.
The budget was wasted on terrible summer recruitment and we’ve relied on hit and miss sticky plaster loan players since then.
Does anyone really believe we’re a top 7 side and if, by some sort of miracle, we do get to the playoffs, we can win them?
This has genuinely been one of the most boring and unenjoyable seasons in my 30 plus years supporting KHFC.
Dead Man Walking wrote: Sun Feb 22, 2026 9:31 am
Rant incoming….
Tired of the hoof and hope tactics,
Tired of the illogical substitutions.
Tired of the of lack of accountability and arrogant ‘I know better than everyone else’ pre and post match interviews,
Tired of hearing about our ‘xg’ and ‘entries into the opposition box’ statistics.
Tired of seeing other sides do the basics better than us and work harder and fight harder than we do.
Tired of the lack of composure, and the calamitous defending.
Tired of seeing attacking players come in, not be played to their strengths, and/or be isolated by the formation or tactics (Willoughby, Waldron, Hemmings AMS, Gyasi, Mooney, who are are all decent players at this level, haven’t been able to make any meaningful attacking impact in this side - surely this points to the use and deployment of the players rather than the players themselves)
Tired of the tactical inflexibility and the lack of will/ability to change things when what we’re doing isn’t working - we’ve not evolved, learnt or grown as a side.
The budget was wasted on terrible summer recruitment and we’ve relied on hit and miss sticky plaster loan players since then.
Does anyone really believe we’re a top 7 side and if, by some sort of miracle, we do get to the playoffs, we can win them?
This has genuinely been one of the most boring and unenjoyable seasons in my 30 plus years supporting KHFC.
It is hard to disagree with a lot of the above and I must admit I am finding it all rather boring and unenjoyable at the moment. The problem is though I still go home and most of the away games hoping to see some entertaining football
- I don't think it matters if we finish in the top 7 or not as we will surely be in the NLN next season.
My days that was poor yesterday. It encapsulated the flaws of Murray's style of football perfectly. Football by data and without joy. It showed exactly why we won't go up under him. Could we fluke a Trophy win? Definitely. But the overall goal should be promotion - and it'll never happen playing this turgid, flat, desperately boring style of football. We are easy to play against. We managed to match a side in 17th yesterday. Says it all.
On the current system. It isn't conducive to success. Certainly with the players Murray has signed and picked.
The midfield doesn't exist. They are only there to take a touch and knock it wide, over the top, as quickly as possible. When it works it can look good, but otherwise leads to us throwing possession away. When was the last time we saw Reynolds, Davis or Cooper really carry the ball forward? Reynolds has been reduced from a player who was one of the standouts in the league, to a passenger whose only purpose is to press out of possession.
The wingers are left chasing balls over the top, fine, it can be exciting to see a one-on-one foot race - but it's another tricky possession percentage battle. Then, usually Walker, has to trap the ball and beat the full back. So why not play the ball to feet to start off with? Devine is a great example of a square peg in a round hole. He's not a winger - ironically Owen Evans is usually in the positions he should be to cross the ball in to a crowded area - with a poorer end ball.
The striking situation is a mess. How Murray arrived at the decision to start Hemmo against two hulking CBs is beyond me. Was never going to work. It's a similar system to the Morecambe game but against very different opposition. Makes no sense.
Hemmo needs someone to play alongside. So ironically the minute Murray brings on a proper 9, it's to take Hemmo off. Our most creative, resolute and intelligent player. Sheer stupidity. I almost wonder if signing Hemmo wasn't his choice, and he is sabotaging him to prove a point to Holdsworth.
There's so much more to go at (corners, anyone?!). This, and the Bedford game, have left me wondering whether Murray can talk a decent game to owners, impress them with the data analysis talk, but when it comes to it - he is out of his depth. His decision making has fallen apart, again. I for one, unless he makes some serious changes, wouldn't be disappointed if he goes at the end of the season. Because if he is given another bite of the cherry, there are no signs it will be any better than this.
