Slough Town 1-4 Fleet

[Chris]

Our miserable run continues. No Terry Davies (working apparently) and NO goalkeeper as Richard Barnard our new signing did not show. So with Lewes not allowing Aaron France to play, Pollard still suspended and Jackson still injured Wilko played in goal.

 

Having said that nothing he could have done about the goals. Still big problems for us.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Agreed Wilko could do nothing to prevent the goals. Well done to him for stepping into the number 1 shirt though, he made a couple of good saves.

Also agreed we have big problems, some players are really trying hard (Miller, Bizon, Moleski, Charles come to mind they looked good today), but nothing seems to click and we have no luck at all. Hopefully when we get Jacko back it could steady the ship as he is a great keeper and will try very hard to organise his defence.

But the problem is there are only ever small glimpses of what could be, nothing sustained.

[Guest Poorer]

Poor, No keeper, WTF? Losing again to another poor team.

Last win against Heybridge!? In what? Feb?

As said behind the goal 'if this continues we will have a worse record than last year'

 

Something has to be done.

 

Charles played well and Moleski battled. Deaner took his goal well.

[Matt]

The thing with Slough is, just when you think things can't get much worse, they always do. It's hard to blame Darron Wilkinson without knowing the ins and outs of what the hell happened to Richard Barnard and why he couldn't get to Holloways Park. He did the best he could in goal but I doubt Barnard could have done much to help us because we were poor again and the opposition deserved their win. It was effectively game over at 0-2.

 

It's the same old problems - the defending isn't great, we keep persisting with the long ball game, there is no cohesion or attacking threat in midfield, and the strikers aren't getting the service and thus aren't scoring. I thought Lee Charles was a glimmer of hope today though, even though he was stuck out on the right wing for some reason. He showed some very good touches and put in an excellent cross for Deaner's goal.

[Martin]

That was frankly embarassing. The fact that we could not field a proper team in the most important game of the season is shameful. It seems my comments at the game are unwelcome to some supporters and doubtless some players alike but to be honest I don't appreciate that my hobby, my release from the miseries of work has been turned into an absolute farce. You look at Wealdstone who at least manage to retain some dignity whilst being homeless for well over a decade and wonder why we can't field a competitive team at the lowest level I have ever seen us play.

 

How many fans did Fleet bring? Twenty? Thirty? They must have been laughing at us.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

The few you upset with your comments have their heads stuck in the sand!!!!

 

It is time that things started to happen, as those who say "things must get better soon give them a chance, its too soon to change things" - Well we have had no wins this season and only 6 last season in all competative games - how much longer are we going to wait - the club is at its lowest level ever and we have just been knocked out of the FA Cup at the lowest level ever - how bad do things have to get - if this was a sick animal it would have been put down by now!

 

Wilko is a nice bloke and served the club well, but it is now time he bowed out and we bought in someone with the ability to at least get us to mid table with the budget that is allegedly available.

[Ted]

Originally Posted By: Chris

Our miserable run continues. No Terry Davies (working apparently) and NO goalkeeper as Richard Barnard our new signing did not show. So with Lewes not allowing Aaron France to play, ....

What is the source of your information? You are probably right (you usually are), but some of the rumours going round were quite different.

[charlie]

Christ...that was depressing. And i somehow have to write a report on it later. (speaking of which, if anyone has a list of Fleet's team and their sub's i'd be grateful.

 

Wilko made some good saves today and there was little he could do about the goal, three of which were very good strikes. The good glimmers came from (in my opinion) Harper (after he'd settled down), Moleski, Charles and Lucas Bizon who, for someone who hasn't been seen all season, I thought played well and was prepared to put his boot in.

 

I'm not going to get into the players who I thought performed badly but I will say this - I really question the management's decision on the line up today.

 

If I had my five minutes with the three of them (Wilko, Betts and Roddis), I'd like to know why the hell they started with Deaner and Miller up front, forcing Charles on the wing. If there are injuries or other circumstances which we don't know about, fine, but I would rather put Charles up where he belongs as a striker and have either Bartley or Faircluff on the right and leave Deaner on the bench. Andy's a lovely bloke but i'd rather see that formation. (I will say he took his goal well today though)

My big worry is that if we keep ignoring Faircluff, a young player who looks like he could become a good young player if given the chance, he'll disappear to somewhere where he'll actually get given a game.

[GarySTFC]

Ted, Chris is factually correct on his statement. I can confirm the points you queried.

[Reading Rebel]

Have to agree with you, I thought Charles was playing on the right side of midfield and also doing a lot of defending which to my mind was criminal because he was the one person with the ability to either take their defence on or hold the ball up and play in Miller.

 

It's decisions like that that make you wonder if Wilko and Co. have any clue whatsoever.

 

Personally at half time I would have pushed Charles up front with the other two strikers, taken off a tired old midfielder and one defender and replaced them with Jeffries in central midfield and Bartley on the wing. At least this would have added some zip to our game and we might have put them under some pressure. It's called going for broke when you've nothing to lose.

 

[Chris]

Well we were down to the bare bones, but Charles does actually play on a right wing as well. Played there on many occasions for Aldershot.

 

I thought Harper did well today as well after a dodgy start to his Rebels career and Bison had a good first-half but understandable faided in the second. May actually be OK at the back with Murphy to come in as well. Looks dodgy on the middle of midfield still for me...

[A Rebel and a Saint]

Agreed there were a lot of times where our central midfield was non existant, the Fleet players had huge amounts of room to move into at times.

[bloobuoy75]

Fleet's Squad today was

 

1 Paul Smith

2 Nathan Smart 2

3 Jack Smith

4 Phil John 1

5 Steve Noakes

6 Gavin Barnes

7 James Field

8 Sam Pearce

9 Eddie Smith

10 Adam Wallace

11 Matty Lewis

 

James Wise 1 replaced Adam Wallace

Matty Squires replaced Eddie Smith

Steve Hemmings replaced Gavin Barnes

 

Best of luck for the rest of the season. It seems to me that some of your players do not deserve fans like you. I hope that's not too harsh. Credit to you guys for the support you give and clapping your players off the field.

[Reading Rebel]

I'd like to say. and I never thought I would, that Adrian Browne had a good game today, he won most of the balls that Daly would normally win.

 

Apart from Moleski and Charles they were non-existant, excuses can be made for Bizon who was having his first game for a while.

[Reading Rebel]

Add 'the midfield' instead of 'they'.

[Bernie Gogan]

To be honest I'm disgusted and demoralised by this state of affairs. How can it be that a player works on a Saturday when he should be working for the club on the field of play? How is it that a goalkeeper can't be bothered to turn up to play.....it's park football and Sunday morning at that.

 

I thought we had turned the corner with a new structure to the club and prospects of a new ground, but it looks to be continuing in the same shambolic state as last season. A move back to Slough and a proper income stream can't come too soon

enough.

[Reading Rebel]

I must admit that I cannot remember players in the past not playing because they were working and players at this standard of football not turning up!

 

I thought this only happened on Sunday mornings.

 

It's the second time this season that a players been on the team sheet and not not turned up.

 

Shambolic to say the least!

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Its down to the manager to manage and its not being managed!

 

It may be due to time restraints, support from above or just lacks the skill, or a combination of these - but the management of the team is at fault. The wrong players on the pitch, playing in the wrong positions, and that is when they turn up!

 

I hate to say it, but you would not get this in a team managed by Devonshire!

[3spirit]

To Reading Rebel. You seem to be the only one on here that sees the game,how I see it.Yesterday,we was always on to a hiding to nothing being with out a proper goalkeeper but at least,we dug in and some of the players came out with some credit.One who was hiding,yesterday,yet again was Christian Metcalf.In the first ten minutes of play of eight actions of play,where he was involved,2 were passes that went off the pitch,3 were fouls blown up by the referee,2 was a passes straight to the opposition and he actually achieved one pass that reached a Slough player.

The thing yesterday,that was glaringly obvious to me but totally missed by our so called management team was the huge gaps in the middle of midfield because Metcalfe keeps running into the penalty area,so he doesn't have to take responsibilty for the position he's supposed to be playing.It wouldn't be as bad,if he actually scored any goals but he never ever gets near to the ball.Under the Denton years,his asset to the team was his non-stop running and covering positions.Even if I've never been his biggest fan!I could see what he brought to the team back then.Now I just can't.

Jefferies should have been brought on,if Roddis actually knew what he was doing.What a ludicrous decision taking Miller off when we needed goals,he ran his socks off yesterday.Andy Deaner deserves some credit too.At least,he got among the central defenders of Fleet and made them have to work.Their big defender at the back,knew he had been in a game because he didn't stop whinging about it. Browne and Charles both deserve a mention,too,for their overall play.

[Tom]

3spirit have you heard of paragraphs? They are quite useful on forums.