Slough v St. Neots

[Windsor Rebel]

Looking forward to seeing our old friends from St Neots tomorrow. The good news for us

is that their top striker Tom Meechan is suspended (he is the leagues top scorer with 16 )

 

COYR

[Stuntman Mark]

Hope our good recent record against them continues but they are an expensively assembled outfit and will be a tough nut to crack. Shame Searsey misses out against them again but the two in midfield were excellent Tuesday.

 

I've heard grumblings on Twitter from some of their fans that I'm mates with about the style of football they've been playing this year. They've always been a good footballing side when we've played them but apparently it's been a bit route one this year. We'll see tomorrow.

 

COYR!

[Reading Rebel]

Is Searsy not available due to injury?

 

Apparently the St Neots Chairman decided that buying players who like to play attractive football was not working and he was just chucking his money down the drain so they have decided to mix it up with more emphasis on the direct route.

 

Top scorer missing but they have Drew Roberts back from injury.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Reading Rebel

[HorshamRebel]

Route one can be very effective, IF you have drawn the opposition's midfield forward... One kick (over forwards and midfield) and you are straight on to the defence at speed.

 

The great thing about our last two games is that we have gone forward as a team and defended as a team as well, with all 10 outfield players wanting to get the ball back, making it hard for teams to get through us.

[Irishadrian]

It will be an interesting match St Neots play with an unchanging plan away from home  no team in the league has lost fewer away games (2)  and no team in the league has drawn more away games(6) They will come to shut up shop  We however have won more home games than any team in the league (7) so somethings gotta give. There is a lot of unrest amongst their fans and some recent gates have been several hundred down on normal Their manager gives his services entirely free  but has changed their style of play so much that that forum members reckon they aren't getting value for money

[3spirit]

So it's going to be like Spurs versus Sunderland ! lol !

[staines_rebel_Jr]

It will be an interesting match St Neots play with an unchanging plan away from home  no team in the league has lost fewer away games (2)  and no team in the league has drawn more away games(6) They will come to shut up shop  We however have won more home games than any team in the league (7) so somethings gotta give. There is a lot of unrest amongst their fans and some recent gates have been several hundred down on normal Their manager gives his services entirely free  but has changed their style of play so much that that forum members reckon they aren't getting value for money

 

 

They have joint lowest away losses with;

Chippenham (2nd)

Leamington (3rd)

Redditch (4th)

and Hitchin (9th)

[staines_rebel_Jr]

As others have mentioned Tom Meechan will be a big loss for St Neots having scored 17 of their 40 league goals (41.5%)  and 20 of their 61 goals in competitive games this season (32.8%).

Also interestingly when Meechan has scored St Neots have never lost, however, when Meechan has NOT scored St Neots have never won !

 

St Neots will be boosted by the recent return of Drew Roberts who can score goals at this level.

 

 

We do have some goal scoring threats of our own with Charlie Mpi (who missed pre season and the start of the season) who already has himself 11 league goals, we also have Ed smith returning from injury and looking hungry to reclaim his spot in the starting eleven.

[Reading Rebel]

Looking at some of their videos, they carry a big threat from set pieces from their big center backs.

 

Cut out that threat and we are in with a big chance.

[Reading Rebel]

Charlie Strutton or Ed Smith to start the game?

 

For me it would be Charlie Strutton purely because Ed Smith hasn't had many minutes since coming back from injury and he might need a bit more time to get to full match fitness.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Reading Rebel

[GlenSTFC]

But Ed needs the minutes to get full fitness so should start! I only saw Struts play for the first time on Tuesday night and although I wasn't overly impressed I don't have the benefit of seeing his other performances which I gather have been pretty good.

[manimal]

Morning, Saints fan here. Very interesting having some our stats laid out, very interesting.

However one thing we dont do is 'shut up shop' you only have to look at our results to see that, lots of high scoring away draws.

Looking forward to my visit, the match and saying hi to some old friends

[Sir Rebel1965]

Will be very windy today and this will influence tactics and suit our on the ground style.

[Matt]

Very interesting point above about the St Neots chairman, Mike Kearns wanting to change the playing style to be more direct. Whether that's accurate or not I have no idea, but I remember the season we were in a title battle with them in the Central division. He was very vocal on social media about his side playing super football on the deck and being glad he didn't resort to the long ball tactics of other teams!

 

In fairness, they were the best team that season and played lots of sides off the park (not us!) but perhaps struggled to translate that to success in the Premier division.

[Sir Rebel1965]

Finished 2-2 and we got a point which I think was about right, considering we could have won and also could have lost.

 

With the ref making some strange decisions for both teams it made a complicated game even more unfathomable.

 

Some mistakes by both teams and strong performances for spells by each, a point both ways was about right.

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Really strange feeling coming away from the game today, torn between it being a point gained or two points lost. On one hand you have us going a man down and facing a penalty to give st neots the lead and your thinking a point would be a good result then the penalty gets saved brilliantly by mark scott and we have the better play and chances to win the game and grab all three points.

 

First half was 50/50 and very stop start especially after the st neots sub and the weird incidents of Smith producing a foul throw when trying to give the ball back and then the st neots player being booked for I assume time wasting when trying to restart the game.

 

Charlie Mpi scored for the fifth game in a row today and Ed SMith has gone joint 12th in the all time top goal scorers list.

 

 

7 Rowan Dodds 113 (275)

8 Jim Ingram 98 (161)

9 Arthur Redford 96 (98)

10 Bogdan Jakubiec 95 (200)

11 Terry Reardon 90 (475)

12 Neal Stanley 89 (297)

= Edward Smith 89 (139)

14 Keith White 87 (466)

Edited December 5, 2015 by staines_rebel_Jr

[Gashimoto]

I thought that we were the better team overall and its 2 points lost.

 

The goals we gave away could have easily been avoided especially the second.

 

Motm for me was Ryan hope, not sure if the red was right as I was too far away to be certain it was a pen.

 

Got to mention the keeper, what an awesome penalty save.

 

Being positive we played well and got a point.

[Curtis]

Did Ryan Hope get a straight red?

 

Was it for the tackle or something he did or said?

[Irishadrian]

I was in south Somerset today so only have the two twitter feeds to go on and the comments on this forum but its clear that St Neots didnt come for the draw which I expected (although they did get their 7th away draw 9 in all) It sounds like the outcome was the fairest for both teams  They missed a penalty and we missed a sitter towards the end  Honours even? The opposition twitter feed suggests we scored an own goal  Anyone who was there think thats correct  Also can anyone close comment on the red card.

[Hammer_rebel]

From what I heard a player pushed hope and he pushed back but ref only saw hope so off he went.... Ref was shocking for both sides! Did not notice at all that we were down to 10 we seemed to excel because of it

Edited December 5, 2015 by Hammer_rebel