V St Albans H 22nd Oct

[Irishadrian]

If ever 3 points seemed certain it would be this game but we know how football can throw up surprises

Facts.St Albans are having a terrible season so far Their 6 away games have gained 4/18 points and they've  scored just 3 away goals.

Amazingly their home record is even worse just 2/18 points

There have been calls for the sacking of the manager for weeks and the same lineup rarely played twice.

Surely this must make us most likely to get the 3 points

 

Edited October 20 by Irishadrian

[Ian g f]

We struggle against lower league opponents and they have Lenchy

[Reading Rebel]

51 minutes ago, Irishadrian said:

If ever 3 points seemed certain it would be this game but we know how football can throw up surprises

Facts.St Albans are having a terrible season so far Their 6 away games have gained 4/18 points and they've  scored just 3 away goals.

Amazingly their home record is even worse just 2/18 points

There have been calls for the sacking of the manager for weeks and the same lineup rarely played twice.

Surely this must make us most likely to get the 3 points

 

No 3 points are ever certain.

Terrible season so far points wise but by all reports playing well just no end product.

Edited October 20 by Reading Rebel

[RebelVilla]

As Reading Rebel (wisely) says, no 3 points are ever certain.

Just remember the two matches against Dover last season.

[G Brown]

I’ll take a 1-0 now… Havant were a pain in the backside at the same time last season, it’ll be similar on Tuesday 

[Rebellier]

What was the attendance please?

[GlenSTFC]

53 minutes ago, Rebellier said:

What was the attendance please?

730

[GlenSTFC]

They were all over us for the first 20 so absolutely no surprise when they scored. We looked half asleep and just couldn’t get a hold of the game. Luckily we stepped up and got back into it although we have to thank Charlie for that point as he was by far the MOTM. I knew St Albans wouldn’t play like a side 2nd bottom and if they play like that consistently then there’s no danger they’ll be going down. Shame it didn’t really work out for our 2 starting strikers tonight.

[G Brown]

A typical midweek game in my opinion, scrappy as hell… That being said, I don’t think we played well at all BUT to come back twice shows the determination of this group and it’s another point on the board… We can’t play well every game but it’s a good sign picking up points when we’re not at our best 

Last night showed why I think Charlie is our best Summer signing, he was outstanding again, having a settled goalkeeper this good sends so much confidence through the team, just like the signing of Dan Lincoln did last season, well deserved MoM Charlie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Who needs Lenchy when we have have Leon, the future of our midfield 💛💙

 

Edited October 23 by G Brown

[Reading Rebel]

Excellent point gained from a game in which we were out played for large parts of it.

For the first 20 minutes we were under siege, totally over run in midfield and looking like only a matter of time before we were a goal down.

Such was there dominance I thought we needed to change formation early on and add another player in our midfield to try to stop the constant pressure we were under.

Against the run of play we clawed our way back into the game through a superb strike from Leon.

Second half continued in a similar vein with St Albans on top and getting a lot of success in our left back position which eventually led to their second goal with only a few minutes left.

Credit to the team for their never say die attitude to get the last minute equalizer and of course Charlie Horlock for a superb display of keeping that kept us in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

6 hours ago, G Brown said:

A typical midweek game in my opinion, scrappy as hell… That being said, I don’t think we played well at all BUT to come back twice shows the determination of this group and it’s another point on the board… We can’t play well every game but it’s a good sign picking up points when we’re not at our best 

Last night showed why I think Charlie is our best Summer signing, he was outstanding again, having a settled goalkeeper this good sends so much confidence through the team, just like the signing of Dan Lincoln did last season, well deserved MoM Charlie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Who needs Lenchy when we have have Leon, the future of our midfield 💛💙

 

Because of his age and ability and of course if he decides to stay with us hopefully Leon will be our future but on last nights excellent performance from him I'd give my right arm to have Matt Lench back.

IMO if he stays fit Lenchy has at least another 2 seasons as a top player at this level.

[G Brown]

16 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Because of his age and ability and of course if he decides to stay with us hopefully Leon will be our future but on last nights excellent performance from him I'd give my right arm to have Matt Lench back.

IMO if he stays fit Lenchy has at least another 2 seasons as a top player at this level.

Excellent performance last night from Lench?

So putting in a corner for a goal equates to excellent?

He did absolutely nothing else.

Wow! The bias towards Matt Lench is ridiculous, he’s gone and was outperformed by Leon last night, time to take off the rose tinted glasses.

What hurt us last night was they overloaded us down the flanks, that was nothing to do with Lench and don’t get me started on his shenanigans when trying to get Bayliss sent off.

Edited October 23 by G Brown

[Jack Joshman]

1 hour ago, G Brown said:

Excellent performance last night from Lench?

So putting in a corner for a goal equates to excellent?

He did absolutely nothing else.

Wow! The bias towards Matt Lench is ridiculous, he’s gone and was outperformed by Leon last night, time to take off the rose tinted glasses.

What hurt us last night was they overloaded us down the flanks, that was nothing to do with Lench and don’t get me started on his shenanigans when trying to get Bayliss sent off.

Fortunately for Matt Lench, his manager, his fans, our manager and our players all seem to disagree with you (so do I, quality of his control and passing were very good and his competitiveness/ball control in the middle were a factor in the reason we never really had control of the game).

Edited to add: I also thought Leon was great, probably our 2nd best player last night after Charlie, and has been brilliant this season. 

Edited October 23 by Jack Joshman

[G Brown]

15 minutes ago, Jack Joshman said:

Fortunately for Matt Lench, his manager, his fans, our manager and our players all seem to disagree with you (so do I, quality of his control and passing were very good and his competitiveness/ball control in the middle were a factor in the reason we never really had control of the game).

Edited to add: I also thought Leon was great, probably our 2nd best player last night after Charlie, and has been brilliant this season. 

His manager? Our manager? Our players? Our fans?

Hmmm got any actual names and quotes?

Edited October 23 by G Brown

[Scott Davies]

This shouldn’t even be a debate. Lenchy was brilliant for Slough and for me, and yes he did well last night! I actually said to him that I think he suits St Albans style of play.

St Albans are a possession based team who will dictate the ball against anyone, that’s their philosophy.

We aren’t a possession based team but we do have the highest XG (expected goals) across the north and south with chances created.

We average a shot every 18 passes (lowest pass per shot rate in the north and south), St Albans every 55 passes.

If possession wins games then it’s a new rule to me. We’re happy to be without it as we know what our strengths are. 👍🏼

[SloughFlyer]

Scott - next time you speak to Lench, ask him if he knows yet where Leon went for his goal?

RR - I think it was you that said Lench and Henry are very different players, yet last night Lench played pretty much in front of the defence. So given the choice I take it you'd rather have Lench than Henry?

Thought we were pretty poor last night and fortunate to end up with a point. Agree with Scott's interview that St Albans are in a false position in the league, HOWEVER, there is clearly an issue with them having only won 1 match so far so they'll have to turn the form around soon as they are already 7 points from safety after 12/13 games. Using the 50 point safety mark, they already need 43 points from 33 games left. Plenty of time to turn it around, but need to start finding some form as soon.

[Irishadrian]

We've scored 21 goals (including the Enfield 6) so have6 others( or more )If our shots to passes ratio is as stated we must be missing a lot! I'm a little concerned that our last 6 league games have produced 6/18 points 1 win 3 draws 2 losses with some higher up the table teams to play shortly.

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, G Brown said:

Excellent performance last night from Lench?

So putting in a corner for a goal equates to excellent?

He did absolutely nothing else.

Wow! The bias towards Matt Lench is ridiculous, he’s gone and was outperformed by Leon last night, time to take off the rose tinted glasses.

What hurt us last night was they overloaded us down the flanks, that was nothing to do with Lench and don’t get me started on his shenanigans when trying to get Bayliss sent off.

We're all entitled to an opinion but to say Matt Lench did nothing else last night other than put in a good corner is frankly a ridiculous thing to say.

It's nothing to do with being biased or anything rose tinted just ask anyone at the game last night and I guarantee you the vast majority will agree that he put in a very good performance along with his other playing partners in midfield.

Of course they hurt us down the flanks but they also hurt us down the middle.

 

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, SloughFlyer said:

Scott - next time you speak to Lench, ask him if he knows yet where Leon went for his goal?

RR - I think it was you that said Lench and Henry are very different players, yet last night Lench played pretty much in front of the defence. So given the choice I take it you'd rather have Lench than Henry?

Thought we were pretty poor last night and fortunate to end up with a point. Agree with Scott's interview that St Albans are in a false position in the league, HOWEVER, there is clearly an issue with them having only won 1 match so far so they'll have to turn the form around soon as they are already 7 points from safety after 12/13 games. Using the 50 point safety mark, they already need 43 points from 33 games left. Plenty of time to turn it around, but need to start finding some form as soon.

SF, Leon did brilliant in skipping past Lenchy and the other player to score his goal but I'm not sure on what the relevance is in regards to the performance last night of Matt Lench. 

As is his normal style of play I don't think you can tie Lench down to one position.

His work rate and movement means he'll cover most positions across the midfield.

In my view Henry is predominantly a holding tackling midfielder who breaks down the opposing teams attack so imo you cannot compare the two players. 

The issue St Albans have is simply scoring the goals to finish off their good play.

Get that right and they will almost certainly climb the table. 

Edited October 23 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, G Brown said:

His manager? Our manager? Our players? Our fans?

Hmmm got any actual names and quotes?

I can help you with two of those:

His manager, Mark Noble - see his post match interview

Our manager, Scott Davies - see his post match interview and above quotes