Bedford Town v Slough Town

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

Smith, Sturgess Woozely M.Murphy D.Murphy, Marsala Logie Coyle Swift, Mpi Sonner

1-0 Sonner (1st minute)

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

1-1 28 minutes

Slough subs: Fanner, Brown, Eales, Abbey

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

1-1 HT

Not impressed with Bedford's admission and refreshment prices for a friendly match!!!!

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

2-1 Bedford 48 minutes

Absolute howler from Smith and Sturgess I think!!!

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

3-1 Bedford 52 minutes

I know it's only a friendly but no Sweeney, NBH, Perkins, Sinclair, Bateman, Byrne, Coyne, Martin or Burnell... Basically the majority of our 1st choice team, worrying!!!

staines_rebel_Jr · July 30, 2011

Well sweeney, NBH and Martin are all coming back from injury.

Coyne is on holiday, Byrne was struggling a little on tueday with fitness as he has just come back from holiday and in the last game may have picked up a small knock.

Haven't seen or heard anything about perkins recently. And Bateman has hardly been here either.

Which just leaves Sinclair and Burnell. Might be left out to rest for chesham on tuesday.

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

Left out to rest for Chesham?!?!? They are friendlies, for getting match fit and gelling the team, half the players won't be match fit in 2 weeks when we play Aylesbury, there must be confusion with the players at the moment....

4-1 Bedford - god knows what minute!!!

the optimist · July 30, 2011

remember just friendly no points at stake

no need to worry , will be alright on the night :futbolbud2:

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

5-1 Bedford... Regardless of it being a friendly the lack of 1st team players not even in attendance is a joke!!!

The Lawrence Years · July 30, 2011

Oh dear looks like same old , same old pre-season ! i agree with CR , get the team on the pitch gelling ready for Aylesbury we cant be doing catch up weeks into the season after losing points for being off the pace can we ? it appears to be going to still be a very competetive league even with the likes of Arlesey , Hitchin & Rugby not around ? hope we dont get left behind early on !

Nathan · July 30, 2011

Regardless of a lack of 1st team players, for the first time in pre-season we've come up against opponents from the level we're hoping to match (not from a lower level), and we've been stuffed. Not a good sign.

Cookham Rebel · July 30, 2011

My point is Nathan, out of today's team, if we faced Bedford in the FA Trophy for arguments sake, how many would actually start???

Today's team: Smith, Sturgess Woozely M.Murphy D.Murphy, Marsala Logie Coyle Swift, Mpi Sonner

Probable Aylesbury team: Smith, Sweeney NBH Woozely D.Murphy, Sinclair Coyne Martin Marsala, Sonner Burnell

I make that 5 players, with the other 6 players it would be a completely different match v Bedford or any team in the Evo Stik Premier...

I just think pre-season friendlies are a waste of team if you can't pick 8 or 9 of your 1st choice team in them... This is the 3rd season on the trot now this has happened, if I was Brown, Logie, Coyle or Sturgess I would wonder what the hell is going on when I'm not selected for the 1st league game, they have shown commitment during pre-season, have the supposed stars of our team?!?! NO!!!

Edited July 30, 2011 by Cookham Rebel

Ian · July 30, 2011

I'm sticking to talking about the positives from today's game. The sun shone.

CheshFan · July 30, 2011

Burnell Is finishing off his pre season training in a bar on holiday :-)

3spirit · July 30, 2011

My point is Nathan, out of today's team, if we faced Bedford in the FA Trophy for arguments sake, how many would actually start???

Today's team: Smith, Sturgess Woozely M.Murphy D.Murphy, Marsala Logie Coyle Swift, Mpi Sonner

Probable Aylesbury team: Smith, Sweeney NBH Woozely D.Murphy, Sinclair Coyne Martin Marsala, Sonner Burnell

I make that 5 players, with the other 6 players it would be a completely different match v Bedford or any team in the Evo Stik Premier...

I just think pre-season friendlies are a waste of team if you can't pick 8 or 9 of your 1st choice team in them... This is the 3rd season on the trot now this has happened, if I was Brown, Logie, Coyle or Sturgess I would wonder what the hell is going on when I'm not selected for the 1st league game, they have shown commitment during pre-season, have the supposed stars of our team?!?! NO!!!

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring....I mean,Cookham Rebel ! Steve Bateman knows what he's doing.......gulp! I hope !

I do agree with some of what you say, though, especially the bit about Coyle and Sturgees. Why does Steve Bateman bother getting these fringe youngsters when he has no intention of playing them in the league games. Of course neither are better than our experienced players ie Sweeney and Coyne but they should be given the chance in the odd game or two. Steve Bateman did the same thing with the lad ? O'Neil[New Zealander I think] last year and Grant Somebodyor other,think his surname began with I.

He seems to rest his main stays in pre-season,which is fair enough but why waste good, keen, up and coming youngsters,who really deserve a chance to play for a team who wants them. He also did it to Phil Turner, Dean Sinclair and Terry O'Connor. To be honest, you can't play everybody and the three I just mentioned didn't particularly shine in pre-season of that year and none of them were youngsters. So in that case,I thought he got it right.

I do feel, though, we don't use young players enough. They often offer us far more eagerness/willingness/mobility around the pitch than some of these experienced old heads and in my opinion, Steve Bateman got it wrong letting go the lad of O'Neil and Kyle Jeffery. I expect him to do the same with Gerge Coyle and Ben Sturgees. It seems that our manager isn't good at nurturing young talent and he seems to prefer experienced players, which I think is a great shame.

I mean,surely,Tony Mendy could have played in some of these friendlies.I personally don't think he's quite ready for the league games against the better sides but for an 18 year old he's got the physique to be a nuisance to the opposition, and know's where the net is,to be a threat to some of the weaker teams we'll have to play. Why he never played against Harefield and Holyport, I don't know [unless of course he's injured]. He was at the Holyport game watching,so he wasn't on holiday.

As for Adam Logie, he really does seem to get the short end of the wedge to some of our other midfield maestro's. I just don't know whether Steve Bateman recognises how good a player he is. I'm glad Logie has played the majority of pre-season games, as he is far sharper being played consistently and offers us an alternative, if Adam Martin and Paul Coyne don't make the team. If I was manager he would be the one of the first two on the team sheet,the other being Simon Sweeney. I would also make him captain.

I didn't get to Bedford today, and now having seen that Michael Murphy played alongside Dave Woozley, I thank God,I didn't. No offence to Michael Murphy but surely Alex Brown should have started next to Woozley to try and build some rapport for the season ahead. It also would have been a good test for the

Brown/ Woozley combination playing agaist a higher level team.

What do other fans think?

Edited July 30, 2011 by 3spirit

staines_rebel_Jr · July 30, 2011

My point is Nathan, out of today's team, if we faced Bedford in the FA Trophy for arguments sake, how many would actually start???

Today's team: Smith, Sturgess Woozely M.Murphy D.Murphy, Marsala Logie Coyle Swift, Mpi Sonner

Probable Aylesbury team: Smith, Sweeney NBH Woozely D.Murphy, Sinclair Coyne Martin Marsala, Sonner Burnell

I make that 5 players, with the other 6 players it would be a completely different match v Bedford or any team in the Evo Stik Premier...

I just think pre-season friendlies are a waste of team if you can't pick 8 or 9 of your 1st choice team in them... This is the 3rd season on the trot now this has happened, if I was Brown, Logie, Coyle or Sturgess I would wonder what the hell is going on when I'm not selected for the 1st league game, they have shown commitment during pre-season, have the supposed stars of our team?!?! NO!!!

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring....I mean,Cookham Rebel ! Steve Bateman knows what he's doing.......gulp! I hope !

I do agree with some of what you say, though, especially the bit about Coyle and Sturgees. Why does Steve Bateman bother getting these fringe youngsters when he has no intention of playing them in the league games. Of course neither are better than our experienced players ie Sweeney and Coyne but they should be given the chance in the odd game or two. Steve Bateman did the same thing with the lad ? O'Neil[New Zealander I think] last year and Grant Somebodyor other,think his surname began with I.

He seems to rest his main stays in pre-season,which is fair enough but why waste good, keen, up and coming youngsters,who really deserve a chance to play for a team who wants them. He also did it to Phil Turner, Dean Sinclair and Terry O'Connor. To be honest, you can't play everybody and the three I just mentioned didn't particularly shine in pre-season of that year and none of them were youngsters. So in that case,I thought he got it right.

I do feel, though, we don't use young players enough. They often offer us far more eagerness/willingness/mobility around the pitch than some of these experienced old heads and in my opinion, Steve Bateman got it wrong letting go the lad of O'Neil and Kyle Jeffery. I expect him to do the same with Gerge Coyle and Ben Sturgees. It seems that our manager isn't good at nurturing young talent and he seems to prefer experienced players, which I think is a great shame.

I mean,surely,Tony Mendy could have played in some of these friendlies.I personally don't think he's quite ready for the league games against the better sides but for an 18 year old he's got the physique to be a nuisance to the opposition, and know's where the net is,to be a threat to some of the weaker teams we'll have to play. Why he never played against Harefield and Holyport, I don't know [unless of course he's injured]. He was at the Holyport game watching,so he wasn't on holiday.

As for Adam Logie, he really does seem to get the short end of the wedge to some of our other midfield maestro's. I just don't know whether Steve Bateman recognises how good a player he is. I'm glad Logie has played the majority of pre-season games, as he is far sharper being played consistently and offers us an alternative, if Adam Martin and Paul Coyne don't make the team. If I was manager he would be the one of the first two on the team sheet,the other being Simon Sweeney. I would also make him captain.

I didn't get to Bedford today, and now having seen that Michael Murphy played alongside Dave Woozley, I thank God,I didn't. No offence to Michael Murphy but surely Alex Brown should have started next to Woozley to try and build some rapport for the season ahead. It also would have been a good test for the

Brown/ Woozley combination playing agaist a higher level team.

What do other fans think?

I agree with what you have said about Mendy and Logie except with Logie being made captain, personally i feel that other people would be better captains as though Logie would lead from the front with his no nonsense tackling and general good play he doesn't talk enough to be a captain unlike someone like woozley who has been captain in preseason who barks out order to everyone and 99% of the time these calls have been spot on.

Why Mendy hasn't been given a chance to prove him self is just absurd, preseason is about testing new players to find out whether they can make it in the team and then in the last 3 or 4 games you try to play your first team so that they have gelled together for the start of the season.

readingrebel · July 30, 2011

Taking some of the positives from the game:

For a team that only had the bare 10 out-field players at the ground 10 minutes before kick-off we played quite well in the first half and were marginally the better team.

Second half was a completely different story because we couldn't string a pass together and were really a bit of a shambles.

Still no show from Sweeney, NBH (someone mentioned he was supposed to be at the game today) and Martin which is a bit worrying. With less than 2 weeks before the season starts, if they had any chance of starting in the first game I would have hoped that by now they would be turning up at these pre-season matches if only to do some light training and a bit of team bonding with some of the new players in the squad.

Strange one with Steve Sinclair because his name was on the team sheet and his name was read out by the team announcer but he never showed up.

IMO opinion also a strange one with Danny Burnell. As Chesfan has said, apparently he has gone abroad for a couple of weeks which means we won't see him until the first game of the season. Don't get me wrong, everone's entitled to a holiday and perhaps it couldn't have been avoided but it seems a shame that Danny has got himself to a good level of fitness and now might lose some of that fitness for that vital first league game. Perhaps I'm being far too critical?

readingrebel · July 30, 2011