Town v Maidstone

[The Crowing Cockerel]

2 minutes ago, WXEn8 said:

"off the pace Scott Thomas"???

Bloody hopeless you mean!

I was trying to be kind to the skipper!

[WHY DO I BOTHER]

Fed up with saying that Gav’s love affair with Scott is an absolute joke….with all these new players coming in the performance is the same … PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get us a Matt Johnson … someone who can be a dominant presence…. we are not a team at the moment just eleven players playing the Andy Leese way 😩…. one up front again and two wide men with 50 yards between each of them …there is literally no one free to pass to when Reece rolls the ball out so it always ends up a punt forward and possession lost again..,we need to be much more compact … Get Dylan-Hersy back in such an under rated player and get two up front…

Bright side the new centre half won absolutely everything in the air…. 

PS…. where is Sam ??

[Barney]

Hard to know where to start with this - firstly, there's absolutely no question that the better side won. We could argue that there were two really avoidable defensive mistakes which gifted them two goals, but I don't think 4-1 flatters Maidstone at all. I lost track of the number of times in the first half that we were second to the ball, every time we had the ball we had a yellow shirt touch tight and putting us under pressure, yet we couldn't do the same. I'm not going to criticise players, Thomas is a good experienced player who I think is positionally solid, but he's not going to be covering every blade of grass snapping at people's heels, and I think that's what we're missing all over the pitch - a bit more bite and energy. The game was lost in my view, mainly due to their superior sharpness and work-rate. Yes, they did have a fair bit of quality too at times (their 3rd was a really nicely worked goal, as was the build up to their 1st, where Rhys made a really brave save only for the resulting second phase to lead to a goal), but we just couldn't get a foot on the ball, and credit has to go to them for that.

I can't baseline how they performed compared to any other team, as this is the first game I've seen all season, but if this is an indication of the strength of a bottom half team, then I'd say we're in quite a bit of trouble. Maybe the answer is to try to take the game to opponents, rather than trying to be compact, but what's to say that we'd not end up losing by more? It does feel like we're a little bit out of our depth from what I've just seen, and I don't blame anyone for that (not the management, not the players, not the board/volunteers) - ultimately we might just have gone a step too far, too early and need to have a reset. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and we can get a foothold at this level, and start to pick up results, but when the biggest positive of the day was the quality of the real ale in the bar, it's not been a good day at the office

P.S. great to see Harry back, a classy player when he was here before, and hopefully can add another option up front. And there were some decent individual performances from the team, and no lack of effort/commitment from most as well.

[WXEn8]

2 hours ago, The Crowing Cockerel said:

I was trying to be kind to the skipper!

Why?

[The Crowing Cockerel]

21 minutes ago, WXEn8 said:

Why?

Because I'm pretty sure that he's trying his best.

[WXEn8]

A worthy opinion, granted, but he's been pretty poor all season.

He, like others, has found the step up a step too far?

I, like you, hope for a turnaround, but have to air my view however unscientific it may be.

[Rebel without a clue]

Dire performance today I’m afraid to say we are relegation fodder,  In all honesty can’t see where the next win Is going to come from, the midfield is a complete shambles and so easy to play through, Maidstone today we’re well drilled and at times it was men against boys, I’m surprised Gavin hasn’t tried playing a back 5 and 2 strikers up front our striker today was so isolated 

Edited September 7 by Rebel without a clue

[Bendy]

Highlights. Best of luck for the rest of the season.

 

[djwilf]

1 hour ago, Bendy said:

Highlights. Best of luck for the rest of the season.

 

Many thanks.   You too.

[Raingod]

Well, where to begin .. I was so so excited yesterday morning - 2 defensive signings and the return of  Harry and I was feeling optimistic  .. the last 3 games had been unfortunate in that we could have had at least a draw in each of them.

I brought my 87 year old father in law which meant sitting on the seats on the far side - I prefer behind the goal but do get to see the whole game - and this season let's be honest the ball is in our half far more often!

Driving home was miserable - am now genuinely worried that this season may be a complete disaster and we could be down by Jan/Feb. I've been to 5 of the 8 games so far and we just do not look enough like a team. 6 defeats in a row (is that the worst in the history of the club?) we have conceded 20 goals, 6 more than the next worst team, and are already 6 points adrift from safety.

I get the bad pre season and Gav has been very active in the transfer market, but we can't say it's early days any more - a fifth of the season will have gone after our next game.

I'm not one for being overly critical of the players - I don't believe anyone is not trying, and our unique club means we are all in it together. I think Scott Thomas has been a fantastic servant of our club and hasn't had the recognition he deserves from supporters. I didn't expect him to stay on this season and his legs won't last 90 minutes at Step 2, but he can still do a job there with support around him. Yes he made some errors yesterday but I can't fault his work rate.

Lashabella looked great when he joined - extremely skillful, but I don't think he is a battler and is a luxury we cannot afford - as the post above said which is exactly what I was thinking, break the bank and get Matt Johnson back - we need more protection of the defence - or Ryan Blackman?. Krasniqi is less skilful but more of a battler.

I also think Ollie is lacking confidence - he is not making the runs, and is not physical enough at this level.

Our height is an issue - don't believe we have scored from a set piece this season? BUT Gav has gone some way to correct that - Mensah made 2 errors for 2 of the goals yesterday but won most aerial duels - I will put this down to debut nerves/not knowing his team mates.

Along with Joash, Lennon and Harry we now have players to aim for.

A moment just before half time summed up our tactical deficiencies which we need to sort - we won a free kick just over the half way line - the board had gone up for 2 mins added on. Rather than put everyone in the box and throw it in there, we passed it back and back to Rhys, who under pressure lumped it long and gave them possession back! We are 1 down?

We need to keep the ball more, yet seem to panic too much 

We bring back all 11 for corners, yet don't cover the posts? When we do clear, it comes straight back ..

As said above by others, 1 forward at home is too negative - I don't think Maidstone were brilliant at all, and we know they were lacking confidence, but we didn't hassle/press them enough when they had the ball, and we don't keep possession. .. their forum was very negative about us, using words such as "dire" ..

We have been using subs better this season - but why didn't RBR get a look in at the end as a fresh pair of legs?

 

Gav has my full support .. but we need to see some tactical changes if we are to stand any chance of survival - the back 3/5 last year worked well - why dont we try it? Be more agressive at home.

Of the squad, those who have adapted well enough so far in my view:

Rhys - solid, just feel he needs to punch/claim the ball more

Joash - has improved since Slough .. and been our best defender (low bar!)

Sam - shame he has been unavailable last 2 ..

Billy and Lennon - both got pace, good touch  and enthusiasm.

I know Harry will be a great signing - him coming on gave us a focal point - he won the ball, linked up play, and encouraged .. and I have high hopes for Mensah too ..

Overall, others need to step up, be coached in a different way, or bring in replacements.

The principle of loaning young pros is a good one given our budget constraints - Mills was overenthusiastic and a bit naive but looked a good player.

My formation for the next league game would be: 5221 without the ball/ 3421 with the ball

with Mickey in the back 3 and Dylan as RWB.

Not sure if I feel any better or worse after writing all this .. we can still do it but yesterday showed me that we need to be ruthless in making changes now ..

 

Up the Town!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr Happy]

16 hours ago, Barney said:

Hard to know where to start with this - firstly, there's absolutely no question that the better side won. We could argue that there were two really avoidable defensive mistakes which gifted them two goals, but I don't think 4-1 flatters Maidstone at all. I lost track of the number of times in the first half that we were second to the ball, every time we had the ball we had a yellow shirt touch tight and putting us under pressure, yet we couldn't do the same. I'm not going to criticise players, Thomas is a good experienced player who I think is positionally solid, but he's not going to be covering every blade of grass snapping at people's heels, and I think that's what we're missing all over the pitch - a bit more bite and energy. The game was lost in my view, mainly due to their superior sharpness and work-rate. Yes, they did have a fair bit of quality too at times (their 3rd was a really nicely worked goal, as was the build up to their 1st, where Rhys made a really brave save only for the resulting second phase to lead to a goal), but we just couldn't get a foot on the ball, and credit has to go to them for that.

I can't baseline how they performed compared to any other team, as this is the first game I've seen all season, but if this is an indication of the strength of a bottom half team, then I'd say we're in quite a bit of trouble. Maybe the answer is to try to take the game to opponents, rather than trying to be compact, but what's to say that we'd not end up losing by more? It does feel like we're a little bit out of our depth from what I've just seen, and I don't blame anyone for that (not the management, not the players, not the board/volunteers) - ultimately we might just have gone a step too far, too early and need to have a reset. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and we can get a foothold at this level, and start to pick up results, but when the biggest positive of the day was the quality of the real ale in the bar, it's not been a good day at the office

P.S. great to see Harry back, a classy player when he was here before, and hopefully can add another option up front. And there were some decent individual performances from the team, and no lack of effort/commitment from most as well.

Agree, re the beer.  Best they’ve had in a while.  If I’d known I would’ve walked!!!

[The Crowing Cockerel]

I already have the concern that being unprepared and ill-equipped for this season will put us back 2 seasons on the pitch - much as has happened to our friends up the A10. With results not going our way, Gavin will have to clear out the play-off winning squad in the hope of bringing in better quality and working a miracle. The problem is that unless we manage to survive, most of the squad that he'll be left with by the end of the season won't want to make the drop down to Step 3. The result being an almost complete rebuild over the summer.

We certainly need a change in midfield. I'd suspect Matt Johnson is being well paid at Billericay. I'd welcome Ryan Blackman back if we could prise him away from Chelmsford. We need someone in the Manny Harvest mould. I guess Gavin'll have to try and find a young loanee from one of the pro clubs. Alternatively, anyone got Rudi Hall's number?

Concerned about next Saturday's FA Cup match with Mills likely banned and Mensah cup-tied. Perhaps we should just play 3 up top and hope to score more than them?

[djwilf]

Gavin said that they couldn't train on Thursday as the floodlights were off.....could they not train at the stadium as they're not exactly far apart?

 

As has been said before, the dust has settled slightly and after a promising start we are really now starting to struggle.   I said to a friend leaving the game yesterday that Maidsone would have been good opponents for us  after their beating however it is seeming more and more now that teams must be looking at when they're playing us to improve their goal difference.

There is no time to bed down in this league and it's evident the treadmill is moving much faster than many of us expected.   I know we've played many of the top teams however the way certain games have headed.....and I've only managed to get down to a couple however we seem to be on the back foot, not willing to take the game to our opponents and I haven't seen many if any games this year where we have had our players in the ascendency for any length of time and this is starting to look more like our "normal"

I've no doubt tnat Gavin and his team are doing all they can to make this work however i'm starting already to wonder if this is a step too far.

Played 8.    for 7 and against 20 -13 goal difference.

Quite simply, Rhys has probably been our best player on what I've seen so far and we've also used 24 players in those 8 games.   He's certainly kept the score down when other teams could have scored more.

I haven't seen one game where our midfield has been in charge and when defending we seem to find it very difficult to make blocks when others make them for fun.   Gavin mentioned yesterday we are making too many errors which result in goals conceded and at the opposite end we have to work really hard quite often just to create a half chance.

`Philosophy??  I've always thougth that after AL Gavin was a breath of fresh air and it was nice to see us playing football agains after what seemed to be like us playing tennis in the air.      However, this year I have no idea what our style is.   Long ball doesn't work....especially when we have one up front.   When others do it, they find a tricky winger and quite often win a corner, throw in or opening in our penalty area.   Possession wise I'd love to see our percentages for how much we have the ball as I'm sure it's not high.   It seems that often we can make 3 or 4 passes max and then will spend long periods of time chasing shadows.   Closing down at this level has also been a real issue.   We get forced into errors whilst we struggle to win the ball back for long periods of time.

It's interesting to see that Chesham and Hornchurch have both made steady starts whilst we have been running through treacle.    They're obviously doing something much better than we are.

Not sure what the answer is as we seem to be a long way from our strongest 11 and right now if we can't decide on 2 reliable midfielders who aren't going to get bossed around then I fear we'll have a lovely new stand and seating area with not many to sit in it.

Hopefully we can find some answers before too long.

[The Crowing Cockerel]

14 minutes ago, djwilf said:

It's interesting to see that Chesham and Hornchurch have both made steady starts whilst we have been running through treacle.    They're obviously doing something much better than we are.

Looking through their respective squads you can see that they are stronger and have recruited better. I daresay that much of that is down to larger budgets. Perhaps most importantly they have proven goal-scorers up front in Scannell, Nash, And Mitchell Weiss. 

Amongst the poor performances we've also not had much luck - we really should've picked up something at Eastbourne. Its down to Gavin to get the squad to turn the corner. He's clearly trying, but the post-match interviews are yet to fill me with hope.

Edited September 8 by The Crowing Cockerel

[WHY DO I BOTHER]

I think sometimes we are forced into long balls as there is quite frankly no one to pass to… every time Reece rolls the ball out to our full backs they are closed down in a second with not a spare man in sight so hoof off it goes… i’d love to see sam play a central midfield role as he seems to have more time on the ball than others and could provide the passes to get behind defenders…i also think Mensah is a great signing and with Neenah could be a very good pairing …also Peake showed glimpses of what we need so there is a bit of hope if Gavin can make the team more compact and get players closer together ….

[lovely stuff]

Regarding the Astro pitch, there seems to be a recurring problem with the floodlights failing. (and a recurring slow response from the council to fix the issue each time) This does not only affect the first team but other sections as well. I know that the Ladies first team had to train in the dark with car headlights being used to try to illuminate the pitch last week. The trouble seems to stem from the tampering with the electrical box/cables by persons unknown.

[Benjrider10]

Not much to add to that already posted re Maidstone. We have played stronger teams but they still deserved the win. We played like a team that has lost 6 on the bounce.

Front

I do think it is a mistake not to play 2 up front at home. It's been hard for Hisham Kasimu to lead the line on his own but he has worked hard and shown good skill when he does get the ball. For me, he starts. Having Ottaway start up front with him is also a must in my opinion, with RBR coming on whenever Ottaway runs out of gas. I'm not sure about Folivi, he didn't do enough off the ball for me when he has played, and I haven't seen enough of Nana to comment. We know most of our opponents will have more possession than us so our front two have to work hard off the ball.

Defense

In defense I think Nembhard and either Mensah or Solomon will form a decent CB partnership in time. Mensah struggles for pace when turned but who doesn't at this level? My first choice LB would be Bernie. He may be used to playing as a left-sided CB but I think he will do a good job at LB (better than Joe Payne or the Peterboro' guy who was red-carded). RB I would put Oyenuga marginally ahead of Parcell, noting they have both picked up knocks already so will both get game time through the rest of the season. So far our back 4 (regardless of the combination) have simply made too many errors. We have to stop those errors else it's going to be a rotten league campaign.

Midfield

Midfield is where I struggle. Youngs is a must to start and he needs to play in the middle. I would also start with Ollie Knight on the left. He consistently puts in the type of cross that our front two need. It made no sense to me against Maidstone that we took Ollie off and asked the new LB to play as a LW, with Joe Payne coming on as LB. I didn't get that at all (unless Knight had picked up a knock). We have had quite a few ins (and I presume outs too) so will have to see what combination the gaffer picks in midfield over the next couple of games. Billy Leonard has looked better wide right than central, but I think Dylan would do just as good a job. I agree that we could do with a Ryan Blackman type playing in the middle with Youngs. I don't think Krasniqi is that player. Lennon Peake has looked good too but it's in the middle of the park where we are being completely outgunned (whether Scott Thomas or Leshabela). Maybe we already have him (Jack Smith) though we won't know until Smith regains fitness.

Problems, problems ....

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Reckon we're probably about 3 more losses away from bringing George Borg back as Joint manager.