Egham (h) - 4th March

[Jon Underwood]

As Bakes has already said this will be a tough one as, along with us, Egham are one of the form sides in the division,

 

The 16 man squad will be the same as Saturday we hope although we have a few knocks that will need to be assessed before the game with 3 players (Jamie McClurg, Eddie Smith and Ryan Parsons) needing to see Kev before the game. We are hopeful that they will all be fit to start with Eddie probably being the main concern at this moment in time with a dead leg.

 

Squad as follows - Somerville, Fraser, R.Parsons, Woozley, Foulser, Hollis, McClurg, Short, Rumbold, J.Parsons, Wheeler, W,Harris, Smith, S.Harris, Dyer, Cornell.

 

 

 

 

[Hammer_rebel]

Ed smith is the most fragile man ever!!!

[Sue]

Ha ha most men are !

[HorshamRebel]

Most probably from that off the ball incident

[Mark44]

Can't be number 6......he is an adult

[HKP]

Good luck against Egham, from many fans resident of Guernsey!

[epicrebel]

As of 13-00 today (Monday) there is no water on the pitch, so looking good for a game of footy.

[Neil Baker]

To be fair Mark, with the amount of rain we have had this season, and how well the pitch has coped in far worse conditions, was not even in my mind that the game would be in any doubt!!!

 

Pitch has drained incredibly well this year, and Ian Gould and his lads should take the plaudits!

[lino]

Mr Smith is easily our most important player, hope he stays fit for rest of season.

[Hammer_rebel]

I wouldn't agree with that the team is strong at the moment ed being made of glass doesn't help and to win this league we need them all fit!

[Guest Wycombe Rebel]

See Ryan Lake is at Egham...

[Chris]

Looks like Lakey played centre-back for Egham against Northwood by the looks of a report on a website I've read.

[Radders]

Obviously a poor result and not what was hopes for but I did say to someone earlier today that when you're on a run of wins it gets more and more likely you'll lose one and I'd rather get a defeat out of the way against a team who shouldn't be a danger and them hopefully be on a winning run again for daventry/Barton.

 

Picking up on a couple of people on the way out who (quite rightly) pointed out that tonight's defeat was not down to the ref. I totally agree.

 

Was it the refs fault that we performed as a team a lot poorer than in recent weeks? No.

 

Was it the refs fault that we delivered a shockingly poor free kick that led from an attacking position to them breaking away? No.

 

Was it the refs fault that from that breakaway one of our defenders missed the chance to clear the ball and allowed a shot to come in which made the score 2-0? No.

 

However, the ref did make some glaring errors for both teams and no one could argue that his use of the yellow card was puzzling sporadic.

 

Did the ref book ed smith for a hard but fair tackle that won the ball when other much worse tackles received only a talking to leaving smith only one booking away from a 2 match ban? Yes (for those who think this was a foul the egham players laughter as they pulled the 11 to his feet was a rather large hint)

 

Did the ref fail to punish a cynical studs down the back of the leg tackle on our captain forcing him off the pitch leaving us with 10 men and possibly meaning he will now miss future games due to injury? Yes.

 

So he may not have had the critical and match altering affect on this game but some of his decisions could come back to haunt us for the rest of the season.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Radders

[Rebel Sue]

Absolute classic from their bloke on the bench he walks past Adam's dad and asks him if Adam is alright !!!! Errrr no mate he isn't wonder why !!

 

And NO Ryan Lake is NOT one of my favourites !

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Was very interesting to see how certain players were taken to task over fair tackles yet a number got away with A LOT of fouls. He obviously was well out of his depth and made some truly horrendous decisions. Did he cost us game.? No. But I feel that if he hadn't been so pathetic the hatchet job on foulser wouldn't have happened.

[3spirit]

Radders has made some interesting points on the not very good referee but no one can argue that Slough were beaten by the hungrier team tonight.

 

Our luck ran out,as too many Slough players were out of sorts and Egham had done their homework on how we play.

Credit,where credit's due, Egham deserved victory.

 

Hope Adam Foulser's injury isn't as bad as it looked.Amazed their player wasn't booked for such a challenge.This will be a huge blow to our play-off ambitions,if the injury is a bad one. Adam has been exceptional of late and we missed him big time when he went off tonight.

 

Not too down-hearted with the loss,as still a long way to go. Disappointed with some of the players efforts,though but feel we were under the weather from the start and never really got a grip on the game.

 

Slough's best player on the night in my opinion was Sean Fraser.

 

A distinctly forgettable evening for Ed Smith,Darren Wheeler,Ryan Parsons and Dave Woozley which goes to show even the most experienced players get it wrong sometimes.

 

Let's bounce back against St Ives on Saturday.  

Edited March 4, 2014 by 3spirit

[Martin]

It will come as no surprise that I largely agree with Radders.

 

The ref did not cost us the game, giving Egham a two goal head start from silly mistakes cost us the game. They are the sort of mistakes that no doubt will leave Neil tearing his hair out and Jon wishing he still had some to tear out.

 

Ultimately I don't think any ref would have sent off their nine for the foul on Foulser as unfortunately decisions are not made based on the consequences. The fact it reduced us to ten men and left us without a centre half and possibly now without our skipper for a number of weeks did however highlight the glaring inconsistency in the refereeing performance. No one can come on here and say that Smith's challenge warrants a yellow and it is ok for their nine to get away with a nasty over the top challenge that possibly was deliberately intended to hurt our skip. It may just be coincidence that it was straight after our third sub and when we were on top looking to equalise but I'm a cynic so I doubt it. Ninety seconds later the same player commits another foul and gets a last chance warning rubbing salt into the wounds.

 

It was at times laughably bad refereeing performance. Bad for both sides particularly first half, some shocking throw in calls and forcing his lino to flag for off side after accidentally blowing for a goal kick with the ball in play but I just cannot understand the logic that prevents a yellow for their nine.

 

Take nothing away from Egham though, they were well organised at the back, looked dangerous going forward - their keeper made one outstanding save and was probably the best oppo keeper I've seen this season. Lakey produced a typical law of the ex performance including one goal saving block.

 

The critical thing is how we react, after Dunstable the wheels fell off somewhat and we cannot afford that now. We need to bounce back and I have every faith that the boys can do it and put another run together. Let's start Saturday, COYR

[Jon Underwood]

Clearly a hugely disappointing night for us tonight. Complete contrast to Saturday where I thought every player put in an '8 out of 10' performance but I have to say tonight no-one reached that level.

 

Sometimes it's very hard to put your finger on why that happens. It's not a lack of hunger for me as everyone was desperate to win tonight but sometimes you need to give credit to the opposition who played very well tonight and looked a little sharper than us all over the pitch. Maybe Saturday's hard shift on a heavy pitch took it's toll on our lads (while Egham were fresher) but we don't like to look for excuses so will put it down to a bad day/night at the office and move on.

 

We tried to be bold at 0-2 and went for it with a very attacking 3-4-3 formation and instantly got our rewards when we pulled a goal back. I really felt at that point we'd go on to get a draw at least as we had the momentum but then we lose Foulser, go down to 10, and it was always going to be difficult from them. Perhaps sums up our night!

 

As much as we wanted to win every game from now until the end of the season that was never going to happen as football rarely works out like that. The important thing is that we bounce straight back on Saturday and I know from the positivity in and around the changing room after the game everyone is desperate to make that happen.

 

The injury to Foulser is a big concern, especially as we think Guy may be another week away from being ready to start, and as yet we don't know how serious the damage is to the knee. Bakes and I have already discussed a few options to cover this (potentially from within the squad) and we'll make a call on this over the next couple of days.

 

Lets all pull together and bounce back on Saturday.

[Egg&Ham]

Don't think there was a hatchet job on Adam Sometimes in a physical game players will pick up injury sometimes Spoke to Foulser after the game and he said it feels like knee ligerments But our players do not go out to hurt other players. And the guy who spoke to Adams dad is a good friend of his they work as plumbers together Good luck for the rest of the season as you have a great Respected management team Some of the remarks aimed at Ref did not help your Cause tonight by the fans

[C'est la vie]

Guy still a week away from starting??? Didn't look too bad when doing them 'Scorpion Kicks' before and at half time of the game last night!!!