Gosport vs Slough

[charlie]

Got back in about 30 mins ago - god what a horrendous drive!

Bravo to all of us who made the trip today - we were few in number but loud in voice!

 

Injuries aside, we were clearly not the better team today - Gosport have a nice set up and their team seem to be able to cope well enough with the league - though I resent clubs whose players resort to falling over at the slightest breath on the back of their neck, whose keepers deliberately time waste and whose stewards delay play when the ball goes out by hoping someone else will go fetch it.

 

I don't often slag off referees, particularly when our side loses as it tends to make one look bitter, but the ref today really was poor. A number of our players were given yellow cards for innocuous challenges, but when a Gosport player nearly breaks Pritchard's leg with a studs up shin-high challenge, that appears to warrant only a yellow...baffling. And when their player deliberately kicks the ball away, 10ft away from the ref, in order to waste time, it appears a mere ticking off will suffice. Idiot.

 

Yash's late finish was great, Pritchard was MOTM again in my humble opinion, and Fermie looked good again. Jacko pulled off some fantastic saves again today too.

 

However, the back four/three/five was all over the place. I believe we started with Allaway, Fenton and Smith at the back with Riddell and McConigley as wing backs - but then it appeared we were playing a flat back four with Riddell and McConigley pushed up. Except Riddell kept pushing too far forward for a flat back four. And then Allaway came off injured, Gumbs was forced to move into the back, and suddenly we lose all shape. It was only when Attrell was introduced that we finally gained some width.

 

The poor guys at the front struggled because of a lack of service, partly because all of the looped passes forward were easily picked up by their much taller back four. We missed DJ today. There were bursts of great play, but unfortunately we just weren't good enough today.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Can only agree with what Charlie has said, the back 3/4/5 were bad today which meant that the team had no foundation to provide service to the front 3. I think we may need to switch to 4 at the back and put 3 in the middle instead of the 5 at th back we seemed to be playing leaving just Pritchard and Fermie in the middle of the park. I think we lost control of the game once Allaway went off injured and Gumbsy went to the back.

 

Tom Attrell looked good but unfortunately couldn't take the couple of chances he had today. Also thought that Fermie looks like a good player too despite the defeat.

 

Hopefully we can put in a good performance on Tuesday and pick up a point or 3.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

In which ever of the formations the backs tried to play both Riddell and Fenton looked poor.

 

How Riddell makes the team each week (ok he is Maye's mate) is a question, as he has been the weak link in the defence for too many games - move him forward and put someone, anyone in the right back position as Riddell is not the man.

 

Fenton was ripped apart today and was lucky only to concede a penalty for the foul on the edge of the box second half.

 

Agree that Tom Atrell coming on made a diference as he shut down and challenged players and made them play the ball quicker than they would have liked, but should that job be down to Tom? - we gave Gosport to much space and time on the ball, whilst they closed down our players straight away and usually in pairs, and this won them the ball. Need to want to win the ball, not hope that it will come our way - games where we have gone after the ball we have generally got the result.

 

Great goal from Romeo near the end, but too many goal mouth chances missed - could have had a draw.

 

My son observed that all our front line had clean shirts at the end of the game - that would be either they had not had the service or they had not earnt their money!

[HorshamRebel]

Here's a link to the Gosport write-up of the match

[Chris]

We were poor yesterday. Disagree about the defence. It was good UNTIL Allaway went off (0-0 at the time) but when he went off injured Smith did not play as well and Gumbs missed an easy header for the goal. Why we keep on dropping him into defence I don't know. He's a striker, We've let in lots of goals with him in defence, so why keep playing him there. We could have easily gone to 4-4-2. Also Fenton looks the shadow of the player he was early in the season when he was so impressive.

 

Secondly. Lee Riddell is a midfielder. Not a right back. Got roasted yesterday by Lee Chudy at times. I'd rather see the youth team right back play there than Riddell.

 

Midfield. Did well against Truro, but as i've said before Fermie and Pritchard are good players, but gave the ball away far too easily yesterday. Also feel we need more energy in midfield at times

 

Attack, well we can't play 3 up front. I know we have 3 excellent strikers, but the defence and midfield suffer because of it and gaps are explioted. We may get away with it at home, but not away. 30+ goals this season against says that!

[Martin]

I agree with Chris it was alright until Allaway went off injured but we were still getting overrun in midfield. It seemed to me we were lining up playing 5-2-3 which was bonkers.

 

Pritch and Fermie couldn't cope and we often had to resort to aimless punts up front hoping that Gumbs could hold it up or Platt and Romeo could produce some magic.

 

Once Romeo scored and it was a very good goal we suddenly sparked into life and could have snatched an undeserved point at the end.

 

The decision to let Harris go on loan and then not recall him was baffling. The subs bench consisted of Attrell, Mugisha and Dennison.

 

At least Harps is back for Tuesday, we will need to be a whole lot better.

[Baby-faced asassin]

Has there been an explanation as to why he has gone on loan given the amount of known injuries ?

[Roger Rebel]

B.F.A are you son of was.

[Baby-faced asassin]

Given your childish behaviour over the last few days,

 

maybe its time you examined yourself, given you are supposed to

 

be a moderator of the forum.

[grandad]

Oh great here we bloody go again! Grow up the flipping lot of you! This used to be fun, now sodding tedious and bitchy. No one will actually bother on here at all soon. For those of us exiled away from "home" this used to be a good way of keeping in touch with news and reports. Now it's getting hard to read anything worthwhile in amongst this childish rubbish. Go on then alienate the rest of us.

[AshbyRebel]

I'm with you grandad! These are supposed to be 'mature' adults and yet its like being back in primary school! Living 120 miles away and only able to go to the select few matches due to following my sons cricket/football exploits, this forum is my main point of reference for the comings and goings at the club and to guage peoples opinions on the performances on a week to week basis, but recently it has turned in a pathetic 'point scoring' forum and most of the time is no fun to read.

 

Grow up ................

[Roger Rebel]

Not bad for your 5th post, I got the feeling that you are one of the anons on here but have now decided to register. Good luck hope you can give some positive input.

[Mr Rebel]

this forum isnt about the matches anymore

 

hardly worth coming on here anymore

[Baby-faced asassin]

Nothing like a bit of self-righteous indignation to help you through the day.

What happenned to the ignore those posters you dont like philosophy that was spoken of on here.

Oh and believe me reading about winning third prize in a raffle competition(two pints of lager and a packet of crisps)aint so inspiring either.

 

[Roger Rebel]

Do we know we only had 3 on the bench,I thought we had a large squad of players.

[Matt]

There were far too many things wrong yesterday.

 

The formation - I didn't understand it. It looked like we had only Fermie and Pritchard in the middle, and it didn't work. We were totally overrun in midfield. Frankly Riddell is not very good at right back/wing back and has not looked good in defence all season. Neither him or McGonigley pushed forward enough from full back so playing a 5-2-3 (if that's what it was) never suited us.

 

The bench - No excuses now, as we've signed reinforcements. I know we won't see a settled back line for another few weeks, but even with Allaway limping off we should have coped better.

 

Also having Calvin Maye amongst the named substitutes is just not good enough. Jordan was also named but was never going to play. Why send Harris on loan when we could have given him 90 minutes against Leighton and played him instead of Gumbs today. The long ball didn't work, we needed to be playing football along the ground.

 

The excuses are running out now, I think with the players we have, we should be doing better. Not top 3 or 4 - I'm not kidding myself - but certainly better. I know we have injuries (a lot of them) but you have to get the best out of the players that are available, and we're not.

 

We have AFC Hayes and Bishops Cleeve coming up now, and then Abingdon and Bracknell away. I think we must be looking at 3 wins if not more, as these clubs are around or below us in the table, otherwise we're heading for a very mediocre season.

[Wizard( RWG )]

So now you agree with me-I was right all along.

[Matt]

No - you attacked Sweetman from the start, which I haven't done. I've always been willing to give someone a chance, and I still am but things need to change quickly as there are a lot of winnable games this month.

[Wizard( RWG )]

Originally Posted By: MattSTFC

No - you attacked Sweetman from the start, which I haven't done. I've always been willing to give someone a chance, and I still am but things need to change quickly as there are a lot of winnable games this month.

You have just indicated by your previous post that the team was laid out wrong,certain people cannot play certain positions etc, and you quite rightly questioned the loan deal of Harris when we were short of players.
So whose fault would you say that was then?

[Matt]

Wiz, of course that's down to the management and I'm sure we both agree that we hope things improve soon. However my point was that you were against Sweetman all along (for whatever reason(s) you have) whereas most people will form their own opinions after giving the manager a fair chance.

 

I think the next 4-6 league games will shape our season and that's when we can have a better idea of how our season will ultimately pan out.