Back to the football...

[Fuzzy Royal]

From what I saw of the game Stourbridge came to get a draw, they were playing incredibly deep with lots of players behind the ball hoping ot hit us on the break. When they scored and went a man up (15 mins from the end?) Windsor suddenly switched on and played how we have in previous weeks. Jake and Dave wreaked havoc down the wing and Chenns fired a good spinning shot home and even with ten ment I would say if there were an extra ten minutes on the end of the game we would have won.

 

My concern is the previous 75 mins, why so turgid, is the off the field position affecting the players? I hope we are back to our best for next weeks cup games, especially Saturday. A win there and a few more pennies to the cause....

[Rother]

I'll post up the video of the goal later, but it was a superb finish. Typical old-fashioned striker's performance really - did virtually nothing of note for the rest of the game but notched a goal with pure class.

[Bins]

Agree on Stourbridge looking capable of defending in depth and breaking for a goal, which they did. Very difficult to break down a seven or eight-man defence like that, even though Dave and Byron changed the formation as the game wore on. It usually meant Michael has at least three defenders in close proximity whenever he was fed the ball. Mind you, that means opponents need to bring plenty back to stem the pacy runs from Jake and David.

 

I thought our problem was creating from midfield at times. Too many poorly-thought passes that were overhit at players rather than to them, and too many misguided passes. We always look better when Dave Woozeley gets a chance to move forward with the ball, or indeed be on the end of long balls forward. Thanks to him the ball got to Michael for that stunning finish.

 

Justin's sending-off was harsh in the extreme as it looked like two players running for the same ball and got entangled as it fell. Maybe Justin was caught on the wrong foot, but he didn't appear to trip their player. Ironically, that signalled our best patch - which always seems to happen to happen when teams lose a player. After we equalised we were all over them and should have won it, but the legs were getting tired on the soft surface, so credit to the guys for lifting themselves for the final push as the end approached. Would have been nice to see "Windsor Wash Stour's Dour Glassboys Away" or even "Glassboys Wiped Clean" !!

 

Another point on the long trail to safety.

[Rother]

Here's the vid of the goal.

 

[KarlMarx]

Stourbridge were not a pretty side to watch, but they were strong and effective. IMO, they were a typical traditional english style direct team with size, strength, pace and power, and I think that put Windsor on the back foot and off their stride for a good part of the game, especially the first twenty minutes of each half. In fact whilst making my notes up in the press box, I could not write anything of note for us for the first twenty of the first half, whilst I made half a page of notes for the opposition. Very much the same again in the second 45, so I guess that tells a story in itself. Once we found our feet, the players started to put some good phases of passing together, but struggled to get into the eighteen yard, as Stourbridge were extremely well organised at the back.

 

I agree with DC5 that our creation and distribution was not as good as it can be, nor as it has been in previous weeks. I felt that we missed Sam Wadieh yesterday, and whilst I feel that Ashleigh is usually effective in the holding role, he seemed to be lost playing alongside Fish further up the field. I'm still concerned about Chris's distribution out of defence. There is nothing wrong with his tackling and marking, but to me, he seems to panic and not look up enough when releasing the ball forward. Jake had a pretty good game yesterday and linked up well with Chenns who was well marked by the Glassboys defence, but showed his class and talent when he did manage to shake off their shackles. Again their defence did a great job on David Pearce, who did not enjoy the usual space that defences have allowed him this season. Manuella and Ewang worked hard, but as above their passing was not as good as we know it can be. Jeff and Wooze were solid and dependable as ever, but I think that it was just not a good day for Justin, and the two yellow cards capped it off for him. I felt that he started nervously and never really got into his usual stride, but he is young with bags of potential, has a great future ahead of him IMO, and will no doubt learn from yesterday.

 

That being said, from my view up in the stand, the second yellow was extremely hard on the lad, and IMO, the Stourbridge player concerned performed the con trick of the season, as he was already on his way down before Justin unfortunately clipped him. He appeared to be looking for the foul, and sadly the referee (who was on the other side of the pitch at the time, so how could he see clearly what happened?)) fell for it hook line and sinker.

[Rother]

Their 'keeper turned around to us and said "The ref's sending him off for that? Ooo, I'm not sure about that...." On reflection, maybe he didn't realise he'd already been booked.