St Albans away - First game of the season!

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Negatives:-



I thought we gave them too much time on the ball 1st half.Going by post match interview was part of game strategy tho not to press high early while we sussed them out. Has George been taking advise from Southgate?



Two players (Seaman and Higgs) went off injured. Let's hope neither too serious.



The amount of times Blair was caught offside. Either he needs to time those runs better or team need to time passes better?



Positives:-



3 points away at one of the harder places to go in Nat S.



We improved as the game went on and created several chances 2nd half.



Clean sheet.



Two of our academy boys Riley and Sam Smith had great games. ( Apart from one moment in 1st half when Smith lost possession in a dangerous position.



Several of the new boys impressed. Personally was particularly impressed with Benton when he came on. Good energy and great feet on the ball. Alexis impressed me too, particularly his reading of situations and speed off his line a couple of times.



Good number of Stones fans there to see it.



Overall plenty of reasons for optimism. No reason for me to change my mind that we could well be there or thereabouts by the end of the season.

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"Good energy and great feet on the ball..."

There was a guy near me (Stones fan I think - I couldn't see him due to the size of the person between us!) who kept shouting instructions at the players. Very annoying (probably for them too), but he made me laugh at one point when he shouted out "lovely feet"!

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There were a fair few misplaced passes…..I have to be honest and say that Brookes seemed to be culpable for quite a few of them. But the sub -Benton? Looked great and injected a bit of energy.
Three points and I know we will get better. And it’s my birthday. A good day!

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Aug 10, 2024 21:33:02 GMT aristotle38 said:

There were a fair few misplaced passes…..I have to be honest and say that Brookes seemed to be culpable for quite a few of them. But the sub -Benton? Looked great and injected a bit of energy.
Three points and I know we will get better. And it’s my birthday. A good day!

Brookes definitely didn't have his best game and looked absolutely shattered towards the end. He'll improve hopefully, he looked great in pre-season.

Blair looked very frustrated in the first half with the timing of passes. Think it's all just symptoms of it being the first game - it will all click into place soon (hopefully)!

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Aug 10, 2024 22:18:06 GMT @holysmokes66 said:

Aug 10, 2024 21:33:02 GMT aristotle38 said:

There were a fair few misplaced passes…..I have to be honest and say that Brookes seemed to be culpable for quite a few of them. But the sub -Benton? Looked great and injected a bit of energy.
Three points and I know we will get better. And it’s my birthday. A good day!

Brookes definitely didn't have his best game and looked absolutely shattered towards the end. He'll improve hopefully, he looked great in pre-season.

Blair looked very frustrated in the first half with the timing of passes. Think it's all just symptoms of it being the first game - it will all click into place soon (hopefully)!

What passes? Unless you're classing hopeful thumps up the pitch as 'passes'?

They played a far more attacking game than us - bringing the ball down the wings and crossing it into the box. Unfortunately (for them), they didn't have anyone who could cross well, or score from the crosses, but at least they attacked. Once we started doing that (after Benton came on), we had far more attacks on goal (not that that would have been difficult!), but still, most of the time, contrived to mess it up. A rare decent corner and Eweka's head basically won us the game.

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It's an away win.
It's 3 points in the bag.
St Albans a difficult place to visit.
Steady first half performance.
Grew in confidence and continued to improve second half.
Defended well and competitive throughout.
A very good result against a decent team.
C'mon you Stones.
Back to the Gallagher with home support to drive the Stones on.
Let's do it !

[Deleted]

Is negativity just a thing with Stones supporters. It’s 3 points against tough opposition in the first game of the season but this conversation is dominated by complaints. If we can beat St Albans when not at our best I’m looking forward to when it clicks.

[stones1]

Didn’t make it yesterday so won’t comment on the specificities of the performance… but it was a hot august day and we’ve come out of the first game of the season with three points and a clean sheet against a decent side. The negativity is a bit much, cut the lads some slack and cast a harsher eye over it all in September when there’s a better feel for the squad & league as a whole.

Looking forward to next weekend at the Gallagher!

[maxthestone]

Aug 11, 2024 8:28:05 GMT daveu said:

Is negativity just a thing with Stones supporters. It’s 3 points against tough opposition in the first game of the season but this conversation is dominated by complaints. If we can beat St Albans when not at our best I’m looking forward to when it clicks.

Well yes unfortunately, as a younger fan,I'm much more optimistic now, and then then there's my dad, who'll judge players off 10 minutes and say they are shit for the rest of thier spell

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Aug 11, 2024 9:36:56 GMT maxthestone said:

Aug 11, 2024 8:28:05 GMT daveu said:

Is negativity just a thing with Stones supporters. It’s 3 points against tough opposition in the first game of the season but this conversation is dominated by complaints. If we can beat St Albans when not at our best I’m looking forward to when it clicks.

Well yes unfortunately, as a younger fan,I'm much more optimistic now, and then then there's my dad, who'll judge players off 10 minutes and say they are shit for the rest of thier spell

I’m probably your dad’s generation, maybe older, but I find the negativity bemusing. I wasn’t at the game so won’t comment on specifics but I’d have grabbed it with both hands if you’d offered me an away win at St Albans any time of the season, let alone the first game.

[Deleted]

If you want negativity, look at Ebbsfleet’s forum.

They start the Gateshead discussion full of arrogant confidence, and are virtually suicidal by the end.

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Aug 11, 2024 11:02:23 GMT Benny said:

If you want negativity, look at Ebbsfleet’s forum.

They start the Gateshead discussion full of arrogant confidence, and are virtually suicidal by the end.

I’d had a read, always good for a laugh, but you might expect it after a 5-1 defeat. We won at one of the toughest away days in the league so a bit of optimism wouldn’t go amiss.

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Have we won the league yet. Just checking before I turn up on 24th

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Aug 11, 2024 5:30:19 GMT nick said:

It's an away win.
It's 3 points in the bag.
St Albans a difficult place to visit.
Steady first half performance.
Grew in confidence and continued to improve second half.
Defended well and competitive throughout.
A very good result against a decent team.
C'mon you Stones.
Back to the Gallagher with home support to drive the Stones on.
Let's do it !

Normal Nick returns! At last - where were you last season??

No negativity intended on my part at all, I remain very optimistic about this season. I was just reporting on what I saw - which wasn't very pretty, and a bit of a disappointment (but that was probably more me expecting too much).

But, as (I think) Dave says - if you can go to St Albans on the first day of the season, play badly and still get three points, then what's to be upset about?

Overall, it was an enjoyable day. St A is a nice place to visit, very decent fans - real old-school nonleague ground, easy to get to, decent weather. If you can watch your team win, away, and in shorts and a t shirt, what's to complain about?!

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The good news is, we won away on the opening day of the season against a good team.

The bad news is, the way our injuries are stacking up, we'll have a whole new team by the middle of September.