v St Albans

[Reading Rebel]

Having won on Saturday we should be full of confidence going into tonight's game.

However our away record this season has been abysmal.

3 away league wins all season the last coming back in November doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

St Albans are in real danger of going down and will be scrapping for every ball.

Match them in that department and I'm sure we can get something from the game.  

 

[rebelbrewer]

Exactly my judgement. Hope Johnny will want to prove a point.

[GlenSTFC]

21 minutes ago, rebelbrewer said:

Exactly my judgement. Hope Johnny will want to prove a point.

You mean Lewis?

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

You mean Lewis?

Miccio and Goddard.

Goddard originally came from St Albans to us.

[GlenSTFC]

Just now, Reading Rebel said:

Miccio and Goddard.

Goddard originally came from St Albans to us.

Yeah but a while ago now! I thought he got mixed up with Boreham Wood. Lewis hardly played for St. Albans so I doubt there’s much to prove!

2 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Having won on Saturday we should be full of confidence going into tonight's game.

However our away record this season has been abysmal.

3 away league wins all season the last coming back in November doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

St Albans are in real danger of going down and will be scrapping for every ball.

Match them in that department and I'm sure we can get something from the game.  

 

Only 3 away league wins is the grand total of matches St. Albans have won in total so far in the league! If we can’t be confident after a fantastic morale boosting victory against full time promotion chasing opponents after a lengthy winless run, then when can we???!!!

[Reading Rebel]

2 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

Yeah but a while ago now! I thought he got mixed up with Boreham Wood. Lewis hardly played for St. Albans so I doubt there’s much to prove!

True, but I'm sure it'll still be nice for him to get one over them for mainly using him as a bench warmer following his injury.

[GlenSTFC]

Just now, Reading Rebel said:

True, but I'm sure it'll still be nice for him to get one over them for mainly using him as a bench warmer following his injury.

You’ve made him mad now calling him a bench warmer, he’ll be looking out for you now!

[Rebellier]

Another car crash of an away day 

[GlenSTFC]

2 minutes ago, Rebellier said:

Another car crash of an away day 

No need to worry we’re still 10 points clear. I wonder at what point we should start to worry?

[Irishadrian]

Strange  set of results tonight  2 wins only in top half of table 7 in lower half including 3 of the bottom 4 

We are pushed down to 16th

Edited February 11 by Irishadrian

[Twyford Rebel]

33 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

No need to worry we’re still 10 points clear. I wonder at what point we should start to worry?

10 points isn't enough when we still have to play 3 of the bottom 4 who will be fighting for their lives. Think they all have a game in hand on us too, if not two!

Not pessimism, but realism. Don't think it can't happen.

[Twyford Rebel]

Enfield have won 3 in a row and St Albans are unbeaten in 5. We are 2nd bottom in the form league.

[Reading Rebel]

Another dismal away defeat.

Teams below us have games in hand and are starting to gain some momentum picking up points.

Apart from having games in hand we still have to play most of those teams below us.

We are slipping down the table so make no bones about it, lose our next two games at home to Worthing and away to Truro and we will be on the verge of a relegation scrap.

Edited February 11 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

I think we need to ask the question why in general we're very good at home but so poor when we play away?

It's a bit like we have a completely different set of players turning out for home and away games.

Do our players really need a home crowd to motivate them to perform?

Edited February 11 by Reading Rebel

[Twyford Rebel]

The fact is that we are nowhere near as good as the management pretends we are. That win over Maidstone on Saturday, whilst amazing, has papered over the cracks. That same Maidstone team lost at home tonight to Aveley. We are a bottom 6 side and better hope that we avoid the bottom 4. Harsh? No. Look at the table. Look at our results. Reality check needed.

[Reading Rebel]

Not excusing our poor away performances but losing and not replacing a player like Leon would have a detrimental affect on any side.

Great to get some money into the coffers but lets hope not replacing him doesn't come back to bite us on the backside.

 

Edited February 12 by Reading Rebel

[SloughFlyer]

A poor performance (specifically in the first half) again away from home against a side fighting for the lives. Was always going to be tough, but after the last 3 games performances, I thought we would have given a better showing.

Anyone blaming the referee is kidding themselves as we were lucky to be 0-0 at that stage and we would have robbed a point if we had got it. 

We need to start fighting out some wins (4 more to be 100% safe IMO) which starts with getting players fit and getting our best squad out for match days. Really missed Miccio and Slavi last night and having them return for Saturday will help. Need to get Guy fit as well as he will help at both ends of the pitch.

[SloughFlyer]

10 hours ago, Twyford Rebel said:

The fact is that we are nowhere near as good as the management pretends we are. That win over Maidstone on Saturday, whilst amazing, has papered over the cracks. That same Maidstone team lost at home tonight to Aveley. We are a bottom 6 side and better hope that we avoid the bottom 4. Harsh? No. Look at the table. Look at our results. Reality check needed.

Disagree with that assessment TR. If you look at the table 2 wins and we are back up to 9th (results going our way of course) and needing 4 more wins to be 100% safe. We are a mid-table side currently IMO and like every team in this league, can win or lose against any side (see St Albans, Welling, Dorking, Torquay and Maidstone). 

[Holyport Rebel]

1 hour ago, SloughFlyer said:

Disagree with that assessment TR. If you look at the table 2 wins and we are back up to 9th (results going our way of course) and needing 4 more wins to be 100% safe. We are a mid-table side currently IMO and like every team in this league, can win or lose against any side (see St Albans, Welling, Dorking, Torquay and Maidstone). 

For what it's worth SloughFlyer, my thoughts are in line with yours.

I was pleased and surprised to wake up and read Scott's tweet saying that he wasn't going to blame the ref for costing us a point yesterday.

Surprised because when I walked in my house just before 11.30pm last night  that is exactly what I told my wife.

I spent 15 minutes telling her first of all that we hadn't played very well, but that if that incompetent ref had blown his whistle when he should have done for a obvious head injury to one of our players, St Albans wouldn't have scored that goal, and that we would have sneaked a point.

I explained that if any head injury occurred during a match, the ref is supposed to blow up for a free kick/drop ball. 

I told her the damn ref even looked across at our player during the St Albans attack and still didn't blow, and I just knew then that they were going to  score, and that he had blown for a free kick/drop ball that helped St Albans earlier in the half for another head injury,  when we were exerting a bit of pressure on the home goal.

And that they didn't give us possession back when they took the free kick/drop ball   

And that exactly the same thing had happened at the FA Cup game at Woking when Scotty was clobbered and the ref didn't blow for a head injury and Woking were allowed to play on and score the winning goal.

And that I wished we had had the ref we had on Saturday refereeing the match tonight.

My wife was very quiet and taking all I had to say in.

On reflection today  I think she had probably fallen asleep.

I was pleased to read that Scott wasn't happy at all  though with our performance, which is amplified in his after match interview.

First half we were so lucky to be still at 0-0.

Second half we were much more in the game, but very disappointingly  I don't think the St Albans 'keeper had a shot or header to save in the entire game.

The fact that Scott is open to the faults we had in our performance yesterday gives me confidence that he will sort things out.

We did miss Slavi and Lewis yesterday.

Before the game I was quite hoping that St Albans ( and Weymouth ) wouldn't get relegated , (as long as it wasn't at  our expense of course ), because I really enjoy going to these two old style grounds, which I think have lots of character.

( I don't know if anyone else used to watch the TV show "Endeavour", which was based on Inspector Morse back in the 60's and 70's, but one episode had the story line that a star striker playing for a lowly football club was murdered, but  the club he played for home ground was St Albans, and they used lots of shots of Clarence Park  )

OK, please yourself, I found it interesting.  

I'm not so sure I'm that inclined to want St Albans  to stay up now, only because I thought first of all their public address announcer seemed to think he was the first cheer-leader for the club, and secondly, and more pertinently, the behaviour of what I took to be one of the St Albans playing staff after the game.

He was wearing a thick St Albans jacket and came on the pitch at the end with the other players, and came straight over to us Slough fans.

Standing five yards from the goalpost on the goal line, looking directly at us, he started to shout things that were obviously intended to wind us up, which were accompanied by numerous hand movements which again could not have been interpreted as anything other than inflammatory.

The St Albans goalie gave us a polite and decent clap at the end, but this ****head was a different matter entirely.

I don't think it was this prat that caused the uproar after the final whistle, but he should be reprimanded in some way regardless.

Yes, everyone is down after defeat yesterday.

Win on Saturday, and life seems so different.

I'm not saying we will win on Saturday, but I wouldn't be surprised if we did.

 

 

    

 

Edited February 12 by Holyport Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

35 minutes ago, Holyport Rebel said:

For what it's worth SloughFlyer, my thoughts are in line with yours.

I was pleased and surprised to wake up and read Scott's tweet saying that he wasn't going to blame the ref for costing us a point yesterday.

Surprised because when I walked in my house just before 11.30pm last night  that is exactly what I told my wife.

I spent 15 minutes telling her first of all that we hadn't played very well, but that if that incompetent ref had blown his whistle when he should have done for a obvious head injury to one of our players, St Albans wouldn't have scored that goal, and that we would have sneaked a point.

I explained that if any head injury occurred during a match, the ref is supposed to blow up for a free kick/drop ball. 

I told her the damn ref even looked across at our player during the St Albans attack and still didn't blow, and I just knew then that they were going to  score, and that he had blown for a free kick/drop ball that helped St Albans earlier in the half for another head injury,  when we were exerting a bit of pressure on the home goal.

And that they didn't give us possession back when they took the free kick/drop ball   

And that exactly the same thing had happened at the FA Cup game at Woking when Scotty was clobbered and the ref didn't blow for a head injury and Woking were allowed to play on and score the winning goal.

And that I wished we had had the ref we had on Saturday refereeing the match tonight.

My wife was very quiet and taking all I had to say in.

On reflection today  I think she had probably fallen asleep.

I was pleased to read that Scott wasn't happy at all  though with our performance, which is amplified in his after match interview.

First half we were so lucky to be still at 0-0.

Second half we were much more in the game, but very disappointingly  I don't think the St Albans 'keeper had a shot or header to save in the entire game.

The fact that Scott is open to the faults we had in our performance yesterday gives me confidence that he will sort things out.

We did miss Slavi and Lewis yesterday.

Before the game I was quite hoping that St Albans ( and Weymouth ) wouldn't get relegated , (as long as it wasn't at  our expense of course ), because I really enjoy going to these two old style grounds, which I think have lots of character.

( I don't know if anyone else used to watch the TV show "Endeavour", which was based on Inspector Morse back in the 60's and 70's, but one episode had the story line that a star striker playing for a lowly football club was murdered, but  the club he played for home ground was St Albans, and they used lots of shots of Clarence Park  )

OK, please yourself, I found it interesting.  

I'm not so sure I'm that inclined to want St Albans  to stay up now, only because I thought first of all their public address announcer seemed to think he was the first cheer-leader for the club, and secondly, and more pertinently, the behaviour of what I took to be one of the St Albans playing staff after the game.

He was wearing a thick St Albans jacket and came on the pitch at the end with the other players, and came straight over to us Slough fans.

Standing five yards from the goalpost on the goal line, looking directly at us, he started to shout things that were obviously intended to wind us up, which were accompanied by numerous hand movements which again could not have been interpreted as anything other than inflammatory.

The St Albans goalie gave us a polite and decent clap at the end, but this ****head was a different matter entirely.

I don't think it was this prat that caused the uproar after the final whistle, but he should be reprimanded in some way regardless.

Yes, everyone is down after defeat yesterday.

Win on Saturday, and life seems so different.

I'm not saying we will win on Saturday, but I wouldn't be surprised if we did.

 

 

    

 

Another excellent post HR.

On the bit about the ref not blowing for the head injury to Sam, Scott mentioned that Sam was initially holding his head and then after a few seconds stopped holding his head and only protesting. My assumption is that the ref looked back and saw Sam no longer holding his head so decided not to stop the game.

The moral being perhaps Sam should have done what 99.9% of other players do and lay there motionless not moving holding his head screaming blue murder.

It was also interesting hearing from Scott that the heavy/muddy pitch conditions doesn't suit some of our players and future team selection could well be based on playing at home on a 3G and away in conditions like we encountered last night.