V Dartford 21st Feb A

[Irishadrian]

Im sure most are expecting a Rebel defeat after our last 2 poor performances  and thats understandable but Dartford are another excellent team having a wobble  Last 5 league games W1 D2 L2 and that solitary win against relegation zone Chippenham  Im hoping we deliver the kind of performance this squad are capable off.

[Irishadrian]

8 minutes ago, Irishadrian said:

Im sure most are expecting a Rebel defeat after our last 2 poor performances  and thats understandable but Dartford are another excellent team having a wobble  Last 5 league games W1 D2 L2 and that solitary win against relegation zone Chippenham  Im hoping we deliver the kind of performance this squad are capable off.

Dont know how that turned up twice could someone with the know how merge them thank you

[Reading Rebel]

5 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

Im sure most are expecting a Rebel defeat after our last 2 poor performances  and thats understandable but Dartford are another excellent team having a wobble  Last 5 league games W1 D2 L2 and that solitary win against relegation zone Chippenham  Im hoping we deliver the kind of performance this squad are capable off.

I think this was said about the Chelmsford game.

IMO we've really got to forget about past performances.

It's been said a few times before that most teams have a wobble and top sides like Dartford soon recover their form and go on another run.

Most people will be expecting us to come away with nothing so with nothing to lose and despite the big loss of Francis Amartey we might just go there and pull off the result of the season.

[glyn]

Sometimes i think we have more freedom away from homes

But we have to take the big chances when they happen

 

 

[Guest Wycombe Rebel]

4-5-1, hard to beat…

Dennis; Jackman Eweka Dandy George;

Shubbar Lench Togwell Goddard Walsh;

Obi

[GlenSTFC]

8 minutes ago, Wycombe Rebel said:

4-5-1, hard to beat…

Dennis; Jackman Eweka Dandy George;

Shubbar Lench Togwell Goddard Walsh;

Obi

I’d agree with that line up and formation. Obvious I know but we need to tighten up at the back and create more and take our chances. 

[Reading Rebel]

I'd go:

Dennis

Jackman Eweka Dandy

Davies Togwell

Shubaar Goddard Lench Walsh

Obi

[Reading Rebel]

Another defeat but a respectable score line considering most supporters were expecting us to lose.

Our starting line up indicated that we were erring on the side of caution with only the one 'striker' in Elliott Benyon.

Unfortunately we conceded in the 4th minute which again sounded like a poorly defended goal allowing Murtagh a free header from a free kick.

With Will Dennis pulling off some good saves for the rest of the game defensively we can be reasonably pleased but how did we do going forward? 

I can only go by what was said on Rebels Radio but there was hardly a mention of their keeper having a save of any note to make.

Excellent news that we've just signed Tyrese Owen but having only scored one goal in 4 games a striker has to be a priority signing if we are to stay out of the drop zone. 

 

[Ian g f]

25 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Another defeat but a respectable score line considering most supporters were expecting us to lose.

Our starting line up indicated that we were erring on the side of caution with only the one 'striker' in Elliott Benyon.

Unfortunately we conceded in the 4th minute which again sounded like a poorly defended goal allowing Murtagh a free header from a free kick.

With Will Dennis pulling off some good saves for the rest of the game defensively we can be reasonably pleased but how did we do going forward? 

I can only go by what was said on Rebels Radio but there was hardly a mention of their keeper having a save of any note to make.

Excellent news that we've just signed Tyrese Owen but having only scored one goal in 4 games a striker has to be a priority signing if we are to stay out of the drop zone. 

 

I can see it going to the last game!

[Reading Rebel]

5 minutes ago, Ian g f said:

I can see it going to the last game!

Could be the decider when we go to Weymouth for the penultimate game of the season 😅

[Reading Rebel]

I think it's pretty obvious that we've got to stop gifting the opposition goals and start scoring.

Apart from Francis Amartey, who could be out for a number of weeks, do we have a proven goal scorer in the squad?

Edited February 22, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[3spirit]

4 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

I think it's pretty obvious that we've got to stop gifting the opposition goals and we need to start scoring.

Apart from Francis Amartey who could be out for a number of weeks do we have real goal scorer in the squad?

No, we don't have another prolific goal scorer.

I look at last night's defeat as one to forget about. It was always unlikely that Slough would get anything from there. A 0-1 result isn't too bad in my book, all things considered.

St Albans are another team flying high at the moment but I hope we don't go there with a 4-5-1. We need to give Elliot Benyon and Ogo Obi time together up front. Elliot's not been a prolific goalscorer for years but he does hold the ball up well and link play in forward areas. Someone needs to get him to stay higher up the pitch than keep dropping back into midfield areas. Ogo is the player we need to start scoring. To me he is the striker we need to have faith in. I think he has a lot of ability but because of Francis's involvement and manager's decisions to drop him to the subs bench, he hasn't quite had the chances to shine imo.

      

    

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, 3spirit said:

No, we don't have another prolific goal scorer.

I look at last night's defeat as one to forget about. It was always unlikely that Slough would get anything from there. A 0-1 result isn't too bad in my book, all things considered.

St Albans are another team flying high at the moment but I hope we don't go there with a 4-5-1. We need to give Elliot Benyon and Ogo Obi time together up front. Elliot's not been a prolific goalscorer for years but he does hold the ball up well and link play in forward areas. Someone needs to get him to stay higher up the pitch than keep dropping back into midfield areas. Ogo is the player we need to start scoring. To me he is the striker we need to have faith in. I think he has a lot of ability but because of Francis's involvement and manager's decisions to drop him to the subs bench, he hasn't quite had the chances to shine imo.

      

    

I'm not sure I even mean 'prolific goal scorer' just a striker that given the chances can be relied upon to put some away.

Our top scorers are Johnny Goddard followed by Josh Jackman.

On Ogo Obi you might be right about needing time.

At the moment he is getting chances but not sticking the ball in the net.

The trouble is how much time have we got before panic stations set in.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[Holyport Rebel]

You can see the 1-0 scoreline against the team second in the league and think we did well to only lose by that amount.

Walking out of the ground afterwards I thought Dartford looked nothing special and we could have got a point from the game. 

Just seen Scotty's interview, and I think he is rightly aggrieved at the ref's performance last night.

When you're down near the bottom the breaks rarely seem to go for you.

Yes, Dartford could have scored more than one goal, but they are the team second in the league ,playing at home so you would expect them to have chances to score during the 90 minutes.

We had some lovely approach play during the match, but as Scotty alluded to in his comments, the final ball in was frustratingly not accurate enough. 

Their goalie didn't really have that many saves to make, although the ball was in his goal area quite often.

I do enjoy the fact that Scotty does "go for it" when time is counting down and we need a goal.

 We had four up front for about the last 15 minutes.

We should have been given a penalty in injury time, when Josh was fouled from behind.

It would have been a soft one in my eyes , BUT it was a foul and if it had been committed anywhere else on the pitch other than in Dartford's penalty area it would have been given.

The ref chickened out.

Fifteen minutes earlier we had a free kick about 20 yards out from Dartford's goal, which we took quickly and it put us in a great attacking position, but the ref blew his whistle to stop us in our tracks.

Why?

Don't know.

At the final whistle the ref got booed off by  the Rebels fans there.

The match report on our website seems rather downbeat to me.

Perhaps I see things through rose tinted spectacles.

Thought Tyrese had a very impressive debut.

It's so nice to see us have a tall player in our ranks.

He nearly scored with a deft back heel flick.

On to St. Albans on Saturday.

Just such a shame Francis is injured.

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Holyport Rebel

[3spirit]

On 22/02/2023 at 11:50, Reading Rebel said:

I'm not sure I even mean 'prolific' goal scorer just a striker that given the chances can be relied upon to put some chances away.

Our top scorers are Johnny Goddard followed by Josh Jackman.

On Ogo Obi you might be right about needing time.

At the moment he is getting chances but not sticking the ball in the net.

The trouble is how much time have we got before panic stations set in.

 

The trouble at the moment is we keep chopping and changing the team. It seems like Scott Davies is changing players for changes sake. To me I understand the notion of bringing a player in if it's the type of player we haven't got, or to replace an injured player but I don't get his rationale for bringing players in like Ogo Obi, Louis Walsh and Matt Hall if he isn't going to stick by them for a certain period of games. To me this just upsets team morale and stability in what the team is trying to do.

The Tyrese Owen signing sounds a good one given what I've read and is something we haven't got. Temi Eweka has been a great signing/loan and has made a difference as has Francis Amartey but upfront we have been erratic in our treatment of Ogo Obi. We've done the same with Louis Walsh on the flanks imo.

Against St Albans,without the threat of Francis Amartey, Slough need to start Ogo alongside our other striker but for me I would use Johnny Goddard in a free role behind the front two as a striker/attacking midfielder. He's playing against his old club and should be up for this game. I'm sure he could get Slough on the scoresheet. To me Ogo leads the line and should play the full 90. Elliot is the player that makes way in the second half if we need to change our attack fortunes.

We shouldn't sign another striker yet. With Moe Shubbar  and Matt Burgess and now Tyrese Owen lets bed these players in first before we rush in more players. Forwards or otherwise. Francis Amartey's injury may not be as bad as was first feared, so if he is only out for 3-4 weeks we ought to be able to cope without him.    

Edited February 23, 2023 by 3spirit

[Reading Rebel]

On 22/02/2023 at 12:33, Holyport Rebel said:

You can see the 1-0 scoreline against the team second in the league and think we did well to only lose by that amount.

Walking out of the ground afterwards I thought Dartford looked nothing special and we could have got a point from the game. 

Just seen Scotty's interview, and I think he is rightly aggrieved at the ref's performance last night.

When you're down near the bottom the breaks rarely seem to go for you.

Yes, Dartford could have scored more than one goal, but they are the team second in the league ,playing at home so you would expect them to have chances to score during the 90 minutes.

We had some lovely approach play during the match, but as Scotty alluded to in his comments, the final ball in was frustratingly not accurate enough. 

Their goalie didn't really have that many saves to make, although the ball was in his goal area quite often.

I do enjoy the fact that Scotty does "go for it" when time is counting down and we need a goal.

 We had four up front for about the last 15 minutes.

We should have been given a penalty in injury time, when Josh was fouled from behind.

It would have been a soft one in my eyes , BUT it was a foul and if it had been committed anywhere else on the pitch other than in Dartford's penalty area it would have been given.

The ref chickened out.

Fifteen minutes earlier we had a free kick about 20 yards out from Dartford's goal, which we took quickly and it put us in a great attacking position, but the ref blew his whistle to stop us in our tracks.

Why?

Don't know.

At the final whistle the ref got booed off by all the Rebels fans there.

The match report on our website seems rather downbeat to me.

Perhaps I see things through rose tinted spectacles.

Thought Tyrese had a very impressive debut.

It's so nice to see us have a tall player in our ranks.

He nearly scored with a deft back heel flick.

On to St. Albans on Saturday.

Just such a shame Francis is injured.

 

Is it just not getting the breaks because we are near the bottom or something that most have suspected for a long time that refs, possibly subconsciously, tend to favour the home side when it comes to making some of the bigger decisions in a game?

I think it also has to be said that the quality of refereeing in most leagues/divisions has dropped over the past few seasons.

On a positive note it's good to hear from a seasoned supporter that Tyrese Owen impressed you on his debut.

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

50 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

The trouble at the moment is we keep chopping and changing the team. It seems like Scott Davies is changing players for changes sake. To me I understand the notion of bringing a player in if it's the type of player we haven't got, or to replace an injured player but I don't get his rationale for bringing players in like Ogo Obi, Louis Walsh and Matt Hall if he isn't going to stick by them for a certain period of games. To me this just upsets team morale and stability in what the team is trying to do.

The Tyrese Owen signing sounds a good one given what I've read and is something we haven't got. Temi Eweka has been a great signing/loan and has made a difference as has Francis Amartey but upfront we have been erratic in our treatment of Ogo Ogi. We've done the same with Louis Walsh on the flanks imo.

Against St Albans,without the threat of Francis Amartey, Slough need to start Ogo alongside our other striker but for me I would use Johnny Goddard in a free role behind the front two as a striker/attacking midfielder. He's playing against his old club and should be up for this game. I'm sure he could get Slough on the scoresheet. To me Ogo leads the line and should play the full 90. Elliot is the player that makes way in the second half if we need to change our attack fortunes.

We shouldn't sign another striker yet. With Moe Shubbar  and Matt Burgess and now Tyrese Owen lets bed these players in first before we rush in more players. Forwards or otherwise. Francis Amartey's injury may not be as bad as was first feared, so if he is only out for 3-4 weeks we ought to be able to cope without him.    

On Ogo Obi, he joined us in December and out of a possible 11 games he has made 8 starts and been a sub three times.

It's only been in 3 out of the last 4 games where Ogo has been on the bench.  

I would say that's hardly erratic treatment of Ogo.

[Guest Wycombe Rebel]

Regarding the striker situation, all the best ones in our league or the leagues below etc won’t want to join us mid season and we’d struggle to get them pre-season given they are all earning £1k a week plus!

I think Ogo has been given ample opportunity but he simply is not a proven goal scorer, you’ve only got to look at his record to see that, he offers other things, he leads the line, he is quick, powerful… Is that enough at this level?!?! I’m not sure it is…

You can have 1 striker misfiring but nearly all our strikers have misfired this season, not enough goals but maybe that’s the pool we’re fishing in.

We need Francis back and put through the middle, not coming in off the left or right and fingers crossed that will be enough.

Buckle up Rebels, I think we’re in for a long slog, I thought we would pull away but now I’m not so sure.

At St Albans, try something radical, put Tyrese further forward and play off him, worth a try!

Edited February 22, 2023 by Wycombe Rebel

[Sir Rebel1965]

Interesting comments there WR

Got me looking at our stats and some interesting numbers appear.

We have a GD of -22 which is joint 2nd worst in the league.

But we have only scored 1 less (37) than the tin pot side Farnborough in 9th place, however they have conceded less than half what we have.

In football the object is to score more than your opponent, so both attack and defence need to be working correctly.

Too many soft goals conceded and not enough opportunities taken sum's up our position.

[3spirit]

23 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

On Ogo Obi, he joined us in December and out of a possible 11 games he has made 8 starts and been a sub three times.

It's only been in 3 out of the last 4 games where Ogo has been on the bench.  

I would say that's hardly erratic treatment of Ogo.

Yes eleven games but let's look into them.

Ogo made a terrific debut in his first game alongside Elliot Benyon in the 1-3 loss against Havant. In his second game Alfonso Tenconi came back in,as did Imran Kayani. 3rd game Kayani starts against Oxford City with him in the New Year fixture.  In his 4th game the Tonbridge 3-3 it was Francis Amartey's first game back. Ogo was subbed second half for Louis Walsh-[his debut appearance]. In his fifth game Ogo scored his first and only goal so far for Slough in the 4-3 win over Dulwich. In his 6th game Ogo was paired with Francis upfront against Cheshunt. He was subbed second half. At the time I thought it was an absurd decision as Francis and Ogo were doing well together but the score was only 1-1. To me I thought Yella took the wrong player off. A sub needed but not for Ogo.

In his 7th game Ogo got subbed again for Elliot Benyon in the 1-1 against Dover. In his 8th game he was a substitute the 0-1 away win at Hampton.

By this time Francis Amartey had stolen Ogo's thunder and nailed down the number one striker role because he was scoring goals, and Ogo wasn't but that doesn't mean Ogo wasn't contributing.

Now do we blame Ogo for not scoring against Chelmsford away in a 0-2 loss[his 9th game] Francis Amartey never scored either ! His 10th appearance for Slough was as a substitute in the 0-3 loss to Welling and last time out against Dartford he was a substitute again.

Where's the faith in this player? In the games I've seen this season, I consider him to be one of our better signings, and played right could be a real goal threat. To me our treatment of him hasn't improved his confidence. 

He may not score as many as Francis but he should be given a better chance of proving his mettle than what he has been given so far imo.       

Edited February 23, 2023 by 3spirit