Slough 1 Beaconsfield 2 AET

[Cookham Rebel]

As I keep saying Beaconsfield haven't got a forum, because they haven't got any fans. what they have got is quite a good "pub team" who's feet are on the ground and who can give most teams a run for their money, especially teams who are over paid and overrated and think they are better than they are. It must be annoying to lose to a pub team, but its a funny old game football !

 

By the way, I cant believe how much NBH is on a week, more than your captain and nearly as much as our whole team ££££££ !

he earned his money last night though, he looked really good

 

Message to all Slough fans, if this nuisance posts again, please don't bite, he will get bored and bugger off back to his allotment eventually!

Edited May 4, 2012 by Cookham Rebel

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Right, 24 hours reflection time and having read some of the other comments on here, I agree with those who say we need to take stock of what we have, see what changes need to be made to the squad and keep Bateman in charge and look to improve again next year.

I think Danny Burnell has summed it up well on twitter. It wasn't that there was no desire, there was just no creativity or different ideas. He also says that changes should be made.

Finishing second was a good improvement on last 2 years and we did have a good record against the teams near the top, yes we have suffered like Hitchin did when we beat them, but we need to come back in August stronger rather than weaker and changing the management will not make that happen.

 

(By the way, on this topic of appointing former players with no experience, doesn't Steve Bateman have quite a lot of experience with several clubs??)

 

Let's just take the break and see where we are after pre-season. At least now we can aim to move into our new ground as a promoted team! COYR!

[Nathan]

I would like to make it perfectly clear now that I am not in any way advocating this, but would like to gently point out that changing the management doesn't automatically guarantee a season of mid-table obscurity that some people seem to be implying!

 

To take a few examples from the Football League - Norwich sacked Bryan Gunn in August 2009, appointed Paul Lambert and won the league that same year. Charlton Athletic sacked Phil Parkinson in January 2011 and appointed Chris Powell, who as a manager was inexperienced. He has since led Charlton Athletic to the promotion in his first full season in charge. Cardiff City sacked Dave Jones last year (after 3 play-off failures in 4 years) and appointed Malkay MacKay, with expectations that this year would be one of rebuilding the team, ready for a crack at promotion next year. But a Carling Cup Final and a another shot a t the play-offs equals exceeding expectations I think!

 

Even when Bateman first joined the club, the expectations were that the 2009/10 would be a season to rebuild ready for a crack at promotion in the 2010/11 season; which goes to show that management changes don't always spell total disasters!

 

I just wanted to mention this as something to think about. Again, I am in no way advocating a knee-jerk reaction and a managerial change.

[Cookham Rebel]

I think very few of us are advocating this now Nathan, yes a few us were upset earlier but have had time to reflect.

 

Bateman's record with us is a good record, saved us from relegation, then 5th place in his first season with a completely new team, then he rebuilt again and finished 5th, this season we've finished 2nd! I just think we are all in agreement that something needs to change but that doesn't necessarily mean a managerial change!

 

When we lost Adam Martin, the ideal replacement was Chris Seeby but he left also, trying to replace players of that calibre takes some doing and we did suffer as a result of losing both of them but what's done is done, the 2011-2012 season is now history and if Bateman does decide to give it one last go, I'd imagine he will realise a minor rebuilding job is necessary and we will get behind him and the team apart from some moans every now and again!

 

At the end of the day, are there many better managers at this level? There are certainly a hell of a lot worse! Not many can match his record over seasons at Berkhamstead, Hemel and Slough, all that is needed is a more flexible approach, and some pace!

Edited May 4, 2012 by Cookham Rebel

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Fair play to aaron eales for coming on here on stating his points in a sensible level headed way hope to see more of you next season! Would have expected more senior players- no offence- to be backing the manager! I truly hope this isn't a sign that the more senior players have lost faith and players desperate to play are vehemently defending the manager!

I like bates as I've said before his substitution policy is often one I disagree with- I hope most of our players are with us next season and I pray we get out of this league! Knee jerk sack fire reactions won't help! If the players want bates I think he's the man for the job IMHO we can't afford to lose murp warro coyne swift burnell sonner burgess- and was impressed by nbhs do or die attitude last night when we went a goal down he was like a man possessed! And it wasn't a foul on there keeper!

Don't believe we missed the short corner routine that us fans cod see unfolding 5 seconds earlier Fromm 100 m away! Onwards and hopefully upwards!

[Ian]

What we do next season in terms of players and/or management is down to others to decide. What I do hope however is that we see sense and get away from Holloways Park. There's no way we can trust them to put the pitch right when they've promised twice already and still ended up with the worst playing surface in the division, or being kind possibly the joint worst as Chalfont SP was terrible too.

[Cookham Rebel]

Be interesting to see how SYCOB would cope if we left Holloways after they may possibly gain promotion on Monday! I can't see anything other than a Bedworth rout though to be honest!

Edited May 5, 2012 by Cookham Rebel

[3spirit]

Right, 24 hours reflection time and having read some of the other comments on here, I agree with those who say we need to take stock of what we have, see what changes need to be made to the squad and keep Bateman in charge and look to improve again next year.

I think Danny Burnell has summed it up well on twitter. It wasn't that there was no desire, there was just no creativity or different ideas. He also says that changes should be made.

Finishing second was a good improvement on last 2 years and we did have a good record against the teams near the top, yes we have suffered like Hitchin did when we beat them, but we need to come back in August stronger rather than weaker and changing the management will not make that happen.

 

(By the way, on this topic of appointing former players with no experience, doesn't Steve Bateman have quite a lot of experience with several clubs??)

 

Let's just take the break and see where we are after pre-season. At least now we can aim to move into our new ground as a promoted team! COYR!

 

It's all well and good Danny Burnell saying we have to make changes .To another manager he may be one of them!

Sometimes he has to hold his hand up and take some responsibility, instead of moaning and keep falling over on the pitch for the slightest thing. He wasn't on his A game against Sycob IMO.

However,he is a proven goalscorer at our level and worth his place in the team and is right to say about creativity,as every striker needs to be set-up for the majority of their goals.We have been devoid of fresh ideas on our playing patterns/passing moves/free kick and corner options for sometime.

 

The best part about Slough team in 2011-12 season has been the defence [goalkeeper included], but our defensive side of midfield is non-existent at times,because no one in midfield likes to tackle[with the exception of Steve Perkins] and so often we get caught by the opposition midfielders making runs and threading passes behind us,thus drawing our defenders out of position.This definitely needs to be addressed next year. Paul Coyne will be a huge loss,as he is like the axle to the wheel in a Steve Bateman team.

Perhaps his travel adventure and the rebuilding of our team will give our midfield a much different look,which is deperately needed.

 

We've got four handy strikers up front [although Ben Abbey may not want another season] but definitely need someone big,tall and robust,who can hold the ball up and knows how to find the net with his head.We need varying options for different teams,not Burnell and Sonner every week.It's too predictable.

 

I hope Steve Bateman gets another crack at promotion next year [if he wants it?] but just hope he endeavours to be somewhat radical to his very familiar,staid notions, that he usually employs. Also uses his squad to the full especially with substitions.

[Cookham Rebel]

With Coyne leaving for the time being, someone needs to be tapping up Ashley Lodge in the not too distant future!

 

I thought Brown, NBH and Woozley were tremendous this season and will be very surprised if one of them doesn't pick up the player of the year award. Hope all 3 stay but would like to see a mobile sweeper type brought in to play in the middle of 2 of them if we persist with the 3-5-2 formation, an organiser and ball player with pace!

 

To be honest, looking around the squad, obviously Coyne is leaving and Swift may decide to hang up his boots after his tweet but that may have been heat of the moment, I think we may have seen the last of Perkins, Herron, Sinclair and Abbey, I will probably be wrong though!

 

We probably need an attacking right back who can also play right wing back, someone like Ashley Lodge to replace Coyne, someone who is an out and out midfield destroyer with a brain similar to someone like Danny Bailey from the Conference years, a goal scoring central midfielder and a target man!

 

So your looking at 5 players to supplement Warrington, Jackson, Sweeney, Brown, NBH, Woozley, Murphy, Burgess, Logie, Anderson, Burnell and Sonner! So a 16-17 man squad that is fully utilised! Obviously though, that is based on the players wanting to stay!

 

I firmly believe that if the right players are signed and the shackles are taken off a bit, Bateman can guide the team to the title next season.

Edited May 5, 2012 by Cookham Rebel

[Ian]

I thought Brown, NBH and Woozley were tremendous this season and will be very surprised if one of them doesn't pick up the player of the year award.

 

I suspect Player of the Season is firmly between Brownie and Warro.

[Cookham Rebel]

I thought Brown, NBH and Woozley were tremendous this season and will be very surprised if one of them doesn't pick up the player of the year award.

 

I suspect Player of the Season is firmly between Brownie and Warro.

 

Agreed Ian, have a sneaky suspicion that Coyne may pick it up though, frankly, I think he was superb and will be sorely missed!

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

I struggled to decide between sonner coyne warro and brown

[Beano]

With Coyne leaving for the time being, someone needs to be tapping up Ashley Lodge in the not too distant future!

 

We probably need an attacking right back who can also play right wing back, someone like Ashley Lodge to replace Coyne, someone who is an out and out midfield destroyer with a brain similar to someone like Danny Bailey from the Conference years, a goal scoring central midfielder and a target man!

 

I sincerely hope that no-one from Slough will be tapping up any Ashford players!

 

As an outsider, I read through this thread in one go with a certain degree of morbid fascination. I was astounded that people were advocating a change of manager after being runners-up in the league. I accept emotions were running high after a play-off defeat, especially one to SYCOB because of the derby / groundshare / points differential, but there were still 20 clubs worse than Slough Town!

 

The thing is, even without bar income, etc, Slough's excellent fanbase will generate a level of income that many clubs in this division would envy. Additionally, the one thing about groundsharing is that you have only limited responsibility and costs for things like maintenance. So, from a budget perspective, there are swings and roundabouts and I am sure that Slough's budget will be towards the top end of any "league table" in this division. St Neots combine a wealthy chairman with a superb facility that generates income, so they have a budget that no-one can compete with.

 

Of course, it matters not a jot how good or bad a club's budget is - how you use it is what counts. Second in the League is not a bad result by any means but, for Slough, maybe the weight of the club's history and the hardcore fanbase that remains as a result distorts expectations? It could be argued that Slough Town could and should still be at a higher level - has that influenced people's reaction to this play-off defeat?

 

The closer Steve Bateman gets to the "holy grail" of promotion, the more likely he will be to eventually bring it home. So I guess, my message is this: yes, vent your feelings about losing the play-off game but use Monday to celebrate what for many clubs would be an outstanding season, then dust yourselves off and go again. Have a great summer and then see what happens next term.

[brighton_rebel]

Great post Beano.

[Cookham Rebel]

Beano, I have no comment which is a first, agree with every single word of that post!

[3spirit]

With Coyne leaving for the time being, someone needs to be tapping up Ashley Lodge in the not too distant future!

 

I thought Brown, NBH and Woozley were tremendous this season and will be very surprised if one of them doesn't pick up the player of the year award. Hope all 3 stay but would like to see a mobile sweeper type brought in to play in the middle of 2 of them if we persist with the 3-5-2 formation, an organiser and ball player with pace!

 

To be honest, looking around the squad, obviously Coyne is leaving and Swift may decide to hang up his boots after his tweet but that may have been heat of the moment, I think we may have seen the last of Perkins, Herron, Sinclair and Abbey, I will probably be wrong though!

 

We probably need an attacking right back who can also play right wing back, someone like Ashley Lodge to replace Coyne, someone who is an out and out midfield destroyer with a brain similar to someone like Danny Bailey from the Conference years, a goal scoring central midfielder and a target man!

 

So your looking at 5 players to supplement Warrington, Jackson, Sweeney, Brown, NBH, Woozley, Murphy, Burgess, Logie, Anderson, Burnell and Sonner! So a 16-17 man squad that is fully utilised! Obviously though, that is based on the players wanting to stay!

 

I firmly believe that if the right players are signed and the shackles are taken off a bit, Bateman can guide the team to the title next season.

 

Agree with pretty much all you've said here,Cookham Rebel.I would have a couple of different players kept and omitted to your list but by and large it would be the same.

 

The biggest disappointment for me other than the play-off result! has been when we play 3-5-2 and have 3 central midfielders,we haven't been able to make that extra centre midfielder count.

Too often all the players of the three,want to be the kingpin in that area and don't want to do the hard graft of closing down/keeping pace with the opposition or just plain tackling.

 

I also think we've missed a trick by not using a player with dribbling skill to run past opposition players from upper central midfield and forward areas ie Jerome Anderson,Steve Sinclair,Chris Herron,Ollie Burgess,Stuart Swift,Danny Murphy.To set up goals and have shots themselves.

While I wouldn't say Steve Sinclair had his best season,I do feel we never got the best out of him and playing him wide all the time is daft.

There are numerous players in our team who can be handful breaking from upper midfield behind our strikers but we never ever tried it.Just because Premiership teams hardly employ this system these days,doesn't mean it wouldn't work at our level.

 

If Steve Sinclair does leave this year,he will soon be picked up by another club and I believe a manager with an adventurous nature will make the most of his undoubted football dribbling skills/trickery unlike our current manager

[Ian]

I don't think you can blame the manager for Steve Sinclair's apparent poor attitude this year. To be red-carded TWICE after the final whistle is unforgivable. Bates has given him more opportunities than I would have done but he's the manager and makes those decisions.

 

I do think we need to be a bit more flexible next season. One of the reasons we had to grind out results in my opinion is we became too predictable and therefore easy to stifle. Virtually all our attacking endeavours involve getting the ball to Paul Coyne and then out to the wing. Put pressure on our midfield and stop Coyney or double up on the wide players and we're stuffed. It's what SYCOB did to us on Tuesday and what loads of other teams did also.

 

I'd like to see us play someone like Anderson off the front strikers with a bit more of a free reign.

[Cookham Rebel]

Suppose another reason for Sinclair's apparent bad attitude could have come from him having his attacking instincts stifled which led to frustration!

 

I'm not saying that is an excuse but at times I was surprised that he wasn't utilised in a free role behind the front 2, that way he could have gone left, right and centre, he could have been a complete menace in that role and just been told don't worry about defending, the 8 players behind him could have dealt with that, there is no doubt that when Sinclair is unleashed he is still one of the best attacking midfielders in the division, I just think in the right wing back role, for which he was employed for the majority of the season, meant he was basically playing right back and that isn't his natural game at all!

 

The stats prove that this season his attacking instincts were not fully utilised, he only managed 2 league goals, whereas he bagged 10 in the 2009-2010 season and 12 in the 2010-2011 season!

[3spirit]

Suppose another reason for Sinclair's apparent bad attitude could have come from him having his attacking instincts stifled which led to frustration!

 

I'm not saying that is an excuse but at times I was surprised that he wasn't utilised in a free role behind the front 2, that way he could have gone left, right and centre, he could have been a complete menace in that role and just been told don't worry about defending, the 8 players behind him could have dealt with that, there is no doubt that when Sinclair is unleashed he is still one of the best attacking midfielders in the division, I just think in the right wing back role, for which he was employed for the majority of the season, meant he was basically playing right back and that isn't his natural game at all!

 

The stats prove that this season his attacking instincts were not fully utilised, he only managed 2 league goals, whereas he bagged 10 in the 2009-2010 season and 12 in the 2010-2011 season!

 

Spot on,Cookham Rebel !

[3spirit]

The same goes for Adam Logie.He bagged 9 goals from midfield in 2010-2011 season. Totally wasted by management this season.

 

Our problem is not about getting good players to the club.

It is getting the best out of them.!!!

This is Steve Bateman's biggest failure as Slough manager.

Edited May 6, 2012 by 3spirit