Unfortunate night for Hastings with Jack Dixon getting injured. Worrying how easy sides find it to create goal scoring chances against Hastings. Liam O'Brien was often playing Cray on his own. Do we lack physical presence in the side?
We are lacking something last night display was awful and if it had not been for the fa cup run then the club would probably be thinking it was time for a new manager. Liam was only player to do well last night and when playing a side that had not won for something like 7 games that is pretty depressing then again we are a side that have not won a league game for nearly 3 months!!! But last week we play great against Whitehawk, yesterday no one motivated and we lucky we got a point.
Seen it said last time we had a cup run we got relegated even though its only 2 down on last nights performance i think history is going to repeat itself. Despite what the manager says re we need to get to where we should be in the table the league table never lies, 3 wins out of 20 league games is not good enough talk is cheap
Difficult to disagree with Peter,without Liam we could have easily lost by four or five. Why does Lee Carey have to take all corners and free kicks,is there no alternative to give a bit of variety? However my real heroes last night in the atrocious conditions were the ball boys. They deserve a medal or at least a seat in the director's box at the next home game for their efforts.
In those tougher cup games we seemed to play a more rigid 442 but in the league we are all over the place, and the back 4 must wonder what's going on in front of them. Lets play the rigid 442 in the league and results will improve.
Phil how right you are the real heroes were the 5 ball boys that are here week in week out,they have been ballboying in the wind ,rain and snow,there is a little group of about 8 that turn up but the 3 that lasted the whole game Tuesday are stars and they were freezing when they came off.
While on the subject of heroes what about one of the ballboys grandad in his 80's and spent the day up the ground shovelling snow with Simon,Barrie and the rest of the merry helpers now again thats devotion but regarding the results did they go home happy?????
Well, if you want to regain some league form, Hastings are your team. Leiston, bottom of the league, 1st win of the season 3-1. Carshalton, bottom of the league, 1st win of the season 1-0, Enfield, bottom 2, 6 defeats in a row, lost 1-0, Cray, 5 losses in a row including 6nil defeat at Thurrock, drew 1-1. And lets keep in mind we were lucky that just this week they sold top scorer Paul Vines to Kingstonian.We were very poor once again and as already said we were saved by Liam on numerous occasions.
So what's going wrong? We always look dangerous going forward and have plenty of attacking options and yet we are 2nd lowest scorers in the league with 23 in 20 games. We have strong defenders and as good a fullbacks as i can remember, but we havn't kept a clean sheet in 15 and just 1 in 21. Are certain players guaranteed a starting place and living in the comfort zone? I don't think so and I hope not, so i tend to agree with timbjones as we certainly lack a physical presence in the middle of the park. For me Danny Ellis is the most improved player of the season by far and Jack Dixon has probably been our best player over the past few months, but along with Lee Carey they do lack the physical presence of say a Timmy Olurunda type holding player. Are Vickers and Crellin the answer? not sure, against Harrogate and both Whitehawk games of late they looked like world beaters, but need to bring more consistency to their games. But whatever the answer is, too often of late, the back 4 have been left horribly exposed and against two of the lesser sides in Cray and Enfield this really shouldn't be happening. Its certainly not down to the ability of the players but maybe the formation we play. Are we too attack minded? perhaps, but with a massive 3 away games in a week against Wealdstone, Concord and Peacehaven I have a terrible feeling we may be having these same discussions in a week or so after another 3 win less games.
One thing I do disagree with is a couple of comments and murmurings from supporters on the forum about the managers job. I 110% believe in Razors ability to manage this side and take them forward and 110% believe he is and always has been the right man for the job.
Anyone have news on Dixon? Big loss if its a bad one.
I saw Jack today it's not too bad however I think he will probably miss a couple of games. He has inflamed tendons in his knee which he did by simply turning, one of those strange football injuries I suppose?
its so frustrating as we clearly have a decent large squad now but something is just still not clicking in all departments ( aside from the GK's as Matt was much improved this season until his injury and Liam has been exceptional but might be on too much money to retain on loan for much longer this season, George Howard was / is ok )
I totally agree that it is very hard to pinpoint what the problem is. I feel so many draws against the league's top sides and our cup run proves that we should be comfortable in this division but our inability to perform against other strugglers is a real worry. Sadly I missed Tuesday (Man Flu !) but followed on the excellent Twitter feed and had the distinct impression we were again getting totally outplayed by a team in poor form...at least until the last few minutes. That has GOT to be a major concern. Maybe we are just having to change the side too much...I appreciate this was forced on us on Tuesday and injuries/suspensions complicate things further but I don't think we really know what our best lineup is. The promotion winning side of a few years ago was far more settled...I think this could be significant. Maybe we are lacking a physical presence in midfield but the likes of Carey, Ellis, Crelin and Vickers have all performed well on occasions...but maybe not consistently. Do we need a big ball winner in there too ? I think maybe we do. I personally think Razor's doing a good job as manager...many expressed the need to strengthen the squad to get us clear of trouble and the management have responded...however we do now quickly need to see results as our league form is desperate. Do we now have enough quality in the sqaud to see us pull clear ? I guess only time will tell. It would be a huge disappointment to follow up certainly the greatest FA Cup run in my lifetime with a bottom two spot and relegation. Incredibly it could still happen.
As its been said Sean moved quickly to strengthen the squad and Tuesdays game was our first opportunity to view the signings albeit not for long in the instance of Stone, I did think in the few minutes he had he showed great awareness. It was the first time that half of the back 4 had played together i think its fair to say,we can't expect a world beating side from players who have never played together in their first game however I do appreciate that we need to start getting maximum points, I firmly believe we will see that soon.
Dismayed Pat? Im dismayed that we are at the bottom of the league, nearly. Time runs out quickly in football and with the quality we have something is not right for the team to be that far down the league. Appreciate the new signings will take a while to settle down but one of the biggest problems is that we are not a settled side. It can't help. Re manager not saying he should be sacked, yet, but if it was not for the Cups would be a depressing season with just 3 league wins.
Thats a massive loss to the club. Hes been superb this season especially over the past 2-3 months and probably our most creative player. Just a shame the Rye supporters find out quicker then we do. Can anyone our end confirm this news????
I dont know about Dicko to be honest but it is a huge loss as he has been on great form recently.
As for Razor, before you get too dismayed about being near the bottom, you need to see that he is building for the long term with the development centre and the reserves, and it will reap dividends im sure. Secondly, we are looking at converting draws to wins not defeats to draws and I honestly think thats achievable in the next month
