v Ebbsfleet

[Reading Rebel]

Looking ahead to Saturday and our special offer of reduced entry of £5 to any other clubs current season ticket holders. 

Having looked at the Ebbsfleet forum it seems their season tickets don't have a date on them.

Apparently supporters keep their old season tickets and credits are added to them for the new season. 

Hopefully it won't cause a problem but it does say season tickets have to be for the current 2021/2022 season.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

It'll be interesting to see if a gem or two were unearthed following the two friendlies.

[Rebellier]

Reading Neil's squad update before today's match I am a little concerned about our defence when you see the calibre of attackers Ebbsfleet have got.  Also a little surprised Neil gave out the info seeing as he didn't a couple of weeks ago for the Hungerford game to keep the opposition guessing?!

[Neil Baker]

The only reason we did not do a team news before Hungerford was because of the keeper situation, we have always been open and transparent in the main in terms of team news, really for our supporters.

In terms of Ebbsfleet, they may have an idea on our team, same way we will on them, in reality it won’t make much difference to them or us how we and they plan to play.

Very tough one today, for me they are one of the best teams in the league, so we will really need the Rebel Army behind us today ?

[Shredding Green]

10 hours ago, Neil Baker said:

The only reason we did not do a team news before Hungerford was because of the keeper situation, we have always been open and transparent in the main in terms of team news, really for our supporters.

In terms of Ebbsfleet, they may have an idea on our team, same way we will on them, in reality it won’t make much difference to them or us how we and they plan to play.

Very tough one today, for me they are one of the best teams in the league, so we will really need the Rebel Army behind us today ?

The Rebel Army certainly did just that throughout the match and after the final whistle of a tremendous game of football.

[Reading Rebel]

Losing to teams like Ebbsfleet won't define our season.

They are a good side, a full time side shelling out a lot of money so they should be good.

First half I thought we competed well taking a 1-0 lead.

I thought the goal we conceded 5 minutes before half time was a very poor goal to concede just at the wrong time.

George Hunt gave the ball away near the half way line, the ball was quickly played forward to a striker who outstripped Nis for pace which ended with Nis being judged to have fouled the player inside the area. Not sure if he was he last man but only a yellow card was given when I thought a red card was a possibility.

Spoke to others who said it wasn't a penalty but I didn't get a clear view of the challenge so can't say one way or the other.

Second half I though Ebbsfleet took total charge of the game but credit to our players who never gave up trying even at 3-1 down and our efforts were nearly rewarded when we hit the post.

It will always be a difficult task against either a full time side or a side like Ebbsfleet who have spent big money.

It's games against sides around us that we need to be picking up points.

Next Saturday is a massive game when we play Billericay who picked up their first win under a new manager and are now only below us on goal difference.

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[Irishadrian]

Attendance today given as 757  That's getting better but helped no doubt by our special offer

 

[Reading Rebel]

9 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

Attendance today given as 757  That's getting better but helped no doubt by our special offer

 

Certainly a better attendance than of late against a side with a good following of supporters.

I'm sure the £5 offer will of made a difference and with what those extra supporters bought in the way of food and drink hopefully it was cost effective. 

[GlenSTFC]

An Ebbsfleet fan seemed to think they had around 200 fans there (remember fans aren’t just positioned behind the goals!). If true then it’s not a good attendance in terms of extra/new home support. 

[Reading Rebel]

On 10/10/2021 at 12:16, GlenSTFC said:

An Ebbsfleet fan seemed to think they had around 200 fans there (remember fans aren’t just positioned behind the goals!). If true then it’s not a good attendance in terms of extra/new home support. 

They brought quite a few but 200?

I think away fans tend to exaggerate when guessing away support numbers.

I would guess at around the 100 mark behind the goal and some sprinkled about.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[Irishadrian]

Just taken a look at the revised league table Two things stand out for me

We've scored  7   The lowest total in the league.

We've conceded 13  but 11 teams (more than half) have conceded this number or more.

There's  been a lot of comment recently about our defence but imo they're doing pretty well.

[Reading Rebel]

15 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

Just taken a look at the revised league table Two things stand out for me

We've scored  7   The lowest total in the league.

We've conceded 13  but 11 teams (more than half) have conceded this number or more.

There's  been a lot of comment recently about our defence but imo they're doing pretty well.

Has to be a concern that we're the lowest scorers in the division.

Our defense has done reasonably well but it's now been depleted due to the Ryan Bird injury and Guy Hollis having to work.

We know Lee Togwell can do a job in central defense but we need and miss his experience and toughness in midfield. 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[Rebellier]

Mildly amused yesterday to see 2 of their players get booked for simulation, whereas our Ben who it has to be said goes looking for challenges he can fall over in gets booked only for dissent!

[Reading Rebel]

16 hours ago, Rebellier said:

Mildly amused yesterday to see 2 of their players get booked for simulation, whereas our Ben who it has to be said goes looking for challenges he can fall over in gets booked only for dissent!

Not sure he even goes looking, just comes naturally ?

The ref wasn't very good but I'm sure we've had him a few times and he didn't buy hardly any of Ben's falling over.  

Edited October 11, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[michaelSTFC]

Wasn't he the same ref from the Kettering Play Off Semi Final when he gave us a couple of penalties?

[Reading Rebel]

15 minutes ago, michaelSTFC said:

Wasn't he the same ref from the Kettering Play Off Semi Final when he gave us a couple of penalties?

Don't know the refs name on Saturday but in the semi final against Kettering the refs name was Joel Mannix.

Just looked at the programme and it's the same ref.

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[C'est la vie]

I just watched the match highlights because I didn't attend the game on Saturday and it just goes to show that they can be deceiving at times as it looked like we got battered! 

[Bernie Gogan]

Just watched the highlights, their penalty was very soft indeed. In fact it looked like a coming together and not a foul. Our "penalty" was as much one as theirs!

Can't hide the fact that we've been beaten by a full time side with a massive squad of players (including an ex Premier League player) some of whom were either on the bench/injured/not selected and who would walk into most National South sides. Such are the resources of some clubs. Full credit to our team for this performance and that at Hungerford.

The Dartford v Ebbsfleet games should be worth watching. Dorking's hopes of promotion currently don't look so good when compared to such teams.

So far we've been beaten by the 2 best teams in the league (imo) and unluckily deprived of points in 3 others. Add to this also that we NEVER beat St.Albans or Chippenham at home!

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, Bernie Gogan said:

Just watched the highlights, their penalty was very soft indeed. In fact it looked like a coming together and not a foul. Our "penalty" was as much one as theirs!

Can't hide the fact that we've been beaten by a full time side with a massive squad of players (including an ex Premier League player) some of whom were either on the bench/injured/not selected and who would walk into most National South sides. Such are the resources of some clubs. Full credit to our team for this performance and that at Hungerford.

The Dartford v Ebbsfleet games should be worth watching. Dorking's hopes of promotion currently don't look so good when compared to such teams.

So far we've been beaten by the 2 best teams in the league (imo) and unluckily deprived of points in 3 others. Add to this also that we NEVER beat St.Albans or Chippenham at home!

You're right Bernie in that in some of our losses this season we've been a tad unlucky not to have picked up more points.

After Billericay we've got some real tough games coming up against Havant, Bath, Concorde, Maidstone and Dorking.

I know it's early day's but with teams around us starting to pick up points Saturday at Billericay is looking like an early season 6 pointer.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Reading Rebel

[Mark44]

Its a huge weekend this weekend with us at Billericay and Welling playing Braintree....