Egham (h) - 4th March

[Neil Baker]

Kicking the ball is fine Barry, it is tackling that he is still having a problem with!

[Sue]

Sorry Egg&Ham I dont care if he is a good friend of Adam's dad. Adam is a very popular player and asking if Adam was alright in front of me after what you might call physical but I call down right nasty tackle was stupid. Perhaps he should pf shown his concern after the game.

 

Anyway Jon beat me to it, no excuses, but I also believe the fact that Egham didnt have a game on Sat and we played on a Quog mire (cant spell that)didnt help, it must of taken it's toll.

 

As for the ref no he didnt cost us the game but maybe if he had produced some cards at the beginning of the game it wouldnt of been so "physical" and we would have some fit playes left. Also might help if he knew how to play the advantage!!

 

Hope Adam is ok and not feeling too sore today.

 

Also Mr George Short what was so funny about me telling the linesman Julie and I could so a better job LOL.

[Mark44]

A tough loss to take after being so close to pulling ourselves with touching distance of Dunstable.

 

For me, last night there was only ever going to be one winner and from the off you could see why Egham have been in such fine form and picked off teams like Barton and Dunstable in recent weeks. It just did not seem to work for us last night.......

 

Two goals conceeded, one because we just couldn't clear our lines in 3/4 attempts and one because of a terrible free kick that did not beat the first man (don't want to be harsh on Wheels but seems there is no happy medium, his free kicks are either superb or terrible , on another night he would have whipped in a great ball and its 1-1 ) and left it three on two.......we really struggled with Eghams pace and they were all over us fighting for that ball at every opportunity.

 

The only thing we can do now is go an win the next 6 and see where that leaves us.......

 

COYR

[3spirit]

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.

 

We certainly didn't have any luck last night.

I thought had Slough scored first, the result may well have panned out different. I agree,Jon,that when Adam Cornell scored,I,too thought we would snatch a draw or even go on to win. Adam Foulser's injury put paid to that.

 

No team can keep up the level of performance that Slough have enjoyed of late and as you say,Jon,it's hard to put a finger on what went wrong against Egham.

 

I do think Ryan O'Toole was a handful first half and seemed to be determined to put one over us,as did several of their players including Ryan Lake.Do you think he gave them help with info on how Slough play?

Was glad to see O'Toole go off in the 2nd half and hoped this would prove to be a turning point for Slough.Just not to be.

 

I must say I was surprised that you and Neil never opted for a double substitution earlier,when 0-2 down,as our pattern of play just didn't seem to be working but what do I know,with Adam Cornell grabbing a goal so soon after his introduction.

 

Three points against St Ives is vital now but nothing ever comes easy for Slough,with our skipper likely to be missing for that game [and a few others I expect !!]. What a bummer!    

[RebelsAndBlues]

Agreed with most comments on here, I was quite impressed with Egham (quick at breaking forward and that number 4).

 

Ref or no ref, they deserved the win.

 

However, a few observations, the ref WAS pish poor (can anyone confirm that we have had him ref a game earlier in the season)? On two occasions, blowing up and not allowing play on when we clearly had the advantage, not booking their striker when clearly pointing out to him he clocked 4 different fouls over the pitch, yet Smith gets booked for a hard (but fair) tackle.

 

Taking the official in red out of the equasion, thought their keeper was good (except for his kicking). He was a bit cocky, but soon shut up as soon as the Shed end started giving him verbal for time wasting.

 

Wheeler, came in for quite a bit of stick from the Shed, I can see the frustration (as I was too) but some of the things some were shouting at him, wouldnt helped what appeared an already fragile confidence.

 

Saying that, do love the banter in the Shed, espeically a certain someone giving their reason why they think the ref didnt book the Egham player (shouldnt have laughed, but he could have had a valid point).

 

Lets start another run on Saturday.

 

COYR!!!

[3spirit]

A tough loss to take after being so close to pulling ourselves with touching distance of Dunstable.

 

For me, last night there was only ever going to be one winner and from the off you could see why Egham have been in such fine form and picked off teams like Barton and Dunstable in recent weeks. It just did not seem to work for us last night.......

 

Two goals conceeded, one because we just couldn't clear our lines in 3/4 attempts and one because of a terrible free kick that did not beat the first man (don't want to be harsh on Wheels but seems there is no happy medium, his free kicks are either superb or terrible , on another night he would have whipped in a great ball and its 1-1 ) and left it three on two.......we really struggled with Eghams pace and they were all over us fighting for that ball at every opportunity.

 

The only thing we can do now is go an win the next 6 and see where that leaves us.

......

 

COYR

 

Do think,Mark44,that you are right about the Wheels free kick.

 

I think sometimes we lack invention when taking free kicks,as it was clearly obvious at the aforementioned situation,to the Egham goalkeeper and defenders, that Darren Wheeler was the only player that was going to shoot.

Given the goalkeeper seemed a very good one,after he had pulled off that blinding world class save in the first half, and our lack of goal scoring opportunities, this seemed crazy to me to give the opposition any clue as to how our free kick was going to be taken !

 

We certainly need to improve in this area.

[epicrebel]

RebelsAndBlues

Yes the ref done the home game v North Greenfood. I thought he had a great game then.

 

On that note some of you are saying the ref didn't affect the outcome of the game, but if he had booked the 9 earlier [ and maybe O'Toole ( consistent fouls first half)  and Lake ( maybe last man ) ] they would have been down to less than 11 players. And Foulser wouldn't have limped off. A red card on it's own, but I'll wait to see the highlights on that one.

[Graham Cox]

Agree with most of what has been said. Although to use another poster's words, Egham were hungrier that fact did include too many tackles that were more than robust and the ref failed us there.

I was tempted to break my personal rule of not slagging off individual players on this site, but wont because the two or three that were poor know who they are , as does anyone that was there.We just didnt look the same side as saturday and those  two or three must be the main reason--maybe this will be reflected in the selection of team and subs vs St Ives..

 awarenesswaaraeness awarenessawareness

[Graham Cox]

Sorry for the end to the last posting.........computer had a mind of its own. What I was going to say is the awareness of team mates positions and spaces that I commended on Saturday went missing.

 

A bad blow to our hopes but time to put it right and start another run

[Stuntman Mark]

I didn't think we were quite at it last night and Egham deserved their win. They defended well and were quick and clinical on the counter attack. You can see why they have a good away record. Having said that, we created chances and showed some fight towards the end down to ten men before they killed us off.

 

Hope the skipper's knee isn't too bad. Foulser has been fantastic since coming back from the last injury and will be a big loss. My own view was that the number 9 didn't do him so I'll be interested to see the video. Worst decision from the ref was blowing up for a Slough free kick when Wazza was in on goal. To be fair I think he apologized to our players but I agree he was very inconsistent all game but perhaps not as dire as the guy we had at Dunstable.

 

Lets get behind all the players on Saturday - 3pts and another little run needed! COYR!

[Neil Baker]

Thought I would post a few thoughts about last night:

 

Egham first half were much sharper than us to the ball, and I believe that what both teams did at the weekend may have had a bearing on that:

 

In terms of selection and substitutions last night

 

Jake's knee was sore yesterday from the weekend hence why he did not come on, and Clurgy was substituted as his foot was really sore from the weekend (after being kicked on it 3 times) in hindsight he should not have played last night as he was in a lot of pain, but wanted to try.

 

Obviously we went for it by pushing 3 up, and it is sods law that we then had Foulser's injury, on that I do not think the lad meant to do it, they were tussling for the ball, and he may have nudged Foulser, and with him being slightly off balance he caught his foot in the turf and went over on it.

 

Could possibly mean the end of his season, however we will have to keep our fingers crossed that it is not as bad as first feared, he has private medical so we should get an idea soon what the problem is. HUGE BLOW.

 

I thought the lads still had a real go with 10 men, and for a period Egham were panicking, and only a last minute  goal completely killed us off.

 

Having spoken to a number of the players like Warren, Rummy, Eddie etc they felt they did not have an awful lot to give last night, and with Egham so up for it and lively, was always going to be tough.

 

These are semi professional lads who work during the day, and after the intensity they put in on Saturday on a very heavy pitch, then no surprise really that some looked a bit jaded.

 

All I will say is it is only one of our lives that we have lost, and we told them before Chalfont/Northwood game, that they probably had 4 lives for the play offs, so to lose 1 life in 6 is not bad at all.

 

We just have to try and start another run again.

 

Plenty of other teams will come unstuck when perhaps we will not be expecting them too, and having to play lots of games especially in heavy conditions will be tough for some teams.

 

All to play for!!!

 

However our main concerns now are centre half, as not expecting Guy to be fully fit to play Saturday, however there is an outside chance, and I also think Clurgy may be struggling.

 

Bakes

[Irishadrian]

Yes I agree that they were fresh  and we were jaded but as the season progresses we will be playing a number of teams who will have already played mid week as previously postponed games are played and a number of our closest rivals for play-off places will be playing at least twice a week as they struggle to complete their program On balance I believe we will benefit more I also hope we can get back to winning ways against St. Ives but I do note that no team in our league has lost fewer away games so Im a bit nervous about that.

[3spirit]

Thanks for the honest,update,Neil.

 

Losing to Egham isn't the end of our play-off ambitions.However losing a player of Adam Foulser's undoubted quality could be,given the position he plays and how he plays, with his heart on his sleeve.

 

Last night,we could have done with a few more Adam Foulser's !

Players willing to dig in and try and grind out some sort of result.Obviously there just wasn't much left in the tank from Saturday's efforts

 

All of us supporters are guilty at times of expecting too much from players who are semi-pro's especially at this lower level, I know I am. 

 

Having said all that,Neil,I can't let you off the hook about having injured players on the bench or playing in Jamie's case, if they are crocked ! That's what a squad is for.

 

Last night we could have done with the energy and tackling of Ben Edwards.Where was he?

 

For me,apart from Johnny Dyer's efforts and Adam Cornell's contribution for the goal,our substitutes didn't get involved enough in the nitty gritty when we needed all hands to the pump,so to speak,with being down to 10 men.

Adam Cornell and George Short have no excuses as they are fresh legs and should be running around and closing down players.

Adam needs to get involved more.He does nowhere near enough and George needs to start using his physique,as at the moment he's a bit of a pussycat.

 

I'm not singling these two players out as the reason for the Egham defeat but some of us supporters aren't fooled by players just going through the motion's

As I've said in a previous post on this thread,our experienced heads were mostly the culprits on the night for not living up to their reputations and we got beaten by the better side on the night.

No shame in this but there's always ways to improve for the next game.

 

Let's hope St Ives Town face a backlash !  

[Neil Baker]

Ben has a back injury that has been causing him problems for a while, and is on his 7th or 8th appointment with the chiropractor, and therefore not fit:

 

Not sure what you expect in terms of squad, that is where we are we have 19 with the 2 youngsters in Seb and Matty.

 

Seb was on a college trip and unavailable anyway, Ben injured, and Jake we were not going to risk putting him out for longer.

 

That leaves Guy (not quite fit but almost there) and on the night Johnnie, Adam and George....

[3spirit]

Well that explains it,Neil ! lol ! That's told me.

 

Your hands are of course,tied then.So with that fact it is even more imperative that our subs put in 100% ! 

[3spirit]

We're going to have to look outside the squad for a new centre half,too,if Adam Foulser's injury is bad.

 

Just our luck that we no longer have Michael Blount either. 

[Smudge]

Football Fans are so fickle 4 days ago,you were all happy and over the moon.Now you all think you are Football Gurus.

[Sue]

Ha ha I love it when a man is put in his place about football. HE HE

[3spirit]

Football Fans are so fickle 4 days ago,you were all happy and over the moon.Now you all think you are Football Gurus.

 

We are still happy.

 

What's wrong with some analysis? It is a football forum,after all !

[3spirit]

Ha ha I love it when a man is put in his place about football. HE HE

 

Bloody women ! ha ha! Shouldn't you be cooking in the kitchen ! Or doing the shopping ! lol !

 

Bring back male chauvinism! he he ho ho!  

 

Thought I better add I am joking,in case this moderator gets moderated ! ha ha !

Edited March 5, 2014 by 3spirit