Chipstead friendly

[HorshamRebel]

I agree with Gary in that there were positives to take away from the match. We battled well and the score line does not fully show what happened.

 

4-0 sounds like a one sided match, but it was far from that, most of the goals a goalkeeper would have probaly coped with.

 

Jackman played well for someone not used to the specialised position of keeper, apart from the odd few seconds.

The defence soaked up a good percentage of Chipstead's attacking play, and all the players played with some confidence.

 

Chipstead's defence also managed to soak a lot of our attacks, especially when down the centre. We got our best chances from the wings.

 

I would also like to say get well soon to the players that are currently down with the swine flu.

[GarySTFC]

Reading, Fenton is still receiving treatment on his ankle. He's not far away, but obviously will need to catch up with a bit of training to get match fit again.

 

DJ has work commitments at the moment I understand.

[Reading Rebel]

The only possible benefit of playing last night was some more match fitness for the players who turned up.

 

There's no denying that this pre-season, for one reason or another, has been pretty disasterous.

 

Saturdays friendly is against a very good Ashford team and anything less than the majority of our 1st X1 playing will result in another confidence deflating loss.

 

Sutton Coldfield and Burnhams pre-season build-up looks to be in stark contrast to ours.

[Mr Rebel]

it does indeed seem at least a bit of the Slough curse which most clubs don't seem to get has returned. i'm still fairly optimistic that we will eventually have a team that performs well but we may well now be a few weeks behind some.

 

strangely in defence we seem much better than previous years but we need a consistent squad and that is exactly what we don't have yet at least. midfield has not been strong enough defensively in most the games with quite often players filling in from other positions.

 

the lack of goals is a worry but we are creating chances just it takes us a hell of a lot more effort to make them compared to most teams and we are not taking the chances we do create.

[chris sliski]

pre season friendlies count for NOTHING ! except fitness and for a mangers benifit..

 

I remember many many year we did not win our firendlies , but went onto have a good season..so lets get started ...

 

cant wait now..just hope we play good and give us all something to be proud of...

 

cheers chris s

[Tom]

Originally Posted By: chris sliski

pre season friendlies count for NOTHING ! except fitness and for a mangers benifit..

 

Darron Wilkinson kept saying that...

[Mr Rebel]

agreed friendly results are soon forgotten just 4-0 losses and such like are bound to affect some players a bit at least.

 

no doubting there a few excellent new players that Bateman has brought in just about how well the individual players play together as a team and how quickly they gel without completely ideal amount of playing time together during preseason.

 

no reason to fear the worst at all though. no one knows how well the season is going to go before it even begins. so lets all get behind the team and hopefully we will get a good season

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

So some are starting to write this season off already!

 

Reading Rebel has called the pre-season disasterous and that is with us losing 1 more game than we have won.

 

Mr Rebel is complaining about a lack of goals and that is with us having scored 14 and conceded 16 (4 of which came last night with no keeper). Is the ratio that bad?

 

And yes it does get my back up that more Slough fans are prepared to go and watch a village team rather than take the short trip round the M25!

[Mr Rebel]

i just fear we do not have any striker that you expect to score regularly quite yet anyway. we need a couple of strikers who will get 15+ goals and im not sure if we have that. im optimistic it will be a good season though or at least an obvious improvement on the last 3 or 4 years

 

personally i agree going to watch Burnham instead of Slough is pretty annoying to myself as well

[3spirit]

For my ten-pence worth,I can't for the life of me,see what's so wrong with starting Danny Jordan up front with Yash Romeo.

I take on board that he wasn't prolific last season but his record at AFC Hayes was very credible and often it's down to different managers to get the best out of certain players and also tactics/confidence and systems of play.With a midfield of Steve Sinclair,Paul Edgeworth,Robbie Kean and Chris Herron,plenty of chances are going to be created.

Maybe, keep one out of Simon Martin,Richard Pringle or Tommy Hayes as a target man.A job Roy Gumbs can do in some games.

 

For Sutton Coldfield game my team would be[if all fit] -

Jackson[would prefer if fit] or Perks

3 centre backs Sweeney Jackman Edwards

holding midfield Harper

central offensive midfield Edgeworth Kean

wingers Steve Sinclair

and Herron

.

centre forwards Jordan and Romeo.

Subs-Fenton,Smith,Gumbs or Martin,Evis and Murphy or Dean Sinclair.

Just my opinion but I can see goals aplenty from that team.

[Chris]

Come August 15th we will be competitive in this league - don't worry about that...

 

Pre-season is about fitness, yes it would have been nice to get better results but take Spurs for example last year. Won every pre-season match, beat Roma 5-0 and won some cup that some decent teams were involved in and look how they stared the season.

 

Chill people!

[Chris]

Quote:

Darron Wilkinson kept saying that...

And Darron Wilkinson was right, it's just he never had the personnel (or legs in the side) to take us anywhere. You could see that from the start of the season

[Reading Rebel]

Originally Posted By: Staines Rebel

So some are starting to write this season off already!

Reading Rebel has called the pre-season disasterous and that is with us losing 1 more game than we have won.

Mr Rebel is complaining about a lack of goals and that is with us having scored 14 and conceded 16 (4 of which came last night with no keeper). Is the ratio that bad?

And yes it does get my back up that more Slough fans are prepared to go and watch a village team rather than take the short trip round the M25!

SR, I don't think anybody is writing this season off, just a bit disappointed when they know the team we could potentially field and then see the dis-jointed teams we keep turning out in the friendlies.

When you look a bit deeper into the statistics, the 3 games that we have won have been against relatively modest opposition in which we scored 12 out of the 13 goals we have scored in total.

[3spirit]

Another player we could play up front,who I forgot! is Tyrone Sealey.He combines well with Yash Romeo.So I still think Slough's team will score goals,if they put the right team out on the pitch.Our friendly performances have been pretty poor but that's to be expected with players not being available,our injuries to first teamers[Jackson,Fenton,Harper],new trialists and no settled side.

 

In my mind our squad looks pretty good.So my revised team to start against Sutton Coldfield would be -

 

Jackson[would prefer if fit] or Perks

3 centre backs Sweeney Jackman Edwards

holding midfield Harper

central offensive midfield Edgeworth Kean

wingers Steve Sinclair

and Herron

.

centre forwards Jordan and Romeo.

Subs-Fenton,Smith,Gumbs or Martin,Sealey and Murphy.

[Reading Rebel]

SB stated that he wanted to play 3-5-2 but because we have lost Stevenson he is going to revert to a 4-4-2.

 

For what it's worth my team would be:

 

Perks

Sweeney Jackman/Harper Edwards Fenton(if fit)

Sinclair Keane Edgeworth Herron

Sealey/Romeo Jordan

 

What I've seen so far I think there is very little to choose between Jackman and Harper.

 

Likewise Sealey and Romeo.

[Mark44]

My starting 11 would be:

 

perks

harper jackman edwards murphy

s sinclair kean edgeworth herron

d sinclair dj

[Reading Rebel]

Originally Posted By: Mark44

My starting 11 would be:

perks
harper jackman edwards murphy
s sinclair kean edgeworth herron
d sinclair dj

No Sweeney?

IMO the best right back we've had for a long time.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

My 11 would be the one that Steve Bateman submits to the officals on the 15th.

[GarySTFC]

Who submits to the officials?

[Mr Rebel]

defensively we are fine imo. Sweeney, Fenton and Murphy are good fullbacks. in centre defence we have Edwards, Jackman, Harper and Smith of which Harper and maybe Smith can fill in at fullback. if i chose from those 4 i think Smith would get the nod if he stayed fit consistently with maybe Edwards. great to have a tough decision over who should play in defence. we have not had that for ages. how many games have we played midfielders or strikers in defence in the last few years??

 

with 4-4-2 formation the midfield picks itself if everyone is available pretty much but we do have a few useful players that have been playing pre-season that can do a good job in midfield.

 

up front its just about finding the right combination to maximise the amount of goals and its clear we have a few capable strikers especially with good service from midfield