v Hemel

[Sir Rebel1965]

So far this January 3 bad defeats, all with us conceding 4 goals or more.

Goals for: 2

Goal against: 13

 

Edited January 11 by Sir Rebel1965

[SloughFlyer]

An embarrassment. Scott is going to be really pleased he left the forum after the Welling game now.

Davies - 0/10

The entire side should hang their heads in shame and apologise after that performance. 

Against Boreham Wood we blamed the referee, against Kidderminister it was because they have a massive budget and are full time, what excuse are we going to use after that?

Jackman as captain was silent as we fell apart, not 1 player above a 3 out of 10 and big changes need now. Hemel Hempstead have won 3 games in about 20 and 2 of them have been against us. They had to do nothing to beat us easily 4-1.

Rubbish

 

[Irishadrian]

Scott Davies post match interview now on club main site!

[Irishadrian]

Today's debacle leaves us clinging to 11th place but there are now 5 teams within 1 game of overtaking us most with a game in hand and 1 with 2 games in hand!

[Curtis]

I didn’t see what the line up was for the match today, were there any clues on who might be leaving us?
 

And any guesses about who the new centre-back (who is familiar to the club) is likely to be?

[Markskelton]

The ‘it won’t be a kid’ line was quite intriguing.. 

24 minutes ago, Curtis said:

I didn’t see what the line up was for the match today, were there any clues on who might be leaving us?
 

And any guesses about who the new centre-back (who is familiar to the club) is likely to be?

[rwatto]

Guy Hollis?

[Russ_Rebel]

8 hours ago, rwatto said:

Guy Hollis?

This was my guess also, if not then Joe Dandy.

Edited January 12 by Russ_Rebel

[Markskelton]

Guy Hollis or edon pruti is my guess 

[Reading Rebel]

I'm in shock that some supporters are surprised that our performances have dropped off.

What were we honestly expecting?

Good start to the season but a touch of realism is needed because the situation we're in it was never going to last. 

For all the reasons we know about, budget/squad size and some young inexperienced players at this level, it was never going to last the distance. 

Our two defeats against B/W and Kidderminster was no great surprise and yesterday's 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Hemel was just down to a truly all round poor performance.

We do look to be short on confidence and need to freshen things up and it looks like a couple of new players will be coming in very shortly.

Hopefully they are the right players that will strengthen us and not just to sit on the bench to make up the numbers.

As for one of the new players, if the rumours going around the ground yesterday are correct it could well be Guy Hollis. 

Personally I'm not convinced bringing Guy back will be the right move but hopefully I'm wrong and he can shore up our defence.

 

 

 

Edited January 12 by Reading Rebel

[Rebellier]

28 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

I'm in shock that some supporters are surprised that our performances have dropped off.

What were we honestly expecting?

Good start to the season but a touch of realism is needed because the situation we're in it was never going to last. 

For all the reasons we know about, budget/squad size and some young inexperienced players at this level, it was never going to last. 

Our two defeats against B/W and Kidderminster was no great surprise and yesterday's 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Hemel was just down to a truly all round poor performance.

We do look to be short on confidence and need to freshen things up and it looks like a couple of new players will be coming in very shortly.

Hopefully they are the right players that will strengthen us and not just to sit on the bench to make up the numbers.

As for one of the new players, if the rumours going around the ground yesterday are correct it could well be Guy Hollis. 

Personally I'm not convinced bringing Guy back will be the right move but hopefully I'm wrong and he can shore up our defence.

 

 

 

Anyone in the mould of Eric Young,  Jeff Bateman or Darren Anderson will do me. I'm old.

 

Edited January 12 by Rebellier

[Reading Rebel]

18 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

An embarrassment. Scott is going to be really pleased he left the forum after the Welling game now.

Davies - 0/10

The entire side should hang their heads in shame and apologise after that performance. 

Against Boreham Wood we blamed the referee, against Kidderminister it was because they have a massive budget and are full time, what excuse are we going to use after that?

Jackman as captain was silent as we fell apart, not 1 player above a 3 out of 10 and big changes need now. Hemel Hempstead have won 3 games in about 20 and 2 of them have been against us. They had to do nothing to beat us easily 4-1.

Rubbish

 

Jackman was never vociferous on the pitch but always led by example with his solid performances.

Unfortunately those 'solid performances' seem to be a thing of the past. 

1 minute ago, Rebellier said:

Anyone in the mould of Eric Young,  Jeff Bateman or Darren Anderson will do me. I'm old.

 

Players like those in today's money would cost a few bob.

A bit like Hollis if he turns up 😏

[Curtis]

I like Guy Hollis, but he’s 33 now & I can’t see him being a better player now than when he was one of the first players to leave two years ago when Scott was appointed, and he’s only started in two league matches in the last three months.

[SloughFlyer]

He has certainly had plenty of injuries since he left us, BUT, a fit Hollis brings excellent experience, leadership to a young defence and a long throw weapon to the arsenal.

Anyone know who the blond, longer haired lad was that warmed up with the team yesterday?

[Nathan]

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I'm in shock that some supporters are surprised that our performances have dropped off.

What were we honestly expecting?

Good start to the season but a touch of realism is needed because the situation we're in it was never going to last. 

For all the reasons we know about, budget/squad size and some young inexperienced players at this level, it was never going to last the distance.

I don't think anybody is really surprised that we are no longer in a promotion picture (though maybe a little disappointed). We look relatively safe at the moment, but this is mostly down to our good start; our form over the past couple of months has been quite poor. To make matters worse, our performances are now also poor, whatever was getting us over the line in the early weeks of the season has long since deserted us. Our last 10 league matches is P10 W2 D3 L 5 (with no wins in our last 6); not time for panic-stations just yet, but keep this up and we could soon be in trouble.

It's also worth noting that Hemel went from top of the table after they beat us in September to one place above the drop zone yesterday, having lost 13 of their 16 league matches and winning only once in this time. Yet they still managed to brush us aside with ease. Of course we didn't have a divine right to win, but this is alarming to say the least.

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Our two defeats against B/W and Kidderminster was no great surprise

RR, you said on the Boreham Wood thread that you didn't think they were anything special, so why is that fact that we ended up getting tonked now no great surprise?

We should be going into any game at this level thinking that if we play to our strengths and give a good account of ourselves, then even if we're the underdogs a win is not totally out of the question. However there seems to be a pervasive attitude that if we're playing full-time opposition, or a team with some money (which'll be most teams) then a win is indeed impossible (or at least highly improbable); it's almost as if we've got imposter syndrome, and we feel that we don't really belong at this level.

I'm staggered at how this seems to be an acceptable way to approach games from many of us; talk about how to lose a match before a ball is kicked!

Edited January 12 by Nathan

[Curtis]

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I'm in shock that some supporters are surprised that our performances have dropped off.

What were we honestly expecting?

We have 3 points from our last six league matches, & have conceded 14 goals in our last four away league matches.

That puts us firmly in relegation form, & it is surprising that our results have dropped off a cliff.

[SloughFlyer]

For me it's not about the results. Wins happen, losses happen, it's the way it is. The more concerning factor is the performances. They have dropped off a cliff and the levels we were playing at have disappeared. Yesterday we were decent for about 15 minutes after half time.

Scott has to do something to rediscover the performances of early season or, find a different way of playing to get those performances back. Not going to be easy, but that's the challenge and I'm sure he'll find a way.

[Curtis]

I deliberately said results because I haven’t been impressed with the style of play or performances this season, but for a fair while it was achieving results.

Have teams been watching us & figured us out?

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

i don't think hollis is the right fit for our team taking on ex players has never really been good for us , yes we need experience but do we need to dig over old ground to get it. i think we need to look towards new areas and bring in experience perhaps from a higher level but that will bring some new ideas. i think that scott is right to take a back step from playing what with all of his personal pressures just moved /new baby due plus all the pressures of managing the team his play has not been at his high standard for a while now and can only benefit the team imho.

[Reading Rebel]

5 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

He has certainly had plenty of injuries since he left us, BUT, a fit Hollis brings excellent experience, leadership to a young defence and a long throw weapon to the arsenal.

Anyone know who the blond, longer haired lad was that warmed up with the team yesterday?

I think it was Jack Timberlake running with John Gilbert.