Blues 3 Romford 2

[Ryan.c]

Goals from Charge, Modeste and McKenzie from the penalty spot.

[Blue Dawg]

This is the first game I have been able to see. Has Mckenzie been playing in all our pre-season games and if so how do you rate him? Danny Charge looked good. Who else has done well in the pre-season?

[jl]

Not the ideal game really. We were clearly affected by Haswell's injury but eventually managed to get back into our stride.

 

Some unwelcome defensive issues to contend with now before the season starts. Not too sure about today's keeper. It was interesting to see Billy McMahon in the clubhouse after the game - an amazing coincidence. Think Oates was injured but I was surprised Collis got the nod over O'Rawe there. It will be interesting to see how we go from here. Will Craig shunt Cous out to the left as he did yesterday or will he keep Cous and Wild together and play Andre on the left.? I suppose we have to wait for Saturday for the answers to those questions.

 

I thought McKenzie did quite well. It was his first outing with us. I agree that Charge was excellent for us, especially as he was playing a slightly different role yesterday. He is a young player who can move back higher if he continues playing well for us.

 

Come on you Blues!!

[Onthesidelines]

I was very disappointed with our performance. I was looking forward to building on our performance against the Daggers. I thought Romford played more like a team and had a pattern of play while I could see little sign of it with the Blues. I suppose the need to use all the friendlies as trials means there was no time for our much changed team to get used of each other. Also our manager has had no time to work out a formation. On the positive side,Leon McKenzie looks a good signing but I thought he got poor service yesterday. Our goals came from two goalkeeping errors and a penalty. Hogan in goal,although not convincing,pulled off a couple of good saves in the first half which saved us from going in at halftime 4-1 down. I thought Dave Collis had a good game but I am not sure how many full backs we need. Modeste had another good game. Junior Luke came on in the second half and showed good skills and pace. The worry with him seems to be his disciplinary record. I understand he is banned for the first month(that must be a lot of bookings) and I noticed a vicious streak in tackling back when he occasionally looses the ball. The defence looked vulnerable at corners but I am sure that will be worked on. So the tough opening fixture list coupled with the squads lack of togetherness may give us a rough start to the season. Having said all that I think the manager has got together a talented squad of players which will eventually gel and see us in the top half of the table this season.

[GazzaBTFC]

I thought we started okay...certainly not full of the energy that we have displayed previously, no matter which way you cut it, it was the last pre season friendly before our season started and I would think that players didn't want to go "all out" because of that and the possibility of injuries. And then we get one. I (with others) had a good view of the "tackle" on Haswell and for me, it should've been a straight red. It was totally unwarranted. I agree with jl that incident defined our first half performance and affected us but we managed to get into our stride for the second half.

 

I am not too sure about Collis at right back...I believe O'Rawe is a better replacement for Oates (if injured). I thought Leon McKenzie played well but it was obvious he hadn't played with the team. Charge did very well, as did Modeste ("Dreds").

 

There are certainly some questions as to how we shape up against Tonbridge...Cous on the left....or Modeste? I would prefer the latter and keep the centre as Wild and Cous but we do have Ferguson who could play in the centre and Cous on the left. Perhaps if Evens comes back and plays that would change.

 

On the goalkeeping front, I thought one of the goals wasn't so much a fault of the keeper, more a mix up between the defence and keeper...but as with Collis, I'm not convinced. Still, it was his first game.

 

I really do not think we have to read too much into Saturday's game because of the "incident" and we had two new players out on the park. That we eventually won 3 - 2 showed that we have the character to come back from "disapointments" which occur during the 90 minutes but also, after such a good pre season, "grounded" us. Tonbridge will be a tough game and a toug start and the worst case is to go in to that game over confiedent. There were obviously some issues, be them small, which require working on but they came about without the team losing the game.