V Chatham Town FA Trophy H

[Irishadrian]

I'm sure most are expecting us to progress but it's football no guarantees!

[rebelbrewer]

Hope we win comfortably but John Ufuah will be doing his best to cause an upset 

Edited November 16 by rebelbrewer
Spelling

[Irishadrian]

Finished 1-1

Very late equaliser by the Rebels  I look forward to a report from some one there

Went to penalties as they all do now Rebels won 4-2

Edited November 16 by Irishadrian

[GlenSTFC]

16 minutes ago, Irishadrian said:

Finished 1-1

Very late equaliser by the Rebels  I look forward to a report from some one there

Went to penalties as they all do now Rebels won 4-2

You missed nothing, up to a point I wished I hadn’t bothered either especially making an effort having a rotten cold! But we’re through and that’s the positive, we were poor first half and Chatham weren’t much better. Poor crowd too, i bet the club wished they hadn’t reduced prices now as I don’t think it would have made any difference. For me Charlie and Dan were worthy of playing well.

Edited November 16 by GlenSTFC

[Irishadrian]

5 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

You missed nothing, up to a point I wished I hadn’t bothered either especially making an effort having a rotten cold! But we’re through and that’s the positive, we were poor first half and Chatham weren’t much better. Poor crowd too, i bet the club wished they hadn’t reduced prices now as I don’t think it would have made any difference. For me Charlie and Dan were worthy of playing well.

My thoughts as well on the crowd a Saturday cup game should pull in more than mid 500s

[Irishadrian]

23 minutes ago, Irishadrian said:

Finished 1-1

Very late equaliser by the Rebels  I look forward to a report from some one there

Went to penalties as they all do now Rebels won 4-2

More than half our league knocked out today

Hemel H

BathC

Chippenham T

Dorking W

Hornchurch. (9-8 on pens)

Tonbridge A

Maidstone

Chelmsford

Farnborough

St Albans C

Truro C

Welling U

Weston SM

[GlenSTFC]

1 minute ago, Irishadrian said:

More than half our league knocked out today

Hemel H

BathC

Chippenham T

Dorking W

Hornchurch. (9-8 on pens)

Tonbridge A

Maidstone

Chelmsford

Farnborough

St Albans C

Truro C

Welling U

Weston SM

Good as we don’t want to be drawn against a side at our level. Is it the next round NL clubs enter? After today not so sure wishing for a ‘lesser’ side at home is the best idea!

[GlenSTFC]

8 minutes ago, Irishadrian said:

My thoughts as well on the crowd a Saturday cup game should pull in more than mid 500s

We had all the advantage of no PL/Championship playing plus Reading and Wycombe was postponed along with Maidenhead away. Great opportunity to attract any casuals, reduced prices but still a poor crowd. After a great performance/result/crowd on Tuesday you would have hoped some of them may have been tempted.

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

i think that we got through by the skin of our teeth and i reckon if some had been tempted today the wouldn't bother next time reduced prices or not

[G Brown]

Who cares? 
 

Can’t play well every game and we’re in the hat for the next round… Couldn’t give a monkeys!

Today’s attendance was never going to be great!

Edited November 16 by G Brown

[RebelVilla]

I thought we were lacklustre in the first half and Chatham deserved their half time lead.

The half time substitutions improved things for us and we started to have more of the game after that, especially after their red card.

Looked like Chatham were going to hang on but they finally succumbed to any injury time equaliser.

Not our best performance by a long shot, but we are in the next round.

[Curtis]

What a contrast to Tuesday night….. just a horrible football match!

Had it’s fair share of drama though I suppose with two red cards & a penalty shoot out.

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

i think Chatham can justifiably feel like they were robbed today because we certainly nicked it

[G Brown]

Robbed? Really??

Ok Charlie made a couple of saves in the first half but 2nd half they weren’t a threat, we just didn’t play well today and that happens.

How about a bit of positivity?

We’re in the next round!

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

i am not going to blow smoke up their backsides , if we had not got a lucky goal late in to overtime chatham would be in the draw we did not perform well chatham were able to cope with us and we were making schoolboy errors all over the pitch

[RebelVilla]

Credit due to our four penalty takers. All four were taken well and gave their goalie little chance of stopping them.

[Reading Rebel]

I think we need to be honest and say we didn't play well and if Chatham had put away a couple of the glorious chances they had in the first half the game would have been over at half time.

At the same time we need to be realistic.

We can't play sparkling football every week. After such a tough game and excellent performance on Tuesday it was always going to be difficult to produce it again just a few day's later.

We did nick the game and Chatham will feel hard done by but we're through to the next round and that's all that matters.

 

[Reading Rebel]

57 minutes ago, RebelVilla said:

Credit due to our four penalty takers. All four were taken well and gave their goalie little chance of stopping them.

Have to say in the past we've not been known for winning penalty shoot outs so I had some trepidation at the final whistle but they were 4 excellent penalties. 

Edited November 17 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

On yesterday's crowd of under 600, have to say I wasn't totally surprised.

You have to factor in that it was all pay against not a big side and we've got xmas on the horizon and money could be tight for some of the non stalwarts.

[Holyport Rebel]

To misquote Forrest Gump,
"Football is like a box of chocolates.
Yer never know what yer gonna get. "
After the exhilarations of Tuesday night, we came down to earth with a dull, flat, uninspiring performance yesterday.
( By the way, I didn't see any comments after Tuesday's game about Dorking's tactics of playing it out from the back.
Once again, just like at Chichester away in the FA Cup, the opposition "faff" away with passing the ball along their own  six yard line, get caught by John Gilbert and concede a goal.
Sorry, but I really don't rate this way of playing.

It's asking for trouble, especially at our level).
Anyway, we were very poor in the first half v Chatham, and they deservedly went in at half time one up.
Coming out for the second half we saw that we had made three changes.
If only Gareth Southgate had had the guts/brains to do something similar in some very important England matches in the past few years.
I felt they made a difference.
The ball "stuck" with our attackers much more in the Chatham defensive third of the pitch in the second half, but it still looked as though we weren't going to get that vital goal.
Then we get a free kick just outside the Chatham penalty area, and then all hell seemed to break out.
I didn't think it was a dirty tackle or suchlike, but a definite foul.
Then a few seconds later every player seemed to be piling in.
I have no idea what caused that big Chatham player ( the number 11 I think), to behave as he did.
He seemed to totally lose it and did enough during the "unrest" to be sent off twice.
After that it was basically all Slough attacking and Chatham defending their one goal lead, up to the point where Chatham unexpectedly broke away and their attacker was brought down outside our area by Lexus, who received a red card.
( Will Lexus get a 3 match ban as this was his second red card this season ?)
Lexus said in his after match tweet,
" I had to take one for the greater good",
which to me says he brought down the attacker deliberately to stop a goal being scored, and putting us more or less out of the game.
I don't want to appear holier-than-thou, but I have to say that I don't really like our players doing that.
Yes, I know everybody else does it.
It's taken for granted now that this regularly happens, but I can well recall the nationwide outrage back in 1980 when that big lump of an Arsenal defender Willie Young hacked down from behind the then 17 year old West Ham player Paul Allen when he was clean through on goal with just the goalie to beat in that years FA Cup Final.
Yes, I know it wasn't a sending off offence back  in 1980, but I couldn't do this in any game I played, which is another big reason, along with a massive lack of talent, why  I could never be a proper footballer.
Even when the game became 10 v 10 we dominated it.
But it looked as though that elusive equaliser was not going to arrive, and then, in injury time it did.
A fluke, but we'll always take it.
Then to penalties.
I'm disappointed we don't have replays or even extra time any more in the Trophy.
No replays even in the semi- finals, which are now just a one off game played on the ground of one of the competing teams.
That seems so wrong to me, and it's like the thinking is to get the Trophy games out of the way as quickly as they can.    
I was very apprehensive when we arrived at penalty kicks.
My "success" record when attending important cup games for England and Slough which go to penalty kicks is grim.
Before Saturday I had been at  9 important penalty shoot outs, and my team had lost 7 of them.
What fantastic penalties we took though.
They were as good as the two penalties I took in the shoot outs my branch Slough Queensmere faced to get us through a couple of rounds in 1981 when we won the Barclays Bank Windsor District mixed 7 -a -side inter branch football tournament, so I have got some idea what the pressure is like when taking part in important penalty shoot outs. ⚽⚽😄 
So thankfully my "success" rate at attending penalty shoot outs has improved , 3 wins now from 10.
Having got through against Chatham by the skin of our teeth, it makes me wonder if perhaps it might be an omen for a strong  run in the competition this season ?
Knowing our luck though we will probably get drawn tomorrow away to Forest Green or Barnet, and have the same ref we had for the Woking game. 

 

Edited November 17 by Holyport Rebel