ETFC 1 Romford 0

[Guest]

After the Lord Mayor's Show tonight.

 

With hopes high after Saturday's show, Town were poor this evening.

 

Romford had a man sent off midway through the first half for alledgedly spitting at Graeme Hall but the first half ended with neither side having an effort on target.

 

In the second half Romford came out to defend, as you would expect, but we seemed clueless on how to break them down. Passing was poor all night (don't blame the pitch, it doesn't stop you passing five yards) and we were hopeless at exploiting space created by having the extra man. We had little or no width and when we did we didn't use it.

 

However, we did score late on with Bradley Brotherton heading in what was our only serious attempt on target.

 

I suppose you could argue that playing poorly and winning is the sign of a good side but I'm afraid we didn't look like that tonight. Our creative players did little and we looked fairly toothless.

 

Romford for me seemed to lack confidence, even before they had a man sent off although they were well organised and fairly solid.

 

Still, three points, and three more than last season.

 

Man of the Match? Probably Paul Campbell who looks quite comfortable at the back.

[Guest]

Whilst you got the result you wanted, the " Man of the Moment" was banging two more in for Burnham Ramblers at Hullbridge and that means Mr Portway is leading the scoring list with 5 !

[theabbeyabbott]

Portway will excel at this level surely? Not rocket science is it?

[Cyclops]

When you are looking for a game of fast, free-flowing football, it doesn't help to have both sides playing deep and apparently trying to hit the others on the break.

 

Romford looked to be using those tactics because of their unexpectedly poor start to the season. ETFC looked to be using the same tactics because Romford is a good team of good players and we didn't want to be on the receiving end when it all goes right for them.

 

Having said that, we got the three points so our tactics worked. I thought we could have done better by using the wings more. No wonder Carey Wright kept coming inside looking for the ball -- and Daniel Francis did the same until we stepped up a gear at the end and used the full width of the pitch.

 

I have to agree with Paul Campbell as MoM.

 

[Steph]

A fairly good analysis.

 

However you did not mention the disgraceful antic of their bench. Why no one was cautioned over there is a mystery to me.

 

1) Manager telling his players to leave the foot in - and we saw number 4 and number 3 with their disgraceful tackles against Carey Wright and Paul Campbell.

 

2) Screaming at the lino when he needs to concentrate on the game.

 

3) Telling their injured player to "go down" and call for a stretcher when he was only 3 yards from the touch line.

 

4) The sub also screaming at the lino.

 

5) Complaining bitterly when one of our players left the pitch to receive instruction when the same "gentleman" (and I use the term loosely) spent more time outside his area than in it.

 

I could go on but Romford came for a point and got exactly what they deserved. Poster Bill you must have the patience of a Saint to watch that rabble and I mean your management team!

[Southport - TOWNER]

Thought Romford stuckto their game plan better than we stuck to ours

 

they closed down the midfield and marked players

 

we should have had wide men; but they get coming inside.

 

when we ad gone 1 up with a few mins to go we didn't even try and hold the ball

 

 

[TB&G]

I was on the far side of the ground to the bench Steph and was not able to see/hear what went on there.

 

I'm not excusing the lack of Boro discipline on the pitch but it is interesting to note that we had one player stretchered off and also one red carded and one yellow carded for different forms of retaliation.

 

What would you presume from that if you had been an unbiased observer?

 

Perhaps someone not at the match might care to comment too!

 

 

[Steph]

Your player was stretchered off because your coach requested it. He was being carried to the line quiet easily when the coach said "put him down and request a stretcher". I would venture to suggest that it was the same time wasting tactic that occurred every time there was a goal kick or when number 4 required tape around his stockings.

 

One form of retaliation I understand was spitting and that is why your centre forward got sent off. Is that how your coach controls his side?

 

He instructed them to "leave your foot in". Quite clearly and that is not an instuction to go wild as some of your players did. It was also the reason why many of your players missed tackles.

 

The game started rough, and I accept you did not see it as you were on the blind side, but you will recall when Graham Hall went down as if pole axed. Of all the town players perhaps Graham and Brad are the ones that do not feign injury. They will soldier on no matter what.

 

I believe it was your centre forward who got sent off later, challenged for the ball with his arm up in a clenched fist and nearly knocked Graham's head off. I reckon that Brad went in later with an elbow as that is what nubmer 9 complained about and in retaliation he spat at Brad.

 

As for the yellow card. It was an awful tackle on Paul Campbell that started the incident and the fellow who got yellow carded did not need to get involved.

 

Your team were hyper during the game and the fault can be laid at your management. That is not the way to win at football.

 

But then you would say I was biased but even you have to agree that it was your manager that was screaming all the time not JC and his team.

 

Your tactics were to play 5 at the back with 4 in midfield after the guy went off you only played one at front and he disapeared in the latter stages of the second half before we scored. Our mistake was using 3 or 4 players to mark one. As for playing wide I dont think it made a lot of difference when we only had two attacking players against 5. We play better when Brad has a freer role he always wants to be positive which at the back can be a little dangerous. I thought the game was crying out for a player like a fit Lee Smith who would have used his strength and skill to break through the well organised back 5 of Romford.

 

After we scored your defence had to open up and whilst you piled on pressure as the game went on we would have scored more. Remember when there were three town players on one in the closing minutes.

 

[TB&G]

Your observations still seem to be very one sided Steph.

 

But the match is over so it's best to let bygones be bygones and move on.

 

I thought that Town played some nice football but seemed a bit toothless on the evening.Perhaps Boro's resolute defending contributed somewhat to that.

 

Pity the game couldn't have been played for the 90 minutes between two full teams. There seemed to be a good attractive match developing before everything went pear shaped.

 

See you at Rush Green for the return if not before.

[Beer Sponsor]

I have to say that I thought Romford were lucky to finish with ten men, after the ref missed the punch thrown by the 14 in the melee towards the end.

I agree with much of what's been said above, but the pleasing thing for me was that we did go on and win a tight and hard fought game. Not sure we'd have done that this time last year, however few players Romford had.

[lovely stuff]

Everitt and Geraghty were the changes from the side that beat Eton Manor, and neither of them performed at all on the night.Cary is not a wide player.Felt we missed Smith up front. Why wasn't our wonderkid Asiedu playing.Thought the defence had their most solid performance of the season. Dissapointed by the lack of movement and understanding in midfield and upfront against Romford, especially after it had been so good against Eton.

 

Finally,When Adam Gant is fully fit, i would put him at the back and maybe push Brotherton into centre midfield.

[bjr]

It was a disappointing match last night. Both teams tried to play football until the sending off, but that incident changed the match. I did not see what happened but the linesman obviously did. If it was for spitting then the Romford guy deserved to go.

 

Town were disappointing and bereft of ideas going forward. I feel that Jason Geraghty will be disappointed today - he was given his chance as playmaker but did not do himself justice. I thought we looked better with Massala and Daniel Francis playing on the wings - shame we did not make that change earlier.

 

I agree with some of Steph's comments - their coach lost his rag completely after the Carey Wright tackle that left the Romford player unable to continue. The tackle didn't look too bad from where I was, but then I guess I am biased. The coach was completely out of order to instruct his players to go forth and hurt ...... shame really because up till then he had been quite entertaining.

 

Credit to Romford - they defended well and deserved a point. We were lucky last night.

[Guest]

Three points is what its all about and that is what was delivered,Romford were pretty negative and with ten or eleven men would still have played the same way , not as good as saturday but we get the same number of points for a win lets be positive we had lots of players playing through injuries and some big names missing last night lets see what we can achieve when every body is fit . we are top of the league and lets hope we can stay there. [color:"blue"] [/color]

[TopGun]

Someone should tell Danny Benstock to grow his hair a couple of Inches as from a distance he looks like that fartknocker Jimmy sommerville

[Pavagrotti]

Romford have always been a hard physical side and it would appear nothing changes!