V Hampton&Richmond A 9th February

[Irishadrian]

H&R are on a very poor run Their last four home games place them 22/22 in the form table Their last four away games place them 21/22  They will of course be fighting hard to turn this round  We've been playing them since 1999  13 league games in total and an incentive for our squad is that we've never ever won a league game against them P13 W 0 D6 L7 ( We have beaten them twice in cup games) I'm expecting a draw at least COYR

[Irishadrian]

Prior to 1999 H&R were known as Hampton FC  They never managed to beat us under this name either in league or cup games and  Frank Parson scored his 105 yard goal to put them out of the FA Cup back in the mid eighties

[Rebellier]

Frank Parson's drop kick goal is still after all these years clear in my mind - and I remember The Times had a reporter following us in our cup run which ended in the next round in acrimonius circumstances at Poole Town - and Frank got sent off!

[Irishadrian]

Frank was well worth the £3000 he cost us One of my favorite oldies

[sdelaney]

4 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

Frank was well worth the £3000 he cost us One of my favorite oldies

I have Frank as one of my favourites what a character and entertainer the goal he scored was helped by the strong wind on the day but still a cracker. I did not know that Ian Parsons who was a striker played for us only made nine appearances joined Nov 1983 I was talking to Ryan a few years back and he spoke about him seems he could not settle at the club. Including Jake thats three of the Parsons family out of four who gave the club great service.

 

 

[Reading Rebel]

Hampton supporters seem to be getting a bit jittery about their league position and one Hampton supporter on their forum already calling this a 'must win game' for them.  

Edited February 5, 2019 by Reading Rebel

[carols52]

Heavy rain and winds forecast for the next 24 hours, any plans for a pitch inspection Saturday am.

[Reading Rebel]

5 hours ago, carols52 said:

Heavy rain and winds forecast for the next 24 hours, any plans for a pitch inspection Saturday am.

Obviously been raining today but forecast says dry from 7.30 ish tonight til tomorrow evening.

[Irishadrian]

H&R have announced the signing of Marcel Barrington from Braintree Town Guyana International who has played midfield and as a forward

Edited February 9, 2019 by Irishadrian

[GlenSTFC]

So frustrating to concede with literally the last kick. We should have been 2-0 up long before and come the last 15 minutes we decided to ‘preserve’ our lead. Hampton were there for the taking in the first half but they were more up for it second half. Although the play offs aspirations are fading fast and in honesty it’s not going to happen this season, it’s still very disappointing not to finish off teams where we are better than them.

[3spirit]

Slough dominated the game and deserved to win.

It's easy for me to say with hindsight, that we shouldn't have gone to 4-5-1, as sometimes it works a treat but I was flabberghasted that we chose to go 4-5-1 late in the game against Hampton today, as I thought Hampton were rubbish and hadn't threatened our goal at all. To me we invited pressure straight away by changing shape, as no one closed down any of the Hampton players coming out from their half and we put ourselves straight under the cosh.  I thought we should have put Matt Lench up with Tommy Wood, when the game wore on, as Matt had looked lively all game and for me looked like he had a goal in him. He was my man of the match but I thought it had been a great team effort and they had all done themselves proud.

 A great headed goal by Sam Togwell got our team off to a flyer, and we should have been more goals to the good than we ever got. First half we were all over them, and Gary McCann wasn't a happy bunny and Hampton were facing a rollicking at half time, so it was obvious they would come out the blocks quicker second half but our team contained them well and still had the better chances but then late on we boobed with the formation change.    

A draw just wasn't a fair result !  Hampton played the 'get out of jail' card with their equalizer. Such a shame for Slough as it had been a great team performance for 85 minutes. The warning came with the excellent Jack Turner save late in the game but still we gave them another chance to score.

A real bummer that we didn't win but on a positive we didn't lose. Just felt like a loss with such a late equalizer.

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by 3spirit

[Irishadrian]

I'm going to consider that result as a 1-1 loss.

[PaxtonLee]

For me, the not "taking the ball to corner" wasn't the cause at the end. Lench slipped a nice ball through for a goal scoring opportunity to finish off the game, it's not like he lost the ball carelessly. My issue was that we had about four other players bombing into the box. That was unnecessary and allowed Hampton space to build one last attack. The ball still has to travel the length of the pitch.

A really good performance that deserved more. Hey ho.

[3spirit]

8 minutes ago, PaxtonLee said:

For me, the not "taking the ball to corner" wasn't the cause at the end. Lench slipped a nice ball through for a goal scoring opportunity to finish off the game, it's not like he lost the ball carelessly. My issue was that we had about four other players bombing into the box. That was unnecessary and allowed Hampton space to build one last attack. The ball still has to travel the length of the pitch.

A really good performance that deserved more. Hey ho.

I agreed with most of what Neil said in his interview after the game but I, too, don't believe 'taking the ball into the corner' was the answer for this game.

I understand the need for game management but we were untroubled by Hampton for most of the match by playing a 4-4-2. Why change shape against a side who had been so inept in front of our goal?

I understand the notion of shoring up a game against the best teams in the division, say Dartford for example,where we might need to grind out a win but Hampton looked a team short of confidence and struggling to affect the game. We had them on the rack, there was no need for Slough to backtrack and panic,as Hampton weren't troubling us.

If we were going to change anything,we should have been more positive in our attacking play late on. What's the point of playing a young learner of the game [Tommy Wood] on his own? 

If we had  kept the pressure on Hampton up front, they wouldn't have had the chance to score and maybe, we could have added to our tally.

 

[Neil Baker]

Dammed  if you do dammed if you don’t when you make those decisions, agreed Hampton had not been a threat, however we were also tiring as a team on a heavy pitch, and felt an extra one in there would just help, especially as they had pushed more men forward, we should have been celebrating a clean sheet and three points, and it would have been a perfect away day, the fact is it wasn’t and there is a reason for that.

You say not taking the ball into the corner did not cost us the game, well the truth is it did, we go to the corner we are celebrating a big 3 points, instead of taking about 2 points dropped, if you heard the changing room after from the senior players they know this also.

I think Lee is right, and was a point we picked up on in the changing room, in the last couple of minutes twice we were piling players forward, when we did not need to.

I have seen a few comments (not on here) about us being negative which I find quite astounding, we were expressive throughout the game playing some great football throughout, and still even caused problems with one up top, it is about doing the right things for 90 plus minutes, and unfortunatley we didn’t quite do that.

It was a great ball from Lenchy if it was in earlier in the game, and a great run from Sean, and might have been a great goal, however 25 seconds later it is in our net.

That does not detract from Lenchy performance as he was outstanding like I said in my video.

For me that was almost the perfect performance, granted we would have liked a few more goals, however when all is said and done we have 40 points with just under a third of the season to go, we still have a shot at play offs (albeit it will be tough), and I reiterate what we said at the start of the season, for us to be competitive in every game, and we have pretty much done that with very few exceptions.

once again fantastic support, felt like we were the home team, and now on to Gloucester Tuesday.

 

[3spirit]

Well, we all have our opinions, Neil. Appreciate it's not easy being a football manager, as your decisions can make or break a game, and I can recognise that the pitch was heavy and some of our players were tiring but I cannot agree with the notion of being ultra defensive against what was a very poor footballing outfit that Hampton were today. To be honest, they look like they will be dragged into the relegation places,that's how bad I thought they were. I know the Conference South is a quality division with many good sides but today it's unbelievable that we couldn't have beaten them. 

Anyway,it's not the end of the world and just one game in a season. Nothing to lose sleep about and, at least, we have Gloucester on Tuesday, to take today's frustrations out on and hopefully, garner the three points !

[Shredding Green]

16 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

H&R have announced the signing of Marcel Barrington from Braintree Town Guyana International who has played midfield and as a forward

Obviously a very useful signing, on loan until the end of the season, scoring in his first match. And Braintree Town still beat Salford City 1-0 without him with a goal on 90+3. 

[Shredding Green]

56 minutes ago, Neil Baker said:

Dammed  if you do dammed if you don’t when you make those decisions, agreed Hampton had not been a threat, however we were also tiring as a team on a heavy pitch, and felt an extra one in there would just help, especially as they had pushed more men forward, we should have been celebrating a clean sheet and three points, and it would have been a perfect away day, the fact is it wasn’t and there is a reason for that.

You say not taking the ball into the corner did not cost us the game, well the truth is it did, we go to the corner we are celebrating a big 3 points, instead of taking about 2 points dropped, if you heard the changing room after from the senior players they know this also.

I think Lee is right, and was a point we picked up on in the changing room, in the last couple of minutes twice we were piling players forward, when we did not need to.

I have seen a few comments (not on here) about us being negative which I find quite astounding, we were expressive throughout the game playing some great football throughout, and still even caused problems with one up top, it is about doing the right things for 90 plus minutes, and unfortunatley we didn’t quite do that.

It was a great ball from Lenchy if it was in earlier in the game, and a great run from Sean, and might have been a great goal, however 25 seconds later it is in our net.

That does not detract from Lenchy performance as he was outstanding like I said in my video.

For me that was almost the perfect performance, granted we would have liked a few more goals, however when all is said and done we have 40 points with just under a third of the season to go, we still have a shot at play offs (albeit it will be tough), and I reiterate what we said at the start of the season, for us to be competitive in every game, and we have pretty much done that with very few exceptions.

once again fantastic support, felt like we were the home team, and now on to Gloucester Tuesday.

 

I listened to your match report Neil and thought "you were watching the same match as I was". Standing only a yard or two from you in the second half did make it easy for me to hear your instructions. Did Lenchy hear your "take it to the corner, Lenchy" when he was running down the wing with the ball some fifteen yards away or did he just decide on his own that a pass to Sean Fraser was a better option? For me, at that stage of the match running the clock down to hold onto the three points by going to the corner was the priority over any other options. That's football!

[Curtis]

You can’t make a strategic change to a 4-5-1 bringing on Sean Fraser in midfield to try to defensively close out the game and then have him popping up in the oppositions penalty area looking to score..... that is just poor tactical discipline.

It’s perfectly normal to make mistakes, but we have got to starting learning something from them.

[kirk]

I stick by what I have said before we struggle against poor weak sides.we don't seem to see out a winning position. to me that is tactics wise a poor show.