V Gloucester City H 2nd Feb

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, sdelane said:

RR goalie made a fine come instinctive save from the shot that was headed on and heading for the corner of the net in the first half that would of made it 2 - 0.

Yes, perhaps I was wrong, their keeper made two saves.  

[sdelaney]

39 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

I was looking forward to the match but unfortunately I had to cry off due to a health issue. In some ways I'm glad I missed the game now.

Epic Rebel, I admire your loyalty to the team but as we know, it's the referee's decisions that matter at the game and nothing will be reversed in this instance. If's and but's don't get you 3 points.

I was disappointed that a good result for Slough wasn't forthcoming but I do think we have to take into account that we have lost James Dobson, who has been a major influence in our attacking play for a few seasons. Given his goal scoring record was better than any of our forwards, he was always going to be a big miss.  Now that Scott Davis has gone, too, the rebuilding job of our team looks like it will take longer than one had initially hoped for [ we all hoped for a smoother transistion with Matt Lench rejoining, and with the loan signings/dual registrations we've done] but so far the goals/results haven't come, despite playing some good stuff at times. We aren't a million miles from getting it right but these last  three results are bound to knock the team's confidence, yet it's not going to get any easier for them with Dartford and Bath City up next and with Billericay and Woking to come in March.

I think the next three games are going to be crucial, in seeing whether we will need to add one or two quality players to our squad to turn our fortunes around, or whether we can see out the season with what we've got. Forget the play offs. Now we need to find three wins and possibly a couple of draws before the end of the season to put us safe. Job done. That task isn't going to be as easy as it sounds, now that we are having a rough time of it.

I don't know how feasible it is but with Kingstonian problems, I would inquire about the acquisition of either Elliot Buchanan or Louis Theophanous to freshen our front line. Both players have played at this level and could be ideal as either a stop gap to the season end, or if they do well with us, a shoe in for next season.They may view Slough as one last chance to prove their selves at a higher level, than either of them have been playing of late.  They may be on contract or too expensive but if you don't ask, you don't know.

If that's out of the question I would definitely look out for a proper left winger who is inventive on the ball from the level below.Matt Lench is getting better with every game  but I don't view him as our answer on the left, so would like to see another creative player added to our midfield, after all we are one experienced player down with Scott Davis leaving and the loan signing/dual registration was always going to be a gamble, which so far hasn't worked.

3spirit  we need pace Matty Stevens and Dobbo both had pace and goals in them something we are missing big time. Gloucester striker from the first minute showed he had pace he was unlucky on a number of occasions but in the end he and his team benefited from it. Pace is something both those players do not have.

 

 

 

 

 

[tbox]

The keeper not only handle the ball he also kicked it away.It should been a yellow card at least

Edited February 13, 2019 by tbox

[sdelaney]

I know there was Champions league football but on a mild evening and no home footie for a while i was very disappointed with the attendance under 500.

[GlenSTFC]

Fully expected that attendance and I think the remaining home crowds this season will be in the 5 and 6 hundreds. Shame to see especially after 2 great cup runs hasn’t seen much benefit in terms of returning fans. I guess it shows we’re in no position to think of further promotions until we can build up our home support.

[Irishadrian]

GlenSTFC

Crowds nowadays with so many other leisure choices available relate to success and status   If we were a National league side  four figure crowds would be the norm  and  if  we were more successful at home this season  we'd be several hundred up IMO

[GlenSTFC]

I wouldn’t be so sure we’d be getting 4 figure crowds in the National, certainly not midweek unless it was a local or big game. Our average this season won’t be much different to last seasons and I feel we need to be averaging 1,000 in this league before we can cope with the level above and at present we’re way off but hopefully the great work in the community the club and trust do will bear fruit. 

[3spirit]

14 minutes ago, sdelane said:

3spirit  we need pace Matty Stevens and Dobbo both had pace and goals in them something we are missing big time. Gloucester striker from the first minute showed he had pace he was unlucky on a number of occasions but in the end he and his team benefited from it. Pace is something both those players do not have.

 

 

 

 

 

I take your point about pace. You are right it can make a difference to any attacking team. Slough like to break quickly to counter attack but I think because we have had to play a tighter controlled game in the first part of the season, to grind out results against better level teams, we have actually become a bit staid in what we try to do attack wise and therefore have become too reliant on set pieces/corners and long throws to create goals. We've got to be better than that.

I really don't think we are that far from getting it right, but for me ,our front line needs some oomph put into it ie someone Chris Flood, Ben Harris and Manny Williams can play off of, whether that means getting a forward in with raw pace,a goal poacher or getting someone in who can hold the ball up,is strong and give the opposition defenders no easy ride, that largely depends on what you're trying to do from midfield. 

I think we all need to realise that Matt Lench can't do it all [NB, nor can Warren Harris come to that].

Matt's a class player but he didn't get a lot of game time with Wealdstone and is also coming back from injury, so it's taken a few games to get him to match fitness. I thought he was excellent against Hampton but can't comment on last night's game. For me, he's wasted out on the wing, as he will score goals. Currently I would either play him as an attacking centre midfielder, or up front with one or two of our strikers. If we aren't going to recruit experienced quality players, we will need to make the best of what we have.

With this in mind, we could also try out George Wells on the left wing and then use Sean Fraser or Josh Jackman as a makeshift left back. That is something we haven't tried to my knowledge. We have good options in our squad but it's no good keep playing the same old tired way and then expecting better results. We need to freshen up our ideas, to revive our fortunes.

We don't need massive change. We need to find out if some of these players can go up a gear, as complacency seems to have set in. If they are not up to it, then I wouldn't expect them to be at the club next season.   

[sdelaney]

Lenchy in the thick of it again played very well getting stronger in every game. Wealdstone away game must be the last game where we got the 2nd goal soon after the 1st something we have not been able to do since so the backline are then under pressure for rest of the game to keep a clean sheet.

[3spirit]

Against Hampton, Tommy Wood had a difficult introduction to Conference South football but I thought he tried hard enough to get on the ball and did manage to get involved in one goalmouth scramble near to a goalpost, and flicked on a couple of headers to no avail but apart from that, he had little support and found it hard to get a foothold in the game. How did he do last night?

[Irishadrian]

2 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

I wouldn’t be so sure we’d be getting 4 figure crowds in the National, certainly not midweek unless it was a local or big game. Our average this season won’t be much different to last seasons and I feel we need to be averaging 1,000 in this league before we can cope with the level above and at present we’re way off but hopefully the great work in the community the club and trust do will bear fruit. 

Glen Maidenhead who are having a poor season and may be in a relegation battle have averaged 1355 so far this season  That's mostly because of National league status and the quality of opponents I've no doubt at all we would substantially increase our gates at the next level

[GlenSTFC]

But Maidenhead have increased their gates 3-409% over a 10 year period which they have to be applauded for. Obviously promotions help greatly! No way would we would more than double our attendance last night had we been playing a national league game against an opponent of similar standing to Gloucester. It will take time to get regular 1,000+ home crowds.

[HorshamRebel]

27 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

But Maidenhead have increased their gates 3-409% over a 10 year period which they have to be applauded for. 

Especially when most will go by car, and there's next to no parking at and around the ground, especially on Saturday's with shoppers using the car parks

[Irishadrian]

Glen I did say four figure average gates  Maidenhead have had some gates much lower but they still average  1355 

[Curtis]

Torquay had very similar attendances for their home league game against Woking at the end of September and their home 1st round FA Cup match against them in November.... so it might be possible for us to get similar gates to our home replay with Sutton, 1,360, if we were in the Conference Premier.

[Reading Rebel]

When Maidenhead got promoted to the National League as far as I'm aware they went big on promoting season tickets with big discounts and coupled with the euphoria of what they had achieved sold many more season tickets.

I see no reason why we wouldn't or couldn't do the same.

[Reading Rebel]

5 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

I wouldn’t be so sure we’d be getting 4 figure crowds in the National, certainly not midweek unless it was a local or big game. Our average this season won’t be much different to last seasons and I feel we need to be averaging 1,000 in this league before we can cope with the level above and at present we’re way off but hopefully the great work in the community the club and trust do will bear fruit. 

Apart form the clubs that are a big draw and have big away support, we will not get a 1,000 plus in this league until we are fighting for the title.

[GlenSTFC]

Total home league attendance so far is 11405, giving us an average of 814.

But take out the below 4 ‘abnormal’ attendances then our average drops to 669.

 

-1010 Dulwich (BH)

-1244 Torquay

-995 Wealdstone (BH)

-1465 Woking

 

[Irishadrian]

Just a quick trip down memory lane  Our average gate in the V  Conference in  the92/93 season was 1250 which placed us 7th/22 and was a 34% increase on the previous season

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

Total home league attendance so far is 11405, giving us an average of 814.

But take out the below 4 ‘abnormal’ attendances then our average drops to 669.

 

-1010 Dulwich (BH)

-1244 Torquay

-995 Wealdstone (BH)

-1465 Woking

 

And your point Glennie?