v Havant & Waterlooville

[3spirit]

10 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

I wonder why these 2 weren’t included in the match day squad, as they would be starters for me. 

Both would be in my best Slough eleven but I'm sure there will be a perfectly rational explanation for their absence like Covid, or attending a wedding.

Edited August 6, 2022 by 3spirit

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

I wonder why these 2 weren’t included in the match day squad, as they would be starters for me. 

Lenchy was working, not sure about Josh possibly on holiday or work. 

[GlenSTFC]

13 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Lenchy was working, not sure about Josh possibly on holiday or work. 

Lench and Jackman were named in the 18 man squad so were they physically there? If not why name them if either of them had prior engagements.

[rebelade]

Never were physically there but it’s mind games, you don’t want to tell an opposition manager that 2 of your strongest players aren’t gonna be there

[Reading Rebel]

It looked like we set up as a 4-1-4-1 to keep it tight and contain rather than be expansive.

Unfortunately too many players were not at the races, not keeping the ball well enough and giving the ball away far too easily with misplaced passes.

Havant were better in every department closing us down at every opportunity and putting us under pressure.

Havant's first goal, admittedly the player was under no pressure, was a volley of the highest quality which hit the underside of the bar before crossing the line.

Their second was scored after Aaron Kuhl misplaced a pass and their third goal came after Ryan Bird fluffed a clearance straight to a Havant player.   

A good cross and headed goal from Ben Harris apart from that I don't think we had a shot or tested the Havant keeper all game.

Only the first game of the season and no need to panic but nevertheless a wake up call for the players.

 

[Guest Wycombe Rebel]

For a full time team, Havant are bang average. Team of big men who hound the officials at every opportunity and time waste from the 45th minute. If we’d have been bang on it, we’d have come away with a point or more!

Joe Dandy and Jonny Goddard were our best players by a mile.

[Reading Rebel]

55 minutes ago, CookhamRebel said:

For a full time team, Havant are bang average. Team of big men who hound the officials at every opportunity and time waste from the 45th minute. If we’d have been bang on it, we’d have come away with a point or more!

Joe Dandy and Jonny Goddard were our best players by a mile.

Full Time as far as they train 3 mornings a week.

As far as hounding the officials, players try it on with refs and when they know he's weak they push it to the limit, it's done at every level of the game.

It's up to refs to stamp it out and until they do it'll carry on.

The ref today was poor and seemingly didn't know the rules of the game when he allowed an injured Havant player to stay on the pitch after the physio came on.

55 minutes ago, CookhamRebel said:

For a full time team, Havant are bang average. Team of big men who hound the officials at every opportunity and time waste from the 45th minute. If we’d have been bang on it, we’d have come away with a point or more!

Joe Dandy and Jonny Goddard were our best players by a mile.

If they are bang average we are in trouble.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[Guest Wycombe Rebel]

24 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Full Time as far as they train 3 mornings a week.

As far as hounding the officials, players try it on with refs and when they know he's weak they push it to the limit, it's done at every level of the game.

It's up to refs to stamp it out and until they do it'll carry on.

The ref today was poor and seemingly didn't know the rules of the game when he allowed an injured Havant player to stay on the pitch after the physio came on.

If they are bang average we are in trouble.

3 mornings a week means nothing, their players won’t have a job given the sums of money they are earning.

I’ll put it another way, for the money their players earn a week compared to ours they are bang average.

As I said, we weren’t bang on it today, another day and we’d have got more than we did.

We won’t be in trouble, we’ll be fine once we settle.

Sorry RR, not all teams hound officials like H&W, they are a team in their managers image.

Lastly, the Stewards behaviour today towards our fans had nothing to do with health & safety, it was a tactic I believe, they were put up to it.

Edited August 6, 2022 by CookhamRebel

[Footyfan007]

Havant would win the league for moaning.

My lad informed me he did not have a good game, and put it down to one of those games that happens every now and then where he couldn’t get into the game consistently as playing wide midfield. having played this does happen but happened on a day where other where off sorts as well.
 
I didn’t watch but by the sounds of it the ball was in the air a lot even when we where in possession.

Havant also I am informed looked much sharper from a trusted source that watched the game, three sessions a week believe it or not imho is a big difference. They will also not be training after a hard days work!
 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Footyfan007

[3spirit]

2 hours ago, Footyfan007 said:

Havant would win the league for moaning.

My lad informed me he did not have a good game, and put it down to one of those games that happens every now and then where he couldn’t get into the game consistently as playing wide midfield. having played this does happen but happened on a day where other where off sorts as well.
 
I didn’t watch but by the sounds of it the ball was in the air a lot even when we where in possession.

Havant also I am informed looked much sharper from a trusted source that watched the game, three sessions a week believe it or not imho is a big difference. They will also not be training after a hard days work!
 

 

 

 

An interesting post FootyFan007. I'm guessing you're George Hunt's dad but I could be wrong. On paper Havant should be beating Slough at their home given the resources they have, and the player talent they have assembled but as we football fans know, football matches like this one don't always go the way of the guidebook !

I wasn't at the game but having watched Unders post match interview it sounds like most of the Slough team had an off day,which is surprising given who they were playing and it being the first league match for them.Would have thought they would have been right up for it. Certainly not the start the Slough faithful wanted but it is only one game and the next two home games should be better fayre [hopefully].

From my point of view Slough should stay part time for the foreseeable,as they haven't the funds or the current structure in place to follow the Havant's of this world. I know there is a playing model where players are full time but are assembled cheaply [Basingstoke did something like this] but is that really worth it for a team like ours?

I'm not bothered that our team only trains two times a week.Our players are still good enough to give teams in this division a run for their money and besides Havant are still in the same division as Slough so full time for them hasn't been that successful for them.

I think Josh Jackman and Matt Lench are likely to feature in next Saturday's game because of yesterday below par offering. The worry for me is still where the goals are going to come from this season but I'm sure we'll create a lot more chances at home against Tonbridge Angels and Chelmsford City, than what I was told happened yesterday.              

[Holyport Rebel]

Yeah we lost.

3-1.

Our season isn't going to be determined by games such as Havant away and Ebbsfleet away.

In my opinion it's much more likely to be determined by say our next 3 home matches, against Tonbridge, Chelmsford and Cheshunt.

9 points would be tremendous.

Less than 6, disappointing.

I was surprised how down Jon was in his interview.

I walked out of the ground after the game thinking we'd not obviously played anywhere near our best but it was miles above say, the 2nd half at Billericay last season.

Some silly mistakes by us didn't help, but at halftime we were only separated by a goal of the season contender.

We changed our formation at half time, playing with 2 up front, but with more silly mistakes we got caught out at the back trying to have a go.

I obviously didn't know what Jon and Neil's  gameplan was at kick off, and I guess it must be so frustrating as manager's to work on a system with the players for the week before the game

and then have them seemingly ignore their instructions.

I guess that proves how fortunate we are to have Jon and Neil as our team bosses, that Jon can be so passionately angry and disappointed when we've lost away at a team that financially and commercially

are in a different league to us.

To finish with, watching the game yesterday I couldn't help but remember what one of our colleagues on here had written a few day's ago.

If only we had Beth "What's her name" playing up front for us instead of Ben.

Those 2 brick **** houses Joe Oastler and Joash Nembhard for Havant would have been tremblin' in their boots at the thought of battling against her.

Yeah, right.

( Joe Oastler gives me nightmares and I'm only on the terraces ! )

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Holyport Rebel

[Guest Wycombe Rebel]

5 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

An interesting post FootyFan007. I'm guessing you're George Hunt's dad but I could be wrong. On paper Havant should be beating Slough at their home given the resources they have, and the player talent they have assembled but as we football fans know, football matches like this one don't always go the way of the guidebook !

I wasn't at the game but having watched Unders post match interview it sounds like most of the Slough team had an off day,which is surprising given who they were playing and it being the first league match for them.Would have thought they would have been right up for it. Certainly not the start the Slough faithful wanted but it is only one game and the next two home games should be better fayre [hopefully].

From my point of view Slough should stay part time for the foreseeable,as they haven't the funds or the current structure in place to follow the Havant's of this world. I know there is a playing model where players are full time but are assembled cheaply [Basingstoke did something like this] but is that really worth it for a team like ours?

I'm not bothered that our team only trains two times a week.Our players are still good enough to give teams in this division a run for their money and besides Havant are still in the same division as Slough so full time for them hasn't been that successful for them.

I think Josh Jackman and Matt Lench are likely to feature in next Saturday's game because of yesterday below par offering. The worry for me is still where the goals are going to come from this season but I'm sure we'll create a lot more chances at home against Tonbridge Angels and Chelmsford City, than what I was told happened yesterday.              

Good post 3spirit.

From what I saw (and think!) there are goals in the team with slight adjustments. Different oppositions means different systems, I think we somehow need to get Benyon and Harris in tandem up top with Goddard just behind them, something like this:

North; Jackman Hollis Dandy Wells; Davies/Togwell Kuhl/Hunt Lench; Goddard; Benyon Harris

Basically a 4-3-1-2, Goddard could carve teams open… Any 3 of 6 (including Sole in the midfield)!

[GlenSTFC]

23 minutes ago, CookhamRebel said:

Good post 3spirit.

From what I saw (and think!) there are goals in the team with slight adjustments. Different oppositions means different systems, I think we somehow need to get Benyon and Harris in tandem up top with Goddard just behind them, something like this:

North; Jackman Hollis Dandy Wells; Davies/Togwell Kuhl/Hunt Lench; Goddard; Benyon Harris

Basically a 4-3-1-2, Goddard could carve teams open… Any 3 of 6 (including Sole in the midfield)!

I wasn’t there either but sounds like Goddard supplied 2 goal assists (unfortunately one goal was offside), so he’s doing what he’s been brought in for. Shame Dobbo isn’t quite ready yet as I was hoping he and Goddard would be supplying endless crosses into the box for Harris and/or Benyon to get on the end of. It does seem odd and not like us for the players not to be totally up for the first game? Hopefully 2 strong training sessions and a far better performance this Saturday will see us get our first win and up and running.

[Reading Rebel]

29 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

An interesting post FootyFan007. I'm guessing you're George Hunt's dad but I could be wrong. On paper Havant should be beating Slough at their home given the resources they have, and the player talent they have assembled but as we football fans know, football matches like this one don't always go the way of the guidebook !

I wasn't at the game but having watched Unders post match interview it sounds like most of the Slough team had an off day,which is surprising given who they were playing and it being the first league match for them.Would have thought they would have been right up for it. Certainly not the start the Slough faithful wanted but it is only one game and the next two home games should be better fayre [hopefully].

From my point of view Slough should stay part time for the foreseeable,as they haven't the funds or the current structure in place to follow the Havant's of this world. I know there is a playing model where players are full time but are assembled cheaply [Basingstoke did something like this] but is that really worth it for a team like ours?

I'm not bothered that our team only trains two times a week.Our players are still good enough to give teams in this division a run for their money and besides Havant are still in the same division as Slough so full time for them hasn't been that successful for them.

I think Josh Jackman and Matt Lench are likely to feature in next Saturday's game because of yesterday below par offering. The worry for me is still where the goals are going to come from this season but I'm sure we'll create a lot more chances at home against Tonbridge Angels and Chelmsford City, than what I was told happened yesterday.              

I'm sure Slough have no intention of going to full time training.

For a start you have to have players with the right jobs to accommodate training 3 mornings a week and probably have to pay them a bit more. 

On the scoring front, with so many players off form I don't think we can judge things based upon yesterdays game where we hardly tested the keeper for the 90 minutes.

The test will come in the next four games when we play sides who we will be expected to create and score goals against.

If nothing changes in these games we can then really start to panic.

[Jon Underwood]

Just to be clear our players were “up” for the game but for reasons we are struggling to explain too many good players put in poor performances which were very out of character. 

We all went there believing we could get a win just like we did last season but if you play like that you’ll get nothing.

No panic here but clearly a reaction needed in training and in the two upcoming home games. I’m sure we’ll get it.

[3spirit]

51 minutes ago, CookhamRebel said:

Good post 3spirit.

From what I saw (and think!) there are goals in the team with slight adjustments. Different oppositions means different systems, I think we somehow need to get Benyon and Harris in tandem up top with Goddard just behind them, something like this:

North; Jackman Hollis Dandy Wells; Davies/Togwell Kuhl/Hunt Lench; Goddard; Benyon Harris

Basically a 4-3-1-2, Goddard could carve teams open… Any 3 of 6 (including Sole in the midfield)!

I like the idea of playing Goddard there but we have plenty of others that could be good alternatives for that sort of role. The thing is it is very early days for this team. I wouldn't over complicate matters just yet, as for me the first 6 to 8 league games are a settling in period to see who is up to the task and who will fall by the wayside.

As everyone knows I'm not Ben Harris's biggest fan but even I can see that currently he should be starting games up front with Elliot Benyon. They along with Imran Kayani need to work on playing together and who makes what run, etc. This moment in time I would stick with Johnny Goddard on the right wing and keep to the basics so for the next five games I would stick with the orthodox 4-4-2. Making the players work for their place but the best thing about our current squad is that we have competition for each playing position,so if a player has a duff game they can be replaced by someone else and vice versa. Players like George Wells are virtually undroppable but they don't necessarily have to remain steadfast to their normal position. For me with Dobbo out the equation we could push George Wells onto the left wing and play someone else as a left back. To it's about tinkering personnel but not losing shape.

I was expecting a draw yesterday, so for me it is only one point dropped.

Edited August 7, 2022 by 3spirit

[3spirit]

10 minutes ago, Jon Underwood said:

Just to be clear our players were “up” for the game but for reasons we are struggling to explain too many good players put in poor performances which were very out of character. 

We all went there believing we could get a win just like we did last season but if you play like that you’ll get nothing.

No panic here but clearly a reaction needed in training and in the two upcoming home games. I’m sure we’ll get it.

Perhaps they had sun stroke ! ha ha ha !

[Footyfan007]

1 hour ago, 3spirit said:

An interesting post FootyFan007. I'm guessing you're George Hunt's dad but I could be wrong. On paper Havant should be beating Slough at their home given the resources they have, and the player talent they have assembled but as we football fans know, football matches like this one don't always go the way of the guidebook !

I wasn't at the game but having watched Unders post match interview it sounds like most of the Slough team had an off day,which is surprising given who they were playing and it being the first league match for them.Would have thought they would have been right up for it. Certainly not the start the Slough faithful wanted but it is only one game and the next two home games should be better fayre [hopefully].

From my point of view Slough should stay part time for the foreseeable,as they haven't the funds or the current structure in place to follow the Havant's of this world. I know there is a playing model where players are full time but are assembled cheaply [Basingstoke did something like this] but is that really worth it for a team like ours?

I'm not bothered that our team only trains two times a week.Our players are still good enough to give teams in this division a run for their money and besides Havant are still in the same division as Slough so full time for them hasn't been that successful for them.

I think Josh Jackman and Matt Lench are likely to feature in next Saturday's game because of yesterday below par offering. The worry for me is still where the goals are going to come from this season but I'm sure we'll create a lot more chances at home against Tonbridge Angels and Chelmsford City, than what I was told happened yesterday.              

3spirit I am indeed GH’s dad and have nothing to hide, we are very much a footballing family and George was very disappointed after his performance yesterday.  

He will roll his sleeves up and go again.
 

ref part time and full time I am not suggesting Slough go full time but highlighting the difference which I am told stood out yesterday from a source their.

Maybe Havant train once a week in berating a ref lol 

 

 

[Reading Rebel]

I think Havant got their tactics spot on.

Squeeze up, shut us down putting pressure on players like Scott Davies who likes a bit of time and space to orchestrate play from a defensive position.

Of course to do that in that heat you have to be fit and I'm sure full time training helped in that regard along with our players not being on their game.

  

[3spirit]

1 hour ago, Footyfan007 said:

3spirit I am indeed GH’s dad and have nothing to hide, we are very much a footballing family and George was very disappointed after his performance yesterday.  

He will roll his sleeves up and go again.
 

ref part time and full time I am not suggesting Slough go full time but highlighting the difference which I am told stood out yesterday from a source their.

Maybe Havant train once a week in berating a ref lol 

 

 

Welcome Mr Hunt to our forum ! I know you've posted previously but thought I'd show we have 'no axes to grind' on here, and also now I know who you are when I moan about your son not playing well ! ha ha !  

Not the first time I've come across players dad's.Usually I get to meet player's dad's in person. I know it can't be easy watching a son play football in a cauldron partisan crowd. I have even plonked my size ten in it on the very odd occasion by slagging off a player to find out his dad or mum is standing next to me.Luckily for me it has only happened to me twice in over 40 years of watching football. The first time still makes me squirm with embarassment but it was funny and even the players dad took it in a good way. The good thing is I'm not one for shouting at players, and tend towards encouragement at games, unless I think a player is like a thug. This particular time I was moaning about the lack of commitment/desire the player was showing and commented to a mate next to me,to find out two fathers of two players were standing next to me also.     

The second time I was not the only one to be moaning about the player and a few of us were banged to rights by an upset mother of the player. Reading Rebel will testify to this,as it was he and I and a couple others who were discussing the merits of the said Slough player at a cup final not that long ago, to find out that we were standing next to most of this players family !  Talk about daggers and stormy waters ! ha ha ! Ironically, the player in question had one of his better games for Slough that day.

But on this forum, things are a little different in what is voiced !    

Edited August 7, 2022 by 3spirit