Today's game against Hartley Wintney

[Fuzzy Royal]

Well, first of all the pitch looked awesome. It clearly cut up throughout the game but there will be much worse pitches in much better conditions, and the amount of games called off shows how well looked after ours is.

 

The darts before hand was terrific, enjoyed by all, high tension, top quality darts and almost some very embarrassing upsets, anyway, back to the game..

 

Hartley Wintney were not good, I thought we looked slightly disjointed and we played well in patches with some clever interplay but overall we were better than Hartley in all areas without having to be particularly good ourselves.

 

Our opener was always coming and the ball lifted elegantly over the keeper dropping into the goal sent the crowd wild.Gould scored a nice goal from a good shot to double our lead and at half time it was 2 but could have been more.

 

The second half saw the sort of slapstick comedy normally reserved for Mr Bean or Basil Fawlty on Dave. Windsor's third goal came through some "indecisive" defending, the defender left the ball for the keeper, the keeper left it for the keeper, so our Gouldy (I think it was Gould) prodded it in the net, a soft looking penalty (although at 100yards any penalty decision against you looks dubious)brought the game back to 3-1. Then as if the dear departed Jeremy Beadle wass watching their keeper passed the ball weakly into space in the vague direction of the keeper, the defender looks at the ball confused as to why it was so far away, then Laza decided that someone should do something with the ball, so he popped it in the net. Comical it most certainly was and no-one from Windsor was complaining.

 

A couple of decent penalty appeals for windsor were dismissed in the first half, the ref decided that a rugby tackle wass acceptable but winning the ball was not, so pretty standard for this level of football really.

 

There is definitely talent in our team, but the lack of a regular starting 11 and regular positions is obvious, but we are getting there. Up to third (admittedly having played a "few" games more) and who would have thought that a few months ago?

 

Next Saturday will be interesting, a real test for our team, i look forward to seeing us compete and our team develop.

 

But just my view of the game...........

[mal316]

Second goal was Harry Pearse not Gouldy.

[Windsor_Sec]

There is definitely talent in our team, but the lack of a regular starting 11 and regular positions is obvious, but we are getting there.

 

You're absolutely right Fuzzy but I think a settled starting eleven is still far from being obvious, I would say 70% certain but still a few areas to confirm !

What doesn't help Mick is late changes to what he thought was going to be his squad for the game and once you start changing things around he's then forced to make other positional changes to cover any weaknesses.

We are still very much in a 'Work In Progress' situation but yesterday's game gave us, I thought, probably our most balanced side to date with the Penfold/Pearse and Day/Hicks combinations on the left and right giving us both defensive cover and attacking options where in recent games that particular strength had been lacking. Ellis and Kalama are both relatively young to be playing in such a vital area but both seem to have old heads on young shoulders and a good partnership should develop there in time. Centre-midfield yesterday saw Dexter and Sheehan working hard and breaking play down when the opposition had the ball and when we had the ball one of them always had that vital discipline to stay back when the other went forward which I feel had been one of our biggest problems recently. So it's just the forward line to talk about and that's where the biggest issue is at the moment with Ben's absence obviously hurting us badly. In Jake Lovell we have a very similar player but unfortunately a family illness meant he wasn't available yesterday and his proposed replacement for yesterday, Miles Jones, had been lured away at the last minute [illegally I might add, but that will be dealt with !] with the promise of a few quid at Beaconsfield whilst Jay Wright will still be out injured for a few weeks yet. George whilst doing a capable job yesterday isn't a forward and Lazza in my view is probably better playing in the hole behind an out and out front man which only leaves Kane who is getting better but not ready just yet and the two new young lads McLean, who looked useful when he came on yesterday, and Henderson who Mick needs to see a few more times in training before deciding. Couple that with the other squad players and 2 or 3 that are progressing very fast in the U18's and you've got the basis of a very good squad for next season which is the direction I think we should be looking at now whilst trying to maintain as high as possible a finishing position this term.

If anyone had said after the Egham game on September 10th that we'd be in 3rd position before the end of January you'd have laughed at them so whatever happens between now and the end of the season doesn't matter as we've proved that what we envisaged is possible with the right people in place and that in itself is a major foundation to build on for our continuing progress next season.

I can't finish without adding that it's been a great team effort all round and our ever-faithful supporter base has been a big part of 'The team' involved as I've not at any stage heard any major moanings from the terraces and even when we were getting thumped it was all encouragement from the sidelines as everybody bought into what we are trying to achieve and how we wanted to go about it and I believe the club as a whole is a much happier place to be now because of that !

[Geggy]

Totally agree Steve and Fuzzy. Who would have thought after that Egham game we'd be 3rd! But to me it's more than that it's what the whole club has now become. We have a core group of players who want to play for the club not the money. The atmosphere all around the club is as good as I've known it. And I think that's the key word now 'club' the management, players, officials, supporters, youth teams, youth team managers, Scotty the Stag we're all in this together! I'd be amazed if other local don't feel they should follow our lead. You don't have to pay silly sums of money to have a vibrant, progressive club. I don't know what our budget was last season, or indeed want to know, but whatever it was only got us one place higher up the division. Yes teams have got games in hand but the football we're now playing is on a par with what Keith's team were playing last season, in my opinion, and to be honest actually more enjoyable because of the challenges Mick is so wonderfully managing. Congratulations once again to people at the club for making the right decisions.

[Rother]

Yep, it's been a rather eventful season so far, and the successful times of late all the more enjoyable because of the challenges faced.

 

Well done one and all.

[Mrs_Cat]

Agree with the comments above, given the changes that happened earlier this season, Mick his coaching team & the boys have performed a near miracle to get up to third in the table.

 

As Geggy mentioned this side is playing as good if not better football than the side Keith & co put together last season and its 100% cheaper.

 

However its not all about the first team anymore, the whole club ethos seems to have changed, with everybody working towards a long term goal of having a successfull football "club".

 

I'm sure a few local chairman are probably now asking themselves why are they bothering to dip their hands in their own pockets to fund teams when the same results can be achieved at a fraction of the cost. Alas not all local sides have Mickey Woodham!

 

Wherever we end up this season, everybody down at Stag Meadow should feel very proud of what has been achieved.