I can’t believe the number of good chances we didn’t convert today. Should have been in front before they scored. Was I the only one who thought they should have been made to play in their usual strip as their blue was too close to our white strip. Ref booking Adam for tripping him up was a farce and we went downhill after that. Good goal fom Danny.
Wouldn’t lose too much sleep over today, was more disappointed with last weeks performance. Should have gone in half time at least two up, and their goal, from Crutts poor error, was their only real chance of the first half. Second half started much the same until a completely needless challenge from Manny, when there was no danger at all, gave away a silly penalty. From then onwards Hastings looked all over the place defensively , not helped by Christie running for the changing room, I assume due to illness. Think 4-2 slightly flattered Whyteleafe but at the same time I thought they were by far the best team we have played this season.
Agree totally with Steve and the clash of colours, it was crazy that the referee allowed it. Did it have anything to do with Crutts error I wonder?
Thought the new lad looked impressive first half albeit a little greedy, but faded second half. Daniel was easily my MOM. We have big issues at right back with neither Fielding or Manny looking good enough and would suggest that rather than signing the best right winger in the league we go out and sign a decent right back. And please someone take Vickers off corner duty. Dreadful when he came on but game was already lost.
Dont think the last 2 results will have any bearing on the league this season and looking at the upcoming fixtures and the amount of home games we have coming up I would not be surprised to see us top of the league as we head towards Xmas. Very confident still.
Agreed Steve. We were far from our best in the first half but I think most of us felt at 1-1 we should go on and win. I felt it was the right call at half time to substitute Jamie Fielding who seemed unsure of his role and looked vulnerable when playing in a right back position. But Manny, his relacement , conceded a soft penalty and then the defensive errors - present all game - reached farcical levels. Worryingly, we looked disorganised and downcast. We emphatically did not look like a team with great 'all for one' spirit.
Was Chris sent to the stands from the dugout? Why? Why did Christie run off the pitch before Tom could come on as substitute? (Which led to a goal being conceded.) Why was Manny substituted after having come on as substitute?
I thought new signing Bamba looked pretty good in the first half. By the end of the second he might well have wondered quite what he had come to! And do we really need more wide players? Surely for goodness sake we need as a priority a tall centre forward, a combative midfield player and cover at full back. (Let's hope Sam Beale is fit very soon.)
All this needs very urgent attention before we get back to the real business of the league with two tricky away fixtures.
Geoff, think it was their coach that got sent to the stands.
I may be wrong but pretty sure Christie was unwell....dash for the toilet perhaps?
Manny was a subbed sub as I think we went three at the back chasing the game. Always hear fans questioning the coach and say we have no plan B when chasing, so think it was the right decision, as it was to remove Fielding at half time.
We do need a right back, we do miss Sam Beale, I believe we have a combative midfielder in Hassan Ibrahim but I understand he may be carrying an injury. Not sure about the big man up top. Doesn’t fit our style of play and not sure there are many round anyway. Always handy last 15 if chasing a game but I’m not sure that will happen to often this season. Hopefully Rodari returning in the new year will help as well.
Thanks John - I don't think we're a million miles apart on any of this. Certainly happy if it was their coach that went to the stands. And happy too if it was 'an urgent call' which sent Mr Christie to the changing room!
I suspect the one matter we will always disagree about is the need for a target man up front. I really feel that Daniel - who we all agree is a very good player - would be even more effective if he was able to feed off a big man's flick ons and lay offs. As it is, who is there to meet crosses and corners when we do make them?
John, think it was Steve Sands who was dismissed, definitely one of our coaching staff. Spoke to Davide today,
Reckons maybe March or April before he is back.
Never happy about losing a game or conceding ridiculous goals but we can at last now concentrate on what really matters. The ongoing shortage of clean sheets is a huge concern though. We can't go on seemingly assuming we'll always score three or four every game to outnumber the two or three we concede.
I can't fall back on only losing 3 games so far - the defensive frailties will surely haunt us eventually. Let's get it right in the games that matter from now on. Starting in Guernsey next Sunday.
Referee was pretty inept today, the similarity in the two teams' strips was unreal and we were beaten by a more than adequate Whyteleafe. I think our league game at their place place wll be postponed following today's result which is a shame because I cannot believe we will be so poor defensively again though I must concede their 3rd goal was 10/10 for persistence.
Frustrating day all round but some small consolation in knowing league points weren't at stake.
-- Edited by SS on Saturday 13th of October 2018 07:22:47 PM
You're right Geoff, it was definitely from our bench. As for the ref. another classic game from the bottomless pit of monkeys this level of football produces.
That looked the case BigCliff. I thought the ref had an awful game, it just summed him up. Our defence also had an awful game and clearly whatever they are told by the manager they either don't follow or don't have the ability to follow. I think it's the latter. But all over the team our passing and ball retention is not good enough to play the style of football we are trying to play and I can not be as confident that without significant changes in players or style we will be top at Christmas.
Whyteleafe were a very decent side and look well organised and we looked a long way off them. Whenever we sign players there is always a story that we have signed the best left winger, the best midfielder the best x y and z but in every position yesterday Whyteleafe were superior. Hopefully just an off day but can't have too many of those when league points are at stake and rather than signing the best right winger in the league think we should sign the best centre and right back in the league.
Didn’t go yesterday, but witnessed that poor Hitchin performance, I would like some honest opinions from you, and that is are we any better than we were last season and if so in what areas, as too me the defence appears worse.
i agree with geoffm big man up front to hold the ball up and use his head . this would give charlie chance to kick e ball up field instead of passing the ball out .good teams are just waiting for us to do it and give the ball away why sign wingers with nobody to head the ball
Good old fashioned 9 to work off the undoubtedly highly skilled forwards we have. Someone like Kenny Pogue? And get a settled defence and a run of clean sheets.
We all want to support Chris and be as positive as we can be. The major question, however, is the one which CliffD poses above - are the players which we have good enough in terms of passing ability and ball retention to effectively play the style of football which Chris wants to play? To take that further, are the players we are ever likely to get on our budet going to be good enough?
Last season, I would have said 'no' to both questions and that it was folly to attempt to get out of our league playing in such a way. The very encouraging league results this season caused me to reconsider. Games such as yesterday (and, it would appear, the away league game at Hythe), however, raise the question again of whether once opponents get wise to our unvarying attempts to play it out from the back we will be forced into misplaced passes, errors and consequently conceding silly goals.
I hope Chris is prepared to vary his approach; plainly he has moved significantly on the previously declared 'local youth' policy. I hope - without losing the attractive football we have seen in his tenure - that he will also be prepared to vary his game plan to a simpler Plan B when that is required.
We are still playing some very good football but are not converting chances. Good to see Danny getting a fine solo goal but some of our other attempts were woeful. I would play Hassan alongside Danny in a 3-5-2 formation to get the best out of our squad. Seemed to me that we played our best football with that formation.
For what it's worth, my take is that the best course of action in these situations is nearly always to work harder at implementing Plan A better. That's what you've recruited players for, that's what all of your training and preparation has gone into; that's where the best chance of success lies. If Plan A has failed to deliver, that's one thing. But it hasn't, not by a long stretch.
The problem with recruiting players for Plan B is that they'll have to accept that they're not part of Plan A...which means that Plan B probably won't be very good (because, for instance, a target man who's willing to accept being brought off the bench for the last ten minutes every now and again is unlikely to be a world-beater). Alternatively, Plan B has to become the new Plan A...in which case, you've either changed your style of play altogether (because two up top with a big and little fella combination is really nothing like what we're trying to do currently) or you're looking for one helluva player (because they've got to be able to hold the ball up and get involved in the more intricate stuff).
If you've managed to follow all of that, you've done well.
Clear as mud.......but I do totally agree. You would think we were battling relegation, the FA Cup run was nice but at the same time a hindrance, Hitchin was poor! we made two defensive howlers at Hythe in a crazy 5 minutes and lost to an excellent Whytleafe team who also took points off of Cray. Apart from that we have won every game haven't we and our striker has scored 17 goals in all competitions. Don't think the problem is up top and we don't miss any more or make any less chances than we did with Collin, Bodkin and Stannard. Tighten up at the back and we will be just fine.
And surely plan A is to find the strongest team we have with players playing in their natural positions and sticking to it so the team can gel. Not tinker with it the whole time to adapt to the opposition.
Don't really agree-all good sides are adaptable and can change the way they play depending on the opposition, pitch conditions etc. Love the way we are playing this season -long may it continue-but hope we can learn to adapt and improvise when things go wrong.. Think it is a bit of a cop out to say that whenever we lose it is because our players didn't play well enough. Against Hythe, Hitchin and Whyteleafe we looked rather clueless when our passing wasn't working. Also, I do think we are just giving opposition a respite by continually passing the ball around our penalty area. would like to think we have the players capable of playing a passing game in areas of the field where we are actually hurting the opposition.
Totally agree Tim. Good sides and winning sides need to be adaptable. Mr IG says you just try and perfect plan A but football isn't that simple. I love the way we are trying to play this season. It is good to watch when it is working but when it isn't it is bloody frustrating like Saturday and a failure to have anything else up the sleeve was a failure. We play a lot at the back but that allows the oppo defence to regroup whereas I would think with our quick wide men we should be breaking from defence quickly. I think any decent side we play this season will be able to cope with our game plan and unless we can vary our tactics and keep the oppo guessing promotion might be beyond us. Hope I'm wrong.
Mr IG says you just try and perfect plan A but football isn't that simple.
All I'm really trying to say is that there's plenty of room for variation and improvement within how we currently play, so we ought to be concentrating on those things first. I agree that there are occasions when we could pass out from the back more quickly, for example, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't pass out from the back. We can do it better, that's all. Similarly, there are occasions when we could do with more presence in the penalty area...but that doesn't have to come from a radical change of attacking formation, trying to accommodate a conventional target man. And so on, and so on.
I say that not because I care that much about a particular style of play: I grew up watching Graham Taylor's Watford, so I don't think I even saw a sideways pass until I was about eighteen! I say it simply because we've started the season very well. That shouldn't be cause for complacency, of course, but it shouldn't be cause for significant upheaval either. The best thing we can do at this point, I'd argue, is to focus on our strengths and retain confidence in what we're doing. Deep breath, then go again
If you've managed to follow all of that, you've done well. 
