Farnborough v Enfield Town

[Tally Ho]

Nembhard on for Benjamin.

2-1 down.

 

Can't listen to that banshee anymore.

[seemgee]

3-1 down 

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Ended 4-1 to Farnborough and sounds as if it could/should have been more.

It certainly won't be goal difference that keeps us up!

[Flobalob]

We found our level last week..  Avely and Welwyn to come… the maths is simple …we need to find 4 teams worse than us…

Edited October 12 by WHY DO I BOTHER

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Takeaways from this week's edition of The Gavin What Went Wrong Interview:
Gavin is "fed up with seeing the same themes"......."Mickey Parcell puts his heart on the line every week - he's distraught. Are some of them? Are some of them? I don't know."

[Barney]

Very positive first half - Gav kept largely with the team that won against Weymouth last weekend, with a couple of enforced changes seeing Leshebela coming in for Tuck, and Leonard for Youngs. Looking at the starting 11, it seemed a very bold selection, with what I'd consider 4 out and out attacking players in the line-up. I immediately thought that we might get overrun against one of the better sides in the league, but there's an argument to say that we should at least go down fighting and try to take the game to the opposition...

First half was refreshingly even, Farnborough did look like they would get behind us and cause us problems, but we matched them for effort and somewhat surprisingly took the lead after a poor kick from their keeper was picked up by Hutchinson, who beat his man easily and got off a shot which was only partially cleared to Ottaway who was there to slot home. As the half went on, we defended well, and in numbers, and continued to work hard to maintain the lead (a Mills effort whistled narrowly wide for us, but they had more than their share of chances, one of which Rhys was forced to make an excellent block to keep out). We almost made it to half time, but a well worked move saw Farnborough equalise, and there's no complaints about the 1-1 score from me - positive and somewhat unexpected 45 minutes in my view given the opponents.

Second half, I think we all hoped that we could start with the same energy and endeavour as we'd shown in the first, however we didn't come out of the blocks, and seemed a bit sluggish. Benjamin and Kasimu were replaced at half time after a clash of heads, and it was clear that Farnborough very much did have another gear to move into, whereas we didn't. They played some sharp passing football for the first 10 of the half, cut us open at will, and suddenly it was 3-1, and game over. Frustrating, as I felt like (and we showed) we might have another goal in us if we'd hung in there (good save from their keeper, header cleared off the line and a double blocked shot), but the last 30 was largely game management from them after they'd done the damage and made it 4-1

What's clear to me from what I've seen so far is that the better sides really are better - when Farnborough turned it on for 30 minutes or so, we just couldn't live with them, and that's not anyone's fault IMO. We could have made it harder for them at times, but it's a balance between parking the bus and still probably shipping goals, and being a little more adventurous (as we were first half) and going down with a fight. As people have rightly said, these aren't the games we need to be getting anything from to stay in this league. Of course it would be great if we could nick something from them, but yesterday we didn't deserve to, in spite of the first half. We have quite a few genuine 6-pointers to come, against sides around us in the table, and they're the ones that we have to take points from - hopefully we'll show the attacking endeavour and workrate of the first half in these games, rather than the slightly subdued, not-switched-on performance for much of the second.

Final comment: there were some Town 'fans' who were an absolute embarrassment yesterday, swearing and arguing with stewards when (quite reasonably) being asked to moderate their behaviour, and generally giving the club a bad name. Good will in this league goes a long way, and I personally look forward to chatting with opposition fans, a bit of banter with opposition players, but still trying to get on with everyone. That doesn't stop us from making noise and getting behind the team (they certainly need it), but the club do somehow need to find a way to cut out this behaviour if we want to preserve our reputation as a friendly, family orientated club, and keep the respect of other clubs in the league. A difficult ask, admittedly, but it really left a sour taste after what was otherwise a very enjoyable day out (result excepted).

[symptomless]

The key moment for me was Xavier Benjamin going off with a head injury. Going in 1-1 was a fair score, they had most chances and Rhys made a fair number of incredible saves but when XB went off sadly that was it for us. He's been a step up for us in defence since he's started playing.

It was good to see us linking up a bit between midfield and attack, we created a few chances on the break in the first half. Although we left ourselves a bit stretched going for a 2nd and they took advantage for their equaliser.

Farnborough came out in the second half with a mission and we gave them the space around the box to set up some good goals. 

It was a spirited performance but we lack the quality against these big teams. We need a few backs against the walls games to hopefully nick a few points but it'll be tough going.

The next couple of games are the ones we should be hoping to get results in.

Agree about some of our fans behaviour and swearing behind the goal. All a bit pathetic, to be honest. Some of them should just grow up.

 

[andyetfc]

40 minutes ago, Barney said:

What's clear to me from what I've seen so far is that the better sides really are better - when Farnborough turned it on for 30 minutes or so, we just couldn't live with them, and that's not anyone's fault IMO

Excellent report from Barney and I’d wish everybody could take note of the quote I’ve highlighted. Those who believed playing in this league would be a ‘walk in the park’ really need to think long and hard about how well the club has done since 2001 and just savour the moment, even if results aren’t going our way.

[Barney]

25 minutes ago, symptomless said:

The key moment for me was Xavier Benjamin going off with a head injury. Going in 1-1 was a fair score, they had most chances and Rhys made a fair number of incredible saves but when XB went off sadly that was it for us. He's been a step up for us in defence since he's started playing.

 

Agreed with this, Benjamin looks like an excellent addition, he's mobile, reads the game well and is just about big enough to handle himself against bigger forwards - hope he's back next game! Does anyone know where we signed him from, as I'm struggling to find any info?

[Father Jack]

Xavier was on Cardiffs books last season, but spent time on loan to Dunfermline