Henley Town 2-1 Slough Town

[Matt]

My source at the match tells me we lost 2-1 with Brown on the scoresheet for us in the second half. Dickens missed a first-half penalty.

 

A number of the Under 18s came on in the second half along with Grey and a few others and apparently played well.

 

The team in the first half was:

 

Beames, Harper, McConigley, Pierson, Roberts, Dickens, Brown, Attrell, Jordan, Pritchard, Windsor.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

I thought it was a decent enough performance, we created a lot of chances all the way through and should not have lost.

 

The under 18s that came on looked very useful, they all played well and should definately be considered for first team duties in the future.

 

Tom Attrell had a great hour or so before being substituted, beating the man a lot, putting in lots of crosses and even creating a couple of chances of his own. Tom Windsor looked good in the centre too. John Ellis came on for around 25mins or so and looked very useful down the right hand side.

[Guest chris-sliski]

Firstly have to say ...I enjoyed the afternoon at Henley - nice people and a nice compact ground.

 

The football was quite good too, slough created over 20 good chances today..albeit without real finishing , however the name of the game is to create them in the first place..which we did today !

 

Nice to see the Youth team players geting a good run out, and continued to play some very good football..

 

the score line flattered Henley , but good luck to them for the season and if we make these types of chances in our forthcoming league games , we will be ok...

 

cheers chris sliski

[Ted]

I thought that the result today was not to be worried about until I realised that Henley recently lost 7-1 to Bracknell Reserves!!

 

Todays second half was more entertaining--the youth players do play good football (they are mostly a bit too lightweight and inexperienced to step up yet, but the potential is there), but Pritchard, Jordan, Harper and a few others apart, the starting eleven did not impress at all, either in this or the Bedfont game.

[grandad]

Report on main page of site says Henley are Hellenic Premier, according to league website, and last years position in table, they are division 1 east same as Holyport, Eton Wick, etc. I know psf are meaningless in result, but even so!

[Tom]

Really missing a right winger at the moment, Dickens just doesn't cut in there. Always drifts inwards cramming the centre midfield up, seems to be a bit lazy too.

 

Thought the Under 18s that played were good especially the one that played centre mid. The tall forward was very unlucky not to take his chances.

[Guest Reardon was God]

Originally Posted By: Anonymous

Firstly have to say ...I enjoyed the afternoon at Henley - nice people and a nice compact ground.

The football was quite good too, slough created over 20 good chances today..albeit without real finishing , however the name of the game is to create them in the first place..which we did today !

Nice to see the Youth team players geting a good run out, and continued to play some very good football..

Wrong Chris the name of the game is to score goals! and try and win games which ever way you can!!

Not really for me to say, but I guess my summerising after the the Witney game was spot on.Again Henly are in a league below us, and yes pre-season games are not the be all, end all, but I am afraid lessons need to be learnt very fast.When the present manager got the job, did not some one come on here and question his credentials, asking as to what club he had successfully managed, and was the answer none ?

the score line flattered Henley , but good luck to them for the season and if we make these types of chances in our forthcoming league games , we will be ok...

cheers chris sliski

[Guest Reardon was God]

Wrong Chris the name of the game is to score goals! and try and win games which ever way you can!!

 

Not really for me to say, but I guess my summerising after the the Witney game was spot on.Again Henly are in a league below us, and yes pre-season games are not the be all, end all, but I am afraid lessons need to be learnt very fast.When the present manager got the job, did not some one come on here and question his credentials, asking as to what club he had successfully managed, and was the answer none ?

 

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Dickens did not miss the penalty - it was saved. However I am not sure about him as he missed a lot of obvious passes and took chances that should have been put to others in better positions - maybe he was trying to prove why he should be in the team - I dont think he has yet justified it and time is running out.

 

The junior team showed some great skills and the decision to incoperate them into the club is exactly the right thing and has already been justified. Agree with Ted that they are still a little bit light and get pushed off balls but they make up for that with speed and quick foot work.

 

Both the Bedfont and todays game came alive on the right with the introduction of the juniors - not sure who or how it happens, but the senior team are very reliant on the left with feeds from Tom Attrel and John Ellis which could prove a problem if they come up against a strong defence on that side.

 

Looking forward to see how the team performs against Stevenage in the week.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

So Reardon was god (ex manager) you were one of the ones who applied for the managers job and got turned down - now we can see why there are sour grapes!

 

Did you attened the Bedfont or Henley or Holyport, or Penn & Tyler games? Or are you drawing all your comments from one game and the posts on here?

[Guest chris-sliski]

always some cleaver clog's answer..yes I know we have to score goals..my point was that you have to breatechances to do this and today we created manay chances the goals come next !

 

the last 2 season we did not even create many chances...so one step at a time ...

 

up the rebels...

 

chris s

[Woody SUFC]

not wanting to take the mick at all but you've played 'weak' sides this pre-season and have had mixed results. hardly brillaint! One tends to think maybe you freind 'Reardon was God' isn't talking out of his [****!!****] as much as you think

[Ted]

Originally Posted By: Woody WEFC

not wanting to take the mick at all but you've played 'weak' sides this pre-season and have had mixed results. hardly brillaint! One tends to think maybe you freind 'Reardon was God' isn't talking out of his [****!!****] as much as you think

A distinct improvement on last pre season though, where we played similar strength sides and got regularly beaten.

[Guest chris-sliski]

to be honest friendlies are for experimenting ...and I am delighted we are doing this this season, its great to see slough youngster playing with pride today and with the help of the experienced players will give us all hope for the future...

 

yes we have played teams from below level 4 , but we have also used lots of players and no set team yet...and this will come together in the next 2 weeks for sure...

 

friendly results mean nothing if we dont learn from them..thats what they are all about...

[GlenW]

The results are indeed meaningless i dont know why people are saying oh you didnt beat this or that side, friendlies are generally nothing to get excited about and often resemble training workouts thats why i think its wrong for clubs to charge a lot to get in, its like at windsor yesterday apparently they were wanting

[Chris]

Heres the facts about pre-season:

 

Penn & Tylers: Good signs, easy win and lots of players used

 

Holyport: Good going forward, looked dodgy at the back and a bit worrying the amount of posession they had second half, but saying that Windsor only beat them 2-0 and Maidenhead 3-0.

 

Whitney: Good side. Full of ex players who have played in our league before. Think they should do well and would beat most sides in our division. Most worrying thing was our lack of a bench.

 

Bedfont: We won, but by all accounts (I was not there) struggled against their first team andbeat their reserves 2nd half.

 

Henley: Should have scored 4-5 goals first half. 2nd half couple of trialists and under 17's playing in a first team game. Saying that a scoreline of 2-1 in the 2nd half very much flattered them.

 

Overall most worrying things/Problems for me is not the results, but:

 

A) Our set-pieces all season have been woeful, and that's putting it politely. We have no dead-ball expert in the team, let alone squad. That's amazing considering the potential in the air we have at set-pieces with Gumbs, Pierson, Harper & Jordan.

 

Players not there on a regular basis (but you have to remember they are part-time players) and have to take holidays around work.

 

C) Our lack of a right winger. Dickens does a job there but is a centre mid ad keeps on pushing inside all the time. I'm amazed we have done nothing to solve this problem.

 

D) Jordan & Platt & Gumbs have hardly played together. It's mostly been Pritchard up front, which does not work he's a midfielder and we really miss him in central midfield.

 

E) Central defence. Pierson/Daly & Fenton is fine, but Roberts and Riddell are midfielders. I really do not know why we keep on playing them there.

 

F) We still need i'd say 3 players added to the squad as if we get injuries we may struggle. There must be money avaliable as we were going to sign Brian Connor, Terry Davies & Jermaine Gumbs, so we must have some more squad money avaliable?

 

[Matt]

You have a point Woody but to be honest I think the intention was a gentle build-up ending with games against a strongish Stevenage side and then Godalming (from our level), instead of playing teams from higher leagues which might not have taught us too much.

 

As always, I'll be seeing how we do after 10-15 league games before assessing what kind of season we've having/going to have.

[Tom]

Originally Posted By: Chris

Overall most worrying things/Problems for me is not the results, but:

A) Our set-pieces all season have been woeful, and that's putting it politely. We have no dead-ball expert in the team, let alone squad. That's amazing considering the potential in the air we have at set-pieces with Gumbs, Pierson, Harper & Jordan.

Players not there on a regular basis (but you have to remember they are part-time players) and have to take holidays around work.

C) Our lack of a right winger. Dickens does a job there but is a centre mid ad keeps on pushing inside all the time. I'm amazed we have done nothing to solve this problem.

D) Jordan & Platt & Gumbs have hardly played together. It's mostly been Pritchard up front, which does not work he's a midfielder and we really miss him in central midfield.

E) Central defence. Pierson/Daly & Fenton is fine, but Roberts and Riddell are midfielders. I really do not know why we keep on playing them there.

F) We still need i'd say 3 players added to the squad as if we get injuries we may struggle. There must be money avaliable as we were going to sign Brian Connor, Terry Davies & Jermaine Gumbs, so we must have some more squad money avaliable?

Quoted for truth!

To be fair, playing against teams of a lower level doesn't bother me due to the fact what I would deem as the first 11 only has 2/3 players max that formed the first 11 last season.

Putting a completely new bunch of players together and facing them against conference or football league teams would result in nothing learnt as the likely hood of having time on the ball would be significantly less than the teams we are facing at the moment not to mention probably getting spanked each game.

[Guest Anonymous]

The right side is a problem, dickins just doesn't look comfortable there and feel he would be more suited to attacking midfield. But it comes down to having too many cooks in the kitchen. If you play dickins in the centre with pritchard, then where do you play riddell.

I don't think Harper is the solution at right back either, put a quick left winger out there and he will get destroyed, he's far more effective at centre back and pairing him with Pierson would be a big benefit.

Id like to see more of John Ellis on the right, i watched him at Eton Wick and again at Henley and he seems very clever with his passing and can put in a very good cross which the like of Jordan would thrive on.

All in all a good squad it just needs a little tweaking.

 

Cheers

(long time admirer of the mighty slough)

[A Rebel and a Saint]

I have to agree with what Chris has said too, there are still quite a few areas that need improving. We have a good base of a squad but definately a few extra players and tweaks needed.

I also would like to see John Ellis given the start down the right side of the midfield, he looked very useful when he came on there yesterday.