Atherstone Town v Slough Town

[Reading Rebel]

I came away from the game today with quite a number of points banging around inside my head.

 

Firstly, today's performance was our poorest of the season so far bar none. Some will say that we created just as little against Burnham and Chesham but at least we were up against decent teams on those occasions. To their credit, Atherstone tried to play football and, at least until they were 1-0 up, I don't remember them playing long, aimless balls out of defence, unlike us. However, they were a very young team, and one that if we had put in a performance anywhere near the ones against Rothwell, Tooting or Boreham Wood, to name but 3 we would have won quite easily I feel. For all the good defensive work that NBH and Sweeney did today, their forward passes were woeful and they didn't seem to learn as pass after pass went flying out of play.

 

Secondly, I don't like to criticise Steve Bateman; as a man that's taken us from relegation fodder to promotion contenders, he obviously has some idea of what he's doing. However, taken off Hayes today when he did baffled me; his performance was far superior to Martin's, we all know that his set piece delivery is dangerous, and despite his current lack of goal threat, his hold up play in forward positions is better than Mo's who replaced him. It left us with Martin running around up front alone and with little support. By the time Sealey arrived we were 2-0 down, and then Martin gets taken off. Now I probably sound hypocritical taking into account what I just said and what I said at the game, but why is Martin going off when we're 2-0 down and he's our only striker? What does that say about the confidence that we have in him as a goalscorer? It's blatantly obvious that we need another striker who is going to put the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis, as with Elliott missing fro the last 2 games we've frankly looked toothless.

 

I don't really want to comment too much on the officials; as Tom said we should be getting used to the inept displays that we are foced to endure week after week. However I will say that I was probably too far away to make a 100% accurate judgement on the first goal, although it very much looked like Perks was clattered. If a player wins the ball cleanly, especially when sliding from in front and not from behind, it is not a foul, let alone a penalty. And how that was a back pass in the last minute I will never know.

 

Finally, I feel I must address the issue that arose at today's game with myself and a fellow supporter. The supporter, and senior trust member, in question, is someone that I have an immense amount of respect and time for due to the amount of effort they put into supporting this football club. However, when anybody feels it necessary to shout at me that I'm a 'disgrace' then I will respond and defend myself. The comment I made was very much in keeping with the general murmurings coming from the group of supporters I was standing with and befitted the overall feeling of watching our game falling to pieces. A similar comment was shouted at Ricky Perks (keep the ball on the f'ing pitch) from somone standing a lot closer to this supporter than I was, and I failed to hear them termed a 'disgrace'. Anyone that knows me knows that I am vocal, and granted sometimes not always in the most positive of ways, but 95% of the time I use my voice to encourage and cheer on OUR football club. Despite being told that I shouldn't bother to attend 'if I don't want to', I won't be hiding away from supporting OUR football club, like so many people have done as we have fallen down the divisions. It is almost 20 years now since I watched my first Slough match and hopefully it will be many more than 20 years into the future when I watch my last. I apologise if my comments either today or on other occasions have offended or upset other supporters, but I assure you my intention is only to support OUR club through thick and thin.

 

I hope to see everyone at Beaconsfield on Tuesday night to support OUR team and get them back on track, fighting back into the play offs. You can bet your life I'll be there, like always.

 

UP THE REBELS!!!

 

PS Apologies for the ginormous post!!!

 

 

Radders,

 

It looked to me like Martin might have had a re-occurance of his ham-string injury. I saw him struggling way before he was taken off.

[Reading Rebel]

Oh my God, where do you start after a performance like that?

 

The players, with the exception of one, need to take a very long hard look at themselves after that game. "Serve with Honour" my [****!!****]. "Serve with total disinterest" more like. I can't believe I was watching the same group of players from last Saturday. The one exception who could walk off the pitch with his head held high was Dean Harper. It's not as though we played a decent team. We didn't even make an average team look good. Even in beating us they looked poor but we just reached levels of rubbish that this group of players should not be anywhere near.

 

I don't like naming names but it's impossible to summarise yesterday without pointing a few fingers. Reading Rebel said that NBH was our best player yesterday. I disagree. Defensively he was good but his distribution, particualrly in the first was embarrassing. Einstein said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. In the first half, playing down a steep slope, with a strong wind behind and the opposition defence pushing up, what made Nathan think that long hoofs forwards would result in anything other than the ball running either out of play or to the goalkeeper? I lost count of how many times he tried.

 

Where was the midfield? Who was even in midfield? Robbie Keane got caught in possession more times than Pete Doherty and Sincs kept running into several defenders. For heaven's sake if their defenders were doubling up on people, who had the space?? Certainly none of our players. I can't recall anything meaningful contributed by those in the middle. As for the front two the only positive thing I can say is that Tommy Hayes did chase a few lost causes yesterday and we know that his crossing is decent. I know they have supposedly scored goals at higher levels but I can't recall a front pairing looking less likely to score than these two. The movement is poor, the finishing is woeful, Martin gets pushed off the ball too easily for someone his size and there's no sign of a 'partnership' at all. As for Ricky Perks his time is up. Maybe back in the 80's when keepers were allowed to pick the ball up you could get away with a goalkeeper that can't kick. That's just not possible now. How many times did the ball get sliced or kicked straight out of play? Five, six, seven or more?

 

The one exception to this display of ineptitude was Dean Harper. Harps fits into the category of players who always give everything for our club and he, Steve Daly, Wilko and their like would have been embarrassed yesterday. I'm not sure many of the players walking off that pitch were that bothered about the result and they certainly weren't bothered we'd travelled two hours in dreadful conditions to see such dross.

 

Finally on to the Radders incident in which he was berated for having a go at the players. I don't understand why. If anyone was a "disgrace" it was those on the pitch. Yes we are there to support the team and we do it better than most but sometimes the players need to be told. They need to understand what's acceptable and what is not. Just putting up with it and never saying anything might be why they think that level of performance is acceptable. To me it isn't and any comments by Radders (or me or others) were fully justified on this occasion.

 

I'm sure some if not all of the players will read this forum and they can respond in two ways. They can either read the comments, sulk and put in more abject performances or they can respond and prove that some of the things that we saw at Atherstone were a blip. Let's hope it's the latter. Come on you Rebels.

 

 

It's funny how supporters can sometimes view a game differently.

 

I agree, the fact we had the strong wind in our favour and also that they held a very high line made the long ball NBH kept trying to play either go to their keeper or out for a goal kick and he really should have cottoned on after the first couple of times but in my view he was still our best defender. Also, in fairness to NBH this was totally out of character for him because he normally likes to bring the ball out of defence and normally passes the ball extremely well for a defender.

 

I don't know, perhaps the conditions and the 'pudding' of a pitch made him do this but all I do know is that it was certainly out of character.

 

 

I also agree with you that our midfield were very poor and contributed very little to the game but I see from the match report Grant Avis was given the MoM!!

[Mr Rebel]

i couldn't make this match and reading this am certainly pleased i didn't go. fair play to those that did go and put up with seemingly a terrible performance

 

i must admit at the end of the Chesham game i feared that we weren't at all prepared as a team to play a potentially tough match like Atherstone and it turns out we weren't. terribly worried about how poor the performance was though. think we have to keep our expectations as fans under control though as there has been a drastic turnaround in a short time. if this losing run continues 2 or 3 more games then its a worry but im confident the players will put it right (probably)

[Reading Rebel]

Those stats are flawed in many ways.

 

One thing that has irritated me a little is the change in team since the unbeaten run, and even since the win last Saturday. Fair enough injuries play a part but our most successful period came with Sinclair and Sealey on the wings.

 

Sinclair since his return has featured in every game and quickly came back into the starting IX, Sealey on the other hand has barely featured despite supposedly being fit and Herron has come straight back in from injury.

 

The team is so devoid of pace without the two of them. I also don't think its particularly fair on Sealey if Herron regardless of form is coming straight back into the side.

 

 

The problem is, as mere supporters, we don't always know the real reasons why players are left on the bench, subbed etc.

 

Against Chesham, I think I saw Sealey limping a bit after a collision which could be the reason why he was a sub and only came on late yesterday.

 

The same with Edwards.

 

I was thinking he was just out off favour at the moment until someone mentioned yesterday that he is still feeling an injury.

[Reading Rebel]

Were do we start, lots of interesting and fair comments Perks yes he is commanding, big and tall takes crosses cleanly etc but his kicking has always been a topic, I think he should try kicking from his hands and avoid the half volley which gives him less control, who's the goalkeeping coach?.

 

NBH tends to do what SB likes just get rid of it with a big boot and I think you have 2 reasons why our forwards cant hold the ball up, they dont know were it is going!!!!.

 

Strikers, unfortunately they are all very similar and we dont appear to have a 20 goal a season man as the scorers list shows apart from Elliott who has 6 the rest have come from midfield and defence which is great if you your striker gets 20.

 

Have to also agree with comments about Harps he is totally committed some times lives on the edge with refs (yesterdays booking), but isnt they why we all like football attitude in the John Terry(not comparing him with JT) mould not afraid to go were the boots are flying and prepared to take a tackle as well a give a tackle playing along side Steve Daly must have rubbed off.

 

As also said after travelling 4 hours we would like to see a side if they lose go down fighting I dont think we saw that yesterday, appears we dont travel well, lets hope Tuesday is different

 

COME ON YOU REBELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thats just it, as previously stated, NBH does not just like to boot it. When possible he normally likes to bring the ball out, sometimes by beating a forward or two and then more often than not provides a good pass.

 

Thats why I think yesterday was so out of character for him.

[Rebel Yeller]

I couldn 't get to Atherstone, but having seen the score and the NLP report, I'm not surprised at the comments on here. Worryingly, we've seen them all before.

 

The good news is that we have a better team than last year and are in no danger of relegation. Most of our players are better than those we had last year, but some aren't. The sad truth is that Slough's chance of the championship disappeared the day Gary Sippetts injured his leg. SB had signed him to get 30+ goals and by the time the injury happened all the best forwards had been signed by other teams and our budget had been spent. So we have to make do with what we have, and that has come up short. If you have a good forward line and a rubbish defence you can still win 5-4. With poor forwards your midfield and defence is always under pressure however good it is and results tend to be poorer.

 

Our away record started out OK but has deteriorated, with no win since the Mangotsfield Trophy game on 6 October. It can't be that the opposition support are turning their grounds into fortresses, we just seem never to get going anymore. Is it tactics, commitment, I don't know. We said we'd be happy with mid table this season and this may be just what we get.

[Reading Rebel]

I couldn 't get to Atherstone, but having seen the score and the NLP report, I'm not surprised at the comments on here. Worryingly, we've seen them all before.

 

The good news is that we have a better team than last year and are in no danger of relegation. Most of our players are better than those we had last year, but some aren't. The sad truth is that Slough's chance of the championship disappeared the day Gary Sippetts injured his leg. SB had signed him to get 30+ goals and by the time the injury happened all the best forwards had been signed by other teams and our budget had been spent. So we have to make do with what we have, and that has come up short. If you have a good forward line and a rubbish defence you can still win 5-4. With poor forwards your midfield and defence is always under pressure however good it is and results tend to be poorer.

 

Our away record started out OK but has deteriorated, with no win since the Mangotsfield Trophy game on 6 October. It can't be that the opposition support are turning their grounds into fortresses, we just seem never to get going anymore. Is it tactics, commitment, I don't know. We said we'd be happy with mid table this season and this may be just what we get.

 

Rebel Yeller, you say that most of our players are better than last year, but some aren't. I can only think of Matthew Platt from last years squad who would get into this years team.

 

I'm not sure I agree with your comment that our chances of winning the championship disappeared the day Gary Sippetts injured his leg. I'm sure Gary would have been an asset but not to the extent of winning the championship for us.

 

From day one, because SB had to assemble a new squad it was always going to be mission impossible and once the injuries have kicked in to key players this has proven to be the case.

 

Sweetman's theory was to go for broke by using 3 forwards and trying to out-score the opposition but either the goals dried up and we got hammered or the opposition just out-scored us.

 

I think it's simply that we started with the system of playing wingers and once they got injured we have had to change the the way we play and we have'nt as yet got going again.