Hitchin v Slough town

[yellows]

You do seem a touchy bunch in slough!

 

King tut - that day was carnival day in stourport which meant they had less than half their normal crowd and Hitchin did indeed boost it with 50 fans.

 

Chris sliski - was that sentence about Hitchin fans in Olde Englisch???

 

40 or so fans on a Tuesday was good but after one of you boasted about 100+ then you have to expect a bit of banter, it keeps things interesting

 

There isn't much between us, you or Chesham in terms of support or ability and we should all be up there at the end of the season although you lot do seem to have a lot of money at the club which is why you were marked down as favourites before the season.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

I have to agree Yellow, our £1.5 million budget should see us through this year to be near the top.

 

The result was flattering as the only forward who knows where the goal is, is O'Connor and should have started.

 

Bucannon did ok but still not sure where is best to play him.

 

As for Martin, Bateman needs to off load him and bring in a forward who can head, challenge, understand what system we are playing and does not bottle it infront of goal - football is not Martins game!

 

Hitchin did provide entitainment from the chavs and the managers anger management issues.

[Tom]

Yes obviously Staines. A player who has scored over 100 goals in his career and is rated highly enough for a club to pay £5,000 for his services can't play football.

 

Cut him some slack. He did actually score yesterday and from what I've read he isn't to blame for yesterdays loss. After going on a unbeaten run of 10 games to lose one league game that is a harsh comment to make.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

A club payed £5000 for him, and if he is so good why is he still not with them?

 

And as for yesterdays goal it was fumbled across the line after O'Connor had done all the work!

[Chris]

Hmmmm....

 

Seems familiar Staines:

 

http://www.nonleague.co.uk/forum/topic/115626-platt/

 

That chap finished top scorer did he not last season? :coffee (2):

 

Hope Simon does that same.

[Chris]

Hitchin's lot are defintely a strange bunch. Not only the Championship favourites bit but I found this quote most amusing:

 

the atmosphere always seems that much more under lights

 

Was I at the wrong ground? Oh and apparently to kick the ball at another coach (intentional or not) is fine????

[Matt]

Sorry Staines but that's rubbish about Martin. He didn't have a great game last night (ignoring the missed header, which can happen to any striker), but his link-up play is good and he will come good despite not being prolific at the moment. The problem is we're lacking in the wide areas at the moment, hence the service to the strikers is restricted and it took O'Connor's introduction to make a difference as he is more direct and creative.

[northern rebel]

Strange game last night - we never really got to grips with them & didn't particularly look like scoring. We don't seem to have a valid alternative to Sinclair getting behind the full backs.

Hitchin looked quite impressive - some nice slick counterattacking football, and always seemed comfortable at the back.

Not quite sure how our goals happened - both came out of nowhere really, but I am taking that as a cause for optimism that we are scoring like that once again.

Bit of a sickener to concede almost straight after equalising. I had convinced myself that they were about to fall apart after conceding & their gaffer losing the plot!

Still we didn't fall apart as we would have in previous years, and maybe we shouldn't get too carried away too early in the season that we're going to win the league after a few good results. After the pants of the last few years a good positive solid season would be enough.

[Matt]

Also, surely at £9 a pop (yes, nine pounds), Hitchin can in fact afford the highest budget in the league?

[GarySTFC]

Video footage now up on the Official site including their first and both of our goals.

 

http://www.sloughtownfc.net

[Mark44]

I disagree with staines statement about martin. I think he looks lively and has been unlucky and he does have a pretty good record at st albans in a higher division.

 

Him and o'connor will form a good partnership and get 30 goals between them this year i reckon. May not be amazing but we have goals coming from everywhere else too. Hence our centre back being our top scorer.

 

What i disagree with is people rating dj when we need a goal. dj is good to bring on when we are leading and need to hold the ball up.

[Reading Rebel]

Also, surely at £9 a pop (yes, nine pounds), Hitchin can in fact afford the highest budget in the league?

 

And £2 for a rip-off programme!!

[Rebel_Glen]

Yeah £2 is overpriced for the number of pages and content. Ours is much better as it has more pages and much more to read... ;op

[hotspur]

Hmmmm....

 

Seems familiar Staines:

 

http://www.nonleague.co.uk/forum/topic/115626-platt/

 

That chap finished top scorer did he not last season? :coffee (2):

 

Hope Simon does that same.

 

Just confirms what Wizard said of Staines,CLUELESS !!

[Ian]

Deji Davies joined us as leasing goalscorer. Matt Miller joined us as leading goalscorer too!! Maybe we just have the knack of turning decent players into not so decent ones but with the exception of CoC, I don't see as much threat from our strikers as I saw last season from Platty and Yash in a much poorer overall team. I'm not saying they aren't decent players, just that I haven't seen that spark.

 

Also don't agree about DJ coming on once we're ahead to hold the ball up. Half the problem at the moment is us not defending from the front, i.e. holding the ball up and putting pressure on opponents, which is why we've found ourselves behind in the last two games. The forwards and midfield are allowing the opposition to get the ball too near our defence too easily. All just my opinion of course.

[Reading Rebel]

Deji Davies joined us as leasing goalscorer. Matt Miller joined us as leading goalscorer too!! Maybe we just have the knack of turning decent players into not so decent ones but with the exception of CoC, I don't see as much threat from our strikers as I saw last season from Platty and Yash in a much poorer overall team. I'm not saying they aren't decent players, just that I haven't seen that spark.

 

Also don't agree about DJ coming on once we're ahead to hold the ball up. Half the problem at the moment is us not defending from the front, i.e. holding the ball up and putting pressure on opponents, which is why we've found ourselves behind in the last two games. The forwards and midfield are allowing the opposition to get the ball too near our defence too easily. All just my opinion of course.

 

It has been mentioned before but if you analyse our midfield and forwards (apart from Hibbert and Martin) they are all good players but are very lightweight with hardly a tackle between them. All are players that love to go forward but when it breaks down the devfence have to pick up the pieces. Luckily for us we have IMO some of the best defenders in the division but it's a big ask for them to do it game after game.

[3spirit]

Having read this forum over many seasons.I have come to recognise that Reading Rebel talks a lot of sense and that I often agree with most of his views unlike Staines Rebel who seems to talk a lot of drivel.I for one had my reservations about Simon Martin,at the start of the season but I think in recent games he's proved me wrong and has been one of our better players.I just don't think Tommy Hayes and him make a good pair but Craig O'Connor,Elliot Buchanan and Danny Jordan have the potential to play off him easy.We're lucky to have so many options.All strikers miss sitters,as with Simon Martin missing in the Hitchin game.

 

I would have kept Yash Romeo instead of Tommy Hayes,who so far has flattered to deceive and seems to be lacking confidence and is more of a poser and just goes through the motions than wearing his heart on his sleeve.I hope he proves me wrong,too but I won't hold my breath!

 

I thought Staines Rebel was extremely harsh on his assessment of Dean Harper,who hasn't played enough games this season,to be at his best for such important games.I thought moving Simon Sweeney to centre half was definitely the right call.Graeme Edwards is a huge loss.To me,Simon Sweeney is an unsung hero of the Slough side,who brings a lot to the team,without always getting the recognition he deserves.I have been a critic of Dean Harper in the past,more for his abuse of referee's and getting himself into unnecessary scrapes but you cannot level at him,that he has no passion or commitment for Slough Town and so to single him out for all the blame is ridiculous.

[Mark44]

I agree with the comments on Simon Sweeney. I believe he like Graham edwards do a lot for the side without too much recognition.

[Mr Rebel]

yes we have lost 2 in a row but they were both seen as extremely tough away matches before we played them and its not like we lost them humiliatingly 4 or 5-0. the unbeaten run we had upped expectations perhaps just a little bit too much but we are not too far away from the consistency needed to win those sort of matches. i have no doubt we will be up near the playoffs by the end of the season and with some vital players still to come back things look promising.

[northern rebel]

Well said Mr. Rebel - a voice of reason.

I remember after the Burnham game we were supposedly doomed and needed a new manager as were rubbish.

Last week we were going to win the league.

I, for one, am just happy that we have a side capable of holding their own and having a decent go at most teams after the problems of the past few seasons.

Yes, it would be fantastic if we were to get promoted, but lets not get carried away after some good solid results and start turning on players because we're not winning every week. Even on Tuesday when we were second best for much of the night we never looked like getting stuffed as we would have last year and somehow pulled it back level. I honestly thought we might have sneaked the win from there, but it was not to be.

Don't forget we were missing several players who were instrumental in the good start to the season.

 

Let's just enjoy the fact that we have a competitive team once more, and maybe we can get ourselves into the playoffs as a bonus.