A (further) Staines post mortem

[michael]

I think i usually take the fully supportive role in many of my posts and have deliberately left this alone for 48 hours to see if the passage of time diluted my feelings-it has not -and whilst slightly historical, i thought i would still vent my spleen over saturday, where many appear to have been 'encouraged by the general performance',whilst personally i thought we were completely 'unprofessional , 'undertrained' and frankly pathetic.

 

I don't expect to see Chelsea standard of defending but not for the first time we were worse than schoolboys in defence.

 

Pre-match warm up-no one taking control of it ,and we just strolled around.

 

The goalkeeper did not even handle the ball-guess we know why now , but it seemed a jolly day out to the rest of the players aswell.

 

Early goals conceded yet again.-how many times is that this season.

 

Goal 1-Charambolous gives the ball away by an aimless ball down to their fullback for the second time in first 2 minutes-everyone knows he will give the ball away so how does he get in the team- Staines counter attack and we are lethargic about attacking the ball so they get a shot in-deflected yes, but we should have been quicker to block(but the defence is slow so can't be any quicker.

 

Goal 2-pathetic soft clearance header by Edwards across the goalmouth-i thought after 30 years he may have learnt thats not a good idea and you take the ball away from the danger area.

 

Goal 3-chaos from a corner again-we stand still and ballwatch.

 

So now Hasim goes in goal and does ok, but then :

 

Goal 4-Donavan caught wrong side of man as ball is threaded past him.

 

Goal 5 -remember chaps-goal difference could count-another soft goal.Unlike others,i do not think Mitten would have saved it because no wall was put in place to defend the free kick-Staines virtually have a free shot.

 

Despite our player coach being in defence, the defence is leaderless.JK shouts at players without making much sense to me, and Edwards just strolls along without a care in the world.

 

Post match at least CK vaguely critices the defence post match,but you can bet the same old slow faces will roll out again for the next match.

 

We may not have a choice there, but the defence is 'settled' and has had time to gel so who is coaching the defnce on the rudiments of defending-no-one can be.

Kola may be equally slow, but at least he attacks the ball from defence.

Keister and Edwards are not defenders,albeit can pass as sweepers if we must waste a man and lose control of everygame in midfield by playing 5-3-2 ,when at this level players are not capable of playing wingback roles

 

When was the last time we scored non direct from a set piece-i think it was last season.

We will never score from corners because everyone stands rooted to the spot-no-one peels off or makes a run-ball is lobbed into the air-Donovan and edwards are rooted to the spot and thus never win a header.

 

The one exception was early in second half when i thought it was Gradley who made a simple 5 yard run and put a header against the bar-perhaps it was Brayley -neither are brilliant in the air but they had a little movement and it almost paid off.

 

I see we did not concede at Crabble tonight-maybe i pray because there was a decent defender on show, but if not it will be another false dawn/chance for the defence which is plainly not up to the task in competitive situations.

 

I'm not used to ranting, but i thought it was worse than amateurish on saturday.

The result i can take, unlike others, i thought the defensive performance was abysmal.The talk about effort and spirit has to be shown by al 11 players-yes the midfield and attack showed spirit and some decent moves ,but it needs all 11 players doing the same-i wopuld like to see some 'over my dead body'

 

and

'thou shalt not pass'

 

spirit shown by the defence.

we may be slow but at least lets have an 'attitude of ruthlessness in defence.

 

At the moment, the defenece are playing like pansies and that goes back for more than the last few games.

Defensive weakness has manifested itself in the last few games, but in reality it has been there from start of season.

[BLUEBOYBLUE]

good honest post.I too can't stand the 5-3-2 system we play and think it's our biggest downfall.

Why no one on the posts for there free-kick?

Thats just basic defending.

We also always use the same system, which is easy for the opposing team to set their selves up.

Wish somebody would take control at the back and be a voice and make the decisions.

We missed mitten but he's also not vocal enough.

[seasidesteve]

a very good accurate post several of us know 5-3-2 does not work at this level.greg is an ok defender but going forward he is hopeless and gets stranded

[Ian D]

Quote:

seasidesteve said:
a very good accurate post several of us know 5-3-2 does not work at this level.greg is an ok defender but going forward he is hopeless and gets stranded

Just a note, Greg had never played as full back until he came to Margate!!

[Cookie]

According to this "oldie" report he has!

 

 

Soccer: Halls out to right a wrong

From the archive, first published Tuesday 22nd Jan 2002.

 

John Halls will be aiming to put the record straight when he makes only his second Football League appearance for Colchester United at promotion-chasing Huddersfield Town.

 

The young England Under-20 international and Arsenal ace is desperate to erase the memory of his glaring error which gifted Chesterfield a 75th-minute winner at Layer Road on Saturday.

 

"Some text deleted"

 

Halls, one of three talented young Gunners currently on the Layer Road books, had until that point looked an accomplished and classy footballer in the U's defence.

 

"Some text deleted"

 

"I've played three Worthington Cup games for Arsenal against Manchester United, Grimsby and Blackburn and was given my marching orders against United for two bookable offences.

 

Halls is already feeling right at home at Layer Road although he has only been on the scene for less than a week.

 

His former Highbury club-mates, striker Graham Barrett, signed on loan until the end of the season, and full-back Greg Oates, currently enjoying a short trial, are also around.

 

 

[Coffin Ender]

"the defence which is plainly not up to the task in competitive situations"

 

Is this the same team that only conceded 10 goals in our first 12 games of the season?

[seasidesteve]

noitisnt kola was playing then another of the better players imo left on the bench

[michael]

Kola and Ryan for some of the games.

Excepting his debut at bromley, Ryan made a massive positive impact on the defence-pace and good in air.

 

Even though we conceded few in the early games, to me in the games i saw, the defence never looked that special anyway, even though not conceding; and to me it was only a matter of time before the defence got properly 'found out'.

 

Unfortunately ,the defensive frailities have manifested themselves in recent games.

 

Its not a bad patch-the defence has been poor most of season ,and until recently'got away with it'

 

Time to stop papering over the cracks imo

[Cookie]

Sounds like you have finally joined the SSS club MM.And mine on many occasions.Welcome!

[michael]

Not really.

 

We are all see things differently,and cannot agree with the managers decisions 100% of the time.Does not neccesarily make one non supportive of the manager

Occasionally one feels the need to 'vent ones spleen' and as long as it is not abusive and one hopes is seen as reasonably constructive,and aired on a debating forum,( which at end of the day is really just us all playing the Ron Manager bit.) should not be doing any harm.

Whilst many appear to have taken the positives from the Staines game, i failed to find many.

Not because of the five goals conceded-just the unneccesary manner of them.

 

For some reason i get excited by nil nil draws and often find myself watching the defence as opposed to attack.(unfortunately i see more action that way aswell)

 

I just feel that saturday was totally unprofessional all round,starting from a virtually no existent warm up routine,and ending when we failed to put up a defensive wall for the fifth goal, so made it easy for the guy to beat Hasim .In between was just rubbish defending.

 

If you do not concede a goal, you don't lose .

 

Whilst we were all a bit frustrated by the sequence of 8 draws at start of season, we were gathering some points and proudly saying we were unbeaten.

 

My concerns re: quality of the defence were there and posted on this forum from start of season,even when on paper we were not conceding.

 

I remain supportive of CK, though i do admit to starting to waiver a bit after McGowan was released and Charambolous resigned, even on non contract terms.

I hope Alex proves me wrong ,and becomes a star, but i just can't see it, whereas others-at least CK- can.

I thought McGowan was streets ahead and similarly i now fail to see how Alex gets in the teamn ahead of Standen ,who i also rate reasonably highly.

each to our own i guess.

 

 

To be fair ,the defence did play well at Windsor and Eton a couple of months ago -Kola, Edwards and Donovan.

I think Kola should be in the team and JK and Edwards cannot play in defence together imo.

 

Same mudbath of a ploughed field this saturday so maybe a repaet heroic defensive performance coming up(never went to Hendon-find it hard to believe that Hendon pitch was worse than Windsor !!

[geoff pay]

hendon pitch was fine very good

[RichG]

In my opinion the Hendon pitch was very poor, but not as bad as Windsor. We will need to tough it out on Saturday.