v Burnham

[Cookham Rebel]

 

 

 

Nathan,

 

The league table doesn't lie, Burnham are top on merit.

 

We out played them in the first game and lost to a scrambled goal today when the elements played a major part. In my book that probably makes us the better team over the two games.

 

I think we need to forget about Burnham being on a limited budget.

 

I've heard that they are being bank-rolled by Martin Stones wealthy Wife and the reason why they have signed players of premier division quality.

 

Who are the Burnham players of Premier Division quality? Haven't we had those for 3 seasons now?!?!

[Cookham Rebel]

 

 

 

CR,

 

The FA cup run and weather interuptions are not convenient excuses they are FACTS and most teams, no matter how big a squad would struggle to win so many high pressure games in such a short space of time.

 

I never used the weather fact RR, yes ok but every team was affected by this, by not winning the league this season we will have massively under achieved!

[Cookham Rebel]

 

 

 

How much money has been pumped into the playing squad over the past 4 seasons?

 

As I've said Martin Stone has been bank-rolled by his wealthy Wife so I wouldn't take my hat off to him too quickly CR.

 

RR, I think it's plainly obvious that these players haven't been playing for nothing and when this question is always asked, people are in denial!

 

How much money is Martin Stone's wealthy wife giving Burnham to bank roll their playing squad then?

 

I take my hat off to Martin Stone because he has evolved with pretty much the same squad of players, they are holding off 3 bigger better playing squads at the moment, fact!

[brighton_rebel]

Reading all this is even more depressing that spending five hours on the train to freeze to death and watch a load of shit.

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

CR I'd say from our squad we could probably pick the best xi too. Burnham have done superbly. However I still think and have said for past few weeks Rugby will nick it.

[3spirit]

Forgetting budgets, Slough were crap today.

Not one shot on target against a team sitting in 1st place. That's abysmal. Admittedly the wind didn't help the flow of the game or did the ref or did the truly atrocious pitch but excuses are lame given the importance of the game.

 

On paper,Slough have the better players but I thought today they were outmuscled in midfield and our central pairing of Dave Deeney and Ollie Burgess were poor. I'm also pissed off with the management not having a full bench to choose from or even putting some subs on, bar Ed Smith,when it was blatantly obvious that the Slough side needed something different to what they were serving up.

What was also galling was how Slough failed in the 2nd half to take advantage of the wind on their side,wherein the 1st half Slough was clearly having problems.

 

Slough didn't do themselves justice but credit to Burnham they won the battle tactically and stopped our strikers efficiently.

 

Also disappointed with the lack of urgency from our management and players.Anyone would have thought we were playing an end of season match against a mid-table team !

A very disappointing anti-climax of a game.

[RebelVilla]

I still believe that Rugby will win the league and that we will probably meet Burnham again in the play off semis.

[Sue]

On a lighter note, surely for health and safety reasons their number 11 should of been taken off. Good god he had enough hair spray on to spike his hair he could of taken someones eye out, it never budged an inch in that wind !!

 

And then the classic of the season Martin absolutely brilliant, so innocently said, but Martin "You know what you said", and the look on his face after he realised was again priceless.

 

 

[HP9]

On a lighter note, surely for health and safety reasons their number 11 should of been taken off. Good god he had enough hair spray on to spike his hair he could of taken someones eye out, it never budged an inch in that wind !!

 

And then the classic of the season Martin absolutely brilliant, so innocently said, but Martin "You know what you said", and the look on his face after he realised was again priceless.

 

We will be very fortunate to make the play offs if this is the type of football we are going to play against the better sides as we still have a few of them to play. I feel we look good when allowed time and space to play, but when other teams really get in our faces we have no answer for it and run out of ideas, we certainly get muscled out of it and out fought. Martin Stone obviously learn't something from the previous game and with his best player suspended he knew his team had a good chance of winning just by using more tenacity than Slough would offer. Absolutely terrible performance from our boys and leaves us all very dissapointed. If we get 5th place and into the play offs it will be a bonus, then hopefully we can put together two decent performances to get us through. It's getting 5th place that worries me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hotspur]

So far the cup run has been blamed along with the amount of catch up fixtures, the weather, and the home pitch, next they will blame the supporters ! Funny how the manager in the papers talks a good game but then dosen't produce.If we have any cup money left I would save it till next seasons and try and entice a manager whose players would die for him , and one who had a clue about tactics!

[HP9]

So far the cup run has been blamed along with the amount of catch up fixtures, the weather, and the home pitch, next they will blame the supporters ! Funny how the manager in the papers talks a good game but then dosen't produce.If we have any cup money left I would save it till next seasons and try and entice a manager whose players would die for him , and one who had a clue about tactics!

 

I cannot understand why we did not bring on Dominic Rhone. We also look too small and too weak up front. What has happened to Stuart Swift, is he injured long term.

[Mark44]

Rhone is injured and swift retired

[Chris]

Thought we played right into Burnham's hands yesterday as others have said. Our strength is when we get the ball down and pass it and get it wide to deliver crosses. When we do that we are are at our best. Yesterday we resorted to lumping the ball up to Danny Burnell who had no chance against the height of Burnham's defence. We got so caught up in trying to win the battle yesterday we forgot to play to our OWN strengths and play any kind of football.

 

Don't think anyone got the ball wide to Jake at any point yesterday for him to take on Jonny Gray and when he was subbed I just thought that made us even more narrow and played right into their hands even more as I said earlier.

 

I don't think Bates inteneded to use anyone he has registered late on but we are in desperate need of some more width with Rhone out. I like Chandiram but in my opinion he looks far better in central midfield. Were relying on Jake to do an awful lot when we play that narrow as we did yesterday. Might be worth seeing if we can get Sincs & Herron back for the run in as in my opinion were desperate for some more wide options, but not sure how match fit they are?

Edited April 2, 2013 by Chris

[Martin]

Quite agree Chris. The only thing is that as we were completely incapable of getting the ball out wide to Jake he was a passenger in the game. The change was obvious and we just had to hope we would somehow bundle again. Since Swift's suspension we have been very unbalanced and lacked width on the left. We need to get Rhone back fit or play Joe out there and play to our strengths.

 

As for our season, we never really recovered from the first four games when we only picked up four points and were immediately 8 adrift of the leaders.

 

I think this season our longest unbeaten run has been six games. We have just been too inconsistent and haven't been able to put together the runs that the top teams have.

 

The frustrating thing is that I think we are capable of doing that. If we do and we can put together a twelve game unbeaten run now, we will be promoted having won the play off final! We can do it. COYR!

[3spirit]

Thought we played right into Burnham's hands yesterday as others have said. Our strength is when we get the ball down and pass it and get it wide to deliver crosses. When we do that we are are at our best. Yesterday we resorted to lumping the ball up to Danny Burnell who had no chance against the height of Burnham's defence. We got so caught up in trying to win the battle yesterday we forgot to play to our OWN strengths and play any kind of football.

 

Don't think anyone got the ball wide to Jake at any point yesterday for him to take on Jonny Gray and when he was subbed I just thought that made us even more narrow and played right into their hands even more as I said earlier.

 

I don't think Bates inteneded to use anyone he has registered late on but we are in desperate need of some more width with Rhone out. I like Chandiram but in my opinion he looks far better in central midfield. Were relying on Jake to do an awful lot when we play that narrow as we did yesterday. Might be worth seeing if we can get Sincs & Herron back for the run in as in my opinion were desperate for some more wide options, but not sure how match fit they are?

 

I think you're under estimating how naff the playing surface was at Burnham and the breezy conditions,Chris,it was hard to play passing football on that bumpy,lumpy surface but I do agree with you,that Slough should have offered more than they did.

 

How can you not have a fully fit substitute bench, when you're playing one of the better teams. Doesn't make any sense, especially when Steve Bateman had announced that we have signed five of our former players as cover and we have a reserve team !

What's the point of having two crocked players on the bench as in James Warrington and Dominic Rhone? Mind you,our manager has trouble using one sub,let alone three ! ha ha NOT.

 

I know we aren't going to win every game and sometimes circumstances don't go to plan but most disappointingly,was how little Slough offered and how they went down with a whimper, rather than a growl and some gumption. Apart from conceding the goal,I thought the defence played reasonably well.Also thought Adam Martin and Ryan O'Toole were two of our better players on the day.

Let's hope the team show a lot more commitment and work ethic against Northwood.

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Chris and martins post spot on. I don't think Rhone was even there? May be wrong. When I think of good slough teams and performances its always reliant on width.... I think of players like carbon, fiore, haddow, Sinclair etc..... As said in my first post after game... Burnell needs better service not lumped balls for him to challenge against a 6'2 defender...

[Cookham Rebel]

Chris and martins post spot on. I don't think Rhone was even there? May be wrong. When I think of good slough teams and performances its always reliant on width.... I think of players like carbon, fiore, haddow, Sinclair etc..... As said in my first post after game... Burnell needs better service not lumped balls for him to challenge against a 6'2 defender...

 

Makes me wonder yet again, why have we never signed the big target man to combat teams like Burnham or games like Monday's?!?!

 

Games can be started with Burnell, O'Toole, Smith but when the game isn't suited to those 3, we have no other option! Even Sonner would've given Burnham a headache on Monday, someone who can win the ball in the air!

[readingrebel]

Makes me wonder yet again, why have we never signed the big target man to combat teams like Burnham or games like Monday's?!?!

 

Games can be started with Burnell, O'Toole, Smith but when the game isn't suited to those 3, we have no other option! Even Sonner would've given Burnham a headache on Monday, someone who can win the ball in the air!

 

 

Same old problem CR. What good/quality 'big' forward would be prepared to play second fiddle or only play some of the games?

[A Rebel and a Saint]

I think the main problem on Monday is that we got sucked into Burnham's game and never played our own. We saw against Biggleswade that once we start playing our own game things work out, and that's what we need to do in the remaining games.

On a day when conditions demanded ball on the floor, we insisted on playing it in the air everytime we went forward.

Of course it also doesn't help that most of the team that played Monday had also played pretty much all of the other 3 games we had in the previous week. There does need to be a bit more squad rotation or it will affect the team performances.

Still, its in our hands, we can still easily make the playoffs, wet just have to believe and back the team, COYR!

Edited April 3, 2013 by A Rebel and a Saint

[readingrebel]

I think you're under estimating how naff the playing surface was at Burnham and the breezy conditions,Chris,it was hard to play passing football on that bumpy,lumpy surface but I do agree with you,that Slough should have offered more than they did.

 

How can you not have a fully fit substitute bench, when you're playing one of the better teams. Doesn't make any sense, especially when Steve Bateman had announced that we have signed five of our former players as cover and we have a reserve team !

What's the point of having two crocked players on the bench as in James Warrington and Dominic Rhone? Mind you,our manager has trouble using one sub,let alone three ! ha ha NOT.

 

I know we aren't going to win every game and sometimes circumstances don't go to plan but most disappointingly,was how little Slough offered and how they went down with a whimper, rather than a growl and some gumption. Apart from conceding the goal,I thought the defence played reasonably well.Also thought Adam Martin and Ryan O'Toole were two of our better players on the day.

Let's hope the team show a lot more commitment and work ethic against Northwood.

 

 

Makes you wonder how good in depth our squad really is?

 

It's not the first time this season that we have not been able to fill the bench with 5 players or 5 fit players and now we have talk about filling the bench with players who have hardly kicked a ball this season (except Sonner).

 

We also have Brownie missing the Biggleswade and Aylesbury matches through suspension, Adam Martin and Danny Burnell are one booking away from a 2 match ban, Ed Smith 2 bookings away from a ban and Ashley Deeney seemingly out with a pulled hamstring.