vs Cirencester

[Jon Underwood]

We didn't get round to sending a preview to the web team this week so for those who didn't want to listen to the interview (like Hammer Rebel!) here is a bit of team news for tonight.

 

We are missing two players, Jamie McClurg (1 match suspension) and Tom Moran (working away this week) so have a squad of 15 for the game.

 

Somerville, Fraser, R.Parsons, Hollis, Jeffreys, Yorke, Sear, Knight, Rumbold, Edwards, J.Parsons, Dobson, Smith, Dyer, Harris.

 

Bakes watched them on Saturday and they were a very hard working side with plenty of quality going forward. They are now 5th in the league and this will be yet another very tough game but one that we need to find a way to win if we are to close the gap on them and the other sides in the play-offs. Your vocal support as always will be welcome and there are even rumours of no rain tonight so hopefully a good crowd at Holloways Park!

Edited December 2, 2014 by Jon Underwood

[GlenSTFC]

Jon, are there no promising youth players who can take the final sub place? Appreciate there may be no one quite upto standard but surely it'll be good experience if nothing else? On a side but related note can any new signings be expected between now and over Christmas?

[Jon Underwood]

We don't feel having a 5th sub is vital if that player is never going to come on in front of the other 4 subs and if we are being honest, if it's one of the youth team players, that would be the case. We have some very versatile players in our squad and we know that with the 4 senior players who are on the bench tonight we have cover in all areas and also the ability to change the system if we need to.

 

We have included Oscar Betts from the youth team on several occasions recently and will do so again I am sure because as you rightly say it's good experience for them being around a senior dressing room.

 

At the moment we have no signings in the pipeline although we do of course lose Rummy early in January so this is something we are looking at closely. To be honest it's hard work keeping all of our lads happy at the moment as they all want to start every game so to add another player to the squad would make that job even harder! Over the last 2 games we have seen the following on the bench so I don't think squad strength is really an issue.....Yorke, Moran, Edwards, Sear, Rumbold, Knight, J.Parsons, Dobson, Dyer and Harris!

 

There is always room for improvement with any squad and we are not ruling out doing something before Christmas but in all honesty that is unlikely unless we pick up some injuries in the coming weeks. And even then it may only be on a loan or dual registration basis.

[GlenSTFC]

I suppose that's the issue of going from youth to senior football, the gap is just too big and if these players don't get a chance they're never going to progress far. Are any good enough for Step 4 or 5 to gain experience?

Edited December 2, 2014 by GlenSTFC

[Jon Underwood]

There is a huge gap from youth to Southern Premier. The good thing is that Mark Betts is part of the first team coaching staff and at the same time knows the youth lads better than anyone so we will rely on his judgement when it comes to promoting players or getting them out to get senior experience at Step 4 or 5. I would say it is too soon for any of them at the moment to be going out on loan.

[Tom]

Regarding the youth, I'd say the biggest concerning aspect is the lack of talent.

 

Not to sound harsh but only 3/4 season back we had the likes of Mo Sharif, Tony Mendy, Sonny Makh, Dan Hicks and Kyle Jeffrey to name a few who are now all playing regularly at various levels and there doesn't seem to be any players near their caliber coming out of the U18 side, less said about their results.

[Hammer_rebel]

We didn't get round to sending a preview to the web team this week so for those who didn't want to listen to the interview (like Hammer Rebel!) here is a bit of team news for tonight.

 

We are missing two players, Jamie McClurg (1 match suspension) and Tom Moran (working away this week) so have a squad of 15 for the game.

 

Somerville, Fraser, R.Parsons, Hollis, Jeffreys, Yorke, Sear, Knight, Rumbold, Edwards, J.Parsons, Dobson, Smith, Dyer, Harris.

 

Bakes watched them on Saturday and they were a very hard working side with plenty of quality going forward. They are now 5th in the league and this will be yet another very tough game but one that we need to find a way to win if we are to close the gap on them and the other sides in the play-offs. Your vocal support as always will be welcome and there are even rumours of no rain tonight so hopefully a good crowd at Holloways Park!

Woahhhhh I didn't say I didn't want to listen cause you and Neil have such sweet voices how could I not..... But I don't have time and reading is quicker.

[RTyler01]

It's ok, I'll bring my boots. Do you still use one of those brown leather balls that soaks up all the rain.

[Rebel yell]

 

 

I suppose that's the issue of going from youth to senior football, the gap is just too big and if these players don't get a chance they're never going to progress far. Are any good enough for Step 4 or 5 to gain experience?

 

Maybe we could think about re introducing a reserve team. It gives the youth players the next step of playing more senior football and could also be used to get first team player back from injury or game time for unused subs.

[Chris]

Regarding the youth, I'd say the biggest concerning aspect is the lack of talent.

 

Not to sound harsh but only 3/4 season back we had the likes of Mo Sharif, Tony Mendy, Sonny Makh, Dan Hicks and Kyle Jeffrey to name a few who are now all playing regularly at various levels and there doesn't seem to be any players near their caliber coming out of the U18 side, less said about their results.

Totally agree with Tom on this. Personally i'd like to see us speak to the local papers over the summer about us highlighting some kind of "open trial day" for a few weeks we could run for the U18's side.

 

In Slough, a town with a population of around 120,000 (then also you have the surrounding areas). I'd be amazed if we could not find one or two players that were good enough of those that decided to come along if we highlight the day well enough & for long enough in advance.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Chris

[Rebel Sue]

Reserve sides cost money to run, remember the only income we make is from our supporters. All bar takings go to Beaconsfield not sure about the food van, but its not us .

Edited December 2, 2014 by Rebel Sue

[GlenSTFC]

A reserve side was tried but didn't work, not sure how great the standard of football was either, was probably step 5.

[Matt]

A reserve side was tried but didn't work, not sure how great the standard of football was either, was probably step 5.

More like pub team for the most part, and culminated in the Easington incident which dragged the club's name into the mud. I think Sam Bateman occasionally played for the reserves but it wasn't useful for the first team in any way.

[RebelDelaney]

Tonight is another game I will miss looking forward to Saturday.s match.

keep the good run going.

COYR

[A Rebel and a Saint]

I turned up ten minutes late and missed our only shot of any kind, and it happened to be a goal. Pretty much sums up the game for us. Disappointing we hardly got the ball up to the strikers at all.

The less said about the officiating the better, but we were poor and need to improve on that as soon as possible. Says a lot that their keeper spent most of the game looking like he was on his own private training session.

[C'est la vie]

I think everyone knows that the ref was abysmal tonight but didn't think he made much difference as we were totally outplayed and awful. Not going to rant about it because it won't help anyone. We go again Saturday. COYR

[Mr Rebel]

As has happened quite a few times this season we really struggled against a team with lots of energy on and off the ball who moved the ball quickly. This is something we need to find a way to combat as we often look powerless to prevent or at least make it tough for teams like this to rip straight through us

 

Hard to work out how we created basically nothing beyond our early goal. No body took it upon themselves to get on the ball and show some composure. At times we took what felt like multiple minutes between attempted passes let alone successful ones

 

Don't want to be sounding too harsh but massive improvements needed in the next game. Credit Cirencester who worked so hard and had it not been for poor finishing should have won by 2 or 3 more.

 

Personally as a fan find it hard to take seeing my team fail to create a single chance of note after scoring in the 2nd min or whatever it was

 

Unfortunately a comeback didn't ever look likely but it's only 1 loss. Only 3 points and I know the managers and players will not kid themselves into thinking that this level of performance will get us regular points.

 

Onto Saturday and back hopefully to winning ways

 

P.s didn't determine the outcome really at all but the ref was woefully inconsistent. So often ignoring clear fouls. Most of the free kicks we did get looked soft nothing decisions

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mr Rebel

[3spirit]

Apart from the dire Slough performance,the one thing that did get on my goat, was the moaning at each other, and at the ref, the players did tonight.

 

I had hoped 'Bateman's whingers ' or anything like them was a long gone,distant memory. Tonight proved otherwise.

 

We know they were getting frustrated with how the game was going but at times,we lost focus because of it and were not sharp enough to close down their attackers.

 

Not the end of the world,losing tonight to a decent outfit but must do a hell of lot better on Saturday and at least,trouble the keeper with a few shots ! !

[Stuntman Mark]

I managed to miss the goal too!

 

I spent the rest of the game freezing and in an existential crisis as we barely made it past the halfway line. If ever there was a game where we missed Wazza it was last night, we had nothing down the right and Sean was left exposed time and again.

 

Credit where credit is due - I was impressed with Cirencester first half but they didn't even have to play well in the second. A night to forget and possibly our worst performance all season (including the battering we got off Redditch). Our good run comes to an end and let's hope for a good reaction against Dunstable. COYR!

[Jon Underwood]

As we are unable to do a Rebels Radio interview this week I thought I would come on here to share my thoughts on last night's game.

 

It was an incredibly frustrating night for everyone and it is a very long time since Bakes and I have seen one of our sides create so few chances in a game. In our previous 6 league games we'd scored 16 goals but last night, despite a fantastic start within the first 30 seconds, we barely created a chance, didn't win a corner all game and in the second half in particular it seemed we were barely able to get out of our half.

 

There are no excuses for this, it was just a night when the vast majority of our players were just nowehere near their usual standards. Considering we were a team that was unbeaten in the league for 6 games (plus Banbury) we looked like we lacked confidence. Our passing was poor, we lacked composure on the ball and our decision making at times was poor too.  

 

The main issue we have however is the number of goals we are conceding which on average is 2 goals per game in the league. As two ex-defenders ourselves Bakes and I know this is not good enough and we have to find a way to improve here.

 

We must however give some credit to Cirencester who were a very strong side. Solid and experienced in key areas but with lots of pace and quality going forward and based on that performance it's no surprise to us to see them in the play-off positions.

 

This league is so tight, just 9 points separating Cirencester in 2nd place with Hereford in 14th, and we know that a good run for any of those sides in between will take them close to the play-offs but it's easier said than done! Hardly anyone is consistently putting a run of wins together and as a new side to this league we have no divine right to do so either and we have to expect set-backs like this from time to time. 

 

As poor as it was we will not be panicking off the back of last night's performance and we will be back in training tomorrow night working hard to pick everyone back up again and ensure we are prepared for the visit of Dunstable on Saturday. This will be yet another tough game but one which provides us with an immediate opportunity to put things right with a positive performance.