Biggleswade 1-0 Slough Town

[Chris]

Woeful for the majority of the match, particually second-half with us only having one decent 5-10 minute spell in the match. Second-half was probably the worst 45 minutes under Steve Bateman. So disappointed with the second-half non-event against what I personally thought were a pretty average side I left early. At least against other sides of late where we have played badly it's been against faily good sides.

 

Thought Tuesday's win would be a turning point, only plus points were thought the new lads, and in particular Duncan.

 

For me when Sincs is not at his best we really lack creativity in the side and am suprised that our other two flair players players in the squad Tyron and Mo Sharif are not at least on the bench. Our best results and play came when Sinc was on the right and Tyron on the left so i'm a bit puzzled as to why he's on loan.

 

As Matt says in another thread, forget the top 4 Sutton are the team that we need to keep our eyes on now. So an awful result them beating Chesham today. Ganna be a big fight to get into those play-offs now.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Chris

[Ian]

How many times this season have we brought in new faces to strengthen the team and freshen things up? How many times has it worked? What was the excuse today? A fully fit squad. New players who the manager claims again he "has been after for some time". We even had a decent flat playing surface today. Same old same old though - after the first ten minutes the opposition work out that if they close us down we have no clue whatsoever. Too many players are living off reputation and I'd now include the manager in that as well.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Other than the first 15 mins where we were on top, the rest of the game got slowly worse.

 

The positives were that the two new boys fitted in well and made a good contribution and Perks had a better game then of late.

 

However, Batemans habit of playing his favorites backfired again.

 

The substitution on Tuesday of removing Clarke and Martin and bringing on Sonner and Buchanan worked wonders, but today he tried it and the game continued to slip further from Sloughs grasp.

 

After the subsitution Slough had two good chances on goal and a certain player missed them both (not allowed to critisise players on this forum as some people think I am biased against gininger haired players)

 

It is so depressing going to some of these grounds where we outnumber the home fans 3 to 1 and most of them are relatives of the players.

[Tom]

Too many players are living off reputation and I'd now include the manager in that as well.

 

And so it begins. No wonder this club has struggled to progress in recent times.

 

Very impressed with James Duncan in the midfield today, can't remember him actually playing a pass astray. Seeby also looked promising at right back.

 

I'd have to say at the moment NBH and Edgeworth could both do with being dropped from the side completely as they have offered very little and been way off the pace lately. Particularly, I've been unimpressed with Edgeworth all season especially after what he was saying at the start of the season in the press and his pre-season performances. Even Sinclair in the last few games has been frustrating with his refusal to release the ball at times.

 

Too many "big name" players at the moment are either off form or just lacking in interest. At the same time it does make you wonder if things have perhaps gone on behind the scenes to turn things sour compared to earlier on in the season.

[Ian]

Too many players are living off reputation and I'd now include the manager in that as well.

 

And so it begins. No wonder this club has struggled to progress in recent times.

 

What do you mean, Tom? Are you having a dig for me criticising the manager?!

[Nathan]

Agree with the comments about players living off reputation - I think Bateman is being simply too loyal to his old players from Hemel, Berkhamsted etc.

 

At the risk of player bashing, i think these serious questions need to be asked:

 

Is there no backup plan? Today was another example of how when things go wrong, the management simply do not have a plan B.

 

What does Steve Bateman see in Simon Martin? Yet again today he showed his total inability to hit a barn door when one-on-one with the goalkeeper (which is usually the sign of a poor striker); he's missed at least 2 of those this season before today (to say nothing about the penalty against Chesham)!

[Tom]

No I'm not having a dig at you Ian, it just seems to me that people easily lose sight of the bigger picture at times. I find that frustrating.

 

Slough are 4th and have a better squad than in the last god knows how long, I'm confident that Slough can finish in the play-offs (although prior to the season I've doubted whether they would get promoted) but at times the comments on this forum are like reading that Slough are 4th from bottom.

 

After Slough's past few years of dreadful football and behind the scenes worries all of a sudden because Slough now are doing "well" some of the fans on this forum seem to think success is instant. What right do Slough have to win the league or even get promoted?

 

Slough have lost 8 games this season, not 18 or 28 as it may have been in the past or that some of the reactions on this forum at times make it out to be. I don't think knee-jerk reactions of Bateman's reputation is needed or helps the situation at times as his record this season and his previous record prove otherwise.

 

Players on the other hand......

[chris sliski]

How many more frustrating matches ! we were woeful and the think that what disapointed me today more than anything

 

was that even with 15 mins to go there was no urgency , no responce from the players that we were actually losing the game.

 

It would have been better to go 2 nil down having thrown the kitchen sink at them, by at least having some real goes at them, but it seamed we were contented to play the game out !

 

I can see why Ian and all of us are getting frustrated ..too many team changes seams to be un nerving some of the players, and I feel is reflecting the way we are playing....at the moment

 

 

Mind you lets also keep our heads about us too, this was our 1st defeat in 9 away from home and remember Burnham also lost here a few weeks ago...

 

We have it all to do still and its still in our own hands to do better ...

 

come on your rebels....

 

chris s

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Tom, Ian is correct in his statement.

 

It is not only the players that need to step up their performance it is the management team as well.

 

Yet again our bench was almost silent, failing to give direction or getting into the team to step up the performance.

 

Yes Bateman has dramatically improved our position in the leauge, but does he have it in him to maintain the momentum that he created at the start of the season?

 

The games since the "winter break" have seen a mix of good solid performances followed by games full of school boy errors both on the pitch and bench.

 

The frustration is we have a team that should be pushing the top teams, but on occasions they switch off and badly under perform. Is this down to the players or the management?

[Ian]

Yes, I know we've done much better this season than previous ones and that's a welcome relief. It's about expectations though. You're right in saying that we have much better players. In fact we keep getting told that most of them have played at a higher level.

 

I don't for one minute expect success to be instant and if we don't get promoted this season that's fine. What I do expect however is progress, even little signs that we are moving in the right direction. The reality that I see is that we're going backwards. We are more predictable than at any time this season and the management don't seem to have the ability to impact a game. You point the finger at the players but who sets the team up? Who sets them out to play a certain way? Who coaches them to adapt to certain situations in a game? Who motivates them?

 

Even you have suggested that certain players are underperforming. If players are out of form that's fine, it happens, but it's the management team that keep sending them out there. I'm not for knee jerk reactions but I think we are massively underperforming given the resources we have. I'm the worst football tactician in the world but if I was an opposing manager my simple instruction would be close them down, get in their faces and make them hurry - they won't know what to do. We don't seem to have any answer to that.

[Martin]

Hugely frustrating, started well with the new players slotting in well. Seeby was linking up well with Sincs and looked promising going forward and James Duncan was linking play well.

 

Duncan was outstanding and didn't put a pass astray in the whole 90 minutes.

 

We forced two good saves in the first ten minutes but after that we didn't look like scoring. Even when we went behind.

 

I think we need Sealey back to pose a diffferent type of threat on the left flank. That can release Elliot through the middle.

[Reading Rebel]

Woeful for the majority of the match, particually second-half with us only having one decent 5-10 minute spell in the match. Second-half was probably the worst 45 minutes under Steve Bateman. So disappointed with the second-half non-event against what I personally thought were a pretty average side I left early. At least against other sides of late where we have played badly it's been against faily good sides.

 

Thought Tuesday's win would be a turning point, only plus points were thought the new lads, and in particular Duncan.

 

For me when Sincs is not at his best we really lack creativity in the side and am suprised that our other two flair players players in the squad Tyron and Mo Sharif are not at least on the bench. Our best results and play came when Sinc was on the right and Tyron on the left so i'm a bit puzzled as to why he's on loan.

 

As Matt says in another thread, forget the top 4 Sutton are the team that we need to keep our eyes on now. So an awful result them beating Chesham today. Ganna be a big fight to get into those play-offs now.

 

 

I can think of two worse performances for 90 minutes, Atherstone away and Sudbury at home.

[Matt]

I find it difficult to put my finger on what went wrong. Overall I do not think we lost to a good side in Biggleswade, but the difference was their work-rate was top notch whereas ours was sometimes lacking and they broke up our attacks very well. They took the one good chance that came their way (possibly the only one) and at the other end we couldn't create anything.

 

I'm also less than convinced about our striking options at the moment. Bateman seems to favour a rotation policy, but I'd rather see a first choice front two and stick to it as something's not clicking at the moment. Sean Sonner rarely seems to play a full 90 minutes and on what I've seen, maybe he's better off being used as an impact sub? One thing's for sure, the top scorer needs to be playing up front and not on the left wing. Let's see Tyron Sealey or Mo Sharif back in the team.

[Reading Rebel]

I find it difficult to put my finger on what went wrong. Overall I do not think we lost to a good side in Biggleswade, but the difference was their work-rate was top notch whereas ours was sometimes lacking and they broke up our attacks very well. They took the one good chance that came their way (possibly the only one) and at the other end we couldn't create anything.

 

I'm also less than convinced about our striking options at the moment. Bateman seems to favour a rotation policy, but I'd rather see a first choice front two and stick to it as something's not clicking at the moment. Sean Sonner rarely seems to play a full 90 minutes and on what I've seen, maybe he's better off being used as an impact sub? One thing's for sure, the top scorer needs to be playing up front and not on the left wing. Let's see Tyron Sealey or Mo Sharif back in the team.

 

 

Firstly, to single out any individual players for bad performances on todays game is a bit ridiculous because you could name 8 out of the 11 players.

 

James Duncan was our best player by far. Chris Seeby had a reasonable debut and Ricky Perks had his best game for a while.

 

The only critism I would have of SB is starting with 3 up front with Buchanon wide left. Because it worked for 20 minutes on Tuesday doesn't mean it will work for 90 minutes on another day.

 

I personally think, at this stage of the season, we've got to stop slating the players and management and get behind the team because if we don't negativity will spread and we will blow it.

[Matt]

Sorry but I don't see where I was singling out any individual players for bad performances today - my comment on strikers was a more general point from what I've seen recently.

[charlie]

Frustrating is the right word to use. I actually thought the 1st half was pretty good from us - the new boys fitted in well and we forced a couple of really good saves our of the Waders' keeper. But the second half was woeful - we came out half asleep and never really woke up.

 

To my mind, there's no point singling out players today as not one of them played their best football for the last 45 minutes. Completely agree that once the opposition started closing us down and pressing early we fell apart-- all of the possession keeping, grounded passes from the first half went out the window and instead we're relying on Seeby and Murphy to punt passes up the wing in a vain effort to get towards goal. This slowed the game down hugely and allowed Biggleswade to get back into it.

 

This leads me to one of the major problems we keep facing, in my humble opinion, which is that there's no vocal leadership either on or off the pitch when things stop going our way. When the tempo dropped, someone should have been telling the team that, and encouraged them to get going again. We need a big mouth from somewhere - and while that doesn't have to come from the bench, there should be at least one on the field.

[Ian]

We need a big mouth from somewhere - and while that doesn't have to come from the bench, there should be at least one on the field.

 

It's very noticeable that when Harps and Jacko are not out there we have nothing in terms of vocal leadership.

[brighton_rebel]

Agree with Ian, we need some big gobs out there like Jacko and Harps, that get stuck in, bark orders and fight back. That second half was a whimper and Biggleswade just wanted it so much more than us. We played some good football first 20 minutes, but then just faded away.

[Ian]

Bringing Harps on yesterday would have been my first substitution. I'd have sent him out with the instruction I don't care where you play but stick a rocket up some of the others and get them bloody playing.

[Chris]

Don't necessarily agree that the bench need to be ranting and raving at the players to get the best out of them. They know them better than we do having worked with them before.

 

Also as for NBH would not drop him, thought he did OK yesterday and will be a key player in the run-in. If he does not get his form back we won't be going up. As I said a few weeks back the back-four as a unit looked more solid with a NBH/Harper centre back partnership, and if I was Bates I'd go back to that. Yiads has done little wrong, but I just feel we looked more solid as a unit.

 

Also Elliot must play up front for the rest of the season IMO.