v Merthyr

[Reading Rebel]

One of those games we could have come away from ruing a raft of missed chances ending up costing us, but thankfully we come away saying "wow we made hard work of that one".

 

Its remarkable with the attacking talent we have in the team that we domt score more of the chances we are making (hit the post twice, 2 superb saves, 1 cleared off the line, a disallowed goal for offside and 2 missed pens to name but a few). The thing im pleased about besides the result is that we are still creating the chances. We need to just get that clinical edge to pur finishing and i dont think any team can stop us.

 

Th biggest concern for me is the way we are letting our goals in. Those near post crosses and corners cause us all sorts of problems weekly and along with our composure in front of goal i think this is something Neil and Jon really need to look at.

 

Much better to be sitting here after anoyher nice 3 points though, i wonder what the 2nd half of the season will bring LOL!

 

 

Agree that the pleasing bit is that we are creating chances and I'm sure sooner rather than later we will start to convert those chances.

 

Letting in soft goals does seem to be a problem at the moment which of course is highlighted by us not converting the chances that we are creating.

 

If you look at the goals conceded today, one was an own goal by Innsy which is just one of those things that can happen to any player at any level.

 

IMO Merthyr's second goal was preventable and a poor goal to concede.

 

No blame attached to Innsy who won the ball in the air but unfortunately the ball rebounded off a Merthyr players head straight to another unmarked Merthyr player who went on to score.

[HorshamRebel]

Match photos

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/horshamrebel/albums/72157668927830689

[Guest route104]

Really dug out a good win against a spirited Merther,for a change it was us that got the late goal,but we never gave up.But please sort out a penalty taker. 

[Radders]

Why not jack Turner? He was confident at sycob and desperately wanted the one at Gainsborough. We've tried most other options!!!

[Radders]

Also can't understand people's consternation at the formation today. It's one that we used at times last year, notably in a little 6-0 win at leamington, when we play it invariably Dobbo and wazza sit out but I think it's been explained enough times now that we have a squad of players all of whom are capable of being starters and today that was the team that was sent out. I would fully expect Dobbo and wazza to start on Tuesday and possibly see manny and Webby given a rest.

 

Did enjoy one fans exchange with bakes at half time though;

 

Fan: why ain't we playing any wingers today

Bakes: do you mean why aren't we playing any wingers today

Fan: yeah

Bakes: cos we are playing a diamond today and they'll play Tuesday

Fan: oh

 

Hopefully he will remember the elocution advice moving forwards.

[Neil Baker]

In terms of the penalty taker, it is actually Dunny, who we gave the job shortly after the Hendon penalty shoot out, as we had quite a long period of just taking penalties at training.

 

Dunny has had one penalty since taking over and scored a great penalty against Wantage, however he is injured.

 

A number of them take them superbly in training, I have no idea what happens when we actually get them, but practicing them even more will not make an iota of difference, Lenchy was probably next best to take them following that session, however his was also not a good penalty.

 

In terms of Jack I would love him to take them, as he strikes a ball better than most, however could you imagine if he misses and they go straight up the other end and score... we would be slaughtered... in shoot outs not a problem.

[Reading Rebel]

Yes, easy to take penalties when there is no pressure on.

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

it seems that most of our poor penalties are placed,perhaps someone who can hit the ball hard consistently with a degree of accuracy should take the penalties , i'm sure in training that penalties are rarely placed 

[Reading Rebel]

No problem with a penalty being placed a long as it's in the corner (high or low) where most keepers will not save it.

[Reading Rebel]

I thought Wellsy was excellent today and deserved MOTM closely followed by Matt Lench who had another very good game.

[Reading Rebel]

Also can't understand people's consternation at the formation today. It's one that we used at times last year, notably in a little 6-0 win at leamington, when we play it invariably Dobbo and wazza sit out but I think it's been explained enough times now that we have a squad of players all of whom are capable of being starters and today that was the team that was sent out. I would fully expect Dobbo and wazza to start on Tuesday and possibly see manny and Webby given a rest.

 

Did enjoy one fans exchange with bakes at half time though;

 

Fan: why ain't we playing any wingers today

Bakes: do you mean why aren't we playing any wingers today

Fan: yeah

Bakes: cos we are playing a diamond today and they'll play Tuesday

Fan: oh

 

Hopefully he will remember the elocution advice moving forwards.

 

 

I might be wrong but was that the first time in a league game at home that we have played a diamond formation without any natural wingers?

 

I think the only reason some supporters were quizzing the formation was purely because we were at home and with Dobbo and Wazza not featuring against Bracknell that they would automatically be in the starting 11.

[Jon Underwood]

First time this season in league RR. Played it last season when we beat Weymouth 3-0 and Merthyr 1-0. And of course at Leamington when we won 6-0. We like it, it works, and we will play it again, and if we had taken more than 1 of the 6 chances we created in the first 15 mins then we wouldn’t even be talking about it (apart from maybe in a positive way). But that’s football and when things don’t go smoothly some people like to try to find reasons for it. The simple reason was we didn’t take our chances when we were dominant.

 

Anyway we move on to Tuesday...

[epicrebel]

Jon's interview.

 

https://youtu.be/75ILzFpyP8A

 

Highlights

 

https://youtu.be/iW81XkygNzg

[Stan]

Don't think anyone thinks the formation was the problem yesterday . Indeed it was working spectacularly well for 30 mins just people in great positions not taking their chances.

Really important we have the ability and the courage to mix it up occasionally and catch our opponents off-guard.

We lost a couple of games last season where teams knew our 4-4-2 and just set out to keep our wide men quiet. Need to keep our options open.

[C'est la vie]

How comes Ray Wilkins was there yesterday?

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Rob Stevens told me that he'd done an event at Merthyr's ground on Friday night, and he lives locally somewhere so was invited by them as a guest.

[Russ_Rebel]

Have taken time to digest yesterday’s result and in all honestly both teams in my opinion were equal to each other in the overall performance , we could have been 4/0 up before they scored, and we typically of late let the opposition back in to the game and created more problems for ourselves by not taking our chances , formations were not to blame we just need to up our game and play to our strengths and be more clinical for the full 90 mins as we can beat anyone on our day. Wells and Lench for me and Togwell second half were only Stand out players, thought Harris was more interested in getting the officials attention and winding up the opposition than bringing his A game

[Dolphin rebel]

I have just watched the highlights from the game and I am convinced that the late offside goal scored by Slough was actually onside, watch the Merthyr player running out from the right hand side who was keeping the Slough players on (excluding Innes who was not interfering with play.

[Sir Rebel1965]

Agree Brads goal was on side, also there was a handball in the box on video at 5.37 as the ball deviates just prior to hit our players head.

 

There was also an incident just before Brads penalty that looked like it also should have been a penalty - this is not on the video so can't check it.

 

However the just result was delivered and all 3 points are on the board.

[Reading Rebel]

Have taken time to digest yesterday’s result and in all honestly both teams in my opinion were equal to each other in the overall performance , we could have been 4/0 up before they scored, and we typically of late let the opposition back in to the game and created more problems for ourselves by not taking our chances , formations were not to blame we just need to up our game and play to our strengths and be more clinical for the full 90 mins as we can beat anyone on our day. Wells and Lench for me and Togwell second half were only Stand out players, thought Harris was more interested in getting the officials attention and winding up the opposition than bringing his A game

 

 

Agree with most of what you say Cedric except that both teams were equal to each other in overall performance.

 

IMO we were clearly the better team on the day and only our finishing stopped a bit of a rout.