V Hanwell Town A 19th Nov Match Thread

[Nathan]

I'm surprised there hasn't been any comments yet on what sounds like a decent performance and result today. This could be the springboard on which we salvage something from our season.

Does anybody know how Manny Williams got on today? 2 appearances, 2 goals (already our joint second top goalscorer for the season 🙄) at the ripe old age of 125. Maybe he should have been utilised before now?

[Reading Rebel]

We were dominating the game and after some good play Matshazi produced a great shot from distance to give us the lead.

Unfortunately Johnny Goddard had to go off with what looked like a hamstring injury (hopefully only a tight hamstring and not a pull).

For the next 10 minutes we seemed to lose our shape with Hanwell getting a lot more possession and looking dangerous.

With Lenchy getting sent off with about 30 minutes to go the game swung in Hanwell's favor and we had to dig deep and soak up some pressure to maintain our lead.

Fortunately we were looking good on the break and after a terrific run down the wing from Wellsy he got to the byline and pulled the ball back for Manny for our second.

Matshazi should have got his second when with just the keeper to beat the keeper parried his shot, fortunately the ball fell kindly for him to set up Josh Jackman to drill the ball into the corner for the third goal.

Excellent performances all round from all the players but for me George Wells was back to his best producing a top draw performance with some excellent defending and attacking play down the wing.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[SloughFlyer]

Predictions aside, I thought Hanwell did exactly what I expected them to and performed pretty much exactly.

I thought Slough were excellent on the day and performed well throughout the team. Special mentions for me go to - Arnie - he was excellent, didn't stop running the whole afternoon and what a great finish for the 1st goal, Fabio Sole - I've been saying for the last few weeks that I wanted to see him start and after seeing him do a 90 at Windsor the other week I'm pleased he got that opportunity and showed a lot of class, especially on the ball, Wells and Jackman - a fantastic performance from both of them and the pressing forward suits their games perfectly (special mention for George taking on 4-5 players for the assist of the second goal), defence as a whole were also very solid. Forster in goal was untroubled by Hanwell at all and apart from a few catches from crosses had a nice easy afternoon.

Subs - I thought the new young lad looked very confident in what he did at the back when he came on and is a big lad!! Manny did well to score, but with all the love in the world, I hope he is used more in a coaching / managing capacity than playing moving forwards.

I thought the fans throughout were brilliant, singing and chanting all the way through the game and I'm pretty sure outnumbered Hanwellon the day. Brilliant work everyone

Shame about Johnny Goddard going off, hopefully that was just a precaution as I thought the central "free" role for him looked spot on and much better than he has recently. Injuries and suspensions aren't helping at all currently with Kuhl, Goddard(?), Hunt (?), Benyon (?) injured, Hollis (1 more game) and now Lench for 3 missing suspended

Lench - only negative (apart from the injuries). 1st half he looked exactly as he should have. Played that central midfield role well, got up and back and showed his experience when on the ball. 52 minutes in another brain dead moment results in him getting sent off and as a senior player (and in the current situation with younger players in the squad being used more and more those experienced players need to show them the way) to put yourself in the position to fight in the dugout with the away team when you are 1-0 up in a vital cup fixture is a total disgrace. Why on earth does he keep doing this (did the same thing after 70 minures v Worthing when we were 1-0 in the FA Cup going after a ball for no reason and caused all kinds of problems). I just don't know what goes through his head and something needs to change and soon!!!!

A very impressive result in the end and as was seen on Wednesday, I fully expected it, HOWEVER, I think its important to remember that Hanwell are a side from the league below and aren't in great form. I have been very impressed so far with Scott, Lee and Manny BUT lets keep our feet on the ground and see how the next few games go in our league before we lord them up as the second coming. For now, we can enjoy being in the next round of the trophy, 4 games I believe from Wembley (!!!!!) and a nice financial hep as well. Good week to prepare for Eastbourne now and with a few players being available again now, hopefully the boys will have some good decisions to make about the squad as well.

Edited November 20, 2022 by SloughFlyer

[Ian g f]

Hasn't Guy Hollis served his 3 match ban?

[3spirit]

SloughFlyer's above post has got it spot on and I totally agree with all he says on it.  First time I've seen Fabio Sole and while he is rather lightweight I thought he put in a good shift yesterday and linked our play well in centre midfield.As SF says Arnold Matshazi worked his socks off for the team and what a wonder goal he scored to give Slough control.

I really like that we are using a three man defence. Scott and Lee marshalled this so well and with Connor Jeanes coming on, it gave Togs the opportunity to push further up the pitch and to me this proved to be decisive in the fact that we started to create better chances with 10 men than we had when we were with 11.

It was a great win for Slough given the circumstances this week, and it was easy to see which players wanted to be wearing the Slough shirt with pride, and which players looked half hearted and going through the motions.  

On Hanwell, they looked the part and had some giants in their team and on their bench but in truth Slough pretty much outclassed them on the day and you could see as the game wore on which team played in a higher division but in the first ten minutes of the first half a neutral fan may have been confused on this.     

My Slough men of the match would be our new three player managers as they were all awesome on the day.

Edited November 20, 2022 by 3spirit

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, Ian g f said:

Hasn't Guy Hollis served his 3 match ban?

B&B doesn't count so Guy has one more match of the ban to go.

Mind you someone on the coach thought that because we lost the appeal against his red card they add on another one game ban?

[SloughFlyer]

3 hours ago, Ian g f said:

Hasn't Guy Hollis served his 3 match ban?

Amazingly when I say why Ian, no he hasn't.

According to Guy yesterday the Maidenhead game in the eyes of the National League / FA isn't a 1st team fixture so didn't count towards his 3 matches!!!!!!!! Eastbourne is the 3rd game with Hungerford and Hanwell.

To be fair, I thoughy with the result we got against Maidenhead with a first team was excellent, now I realise it was the under 12's, makes it even better. Typical BB, FA and league, total joke!!!

28 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

B&B doesn't count so Guy has one more match of the ban to go.

Mind you someone on the coach thought that because we lost the appeal against his red card they add on another one game ban?

Nah, 3 games for Guy only.

[GlenSTFC]

39 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

SloughFlyer's above post has got it spot on and I totally agree with all he says on it.  First time I've seen Fabio Sole and while he is rather lightweight I thought he put in a good shift yesterday and linked our play well in centre midfield.As SF says Arnold Matshazi worked his socks off for the team and what a wonder goal he scored to give Slough control.

I really like that we are using a three man defence. Scott and Lee marshalled this so well and with Connor Jeanes coming on, it gave Togs the opportunity to push further up the pitch and to me this proved to be decisive in the fact that we started to create better chances with 10 men than we had when we were with 11.

It was a great win for Slough given the circumstances this week, and it was easy to see which players wanted to be wearing the Slough shirt with pride, and which players looked half hearted and going through the motions.  

On Hanwell, they looked the part and had some giants in their team and on their bench but in truth Slough pretty much outclassed them on the day and you could see as the game wore on which team played in a higher division but in the first ten minutes of the first half a neutral fan may have been confused on this.     

My Slough men of the match would be our new three player managers as they were all awesome on the day.

Very surprised by your below comment as to me every player and management looked very much together and playing for each other yesterday. Who were the players in your view not United?

”…and it was easy to see which players wanted to be wearing the Slough shirt with pride, and which players looked half hearted and going through the motions.”

[Reading Rebel]

5 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

Predictions aside, I thought Hanwell did exactly what I expected them to and performed pretty much exactly.

I thought Slough were excellent on the day and performed well throughout the team. Special mentions for me go to - Arnie - he was excellent, didn't stop running the whole afternoon and what a great finish for the 1st goal, Fabio Sole - I've been saying for the last few weeks that I wanted to see him start and after seeing him do a 90 at Windsor the other week I'm pleased he got that opportunity and showed a lot of class, especially on the ball, Wells and Jackman - a fantastic performance from both of them and the pressing forward suits their games perfectly (special mention for George taking on 4-5 players for the assist of the second goal), defence as a whole were also very solid. Forster in goal was untroubled by Hanwell at all and apart from a few catches from crosses had a nice easy afternoon.

Subs - I thought the new young lad looked very confident in what he did at the back when he came on and is a big lad!! Manny did well to score, but with all the love in the world, I hope he is used more in a coaching / managing capacity than playing moving forwards.

I thought the fans throughout were brilliant, singing and chanting all the way through the game and I'm pretty sure outnumbered Hanwellon the day. Brilliant work everyone

Shame about Johnny Goddard going off, hopefully that was just a precaution as I thought the central "free" role for him looked spot on and much better than he has recently. Injuries and suspensions aren't helping at all currently with Kuhl, Goddard(?), Hunt (?), Benyon (?) injured, Hollis (1 more game) and now Lench for 3 missing suspended

Lench - only negative (apart from the injuries). 1st half he looked exactly as he should have. Played that central midfield role well, got up and back and showed his experience when on the ball. 52 minutes in another brain dead moment results in him getting sent off and as a senior player (and in the current situation with younger players in the squad being used more and more those experienced players need to show them the way) to put yourself in the position to fight in the dugout with the away team when you are 1-0 up in a vital cup fixture is a total disgrace. Why on earth does he keep doing this (did the same thing after 70 minures v Worthing when we were 1-0 in the FA Cup going after a ball for no reason and caused all kinds of problems). I just don't know what goes through his head and something needs to change and soon!!!!

A very impressive result in the end and as was seen on Wednesday, I fully expected it, HOWEVER, I think its important to remember that Hanwell are a side from the league below and aren't in great form. I have been very impressed so far with Scott, Lee and Manny BUT lets keep our feet on the ground and see how the next few games go in our league before we lord them up as the second coming. For now, we can enjoy being in the next round of the trophy, 4 games I believe from Wembley (!!!!!) and a nice financial hep as well. Good week to prepare for Eastbourne now and with a few players being available again now, hopefully the boys will have some good decisions to make about the squad as well.

On Fabio Sole, after pre season I could see the lad had ability and deserved a place in our squad. He was in the team for our first game against Havant and on the day, like all of our players, had a poor game. He was then dropped and hasn't really had much of a look in until now. Yesterday he had an excellent game and being down 10 men ran his socks off to cover down our left side where there was an over load. His one downside for me is that he is a bit lightweight and does tend to lose the ball in crucial positions in midfield, but if can improve that part of his game he will be a very good player for us. 

On the bit about Josh Jackman and Wellsy pushing forward like wing backs, yes it certainly makes us a more potent attacking force but against better sides will make us more vulnerable to counter attacks or long balls played down the channels. This will obviously require not only for Josh and Wellsy to do a lot work up and down the pitch but also other players to cover for them.

On Matt Lench, I totally agree that it was stupid of him to get involved with whatever went on with the opposition dugout which eventually lead to him getting sent off and could have lead to us losing the game and much needed money. In his defence, I'm not sure that he 'keeps doing this'. He does sometimes play on the edge and have a bit of a short fuse but in 20 games so far this season he's picked up one yellow card and one red card yesterday which in my book doesn't equate to keeping on doing it. In no way am I trying to defend what Lenchy did to get himself sent off because it was idiotic and could have let the whole team down but it was obviously done in the heat of the moment which I'm sure he regrets and I think we should cut him some slack.

Agree that Scott, Manny and Toggs  are doing a great job for the club but as you say it's early day's and we do need to keep our feet on the ground and see how thinks pan out in the next few games because league wise we are in a very precarious position and there will certainly be bigger challenges to overcome in the coming weeks starting with Eastbourne at home next Saturday who will pose a massive challenge having turned over league leaders Ebbsfleet yesterday.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

On the subject of us being in a very precarious position in the league, there was talk about it before and during yesterday's game as to who will be the 4 teams who will go down.

The only two teams we could agree on to be relegated were Cheshunt and Hungerford.

Personally I really can't see Chippenham or Dulwich Hamlet being relegated and looking at the other teams above us I can only see the other 2 coming from Weymouth, Slough and Concord.

Unless any others think any of the teams above us will be in the mix to go down. 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[Bernie Gogan]

11 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

We were dominating the game and after some good play Matshazi produced a great shot from distance to give us the lead.

Unfortunately Johnny Goddard had to go off with what looked like a hamstring injury (hopefully only a tight hamstring and not a pull).

For the next 10 minutes we seemed to lose our shape with Hanwell getting a lot more possession and looking dangerous.

With Lenchy getting sent off with about 30 minutes to go the game swung in Hanwell's favor and we had to dig deep and soak up some pressure to maintain our lead.

Fortunately we were looking good on the break and after a terrific run down the wing from Wellsy he got to the byline and pulled the ball back for Manny for our second.

Matshazi should have got his second when with just the keeper to beat the keeper parried his shot, fortunately the ball fell kindly for him to set up Josh Jackman to drill the ball into the corner for the third goal.

Excellent performances all round from all the players but for me George Wells was back to his best producing a top draw performance with some excellent defending and attacking play down the wing.

 

 

All the players put in a tremendous shift, but special mention for Lee Togwell who was everywhere and, in my view, had his best game for us this season and perhaps for some while before. 

[Reading Rebel]

1 minute ago, Bernie Gogan said:

All the players put in a tremendous shift, but special mention for Lee Togwell who was everywhere and, in my view, had his best game for us this season and perhaps for some while before. 

Agree, best game for us in a long time, somewhere close to his normal standards.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

Very surprised by your below comment as to me every player and management looked very much together and playing for each other yesterday. Who were the players in your view not United?

”…and it was easy to see which players wanted to be wearing the Slough shirt with pride, and which players looked half hearted and going through the motions.”

Yes, love to know 3spirit's thinking in that statement.

I thought every player played their part for the shirt.

[Holyport Rebel]

Well I was hoping to be able to watch Slough ease to a comfortable 2 or 3 nil victory yesterday, so that I'd be able to dash out after 89 minutes, get a quick getaway in the car and hurry home to see the start of the England v New Zealand rugby International.

There were a couple of things  not helping my plan.

First, I hadn't counted on the M4 being shut between home and Hanwell which led to a much busier A40 than it should have been.

And secondly, we don't do comfortable  2 or 3 nil victories, do we ? 

I got to the ground not that early, and didn't expect to be able to get a programme.  I thought they would have sold out.

Got through the turnstile and heard a Hanwell official say to one of his colleagues, "These are the last 3 programmes".

"Can I have one please ?" I asked and gratefully handed over my 2 pounds, and duly was given one.

I walked away from the man and suddenly thought " I know that bloke. I've seen him on telly."

Inside the match programme, which despite having an uninspiring cover was I thought quite good value, it had photo's of Hanwell's officials etc.

I saw that this bloke's name was Stephen Pound and was their "Patron".

He had been the MP for Ealing North for over 20 years until 2019, and had been on loads of political tv programmes in past years.

I have got no time for any politician, whether they be Red or Blue, Yellow or Green, but I thought fair play to the bloke for helping out his local non-league team.

Onto the game, and why did Rhys not start the match wearing a cap ?

I wonder how much he actually saw of that shot in the first few minutes that hit our crossbar.

I noticed he had put a cap on later that half.

A fantastic strike from Arnie put us one ahead, and I thought we had a decent first half.  

Half time I'm hoping a for a quick goal in the 2nd half to put us 2 up, kill off Hanwell and allow me to leave a minute early for the rugby.

No such luck. 

Arnie had a great chance to increase our lead, but didn't, and then Lenchy gets sent off.

We were under the cosh then, with a long time to hold out till the final whistle.

I thought we weren't able to clear our lines long enough to give our defence a breather, and doubted whether we would hang on to the 1 nil win.

Then a fantastic run down the left wing by Wellsy ended with him laying off a perfect ball for Manny to put away and make it 2.

Tremendous play by George.

That gave us  breathing space, and definitely knocked the wind out of Hanwell's sails.

Another goal in added time by Josh made it 3.

Three nil sounds a comfortable win, but it wasn't.

It was great to see the players celebrations after those second half goals.

I don't think you can fake that togetherness or team spirit.

Hanwell's twitter match report says  " Hanwell were taught a lesson in clinical finishing by 10 man Slough Town."

"Clinical Finishing" ?.....................................us ?

And what is it with away team's scoreboards ?

A week after Hungerford's electronic scoreboard stopped working after 45 minutes, Hanwell's gave up the ghost after about 74 minutes, and I had no idea that there were 6 added minutes to play at the end.

A very good win, and let's hope for more next Saturday.

 

 

[bonjour]

 

No one had a cap but up stepped Torquay Eddie to lend his cap to Rhys after he was struggling with the sun so well done Ed.

For those of you who don't know Eddie you may hear him at every game shouting out his praise towards the officials, for those of us who stand by him it can be quite entertaining.

Great day yesterday,proud to be a rebel as we always are.

 

 

[SloughFlyer]

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

On Fabio Sole, after pre season I could see the lad had ability and deserved a place in our squad. He was in the team for our first game against Havant and on the day, like all of our players, had a poor game. He was then dropped and hasn't really had much of a look in until now. Yesterday he had an excellent game and being down 10 men ran his socks off to cover down our left side where there was an over load. His one downside for me is that he is a bit lightweight and does tend to lose the ball in crucial positions in midfield, but if can improve that part of his game he will be a very good player for us. 

On the bit about Josh Jackman and Wellsy pushing forward like wing backs, yes it certainly makes us a more potent attacking force but against better sides will make us more vulnerable to counter attacks or long balls played down the channels. This will obviously require not only for Josh and Wellsy to do a lot work up and down the pitch but also other players to cover for them.

On Matt Lench, I totally agree that it was stupid of him to get involved with whatever went on with the opposition dugout which eventually lead to him getting sent off and could have lead to us losing the game and much needed money. In his defence, I'm not sure that he 'keeps doing this'. He does sometimes play on the edge and have a bit of a short fuse but in 20 games so far this season he's picked up one yellow card and one red card yesterday which in my book doesn't equate to keeping on doing it. In no way am I trying to defend what Lenchy did to get himself sent off because it was idiotic and could have let the whole team down but it was obviously done in the heat of the moment which I'm sure he regrets and I think we should cut him some slack.

Agree that Scott, Manny and Toggs  are doing a great job for the club but as you say it's early day's and we do need to keep our feet on the ground and see how thinks pan out in the next few games because league wise we are in a very precarious position and there will certainly be bigger challenges to overcome in the coming weeks starting with Eastbourne at home next Saturday who will pose a massive challenge having turned over league leaders Ebbsfleet yesterday.

On the defence I think that 3 back / 5 back system will be massively improved with Dandy on the right side and Hollis on the left. With as well as Togwell did yesterday, his pace (or lack there of) will be easily exploted by the teams in our league. Put Hollis in there with Dandy and Davies sweeping and that removes that as an issue. Also allows Scott to be the ball playing sweeper / centreback and start the atttacks. Agreed about Josh and George needing to get up and down and drop to the 5 back when we are out of possession, but I'm certain they can do this.

I say keep doing this for Lench as he did exactly the same thing with "fighting" for the ball in exactly the same situation (1-0 up in a key cup game) against Worthing. On that occassion it allowed a quite frankly beaten Worthing side something to rile them up and fight for and we know how that turned out. Yesterday could have put the cherry on the cake for Lench this year after getting needlessly sent off in that situation was stupid. So RR, thats twice he has done something like this in the exact same situation, how many times should we allow him to do it before I can say "keep"? Since I called out his form a few weeks back he has improved, but that hasn't been for more than a half maximum and its just not good enough. Under Neil and Jon Lench SHOULD have been a leader and senior player but wasn't for whatever reason, with Scott Manny and Lee needing the senior guys to step up, the first time this was put to the test, he lasted 52 minutes before doing that. I'm shocked that "everyone" fans wise seems to give him so much slack.

[Irishadrian]

4 hours ago, Holyport Rebel said:

Well I was hoping to be able to watch Slough ease to a comfortable 2 or 3 nil victory yesterday, so that I'd be able to dash out after 89 minutes, get a quick getaway in the car and hurry home to see the start of the England v New Zealand rugby International.

There were a couple of things  not helping my plan.

First, I hadn't counted on the M4 being shut between home and Hanwell which led to a much busier A40 than it should have been.

And secondly, we don't do comfortable  2 or 3 nil victories, do we ? 

I got to the ground not that early, and didn't expect to be able to get a programme.  I thought they would have sold out.

Got through the turnstile and heard a Hanwell official say to one of his colleagues, "These are the last 3 programmes".

"Can I have one please ?" I asked and gratefully handed over my 2 pounds, and duly was given one.

I walked away from the man and suddenly thought " I know that bloke. I've seen him on telly."

Inside the match programme, which despite having an uninspiring cover was I thought quite good value, it had photo's of Hanwell's officials etc.

I saw that this bloke's name was Stephen Pound and was their "Patron".

He had been the MP for Ealing North for over 20 years until 2019, and had been on loads of political tv programmes in past years.

I have got no time for any politician, whether they be Red or Blue, Yellow or Green, but I thought fair play to the bloke for helping out his local non-league team.

Onto the game, and why did Rhys not start the match wearing a cap ?

I wonder how much he actually saw of that shot in the first few minutes that hit our crossbar.

I noticed he had put a cap on later that half.

A fantastic strike from Arnie put us one ahead, and I thought we had a decent first half.  

Half time I'm hoping a for a quick goal in the 2nd half to put us 2 up, kill off Hanwell and allow me to leave a minute early for the rugby.

No such luck. 

Arnie had a great chance to increase our lead, but didn't, and then Lenchy gets sent off.

We were under the cosh then, with a long time to hold out till the final whistle.

I thought we weren't able to clear our lines long enough to give our defence a breather, and doubted whether we would hang on to the 1 nil win.

Then a fantastic run down the left wing by Wellsy ended with him laying off a perfect ball for Manny to put away and make it 2.

Tremendous play by George.

That gave us  breathing space, and definitely knocked the wind out of Hanwell's sails.

Another goal in added time by Josh made it 3.

Three nil sounds a comfortable win, but it wasn't.

It was great to see the players celebrations after those second half goals.

I don't think you can fake that togetherness or team spirit.

Hanwell's twitter match report says  " Hanwell were taught a lesson in clinical finishing by 10 man Slough Town."

"Clinical Finishing" ?.....................................us ?

And what is it with away team's scoreboards ?

A week after Hungerford's electronic scoreboard stopped working after 45 minutes, Hanwell's gave up the ghost after about 74 minutes, and I had no idea that there were 6 added minutes to play at the end.

A very good win, and let's hope for more next Saturday.

 

 

Excellent well witten report HR

[3spirit]

3 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

On the defence I think that 3 back / 5 back system will be massively improved with Dandy on the right side and Hollis on the left. With as well as Togwell did yesterday, his pace (or lack there of) will be easily exploted by the teams in our league. Put Hollis in there with Dandy and Davies sweeping and that removes that as an issue. Also allows Scott to be the ball playing sweeper / centreback and start the atttacks. Agreed about Josh and George needing to get up and down and drop to the 5 back when we are out of possession, but I'm certain they can do this.

I say keep doing this for Lench as he did exactly the same thing with "fighting" for the ball in exactly the same situation (1-0 up in a key cup game) against Worthing. On that occassion it allowed a quite frankly beaten Worthing side something to rile them up and fight for and we know how that turned out. Yesterday could have put the cherry on the cake for Lench this year after getting needlessly sent off in that situation was stupid. So RR, thats twice he has done something like this in the exact same situation, how many times should we allow him to do it before I can say "keep"? Since I called out his form a few weeks back he has improved, but that hasn't been for more than a half maximum and its just not good enough. Under Neil and Jon Lench SHOULD have been a leader and senior player but wasn't for whatever reason, with Scott Manny and Lee needing the senior guys to step up, the first time this was put to the test, he lasted 52 minutes before doing that. I'm shocked that "everyone" fans wise seems to give him so much slack.

Unlike your first post SloughFlyer I take issue with a couple of your points here. I don't see Guy Hollis playing on the left hand side of three centre backs,well not in an ideal way, and nor do I agree with your comments on Lee Togwell being easily exploited in the heart of defence. He's played there in a two man centre back pairing loads of times and is a quality defender. To me I see Lee as being able to play in numerous positions. His versatility offers us a wide range of uses including playing on the left hand side of the three, taking on the sweeper role,on the right hand sde or sitting in front of the back three in a holding role, and a lot more besides defending.

On Matt Lench he's been one of my favourite players [ since he first arrived at Slough from Hitchin fc]. He is a talented footballer and normally he would be one of my first players on the team sheet but yesterday he let the team down by getting sent off needlessly. It could have cost Slough the game.Against a better team it would have done. We need to get the old Matt Lench firing again but if he is going to keep acting petulantly I would let him leave our club and replace him with someone else.

I could name a couple of others that I would release in the next couple of weeks if they don't buck up, as we are going to have an uphill task turning around our league form as it is and we are going to need an 'all in it together mentality' to get up the table.

I liked, in the Scott Davies post match interview, that as well as him looking out for promising youngsters he had a number of calls from ex Slough players and ex teammates [if that is what I heard? as my laptop doesn't have the best volume]. It's early days with our caretaker managers but so far so good but there may come a time[if they get the management role permanently] when they can't be as pally with their team-mates and will have to address situations when players aren't pulling their weight for the Slough cause.  To me Slough started sluggishly yesterday but grew into the game and got better the more it went on. Thankfully Slough scored first.     

[3spirit]

8 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

Very surprised by your below comment as to me every player and management looked very much together and playing for each other yesterday. Who were the players in your view not United?

”…and it was easy to see which players wanted to be wearing the Slough shirt with pride, and which players looked half hearted and going through the motions.”

I've said one in my above post. The other two I'll keep to myself,as it is only the second game under Scott/Togs and Manny, and currently we need them all.

I was only going by yesterday's performance but was looking at it, in how Slough can improve areas in their current set up and shake up the team. 

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

On the defence I think that 3 back / 5 back system will be massively improved with Dandy on the right side and Hollis on the left. With as well as Togwell did yesterday, his pace (or lack there of) will be easily exploted by the teams in our league. Put Hollis in there with Dandy and Davies sweeping and that removes that as an issue. Also allows Scott to be the ball playing sweeper / centreback and start the atttacks. Agreed about Josh and George needing to get up and down and drop to the 5 back when we are out of possession, but I'm certain they can do this.

I say keep doing this for Lench as he did exactly the same thing with "fighting" for the ball in exactly the same situation (1-0 up in a key cup game) against Worthing. On that occassion it allowed a quite frankly beaten Worthing side something to rile them up and fight for and we know how that turned out. Yesterday could have put the cherry on the cake for Lench this year after getting needlessly sent off in that situation was stupid. So RR, thats twice he has done something like this in the exact same situation, how many times should we allow him to do it before I can say "keep"? Since I called out his form a few weeks back he has improved, but that hasn't been for more than a half maximum and its just not good enough. Under Neil and Jon Lench SHOULD have been a leader and senior player but wasn't for whatever reason, with Scott Manny and Lee needing the senior guys to step up, the first time this was put to the test, he lasted 52 minutes before doing that. I'm shocked that "everyone" fans wise seems to give him so much slack.

In 20 games played you're picking out 2 occasions, one where he picked up a yellow card and one agreed stupid red card.

If he was that much of a liability he would be picking up cards every game but he isn't.

As I said he does sometimes play on the edge and gets involved but as long as he can to a large extent control it, one yellow and one red in 20 games isn't exactly in the old Ben Harris territory that most people knocked, I can't see a problem as for me he is a vital cog in our midfield.