Slough v Chippenham

[Windsor Rebel]

I predict our impressive home form will continue: 2-0 (Minhas, Goddard)

[Reading Rebel]

Earlier in the season we lost 2-1 to Chippenham.

The player who did most of the damage down the right wing was Craig Fasanmade who was a danger for the whole game with his speed and directness.

It was very strange and caused some excitement among supporters to see Fasanmade then appear on our team sheet when we played at Welling earlier in the season.

No explanation as to why he appeared on our team sheet was ever given and is still a complete mystery.

Edited February 16 by Reading Rebel

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Reading Rebel said:

Earlier in the season we lost 2-1 to Chippenham.

The player who did most of the damage down the right wing was Craig Fasanmade who was a danger for the whole game with his speed and directness.

It was very strange and caused some excitement among supporters to see Fasanmade then appear on our team sheet when we played at Welling earlier in the season.

No explanation as to why he appeared on our team sheet was ever given and is still a complete mystery.

It was obviously a mistake by the home club, nothing more and nothing less. They probably didn’t update their template properly from a previous game. 

[Connor McNeish]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

It was obviously a mistake by the home club, nothing more and nothing less. They probably didn’t update their template properly from a previous game. 

What Matt’s said here is bang on. I had pointed it out to them before kick-off and it was a simple error made by someone who had forgotten to swap that name out as their previous home fixture was Chippenham. 

[Reading Rebel]

2 nil down to two very different goals.

First goal was a header from a corner/cross/free kick, can't remember which, that should have been dealt with either by our keeper or Dan Bayliss who was out jumped in the air by the scorer.

Second goal was an unstoppable free kick which looked from distance like a dubious decision from the ref to give a foul. 

We then huffed and puffed without looking like scoring until Chipps had a man sent off which was the turning point in the game.

Excellent far post cross to Oggy who produced an unbelievable leap to plant a header home and we were back in the game.

It was then a siege on the Chippenham goal until the equalizer came from another header from Nathan Minhas to bring us level.

The siege continued but without the ball falling for us in or around the area to give us the winner.

In the end a terrific come back to continue our unbeaten home record which now sits at 17.     

 

 

 

Edited February 17 by Reading Rebel

[Ian g f]

Thought the keeper played well considering he usually plays at a lower level He rose to the challenge 

[Nathan]

I feel we got away with one today, as until the last 20 minutes we were far from our best.

We were mostly disjointed and ineffectual in the first half, though we limited Chippenham to only one real chance, which was a poorly defended corner for their goal. This carried on into the second half, with Chippenham extending their lead with a free-kick from which I thought our keeper could have done better with. They also hit the crossbar, again from another well-taken free-kick which would have put them out of sight.

We huffed and puffed, but it looked like it simply wasn't to be our day but the real turning point for me was Ogbonna's well-taken headed goal. Back in the game and with a man advantage, we had our tails up and Minhas quickly scored a (too rare) goal to get us level. It was just a shame that we couldn't get the winner, as for the next 10 minutes we were all over them.

We were fairly poor until their sending off but in the end we were disappointed not to win, though it felt like a win as it was still an impressive comeback, even against 10 men.

[Stan]

Thought we looked a bit threadbare today . Lenchy was  Scottys direct replacement and did well but boy we missed him in the danger zone starting so far back . 
Midfield had no engine and we never cut through them or even pressured them. 
Ironically the subs bench looked very short of options with the kids in there but Spicer was a revelation when he came on and showed how a midfield dynamo is meant to function . Absolutely Terrific half hour from him . 
Would have been another amazing comeback but their keeper again made some great stops. 
not sure if it’s a point gained or two dropped ! 

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Thought we looked a bit threadbare today . Lenchy was  Scottys direct replacement and did well but boy we missed him in the danger zone starting so far back . 
Midfield had no engine and we never cut through them or even pressured them. 
Ironically the subs bench looked very short of options with the kids in there but Spicer was a revelation when he came on and showed how a midfield dynamo is meant to function . Absolutely Terrific half hour from him . 
Would have been another amazing comeback but their keeper again made some great stops. 
not sure if it’s a point gained or two dropped ! 

Agree with most of what you say Stan.

Lenchy for me was a waste playing in the Scott Davies role, we needed his skill and creativity further up the pitch. I also thought our midfield missed the spark of Lench and a Munash type of player as we never really seemed to get to grips with the game.

The re positioning due to players being unavailable for one reason or another just never really got off the ground until the latter stages of the game when Chips were down to 10 and we scored our first goal. 

On the missing player front not sure why Dan Lincoln or Jammers were not there today. 

Great comeback but I think we got away with one today.

Edited February 17 by Reading Rebel

[Nathan]

7 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

On the missing player front not sure why Dan Lincoln or Jammers were not there today. 

I heard today that Dan Lincoln was on holiday, but I wouldn't quote me on that. 

[GlenSTFC]

5 minutes ago, Nathan said:

I heard today that Dan Lincoln was on holiday, but I wouldn't quote me on that. 

Scott mention both absentees in his interview. Both Lincoln and Jammers were in the Caribbean, Dan on business and unfortunately Jammers’ dad had recently died.

[Reading Rebel]

Just listened to Scots post match interview and firstly I'd like send my thoughts and best wishes to Jammers on the sad news about his Father. 

On the bit about Dan Lincoln being in Barbados setting up a cricket coaching course is a tricky one for me.

Firstly there's no doubt that getting Dan on board this season has been a big plus for us.

We know that Dan is into his cricket and will be missing some games now and very possibly at the back end of the season.

Maybe it'll have an impact on us this season if we're lucky enough to be somewhere near the play-offs, but certainly if Dan is still with us next season and we're serious about having a real go at reaching the play-offs he could be missing for games at the beginning and at the end of the season which could be detrimental to our chances if we're anywhere near a play-off position.

Personally given a choice my preference would be to have a keeper that will be with us from the start to the finish of the season.

 

Edited February 18 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

Our attendance yesterday of just under 1,000 was the 4th highest of the day in the NLS.

[Nathan]

2 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Our attendance yesterday of just under 1,000 was the 4th highest of the day in the NLS.

I was disappointed with the away attendance (so the good news is that most of these would be Slough or neutrals). There appeared to be about 20 or so behind the goal, and only a smattering around the rest of the ground. I know they're not quite next door, but it's hardly a long or difficult trip!

I've not been to Chippenham for a few years now, but whenever I've been I'm sure we've always bought much more than that, including the FA Trophy replay in 2010.

Edited February 18 by Nathan

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, Nathan said:

I was disappointed with the away attendance (so the good news is that most of these would be Slough or neutrals). There appeared to be about 20 or so behind the goal, and only a smattering around the rest of the ground. I know they're not quite next door, but it's hardly a long or difficult trip!

I've not been to Chippenham for a few years now, but whenever I've been I'm sure we've always bought much more than that, including the FA Trophy replay in 2010.

The away support was disappointing but Chips have always been one of those clubs that are very poorly supported away from home.

But as you say it does mean most of the support was from Slough which is a big positive.

Edited February 18 by Reading Rebel

[DonnyNo6]

19 hours ago, Nathan said:

I was disappointed with the away attendance (so the good news is that most of these would be Slough or neutrals). There appeared to be about 20 or so behind the goal, and only a smattering around the rest of the ground. I know they're not quite next door, but it's hardly a long or difficult trip!

I've not been to Chippenham for a few years now, but whenever I've been I'm sure we've always bought much more than that, including the FA Trophy replay in 2010.

I went back in August to their place, if memory serves I think there was a 100/150 of us or so, certainly many more than they brought to ours.

[Curtis]

On 18/02/2024 at 01:59, Reading Rebel said:

Firstly there's no doubt that getting Dan on board this season has been a big plus for us.

We know that Dan is into his cricket and will be missing some games now and very possibly at the back end of the season.

Maybe it'll have an impact on us this season if we're lucky enough to be somewhere near the play-offs, but certainly if Dan is still with us next season and we're serious about having a real go at reaching the play-offs he could be missing for games at the beginning and at the end of the season which could be detrimental to our chances if we're anywhere near a play-off position.

Personally given a choice my preference would be to have a keeper that will be with us from the start to the finish of the season.

 

The stats on Dan Lincoln are that he has played in 14 league matches where we have won 9 drawn 1 lost 4. That is 28 points from 14 matches, 2 points per match, which is promotion form (& I would be very surprised if any other player in the squad has a higher points per match average). I think he hasn’t been available for three league matches, and we have drawn all three of those.

Ideally, I would like to see Dan playing every match, but even if he was only able to play 35 league matches a season he would still be a tremendous asset to the club.

[SloughFlyer]

2 hours ago, Curtis said:

The stats on Dan Lincoln are that he has played in 14 league matches where we have won 9 drawn 1 lost 4. That is 28 points from 14 matches, 2 points per match, which is promotion form (& I would be very surprised if any other player in the squad has a higher points per match average). I think he hasn’t been available for three league matches, and we have drawn all three of those.

Ideally, I would like to see Dan playing every match, but even if he was only able to play 35 league matches a season he would still be a tremendous asset to the club.

IMO (have said so since he joined) (and we all know I do have some opinions on goalkeepers), Dan Lincoln is the best goalkeeper in our league and the best keeper we have had in a long time. The more he is available the better and TBH, as Curtis says, even if he misses 10 games a season, that's ok by me.

As for Hugo, we have watched him come through the ranks of local football and I think he is also a decent keeper and certainly a good option for when Dan is missing in games.

I guess the biggest difficulty is for the relationship between defence and keeper and if there are these gaps in Dan's gamed that may cause a bit of an issue, but with the experience of our defensive players, we really should be able to cope with this and we saw on Saturday as an example, neither goal would have mattered Lincoln, Hugo or otherwise as the free kick was excellent and the corner should have been headed clear.

[GlenSTFC]

16 minutes ago, SloughFlyer said:

IMO (have said so since he joined) (and we all know I do have some opinions on goalkeepers), Dan Lincoln is the best goalkeeper in our league and the best keeper we have had in a long time. The more he is available the better and TBH, as Curtis says, even if he misses 10 games a season, that's ok by me.

As for Hugo, we have watched him come through the ranks of local football and I think he is also a decent keeper and certainly a good option for when Dan is missing in games.

I guess the biggest difficulty is for the relationship between defence and keeper and if there are these gaps in Dan's gamed that may cause a bit of an issue, but with the experience of our defensive players, we really should be able to cope with this and we saw on Saturday as an example, neither goal would have mattered Lincoln, Hugo or otherwise as the free kick was excellent and the corner should have been headed clear.

I agree Dan is very good but I don’t agree he’s the best we’ve had in a long time as Will Dennis is as good if not better. It’s a tricky situation with Dan as no doubt he would made it clear he had other commitments but I guess Scott didn’t want to pass up the opportunity and so has had to be more relaxed in availablity. This will be probably be why he won’t sign/be offered a contract with us unfortunately. Not sold on Hugo yet but it’s always going to be difficult to get as good a backup, he also appears quite small for goalkeeper?

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

I agree Dan is very good but I don’t agree he’s the best we’ve had in a long time as Will Dennis is as good if not better. It’s a tricky situation with Dan as no doubt he would made it clear he had other commitments but I guess Scott didn’t want to pass up the opportunity and so has had to be more relaxed in availablity. This will be probably be why he won’t sign/be offered a contract with us unfortunately. Not sold on Hugo yet but it’s always going to be difficult to get as good a backup, he also appears quite small for goalkeeper?

Obviously there's no argument on Will Dennis probably being the best keeper we've had that's why he's now playing in the Scottish Premiership for Kilmarnock and doing extremely well.

Other than Will Dennis there's also a good argument for Jack Turner being the other best keeper we've ever had.

If Dan signs on for next season only time will tell if changing keepers for say 10 games will cost us in terms of league position.

At the moment we are lucky that it seems we have a decent keeper in Hugo on standby (which may not be the case next season) but scrambling around for another keeper who wouldn't be first choice is not ideal if we are aiming for the play-offs. 

Edited February 19 by Reading Rebel