(H) Merthyr 15th Dec

[staines_rebel_Jr]

A chance to put things right and regain confidence.

 

Merthyr have a fairly poor away record similar to us. having W2 D3 L5.

 

I think some would have thought they may have been doing better than they have so far this season after their convincing performance in the south and west last year and their 3G home pitch. However up until this weekend they have been without their star striker McClaggon.

 

It will be a long trip down for the Merthyr team and the first long midweek trip this season. (compared to; Cirencester, Frome, Dorchester and Paulton) If we play with plenty of energy then we will be able to cause them some real problems.

 

 

Merthyr usually play 4-3-3 I think but lined up 5-3-2 on the weekend due to missing several starting players.

 

Personally I would match their 3 midfielders by going 4-4-1-1 (4-2-3-1 depending on how you want to look at it) With the obvious 4 defenders, 2 centre mids and 1 attacking mid (Mpi), 2 wingers and a striker.

 

Scott

 

Fraser Clayton Hicks Hollis

 

Hope Gokmen? / new signing

 

W Harris Mpi Putman

 

Smith

 

Bench; who ever is left and fit.

 

Not really to dissimilar to what we normally play but with Mpi sitting a bit deeper to join the midfield and close down their midfield when in possession.

[3spirit]

Each to their own, SRJ, but changing so many players to unorthodox positions will lead to organised chaos.

 

I would think Jhai Dhillon has a better chance of starting tomorrow night, so he has to be our left back, if fit.

If he isn't fit, we're back to our usual problem of not having a left footed player to play there.

 

Rather than change Guy and Sean, I would opt to put Dan Hicks on the left, with Justin Clayton playing alongside Guy as our centre half pairing.

Sean would stay at right back.

 

One of the other dilemma's we've got is up front. If we had been starting pre-season or had a couple of weeks lull from league matches, we could experiment with playing three strikers together as neither Struts, Smithy or Charlie Mpi deserve to be out of the starting line-up tomorrow evening but as we haven't anytime to test what can and can't be done, I would favour the Strutton and Mpi combination up front. Purely on the basis that Struts and Charlie M have looked good together in starting our home matches. 

Hard on Ed but you have the option of bringing him on in the second half and he would be fresher for a definite start against Poole, where I would favour Smith and Mpi together.

 

With our midfield it ought to be Wazza on the right flank and Lewis on the left flank [although Put's may be sacrificed, if Bakes and Unders decide a tighter three in the middle of midfield is needed, to counteract the Merthyr midfield three].

I think though, as we want to get three points we're more likely to play a 4-4-2, so the centre midfield two is anyone's guess, due to players coming in and ones we have slightly injured.

Edited December 14, 2015 by 3spirit

[staines_rebel_Jr]

I was going on Dhillon, Sears and Webb all being unavailable, just in case they all were.

 

 

So far Hicks has never played in a fullback role for us, (that i'm aware of) unlike Hollis who has done it several times so would assume Hollis would be more used to the role plus the fact he is quicker than Hicks so would do better against wingers. 

 

Ed Smith has scored in all three games since his return and looks fitter than Strutton. (IMO) So Smithy would start for me.

 

Not many players have changed position; Hollis has previously played at left back so not something new, Mpi has played at CAM and out wide for spells during matches so not really new for him. The only change of position was Gokmen but that was due to having no guaranteed 100% fit midfielders left other than Maloney who i've only seen play 2 minutes at Marlow and don't think he had a touch and again yesterday were it was hard to judge any of our players. We also have the new signing but don't know who he is yet so couldn't put him into my squad really. And Gokmen is a hard working willing runner so would help add the energy to our midfield.

 

If Dhillon, Sears and Webb are all fit then obviously the line up would change back to our normal 4-4-2.

[Neil Baker]

With the injuries and unavailability, myself and Jon have been busy in the last couple of days, and managed to bring in James Jepson and Nathan Fox in time for the game tomorrow against Merthyr.

 

JJ is a central midfielder who recently played against us for Bedworth, however most remember him from his time at Kettering.

 

Nathan is a left back that we have signed having left Stamford in the Northern Premier recently, most will remember him for his time at Rugby, however he has also played Southern Premier football for Corby and Kettering, initially this is to cover Jhai’s injury, however we will assess it on a week to week basis.

 

These are two positive signings with both lads having good experience at this level.

 

In terms of injuries, we are unlikely to risk Jhai or Nathan, in the hope that both might be available this weekend at Poole, Searsy is expected to be fit, and Warren Harris returns after missing Saturday which leaves us with the following squad:

 

Mark Scott, Sean Fraser, Nathan Fox, Guy Hollis, Dan Hicks, Justin Clayton, Warren Harris, Lewis Putman, Gurkan Gokmen, James Jepson, Adrian Sear, Ryan Hope, Kensley Maloney, Eddie Smith, Charlie Mpi, Charlie Strutton

[Reading Rebel]

With the injuries and unavailability, myself and Jon have been busy in the last couple of days, and managed to bring in James Jepson and Nathan Fox in time for the game tomorrow against Merthyr.

 

JJ is a central midfielder who recently played against us for Bedworth, however most remember him from his time at Kettering.

 

Nathan is a left back that we have signed having left Stamford in the Northern Premier recently, most will remember him for his time at Rugby, however he has also played Southern Premier football for Corby and Kettering, initially this is to cover Jhai’s injury, however we will assess it on a week to week basis.

 

These are two positive signings with both lads having good experience at this level.

 

In terms of injuries, we are unlikely to risk Jhai or Nathan, in the hope that both might be available this weekend at Poole, Searsy is expected to be fit, and Warren Harris returns after missing Saturday which leaves us with the following squad:

 

Mark Scott, Sean Fraser, Nathan Fox, Guy Hollis, Dan Hicks, Justin Clayton, Warren Harris, Lewis Putman, Gurkan Gokmen, James Jepson, Adrian Sear, Ryan Hope, Kensley Maloney, Eddie Smith, Charlie Mpi, Charlie Strutton

 

 

Bakes/Unders, excellent news on getting a couple of players in for the Merthyr game.

 

Just wondered how it will work with the distance both players will be travelling not only to games but to training.

 

I think I might be right in saying Nathan Fox lives around the Leicester area. 

Edited December 14, 2015 by Reading Rebel

[Neil Baker]

As mentioned with Nathan it is initially to cover Jhai's injury, and so we have not really discussed anything beyond this week, JJ is a bit different, he has been keen to join us for a while, and with his work is on the road a lot.

We have said with him to see how he finds the travelling, and we will work from there, he will also be training once a week with us (which is more than the Oxford loan lads did)

[Reading Rebel]

As mentioned with Nathan it is initially to cover Jhai's injury, and so we have not really discussed anything beyond this week, JJ is a bit different, he has been keen to join us for a while, and with his work is on the road a lot.

We have said with him to see how he finds the travelling, and we will work from there, he will also be training once a week with us (which is more than the Oxford loan lads did)

 

 

Thanks, Bakes.

[Stuntman Mark]

Jepson, despite looking like one of the blokes who hang outside Tescos drinking White Lightning,  had a really good game against us at Bedworth so hopefully he can continue that form for the Rebels. If Nathan Fox is the guy who was playing left back for Rugby in the season we went up through the playoffs then I think it's another good signing for us.

 

I didn't make the Weymouth game and might be struggling again tonight but hopefully we can have a good reaction and get some points on the board ahead of a very tough trip to Poole.

 

COYR!

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Our game is the only game not to have been called off.

 

Cirencester vs Paulton

Kettering vs Dorchester

Stratford vs Kings Lynn

 

All postponed

[Manor Park Rebel]

Very impressive response from our management team in boosting the squad numbers when needed once again. Can't even begin to imagine how much time they are spending on the phone. Great stuff.

[Bernie Gogan]

Cirencester have a trophy replay, which is still on.

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Cirencester have a trophy replay, which is still on.

 

Cirencester vs Truro in the trophy as you said is on

 

Altrincham vs LEAMINGTON

CHESHAM vs Torquay

Also FA Trophy games with teams from our league on tonight.

[RebelDelaney]

Well done the Rebels.

[staines_rebel_Jr]

Finished 3-1 but was really a game of two halves. Slough the better in the first half and Merthyr the better of the second.

 

After a delayed kick off slough started well and got an early goal from a warren harris header on the end of a putman cross. The second came from a good one - two between putman and smith seeing putman through on goal putting his shot across goal into the side netting. The third goal came a Belle was adjudged to have fouled Smith inside the box for a sough penalty which Smith blasted in. Second half was quite the opposite with Merthyr having all of the play and creating chances with Mclaggon scoring a tap in from a free kick. Merthyr continued with most of the play second half but couldn't get any more goals and will have a long trip back to wales.

 

Mark Scott made some excellent saves to deny Merthyr from getting back in the game and Putman created the best of sloughs chances down the left hand side and together they were my stand out performances tonight.

 

Fox made a very solid debut at left back and providing he stays will give Dhillon some good competition. Jepson did OK, not the best and gave away some very poor passes in the second half most noticeably straight from kick off where he tried to play the ball back to Fraser but completely over hit it.

 

Two worrying injuries with Hollis having to be carried off at half time and Ed Smith forced to come off with hamstring or knee problems.

 

The Ref also made some very poor decisions tonight. Hope passed the ball back to Clayton but Mclaggon nipped in coming from an "offside" position which the ref gave as offside despite the blatant pass coming from a Slough player therefore no Merthyr player could be offside. The second poor decision was when Sears slid in to try to block a clearance by the keeper but got no where near him yet the ref decided it was a foul.

 

First half definitely a better performance from Saturday but second half we struggled against Merthyr who looked hungry to get back in the game and stepped up their performance. 

[Reading Rebel]

Well done the Rebels.

 

 

You missed some cracking goals and a terrific performance RD.

[Stuntman Mark]

Excellent 3 points and the perfect reaction to the thrashing we got at the weekend. Two well worked goals and one dubious penalty made for a fantastic first half for the Rebels. Second half was marred by injuries to key players (I'm assuming Wazza went off injured too, otherwise that was a poor tactical decision) and we lost our shape and impetuous a bit and with Merthyr looking much more dangerous it was backs to the wall stuff but we managed to keep them out somehow.

 

Some of the moaning behind the goal second half was unacceptable for me - we need to back the team more in those situations. We can't play like Barcelona all the time!

[Gashimoto]

Was nice to bounce back with a win, even if the performance wasn't as good as the result.

 

First half we were clearly the better team and deserved our lead.

 

However from the end of the first half we dropped deeper and deeper inviting pressure.

 

As usual we created issues for ourselves and gave away a poor goal.it could have been much worse but for mark Scott making some crucial saves.

 

Lewis was quality tonight, Charlie as always ran his heart out sometimes on terrible passes to him but my motm was mark Scott for his important saves.

 

The worst part of the game will be the injuries I think, let's hope they recover quickly.

 

Looking forward to Poole away now.

 

Coyr

[Neil Baker]

Warren had a dead calf from the poor tackle on the half way line after about 5 minutes (which went unpunished) it seized up at half time, and he was unable to continue.

 

Not going to comment to much on some of the comments we heard today, but some disappointing things, considering the changes that were enforced which would hurt most sides, thus changing the shape and the game plan.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Neil Baker

[3spirit]

SRJ has pretty much summed up the in's and outs of the game.

 

I thought Merthyr deserved a lot of credit for not giving up when they were 3-0 down and rattled Slough in the second half, when we had to make changes for injuries.

On the night I was impressed by Nathan Webb's contribution, as well as Charlie Mpi's constant running and battling and of course, Putts efforts,and Scotty in goal, who produced one breath-taking save among other good stops.

 

Nathan Fox looked a very competent full back, who got better as the game wore on. Fair play to him coming all that way and putting in that effort.   

James Jepson had a good first half but it's understandable that he faded in the second, given his match fitness but had plenty of promise.

 

Credit to both sides for making it an enjoyable match to watch, in what was very difficult conditions.

 

Bummer about Ed Smith as he looks like he may be out for sometime. What has happened to Charlie Strutton? Has he gone back to Braintree? It will be sod's law if he has, now that Ed looks unlikely to play for sometime.

 

Unders said at the game that he's hoping that Guy Hollis's injury may not be as serious as Ed's.

Let's hope so ! 

Edited December 16, 2015 by 3spirit

[Reading Rebel]

We started the game determined to put Saturdays performance behind us and produced an excellent first half performance with Putts and Wazza scoring two cracking goals. 

 

For the rest of the half we were the better team with Putts and Wazza always a threat out wide.

 

The second half Merthyr were the better team but largely due to Ed Smith and Wazza coming off injured leaving only Charlie Mpi upfront which immediately put us on the back foot having to defend for large parts of the second half. 

 

In the end our win was down to an excellent first half performance and some great saves from Mark Scott to keep Merthyr out. One save in particular was an absolute belter which must go down as one the saves of the season.

 

All the players put in good performances with Lewis Putman deservedly MOTM with Mark Scott and Warren Harris also having excellent games. 

 

Well done to the players and management for showing some real character and an excellent 3 points!

Edited December 16, 2015 by Reading Rebel