Torquay away

[A Rebel and a Saint]

We're looking to run a coach, however we can only do so if we get sufficient numbers booked.

It will leave at 9am Saturday, price to be confirmed after the Apple office reopens on Wednesday (assuming we get enough people signed up by that point).

If you want to go on the coach please book either on Tuesday or ASAP by getting in touch with Alan or Mike.

[Reading Rebel]

For those interested in betting odds;

Torquay are 4/9 on to win, 38/11 the draw and 7/1 a Slough win.

For the title the bookies think it's a two horse race,

Torquay are 10/11 with Woking 28/17.

The nearest other club in the betting are Concord at 16/1.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

The coach has been booked, leaving at 9am, £25 fare for adult Trust members. Get in touch with Mike or Alan to book your place.

[3spirit]

Bloody Ben Harris !

[Gashimoto]

Only head he gestured at the home fans, was it really worthy of a red?

[GlenSTFC]

Apparently he gestured to the crowd and was warned so to be on a yellow and do it again well i best not say what that makes him... ok we probably would have lost anyway but it just adds to the disappointment when one of your players acts in this way. We now have 2 very tough home matches which will go a long way to determine if we can push for the play offs or not.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Gashimoto said:

Only head he gestured at the home fans, was it really worthy of a red?

Not sure where you heard that Gashi but Twitter and Rebels Radio reported that he gestured to the Torquay fans.

If so yes a stupid and deserved red card.

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

Apparently he gestured to the crowd and was warned so to be on a yellow and do it again well i best not say what that makes him... ok we probably would have lost anyway but it just adds to the disappointment when one of your players acts in this way. We now have 2 very tough home matches which will go a long way to determine if we can push for the play offs or not.

0-0 at the time and anything could have happened but now we'll never know.

[GlenSTFC]

I dunno even though it was 0-0 following on Twitter it sounded like their players were getting through our defence easily and having a few decent shots. Still think we would have lost in the end as they were obviously better than us. 

[Reading Rebel]

I feel absolutely gutted for the supporters and fellow players/management who made the long trip only to be let down by the crass and stupid action of one player.

Absolutely fuming so probably best not to say anymore.

5 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

I dunno even though it was 0-0 following on Twitter it sounded like their players were getting through our defence easily and having a few decent shots. Still think we would have lost in the end as they were obviously better than us. 

Glen you should know that football doesn't work that way.

[Neil Baker]

Yes exactly RR don’t say anymore... the ref sent Ben off for giving the w*nker sign.... as far as we saw he didn’t.... the ref admitted after he may have made a mistake... if the video is on Ben  (and I hope it was) and it proves what we are 99.99% sure we saw then it will be rescinded... he was conducting the fans with his hands, as they were abusing him (nothing against it and as the ref said totally within the rules if there was no rude gesture).

Please don’t vilify one of our players when you were not even there, unless there is video evidence showing he made the sign or you saw it yourself. 

Great shift from the lads, we had limited them to two chances in 45 minutes, and as far as I am concerned we would have got something from the game with 11 on the pitch.

[Neil Baker]

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

Apparently he gestured to the crowd and was warned so to be on a yellow and do it again well i best not say what that makes him... ok we probably would have lost anyway but it just adds to the disappointment when one of your players acts in this way. We now have 2 very tough home matches which will go a long way to determine if we can push for the play offs or not.

Not true, was not warned, and as long as he has not given the sign the ref sent him off for which he didn’t from what I saw, it is a mistake, end of.

[Irishadrian]

Torquay is the nearest away ground to my home  only took about 45 mins to get there but I can't say I enjoyed it The sending of was the crucial  point in the game We must hope that the refs review of any video evidence agrees with Neils idea of what happened  I didn't see a second yellow  so if he got a straight red for an abusive gesture he'll miss 3 games  Torquay claim he gave a V sign so there are a number of differing views  Best to forget this one. We can't get the score changed.

[Reading Rebel]

16 minutes ago, Neil Baker said:

Yes exactly RR don’t say anymore... the ref sent Ben off for giving the w*nker sign.... as far as we saw he didn’t.... the ref admitted after he may have made a mistake... if the video is on Ben  (and I hope it was) and it proves what we are 99.99% sure we saw then it will be rescinded... he was conducting the fans with his hands, as they were abusing him (nothing against it and as the ref said totally within the rules if there was no rude gesture).

Please don’t vilify one of our players when you were not even there, unless there is video evidence showing he made the sign or you saw it yourself. 

Great shift from the lads, we had limited them to two chances in 45 minutes, and as far as I am concerned we would have got something from the game with 11 on the pitch.

OK point taken.

If Ben Harris himself say's that he didn't make any rude gestures then he's got to be believed unless proven otherwise. 

[Stuntman Mark]

Hats off to Torquay, they looked  a completely different side to the one we played earlier in the season and their front three were an absolute handful. I'll be amazed if they don't win the league. 

As far as the sending off goes, I couldn't really see what happened as it was the other side of the pitch and I wasn't really paying attention to Ben. Many on the coach home said they saw the gestures and that he deserved to go.  I'll wait and see the video but the whole thing did stem from the kind of unnecessary challenge that Ben specialises in.  Can anyone clear up if he got two yellows or was it a yellow and then a straight red? 

Can't really fault any of our players, they gave it everything and 4-0 was a bit harsh on us, with two goals coming at the end when we were chasing a game against an excellent side with 10 men. Floody in particular did everything you could ask of him in that situation, winning most of his headers but we found it hard to get men up around him . 

Travelling support was incredible again, it's a pity we can't recreate that level of enthusiasm at Arbour Park.

[Reading Rebel]

Sounds like the 10 men have to be applauded for a really great effort.

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

listening to ade he seemed to think it was a straight red for how he put it waving at the torquay fans.lets hope bakes is right.☺️

[Neil Baker]

The only thing the ref sent Ben off for is giving the W* sign.... we are pretty sure he didn’t, if he didn’t as the ref said he has nothing to answer for and he has made a mistake....

End of the day he was sent off, and we can only hope the video picks it up whatever happened so we know and can deal with it, however Ben sat with us on the coach as we talked about the interaction side of things, and whilst it will never happen again in terms of interacting with the crowd, he told us one million per cent that he has not given an offensive gesture, and until video evidence proves otherwise we have to take him at his word.

We had frustrated them for 45 minutes, and were also creating chances albeit mainly from set pieces etc, however we were absolutely delighted with the first half performance, and felt we could come away with something.

Second half we still worked our socks off against an excellent full time team, however scoring an excellent goal early killed us and the game plan, which meant we had to come out of our shape a bit more, and then were picked off with two late goals.

[3spirit]

3 hours ago, Neil Baker said:

The only thing the ref sent Ben off for is giving the W* sign.... we are pretty sure he didn’t, if he didn’t as the ref said he has nothing to answer for and he has made a mistake....

End of the day he was sent off, and we can only hope the video picks it up whatever happened so we know and can deal with it, however Ben sat with us on the coach as we talked about the interaction side of things, and whilst it will never happen again in terms of interacting with the crowd, he told us one million per cent that he has not given an offensive gesture, and until video evidence proves otherwise we have to take him at his word.

We had frustrated them for 45 minutes, and were also creating chances albeit mainly from set pieces etc, however we were absolutely delighted with the first half performance, and felt we could come away with something.

Second half we still worked our socks off against an excellent full time team, however scoring an excellent goal early killed us and the game plan, which meant we had to come out of our shape a bit more, and then were picked off with two late goals.

I'm a believer of being innocent until proven guilty. My post of 'Bloody Ben Harris' was purely an armchair reaction to seeing Slough being 0-0 with the league leaders, to then finding out that Ben had pretty much thrown away our chance to get anything from the game by getting sent off.  

It's not the first time we've had difficult troublemaker/wind up merchants in our team. Over the 30 odd years I've been watching Slough there have been quite a few, ranging from players like Gary Donellan, Darren Anderson, Mark Pye, Paul Coyne, Christian Metcalfe, Sean Sonner, Ed Smith etc. So a player like Ben Harris is nothing new to the regular football spectator.

To be honest, I thought when Ben first started playing for Slough, that it was a good thing to have a feisty/stirrer upper like him in the midst of our team,as at times, the team was a bit too clean cut and too nice to grind out results against some of the intimidatory factors that certain opposition teams have. However, as time has marched on, he is becoming a liability and not what our current team needs to improve. The way I see it, it's like the past Ed Smith situation,that Bakes and Unders had to deal with. Ed Smith was a class act footballer and a prolific scorer but some of his shinanigans were put up with because he was such a fine footballer and in his best days he was an asset on the field of play to Slough, both under the management of Steve Bateman and Bakes/Unders,so allowances were made.                                                                                                                                                                                    

The point I'm trying make, though, is that Ed Smith became a liability and needed to leave the club for Slough to progress. Ben Harris is nowhere near as an effective a player to the team, as Smithy was back then. Ed Smith because of his talents was a hard one to replace, Ben  Harris is not.

Neil Baker is right to stick up for his players, as any good manager would but sticking up for a player who is IMO is letting his team mates down, by his actions alone, isn't such a good thing.                                                                                   

Ben Harris needs Slough Town FC,  Slough Town FC don't need Ben Harris !  I'm all for giving a players first/second/third chances to address their misdemeanours/bad ways but not when players keep transgressing. Ben Harris needs to buck up his ideas, otherwise he's going to be shown the door IMO.     

   

Edited January 6, 2019 by 3spirit

[kirk]

I agree he spoils it for the team and the hundred or so who like me travelled all that way.These last few games have shown me that we need a couple of up market strikers to play alongside Cris Flood.

[Reading Rebel]

I agree with 3spirit that a player is innocent until proven guilty.

It's irrelevant that the Ref said he was sent off for giving the W*sign, Ben Harris was sent off for making an offensive gesture.

If Ben Harris gives his word 'one million per cent' that he never made any offensive gesture then until proven otherwise he has to be believed.

Lets hope the video evidence proves conclusive.