Forest green rovers played wrexham last sat away which is a sort of friendly we should have been playing, as we are away sat to Mansfield. But who do we play stoke under 23's home. Really think who ever planned our friendlies got it totally wrong.

countymadbel wrote:Forest green rovers played wrexham last sat away which is a sort of friendly we should have been playing, as we are away sat to Mansfield. But who do we play stoke under 23's home. Really think who ever planned our friendlies got it totally wrong.

Doesn't help that until last Saturday we had nowhere to play games....We were priced out of a game at Newport Stadium due to the costs of staging a game there outweighing the money we would have taken in receipts and RP pitch wasn't ready to be played on after being relaid during the summer break.
I do however agree that games against Chippenham , Hereford and Stoke U23's wont get us ready for the opening fixtures. Also why arrange games against Undy , Chepstow, Pontypridd etc and send teams with Youth team players and trialists ???.
I would have also thought that MF would have decided on his starting 11 for Mansfield and gave them one or two games of an hour or so to get used to each other. Saturday he changed half the side at half time , strange ????? Is he still not clear as to his first choice starting line up ??
Swansea and Bristol City , IMO were the only worthwhile games we played . I hope the side isn't under prepared for Saturday . You can train all you want but its good hard game time they need in their legs

Feel free to explain why.

We had the same complaints last year. Those complaints were soon forgotten about when we were sat in the play-offs a quarter of the way through the season.

My issue isn’t the games don’t set up the players for the league my issue is we are making decisions on trial players based on playing youth teams or park teams.

Having seen the channels on the pitch on TV when Wales Women played Russia at Spytty, I'm glad we didn't play any friendlies there. In a summer like this the priority has to be getting through the programme without a serious injury and we seem to have achieved that.

By far the most ambitious and spectator-friendly pre-season programme ever came under Hudson, and we then took eight points from the first 14 games.

As the pitch at RP seems to be relaid every close season we cannot play home friendlies. This means we lose income every season, a few home games against decent opposition could generate much needed cash.

I said the same last year about the standards of friendlies we played. We didnt play anyone of great standard and had a good year lets hope for the same this year.

Friendlies are shite end of

Pre season is about fitness

Simple really

George Street-Bridge wrote:Having seen the channels on the pitch on TV when Wales Women played Russia at Spytty, I'm glad we didn't play any friendlies there. In a summer like this the priority has to be getting through the programme without a serious injury and we seem to have achieved that.

By far the most ambitious and spectator-friendly pre-season programme ever came under Hudson, and we then took eight points from the first 14 games.

You take away Stoke and Bolton and we played welsh league and parks teams. Also we lost our player of the year and had injuries just before the start of the season and picked the wrong keeper.

Well, take away everything apart from Welsh league and parks teams and yes, we played only Welsh league and parks teams. It works for any season.

The full programme for 2011 was Chepstow (A), Merthyr (A), Stoke City (H), Mangotsfield (A) Cheltenham (H), Bolton Wanderers (H), Real Betis (H), Neath (A), Undy Athletic (A).

Undercooked or outclassed today ? More professional pre-season ?
Mansfield Towns friendlies were all against Championship opposition except one starting off with Bradford Park Ave. in The Conference North.
Championship opposition including Derby, Sheff. Utd, Sheff. Wed. and last but not least Rotherham. Great to have a challenge and be prepared to hit the ground running.
Our friendlies in comparison were an embarrassment and no major test and reality check for the players.
Mansfield were setting their sights so much higher and testing their players to the max.
We were blown away today by a better team who were mentally and physically tuned today to play at a level that they constantly played in pre season.
Must have a change of thought in future about the opposition and calibre of players we are testing our first eleven in friendlies because today's showing was an example of undercooked and underprepared.
Stoke under 23's was one test of the standard and level we should be playing at and came out short.It proved too little too late.The other friendlies played were giving our players a false sense of security and not pushing their ability levels.
Hit the ground running we were not even jogging today !!!

Having access to money and your own pitch makes it easier to get Championship sides I guess. Unfortunately we have neither. Only played two less Championship sides than them though.

I don't see the point of friendlies with Undy and Penybont and playing loads of trialists,none of them ever get signed anyway.Why not play a higher level team and just use a couple of trialists in them.That way,first team squad get more game time.

Percy plunkett wrote:I don't see the point of friendlies with Undy and Penybont and playing loads of trialists,none of them ever get signed anyway.Why not play a higher level team and just use a couple of trialists in them.That way,first team squad get more game time.

The friendly against Undy is because of Mike Flynns connection to them but I agree with pointless friendlies we have most seasons. They , IMO prove nothing...Not many , (none this year) produce any trialists to join the club so are a waste of time.
i also find it strange that MF didn't play his first 11 ( the ones he picked for today) against Stoke last week for at least an hour to get used to each others play That leads me to believe he doesn't have a first choice side in his mind.

IMO we are/were totally under cooked because of our poor build up. Mansfield in the second half were a yard quicker to the ball and sharper in their play. That is not down to better players or wages. Thats because we didnt prepare well enough , IMO