Slough Town 2-1 Barton Rovers

[Chris]

Did just about enough to scrape a victory against Barton, but I don't think Bates will be too happy with the performance, but all that matters at the end of the day are the three points.

 

We'll have to perform much better than that but as we've seen in pre-season were more than capable of that and there's much more to come but a poor second half really. Having said that opening games nomatter the opposition are always hard games and you can get some funny results,

 

Two excellent goals however, great volley from Steve Sinclair and a great move and cross by Murphy for Sippetts goal. From what I saw from Barton as well i'm not sure they will be the whipping boys this year and may do OK.

[Ian]

Barton spent much of the game with 7 or 8 men behind the ball and we didn't try too hard to break through them having gone 2 goals ahead. Once they got a goal back it did us a favour as they came forward a bit and gave us more space. Result is the important thing as Chris said and we've started with 3 points.

[Reading Rebel]

I think the best things you can say about todays performance was two good goals and 3 points.

 

Apart from the two goals and one effort by Sincs I don't think we had another effort on goal.

 

We seemed a bit dis-jointed especially in mid-field and never really got our passing game going.

 

As the second half progressed I think it was pretty obvious that we were tyring and Barton were getting on top and the game was crying out for some fresh legs but nothing happened from the bench and as such Barton scored.

 

This season we have more than enough left sided players and for some reason Bates has decided to stick Sincs wide left leaving only Simon Sweeney to forage down the right.

 

IMO to get the balance right Swifty needs to play on the left with Sincs on the right and a different type of player to play alongside Coyne (possibly Logie) who will do the dirty work i.e. tackling and breaking down the oppositions attacks.

 

 

[Ian]

Forgot to add in my post that I thought Coyne was superb today. Just what we've been missing.

[Tom]

Agreed Coyne was my motm.

 

I though the midfield worked well today and deinately an improvement on last seasons. There was a will to win the ball back when lost and quicker tempo when moving forward.

 

I was surprised that Bateman didn't bring on a sub but there were 2 or 3 out there that deinately needed a full 90mins. Early days and an interesting formation change that I don't think will be played week in week out, but points on the board in what matters most at this stage and performances will improve.

[chris sliski]

Slough Played some good passing football today...and with Barton defending in numbers really restricted us...

 

To early to make any conclusions ...need to see how we stand over the next few games..especially Next week at Hitchin...

 

Its good to get the 3 points , but Barton looked a better team than last season, well drilled and I can see them not leeking too many goals...if they

 

keep to the same game plan...

 

cheers chris s

Edited August 14, 2010 by chris sliski

[Reading Rebel]

Forgot to add in my post that I thought Coyne was superb today. Just what we've been missing.

 

 

Agreed, Coyne was our best player in the centre of midfield.

 

He is the class act who will spray the ball around. Just think we need a different type of player to play alongside him.

[Mr Rebel]

2nd half was incredibly dull in terms of us attacking anyway. how we managed to almost chuck it away i have no clue when 2nd half we should have come out and got the ball down and passed it around. we were so lethargic in much of the match which is worrying but its early days. we still got outbattled imo in midfield at times

 

was very confusing why we didn't make a change when we was clearly 2nd best almost the whole 2nd half. we spent 5 minutes spells in our own half and overall 2nd half as bamboozled me. still early days though and we won. winning without playing very well is the form of promotion contenders so it will do me

 

hopefully a more balanced formation for the next game as the midfield we had didn't really work at all imo. 3 centre midfielders seemingly yet still not coming away with the ball all that much from middle of the park

 

2 great goals got us a win when on the basis of the whole play Barton can feel hard done by that they haven't got a point. saying that they didn't create a great deal. Barton definitely better than the same fixture last year.

[Reading Rebel]

2nd half was incredibly dull in terms of us attacking anyway. how we managed to almost chuck it away i have no clue when 2nd half we should have come out and got the ball down and passed it around. we were so lethargic in much of the match which is worrying but its early days. we still got outbattled imo in midfield at times

 

was very confusing why we didn't make a change when we was clearly 2nd best almost the whole 2nd half. we spent 5 minutes spells in our own half and overall 2nd half as bamboozled me. still early days though and we won. winning without playing very well is the form of promotion contenders so it will do me

 

hopefully a more balanced formation for the next game as the midfield we had didn't really work at all imo. 3 centre midfielders seemingly yet still not coming away with the ball all that much from middle of the park

 

2 great goals got us a win when on the basis of the whole play Barton can feel hard done by that they haven't got a point. saying that they didn't create a great deal. Barton definitely better than the same fixture last year.

 

 

Mr Rebel, you've answered your own question. IMO we nearly gave it away because players were getting tired (possibly because of the new surface), Barton were getting on top and substitutions were not made. Barton introduced subs which meant fresh legs and a renewed impetous and as such could have got a point from the game.

 

One example was that Shaun Byrne has been injured and has not played a competetive game for a number of weeks, so why play him for the whole 90 minutes when he was clearly tyring?. We had Adam Logie, Robbie Kean, Terry O'Connor and Sam Bateman on the bench all fit and raring to go so why not give one or two of them 15/20 minutes?

 

This is not a go at SB because he must have had his reasons for not subbing but to most lay supporters it did not seem logical.

[Chris]

so why play him for the whole 90 minutes when he was clearly tyring?.

 

In fairness to Steve I can see why he made no subs. Barton had a lot of the ball but were not threatening much and giving the likes of Shaun Byrne 90 minutes will do him the world of good for the tough games ahead.

[Mr Rebel]

Byrne will get better and better the more he plays and at the end of the day it paid off not to make a change but it was risky

 

presumably Logie played a few friendlies at least for Wealdstone before joining us. i know of course he played against us last weekend

 

it could be of course some will and some won't be available on wednesday possibly as well playing a factor

 

really we shouldn't be too upset with not playing anywhere near our best and yet still winning our first game after the terrible seasons we have had not too long ago where we couldn't buy a win. winning is all that matters if we are to go up

[Reading Rebel]

so why play him for the whole 90 minutes when he was clearly tyring?.

 

In fairness to Steve I can see why he made no subs. Barton had a lot of the ball but were not threatening much and giving the likes of Shaun Byrne 90 minutes will do him the world of good for the tough games ahead.

 

 

'Not threatening much' but scored a goal and could have nicked an equaliser.

 

Giving Shaun Byrne 15 minutes less game time out of 90 I don't think would have made a lot of difference especially coming back from injury.

 

Shaun Byrne was just an example. There were one or two others who were running on empty and IMO should have been subbed.

[Chris]

Apart from the goal, despite having a lot of the ball they only created one chance all match I can remember apart from a shot from range in the first half.

 

The last 15 minutes of any 90 minute match is the toughest fitness wise and is an important part of helping a player get match fit.

 

 

[Reading Rebel]

Barton scored because they were 'having a lot of the ball' and the equaliser could have quite easily come for the very same reason.

 

 

The last 15 minutes of a match is the toughest fitness wise on the body and when players bodies are getting tired and fatigued they are also more prone to pulling muscles etc.

[Chris]

I think we'll agree to disagree otherwise this could go on and on! ;-)

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Of course the players were not helped by the very heavy rainstorm that appeared in the last 10-15minutes, and I thought that we did well in those conditions despite the tiring legs.

 

I thought we did well yesterday to get the 3 points, and while we all would have wanted to push on and get another goal, a win is a win and the important thing is the 3 points. Coyne was motm and did very well, and I thought Sincs did very well in his sort of left wing/roaming role that he seemed to have. I thought we were comfortable for most of the game through defence and midfield but the strikers did not get a lot of the ball.

 

Hardly a flying start but a solid first game overall I thought, plenty to build on against Bedfont, and Hitchin will be the true test of our new first team.

 

 

[rebels 4eva]

great goal from steve, rebels played well and the ground looks much better

but can it last with 5 teams playing in them conditions ?