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Topic: Saturday : Hastings United- Walton Casuals

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BertNEC
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Saturday : Hastings United- Walton Casuals
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After the unexpected loss against Walton & Hersham we will now face the other Walton and bottom GAME OFF! League Cup vs Kingstonian

The Stags have played 18 games and got only 9 points. 7 of that 9 points they got from away games. They scored 22 and conceded 44 goals. Since 3 weeks they have a new manager; Liam Collins , also player and alongside him and also player is assistant Simon Huckle. Last Saturday they played against Faversham, went 0-2 behind but then 3-2 up and conceded a last minute equalizer. From their match report :  Dreams of a vivacious comeback were somewhat crushed as James-Lewis’ final attempt scraped the crossbar, but the Stags ensured a merited point against the team 23 positions above in the Ryman Division One South with an admirable performance. 

And we ? I think you can say that the loss against Walton & Hersham was unexpected and somehow disappointed. 

On the official : Call them Jekyll and Hyde. Call them chalk and cheese. Or just call them Hastings United. The softness of that ultimately decisive strike rather summed up United's afternoon and boss Dom Di Paola was rather disappointingly short of game changing options in the absence for varying reasons of Ade Olorunda, Sean Ray and Kevin Keehan. A midweek Sussex Senior Cup trip to AFC Uckfield Town, followed by next weekend's home meeting with bottom of the table Walton Casuals, will hopefully provide opportunities to restore some dented morale as the season approaches its halfway point.

Last season we won both matches 1-0. Away with a goal from Kelly and home with a goal from Tim Olorunda.TimOlorunda.jpg

Think you always have to win against a bottom club; but need the 3 points more then ever now. Hope that some new players can make a step and also that there are enough players on the bench. 

Think the players have to prove that they can do better and with the support of the home crowd i reckon we see a motivated Hastings United.

 

Come on your U'ssss!



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johnw
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OMG! That first game of the season at Walton seems like a long, long time ago now. Remember sitting on Benidorm seafront with Barry West, sweating our nuts off, checking on the scores and discussing how good our squad was and how confident we were of not just promotion but winning the league. Amazing how it's all fallen apart......he sweated so much that day he must have weighed in at around 12 stone. Shame about Hastings toobiggrin



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BertNEC
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Goal scorers : Dolan and Ade

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Lenny The Lion
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johnw wrote:

OMG! That first game of the season at Walton seems like a long, long time ago now. Remember sitting on Benidorm seafront with Barry West, sweating our nuts off, checking on the scores and discussing how good our squad was and how confident we were of not just promotion but winning the league. Amazing how it's all fallen apart......he sweated so much that day he must have weighed in at around 12 stone. Shame about Hastings toobiggrin

 You know how it goes John....I was on holiday and was bound to put a few pounds on. 😂



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DaveOrmerod
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Remember that first match of the season well John and Barrie. The eight of us who went by train had a lovely pre match meal in Weatherspoons.  As we were unable to get a taxi back to Walton on Thames Station after the match, I took them via my short cut route back to the Station which in fact turned out to be more of a long cut route. I remember saying on the return trip that by the time we played the return fixture we would have between 40 to 45 points, how wrong could I be. 



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MrLiamWillis
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It was a great opening fixture to have in Aug, just down the road is beautiful pub on a weir by the Thames and 10 or so of us enjoyed a sunny hour outside there before the game thinking we would be top by Christmas :)



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Windy
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Dan wrote:

It was a great opening fixture to have in Aug, just down the road is beautiful pub on a weir by the Thames and 10 or so of us enjoyed a sunny hour outside there before the game thinking we would be top by Christmas :)

 Ahhh ! But did you say which Christmas that would be ? 



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ChrisB
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Very concerned about Doms latest article in the media, if you haven't read it suggest you do. Questions I would ask are,
You have bought half the players to the club and you are saying they aren't good enough!!!
Why haven't you bought in left footer player?
And why aren't the players on there game week after week?

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johnw
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I'm not concerned but I know where your coming from Chris. I was concerned at first but then read it a 2nd time and thought how refreshing to hear a manager being honest about the squad and the fans expectations. How often have we heard managers over the years telling us how good the squad is and how we will be competing at the top only to be let down year on year. And every time we win a game we suddenly hear supporters talking play offs and promotion again. I agree with what he is saying. Our squad is not good enough, we don't keep enough clean sheets, we don't score enough goals, supporters expectations are too high and we should be beating teams like Walton & Hersham. Dom's only been here 7 games and I already think we are expecting miracles. Was his number 1 job and still is, to save us from the unthinkable and relegation to County league?. He has had very little time to scour the country of new signings and I think he has probably signed what he knows and who he trusts to make sure we are safe and in this league for next season, although I don't particularly rate the 2 front boys. I slightly disagree with his comments regarding the gap between us and the top. The teams there are better, clearly, but I don't think the gap is massive, as shown against Faversham. As for the left footer is Vickers and Crutwell not left footed? and I thought Rose was two footed, although some would say he's useless on both.



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BertNEC
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Hastings United manager Dom Di Paola has written off the football club’s chances of achieving its promotion ambitions this season.

The U’s are 16th in Ryman Football League Division One South and 11 points outside the play-off places having played 19 of their 46 matches.

Di Paola said: “There’s a massive difference between us and the teams at the top. They’re scoring a lot more goals and they’re not leaking them; we’ve only kept two clean sheets all season.

“If we go on a run now it would have to be amazing, but it’s not likely and I don’t think the mindset of the players is there to do that at the moment. That might change, but they’re living on one game at a time. If we’re on it, we’ll get a win. If we’re not completely on it from minute one, then we’re going to get done.”

Di Paola felt the performance in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at home to Walton & Hersham “wasn’t good enough” and wants to see some progression during the remainder of the campaign.

“There’s lots of things to try and sort out,” he continued. “I want to win more games and see some progression so that hopefully there’s something to build on for next season.

“There’s no point making excuses for the players; the fact is the team’s not good enough to get promoted. We’re not good enough as a squad at this stage. Teams that get promoted beat teams like Walton & Hersham.

“Supporters’ expectations are too high at the moment. Prior to us coming in we were 21st in the table and we’ve not been able to change everything in five weeks.

“On our day we’re not a bad side and we will beat some teams, but we’ve got one left-footed player in the whole squad, not a huge amount of pace throughout the side and a lack of numbers. There’s a whole host of things that we’re trying to address.

“Two or three wins might change things around, but it’s going to be a bit of a slow process. It seems like they’ve accepted a bit of mediocrity.”


One thing : only some weeks ago Dom said he was happy with the squad and there was no need for new players ?

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MrLiamWillis
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Both Vickers and Rose are naturally right footed I believe although both able to play effectively on the LHS as we've seen. Would imagine Crutts probably is the only genuine left footer unless Mitchell Hand is still with us?

tbh John I think Rose has improved noticeably from his pretty terrible start IMO since Doms come in. Prob more likely just down to settling in though rather than a direct correlation. 

Think we need to let Dom and his team settle down for a few more months unless there are some extreme series of results ( either good or bad! ) before we assess the results, squad, media stuff or anything else in too much detail. 

He's got a very tough job in re shaping the squad and mentality and yeah our expectations in general have been very high for last two seasons ( certainly include myself in that as well ) but with our crowds and finances don't think that was too unexpected really. Even the bookies have been proved hugely wrong by us which is rare!  



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MrLiamWillis
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Dom said in his programme notes this week that Kevin Keehan is back, but also returning is Tom Vickers. I'm delighted to have Tom back in the side as I think he really does give us an extra boost going forward, but, with all of the players that Dom has brought in, where would you play him? Also, I think that's quite a brave thing to say in the local paper, even though 11 points isn't a great deal and teams will drop the points, but a good run would have to be amazing.

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I've not read the Observer this week but I get the idea both from here and the other forum what's been said, I'm not sure why Dom has said that? I can only assume that it may be taking a bit of preasure off the players. 11 points is not a massive gap to claw back, it won't be easy granted but a good run and who knows what can happen, It's exactly what Merstham did last season so who knows?

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MrLiamWillis
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Bert has pasted the article above Lenny

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Think the minimum expectation is to get Hastings United into the Ryman Prem asap. Ridiculous that a town the size of Hastings has such a low ranking side. What might be useful is to hear from our numerous ex-managers why they were unable to get results. Is it because every manager has been completely useless. Going by past history Dom will probably be on his way around this time next year. Hope he will be able to fully explain why he has been a success or failure. Perhaps we should have an ex- managers meet the supporters evening?

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Peter R
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agree Dom needs lot of time to get thing right in future but strange comment about left foot players. maybe other player he bring in can not adapt to this level. know east preston should have been ryman south this season but that not to say he would not have need to change that team to be competive. i think like john it is good he honest but think player come in not much better than what we lost apart from keehan and shelley. i think as well that it mind game to take pressure off him his players and to lower our expectaion

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bookworm
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Excellent idea to have an ex managers/ supporters forum to explore the reasons for disappointing results over the years
Where to hold the event is prblematic as ex managers group might challengs clubhouse capacity

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Hope Dom made it clear at his interview that he would be bringing in a number of new players none of whom would help turn Hastings into a side capable of mounting a challenge to get into a play off place. Thank goodness we have some of Terry's squad still in the side. I won't say the obvious about Ade today.

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johnw
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Tim, would that be why the f### didn't Ade start or come on earlier by any chance? Changed the game when he came on as pretty much everyone at the Pilot Field knew would happen. His red card was probably part of his frustration at not being on earlier.

Dreadful performance again today and why were Ade, Keehan and Pogue on the bench? Adam Hunt, not good enough, Farmer, not good enough, Archibald, not good enough, Boswell, wouldn't get in my u11 team. and really poor tactics. We are at home to the bottom of the league side and we play one up front? I have to say these last 2 performances have really got the alarm bells ringing again and I really believe we are in a relegation battle now. No more excuses and the honeymoon period for Dom is well and truly over after that.



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Mick
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Well, starting with the positives, it was certainly a lot more entertaining than last week and we made enough decent chances to score a hatful, especially first half. Shelley alone could easily have had a hat-trick with three good chances......at least he was there to miss 'em.
However we were playing bottom of the table Walton so surely it's reasonable to assume we would make plenty of chances and win comfortably.
Being a little less positive, I'm afraid there is absolutely no evidence that anyone who has come in is any better than anyone who has been left out, or indeed has now left the club. I lost count of the times our players lost out in individual duels with Walton players today. Clearly Ryman South demands a much greater physical presence than many of these lads from the County League are used to.
In fairness, I actually thought Farmer and Archibald looked a little bit better today than last week, John, but what is beginning to become apparent is that not too much has changed in terms of overall quality and, if anything, we have gone backwards from a year ago.
Totally missed the red card incident...maybe the fact that there about forty people on the pitch at the time didn't help.
At least we can say we saw four very well taken goals today....Walton's second was a peach !



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timbjones
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Mick-agree about the first half-a very open game with lots of opportunities for scoring at either end. Thought both sides were poor in the second half with Sam and Ade looking the only decent players (ryman prem standard) in the second half. Very pleased to see Billy Dunn come off- he had a great game.

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ChrisB
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It was an entertaining game, but we give the ball away too much, and Taser must work on his final ball 90% of his crosses today resulted in Walton getting the next touch of the ball. We don't look balanced and though we created a few chances we also gave a few too. We clearly aren't good enough but where do we go? I'm as bewildered as to where we go but sadly I'm not convinced dom knows either.

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girling
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It was good to see Aeron Hopkinson has signed for the club. He provided us with genuine pace when he came on..something which the side lacks.Tazzer once again plays far too deep for a winger and dosen't put any pressure on defenders when they have the ball...for a forward who has played so many games for the club only 1 goal is not good enough.although Archibald has his critics at least he does provide some movement up front.If Ade got a straight red in that fracas after the game ended the urgency for Dom to sign another striker is increased.



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johnw
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Definitely think Shelley and Keehan have a future at the club and Pullen looks decent although would like to see someone a lot younger with an eye on the future. I must admit though, I'm still scratching my head over Dolan and King and why we let them go. See Dolan scored again today, and Walton have one 4in a row and another clean sheet, any coincidence ?



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Arrows27
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We should be called East Preston with the amount of players who played for them and now starting for Hastings personally I think taser was our mom and can't understand why he went off as John said our number 9 was awful
worst forward I have seen at pilot field really don't know why keegan ade or kenny started on bench also he complains in observer we have no left footers and the one we do have is on the bench and to round of my moan I hope the manager and coach get spoken to squaring up to each other at half time is disgraceful lucky John was there to split them up for the first time I come away from the pf in disgust!!!!!


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winchy_hastings
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Echo what others have said. Fair enough it will take Dom time to piece together the squad he wants but the big concern is how deep we were and the lack of positivity going forward. Archibald was isolated on his own, but please dont tell me that was more a 4-3-3 than a 4-5-1! Shame to lose Ade now for suspension.
I sometimes think tas would be better suited through the middle, behind the frontman, he just seems to frustrate me too much on the wing!

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Overthehill
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Dom's first job was to stop the rot and keep us in this awful division, then build. First up, he needed to get in guys he trusted to do a job. To be fair, he probably knew to bring in loads of EP players was a risk, but one worth taking judging the state the club was in when he took over. Everybody will have different opinions about players. Not sure what happened in this fracas, or what the scuffle was all about. I suspect Dom is starting to realise that this is a ridiculously tough job at this level, the pressure is absurd, and he will be desperate to do well. So let's get behind him, or we'll be looking for our 47th manager by Christmas.

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Mick
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Not very much optimism around after today's game, I'm afraid.
Compare this with seven weeks ago :

hufc.activeboard.com/t58702949/meet-the-manager/


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Overthehill
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Come on Mick, me ol' china. We need optimism, we need positivity, we need to stick together. If this doesn't work, we will end up in the County League. Non-league oblivion. And it's a very, very long road back from there.

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MrLiamWillis
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Just sorting out the highlights now, the second Walton goal is a proper stunner!

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MrLiamWillis
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There you go

youtu.be/lbmhHm6zZ2s - Hastings vs Walton Match highlights 

Sorry for for the jerkiness of the vid at points, the tripods I've got at the mo is not really up to smooth panning



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Dave68
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I imagine Ade was on the bench because he made himself unavailable last week. I would have done the same.

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Mick
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Not sure why you single me out, OTH !
There were a lot more negative comments than mine.
It is a fact though that when Dom joined we were all saying "we need to give him time".....but after just seven weeks a lot of questions are already being asked.
I guess the fear is that he may already have played all his cards (bringing in lots of players who did a great job for him at county level) and his comments in the paper make me believe he is thinking the same.....and therefore has to start managing expectations.
Let's get Razor, Tom and Ade back in the starting line up and I'm sure things will improve and we'll be safe from County Football......but this isn't a discussion that we were anticipating in August.

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Overthehill
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Wasn't singling you out, Mick. I certainly had no intention to do so. I just know you are a very positive bloke and hope you don't lose that glass half full mentality. The club needs loyal fans like you more than ever. You're spot on about managing expectations, which Dom probably didn't do too well at the start. I suspect the job is harder than he thought....

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timbjones
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Dave-I think that was probably the reason too. It must be annoying for managers not to have players available. However, we need to win games and 330 supporters wanted to see a Hastings win. I think if Ade was fit and had started we would have had a better chance of winning. Get the best side out on the pitch for the longest amount of time possible. The Walton defenders would have been delighted to see Ade sitting on the bench for most of the game.

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ChrisB
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Ade told us at Faversham that he was going to a wedding and the club new about this a while ago. So really he should have played in view of the result the previous week.



-- Edited by ChrisB on Sunday 23rd of November 2014 11:09:16 AM

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hammerfan
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I think Don looked at the Walton & South Park games and thought that with Walton bottom of the league we could win without Ade, Pogue, Keehan etc who could be saved for Monday !

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Arrows27
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Clearly he was wrong let's hope he changes the side starting with archbold for ade!!!!

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johnw
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Will Ade's 3 match ban kick in immediately or is he available tomorrow?



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timbjones
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Overthehill-don't apologise for picking on Mick-he was used to it on the football and cricket pitch. Absolutely sure we were in no danger of relegation this season with the players Dom inherited. Surely if he brings in half a dozen new players the expectation should be that at least we would be in contention for fifth place?

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DaveOrmerod
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johnw wrote:

Will Ade's 3 match ban kick in immediately or is he available tomorrow?

Not 100% certain John, but I think Ade's three match ban will start on Saturday December 6th. 



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Lenny The Lion
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It's always two weeks after the incident.

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ChrisB
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Reading facebook, looks like Mr Adams has upset management team.

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johnw
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Sammy or Sean or is there another Adams at the club? What's happened?



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ChrisB
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Sean, look at the facebook link on club website.

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winchy_hastings
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Ah the old 4-5-1/4-3-3 debate

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Peter R
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thought it look more 4 5 1 on saturday but reason we lost was team selection and not having strongest side on pitch, wonder who get blame for that is

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Barry
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Probably ChrisB and myself Peter!!!!!!!!



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johnw
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But to play a 4-3-3 don't you have to have wide men who can beat a man and get a decent ball in? Taser does it 1 in 3 and Boswell looks like he may do it 1 in 100. Hope he proves me wrong tonight. And yes, I blame Barry for the team selection, Ade's sending off and the half time scuffle.



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