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Post by Nick on Nov 7, 2021 11:41:31 GMT
I agree with ade to a point, Corne played his usual 100% and I guess Deacon was half decent.
With the general condemnation of the team performance, have we overlooked the defence ?
Just saying imo they looked pretty solid yesterday.
Formation, tactics, team cohesion and striking power was all we lacked, which is more than enough.
Not convinced we responded brilliantly to conceding a goal, it seemed to me that heads went down, with the response coming too late.
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mekon
Junior Member
Posts: 72
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Post by mekon on Nov 7, 2021 12:09:15 GMT
Perhaps we have an exec that is dividing their attention on fighting the national League (legal funding issues) rather than giving full attention to playing in the National South League. Legal adventures only tend to pay dividends to the legal teams, sometimes costing money that could adversely reflect on future funding of the first team.
I hope the board think more strategically and come up with a cunning, cunning plan that is feasible, achievable, and reasonable. So, cunning that reading it will trim your eye lashes (apologies Baldric) and provides a road map (blueprint) towards the National league and beyond.
What I am seeing currently is a small club mentality and approach which is failing to deliver. Saying cleaver words and statements does not ‘make it so’, that requires real thinking and coherent approaches.
Here is hoping!
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Post by ade on Nov 7, 2021 18:32:15 GMT
We were very pedestrian with a lack of energy. The only urgency we had was after they scored. Deacon and Corne being the exception. There did seem to be a lack of a leader out on the pitch. Corne was excellent but I disagree on Deacon - no doubt he has quality but too often yesterday he overplayed, plenty of eye pleasing skill but no end product I’d give McGlashan a run on the right - he’s much more direct with more consistent results and then put Deacon behind a striker So many players with quality either overplayed their passes or kept it hidden. I was mainly referring to energy expended rather than end product.
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Post by yorkshirestone on Nov 8, 2021 8:51:49 GMT
. We now get League 2 attendances and have facilities to match. Every club now sees us as their cup final and sets out a game plan to stop us playing and beat us. The key for the owner's is to manage expectations and find an experienced manager that can cope with that expectation and take the club back to and compete in the National League. This bit answers the question. We are a big fish in a little pond and sides are setting themselves up to dig deep in defence. Same thing happened to Leeds in their League 1 - and to a degree in the season they won the Championship - it's flattering, but blooming frustrating for supporters to watch only one team turn up to play and then the other walk off with a result. I completely agree with the last remark, but managing expectations can come dangerously close to lacking ambition. Go back forty years (I know!) and there's a sign over the clubhouse saying "Our target - the football league", whilst over the hill in 01634 land the incumbent owner/chairman - Dr Grossmark - seemed to hold the club back when they just hung around just below the promotion places in the old Div 3 (League one for you milennials!) and the rumour was because he liked being the chairman of the associate members, a post he would lose if they got promoted further.
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Post by stonethecrow on Nov 8, 2021 11:52:10 GMT
Just before Covid curtailed the 2019/20 season, I sat next to Steve King at a home match (he was scouting the opposition I think). He said he had applied for the Maidstone job previously, but did not fit in with the owners. He would have been a great manager for us. He also said, Hakan has never had any success as a manager wherever he's been !
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Post by Stonethecrow on Nov 8, 2021 12:28:12 GMT
Did I say that ? Def not but then I recognised the little lower case s ! Although Steve King does count as one of several 'who got away'
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Post by pigbag on Nov 8, 2021 14:26:04 GMT
I remember chatting to Tristram about the time that JS2 took over. He said that the problem Maidstone had was it was too good for NLS (ground, support and setup) but not good enough for NL (budget). Some of us remember the old Maidstone with all the money spent on the player budget resulting in the loss of the ground and demise of the club. On balance I would accept a club that spends within its means.
I have some sympathy for Hak who has recognised where we are falling short - goal scorer, centre back and keeper and has addressed this with signings that all looked to bring quality. Ghandour disappointed this week but was it because he had no service or had he got one eye on his international career? If Saturday had finished 0-0 it would not have been great but we would have been saying that Hak had stopped the rot. The defence played well and it was not until the 20 min that the keeper touched the ball and that was to take a kick. Overall the team is not bad but the football was dire. Too much lobbing the ball down the middle instead of working it down the wings and when we did there was no one to capitalise on the crosses.
Goals change games and we need a striker who can score 16 goals a season and apart from Luque who have we got? Is Grant the answer? He is coming back from injury but with Ghandour away will he be the answer. It is strange he has not been used as a sub.
I would give Hak until Xmas to turn it round. If we beat Dartford in a couple of weeks that may be the turning point and hopfully Joe will be fit for the NY fixtures.
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Post by fleetphil on Nov 8, 2021 18:37:56 GMT
And if I may add, we were promoted to the NL in 2016 alongside Sutton United who as far as I am aware do not have a sugar daddy and had lower crowds. Whre are they now and ca we identify the differences? Clue: It's not all about money! Wrong about the sugar daddy. Doswell ploughed his personal fortune in while he was managing them, including paying for a 3G pitch they had to dig up a few years later. Spot on Dave.
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Post by headstone on Nov 11, 2021 10:28:45 GMT
I have some sympathy for Hak who has recognised where we are falling short - goal scorer, centre back and keeper and has addressed this with signings that all looked to bring quality. Overall the team is not bad but the football was dire. Too much lobbing the ball down the middle instead of working it down the wings and when we did there was no one to capitalise on the crosses. That's the problem. Our enclave felt there was too much wing play, because crosses were gobbled up by the Slough defence and keeper. There is no point sending in conventional crosses unless we have a forward capable of outjumping the defenders. With our players we need to progress through tippy tappy football on the ground - but our passing isn't good enough. And all teams should start with a good spine of keeper, centre back and striker (ask Don Revie), and one out of three ain't good; especially when the one is out injured!
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Post by Rob on Nov 19, 2021 21:08:43 GMT
Positive Friday interview on Stones TV with Terry Casey. Clearly frustrated with the lack of goals and poor run of results. Believes the team is good enough for the play-offs. But given the title of this thread, he won't accept that we are a small club and strongly commits to the club getting into the National League over the next season or two. Quite right too imo. Then consolidating with a view to having a run at promotion a little way down the line. Sounds good to me. Seems like a few of our supporters would be happy enough with p/t players and Ryman League football. Just happy that our owners have loftier ambitions and this is one supporter who agrees 100%.
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