I think it goes without saying that we MUST win today. Draws in the Greenwich/Lewes and South Park/Hythe games would also suit us pretty well. This is going to the wire.
What an odd game! A truly 'disapointing' 5-1 win. Yes some reasonable indvidual performances, Barnwell, Johnson, Hughes Mason, Sobers, Rowe but some pretty poor ones too - a real off day from Bodkin - and as a team we functioned for about 15 minutes at the end of the first half and in all too brief patches in the second half. Fortunately that was enough. But with other results not going as we would have wished we still have an awful lot to do to get to the play-offs; and if we play as we did for much of today it will do us no good whatsoever if we do get there.
Agree, Geoff...a pretty poor 5 - 1 win if there is such a thing.
Defensively Molesey had probably the worst defence we have seen at the PF this season and a half decent performance today surely would have seen us score double figures. Matt and Frannie were disappointing today, Kiernan and Shonari (is that right ?) have yet to really impress me despite scoring goals...and today was no different and, incredibly, we looked second best in midfield for long spells.
Molesey can certainly feel they didn't deserve that score line and I felt they adapted far better than us to the tricky conditions today. However they had an overweight defence that insisted on playing a very high line and relied on our complete inability to time our runs...and we duly obliged time and time again. How many times were we caught offside for Gods sake ?
Yet again Crutts was at full back and Harry was on the bench. Why ? I think we need both of them in advanced positions to add the quality that was so evidently missing today.
I'm probably less confident of us making the play offs having witnessed that today which seems a strange thing to say... but we're not going to beat many sides playing like that.
And my final moan....Barnwell MotM.....ridiculous !
Agree above ... we really struggled today and we shouldn't really !!
They played well at times , a team not fit but tricky
At a higher level we will struggle , for me I was bored !! ... shame about next weeks game as I believe Godalming were relegated today .. so not sure how they will play next week . However will travel hoping for a better performance from us ... we have got to be more convincing
Is this a spin off from losing Steve Watt .. I would like to know over peoples views
Anyone not there today will think Mick, Geoff and Chris are raging lunatics but they are exactly right, it was an atrocious performance. For 30mins there was only one team in it when suddenly the Molesey defence and keeper completely imploded and kindly gave us three goals in little over five minutes. After that it was like watching two teams fighting relegation and some of the football was abysmal and yet we could have won 12-1. There were no standout performances today and I actually thought Kiernon was one if our best players....that says it all.
So I'll join the lunatics who have already posted and say again that it was really poor today and I like Chris was just bored throughout. Bodkin and Collin, standout players all season, were poor again today and both have gone backwards since Watty left. My cynical side would say they already have their minds on Margate next season? Darren clearly does not fancy Stannard, who has been brilliant all season, what is that all about? 570 odd in the ground today, which by the way was a super turnout, can see we are crying out for the creativity of Crutts in midfield, but he was left back again whilst the distinctively average Emptage was in midfield. In fact our midfield looks so poor at present and I think everyone of us held our breath when Johnno went down heavy just before half time. In my opinion he is by a mile our best and most important player.
I am afraid Darren just appears to have a scrambled mind at the moment and just don't understand his selections and I do think we are missing Watty. We look disjointed, we look like strangers, we look a couple of midfielders short and we don't look like a happy team and if rumours circulating at the ground today that ONE PLAYER turned up for training this week then everything we are talking about can be explained. That is just a huge problem of epic proportions at a time when we should be working our nuts off as a team to get us promoted. I really do hope the players care as much as I, the fans and everyone involved with club do. We will certainly find out in April...........yes, we did win 5-1 by the way.
Terrible game today-thank goodness we were only playing Molesey. Jerome and Ollie did a good job at the back and Simon worked hard in midfield but we will need to play a lot better against stronger teaams.
I guess the positive from today is what we might do when/if we play well. If we make the play offs it looking increasingly likely we will have to go and win at both Dorking and Greenwich. I do hope, as stated in this weeks Observer, that Darren can pick up a couple before the transfer deadline.
We will certainly need Matt Bodkin and Frannie Collin to be at their best. Matt had a real off day made worse by a painful blow in the groin. He must have been delighted to be substituted. Thought at one stage their number 2 was going to run through our deserted midfield like the Tooting defender 2 weeks ago. When players are having an off days they really need to work as hard as Simon Johnstone. Got the impression too many players were content to coast today. Could be why we lost 5-4 at Molesey.
John,
You are spot on with your comment about Johnno crashing to the ground just before the break.
I actually thought for a minute that our play-off chances had evaporated there and then.
I remember saying as he limped off at half time, 'it's OK, it's OK, it was just a kick, he'll be all right, thank God for that".
I hate to think how we would fare in the play-offs adopting today's mid-field.......less Simon. I don't think it would even be worth starting the car to head up the A21.
To be honest I think we have reached the point where we HAVE to risk weakening the left fullback position in order to get Crutts into midfield. If we don't we'll just be totally overrun in midfield in some forthcoming games. I have given Darren pretty well full support up to now.....but I feel his idea of our best eleven is currently significantly different to mine.
Dont worry about the play offs. They are a total lottery and whatever form is displayed in the 'proper football season' is irrelevant once the gimmick season starts. If it was all done properly we would already be virtually out of the promotion race so its an undeserved bonus to still be in with a shout. Undeserved given the indifferent form since Watty left. I am at a total loss again to see why Akoto doesnt feature while Crutts is wasted at left back.
Didn't go yesterday so can't comment on game. But why are some of you getting hung up about Watt leaving we were indifferent with him about and very inconsistent as far as I see it little has changed and to put any significant stance on the Watt leaving debate is not factually correct Bodkin is over rated and has been all season for every good piece of play there is 2 bits of bad. And Frannie would have scored 40 goals had he played up front in the 9 role not the 10 role.should we go up it would be lucky via the back door we don't deserve it.
-- Edited by ChrisB on Sunday 26th of March 2017 06:54:05 AM
-- Edited by ChrisB on Sunday 26th of March 2017 06:55:00 AM
So can anyone explain yesterday's attendance ?
We played some great stuff in the Autumn but the average attendance for Saturday games (which is all I'm looking at) remained consistently around the 300 mark. It didn't seem to matter how well we played or how many we scored, the number didn't change much.
Only 260 turned up for our win against Whiteleafe in mid February. That went up to 400 for a poor performance against Chatham two weeks later. That then went up to 650 for the disappointing Tooting game(who brought a fare few themselves) and the home support has remained pretty well the same, not far short of 600, for the Molesey game (who brought no-one.)
So the home support appears to have doubled from the Autumn despite the reduced performance and entertainment level.
OK...we expected a few more for the highly anticipated Tooting match but 578 yesterday ! Where did that come from ?
Was it the lack of TV football this weekend or a little bit of Spring sunshine that did it ?
Well they remember to come back in April ?
There was a schools advertising thing done for yesterday's game, lots of schools heavily leafletted, clearly worked well! Of course it's really a success if they come back regularly but a good start.
Do we count 'non paying' children ? Didn't think we did.
I know you ask people to promote matches on the HUFC FaceBook group and it would be a great idea if everyone with a FB account could join and do this. I intend to in future.
Great work with the goal videos, yesterday. We were watching the replays at half time ! What a service ?
No prob Mick, yeah technology's a bit amazing nowadays ain't it? The camera on my phone films in better quality than my pretty new video camera does plus no mucking around afterwards on a PC for hours afterwards, you can upload and edit clips as it happens then have the whole highlights up seconds after the final whistle! ( only did our goals for this as there truely wasn't too much else interesting! )
I didn't think that there was a huge amount of kids there. International break may account for it. I saw a few Brighton regulars, and fair weather always helps.
Very sad (actually angry) to see that there was a complaint of a racist remark against a molesey player. I didn't hear it, and would have rebuked someone if I did. I don't want our club tarnished like this . ****.
Have to say it didn't strike me that the increased numbers were mainly children....maybe some persuaded their parents to come along.
In any event let's hope they keep coming back.
Hmmmm, Chris. A tad harsh re Bodkin. I think he has gone off the boil in recent weeks and isnt the only one. All a bit wierd given we are hanging on for a place in the lottery mini league with only the top two having lost less games. That sequence of recent draws could haunt us. But Bods was doing ok and scoring and so was Franny. Yesterday was bizarre - Molesey were on a par with Chatham but at least we put away the chances albeit with the help of a hapless keeper who left Harry embarrassed when he got the 5th. I do think we have gone off form since Watty went though. Or maybe we used up several games worth of good form against Carshalton..........
