Chesham

[Deleted]

Fair enough. 100% agree it's been a disappointing start, we all expected better.

Some recruitment errors, some tactical errors, its not exactly been as we would like.

Still think its rubbish that some 'supporters' have virtually been calling for George's head.

For God's sake we're still in September.

Worth noting that Dorking and Boring Wood, both pre-season favorites have under-performed too.

Yet, I wouldn't bet against either of them not getting in the play-offs or even winning the league.

But you're right, George doesn't get an indefinite free run of poor performances and results that take us to the end of the season.

But lets give it another 10 matches, carry on supporting the boys and see how its going.

If I had to take a punt right now, I think George will turn it around.

[Deleted]

Very fair and non-emotional assessments from Pieman and Nick.
I would also bet more on the side of things getting better not worse (As DaveU already believes they are)........60/40 Id say.......as George managed it last year.
As for calling for George's head, even though Im super sceptical of his approach, its far too soon for that, you have to give him more time.
The other worrying thing is if not George then who?
If we cant attract or keep better players what kind of Manager could we get?
Lets speculate on that in a month or two's time, if we need to. Hopefully not!

[Deleted]

Fair points, agree mostly with what you guys are saying. We may only be 9 games in, but George has been in charge for nearly 2 years now. So its not like he's just walked in and were giving him time to see what he can do. The football has been ugly for a long time now.

Maybe we were just spoilt under Hak ?

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Sept 23, 2024 18:09:22 GMT @grovergreenstone said:

Fair points, agree mostly with what you guys are saying. We may only be 9 games in, but George has been in charge for nearly 2 years now. So its not like he's just walked in and were giving him time to see what he can do. The football has been ugly for a long time now.

Maybe we were just spoilt under Hak ?

It was pretty ugly under Hak in the NL

[Deleted]

Our next 7-8 league games are going to show how this season is likely to play out

Worthing (A)
Torquay (A)
Slough (H)
Aveley (A)
Hemel (H)
Bath (A)
Dorking (A)
Hornchurch (H)

Thats not an easy run of games either, so if after 17 games of the season we're still down near the bottom, something will need to be done to improve things.

[Deleted]

You mean like make Hak an offer he couldn't possibly refuse ?

[Deleted]

If we were to make a management change, Hak would be one of the last people I would want.

Other than that one season where everything went right, his spell as manager wasn't great, and his time at Dulwich hasn't exactly been a big success either.

[Deleted]

Sept 23, 2024 18:56:55 GMT daveu said:

Sept 23, 2024 18:09:22 GMT @grovergreenstone said:

Fair points, agree mostly with what you guys are saying. We may only be 9 games in, but George has been in charge for nearly 2 years now. So its not like he's just walked in and were giving him time to see what he can do. The football has been ugly for a long time now.

Maybe we were just spoilt under Hak ?

It was pretty ugly under Hak in the NL

Agreed, and it hasn't changed since.

[Deleted]

I've delayed commenting on this game until I saw the highlights, as my impression seemed fairly at odds with most of the posters on here.

But, now I've seen the highlights, I still feel that this was a good game - spoiled only by two defensive cock-ups: Andre's moment of madness and our switching off in the last 5 minutes and not marking (or even, apparently, noticing) the player who crossed the ball for their 2nd. We played well enough to deserve all three points, but threw two of them away.

But, we've definitely improved over the last few games and I felt this trend carried on in this game. Two of the three new players look excellent (the third is a mystery and makes me wonder if George smokes a brand of cigarettes called Lodovica). And we scored two cracking goals - both from open play, and both from strikers - if that isn't an improvement over recent form, I don't know what is!

But I'm still left with several questions:

1) Lodovica - I'm still clinging to the 'Amanchi looked pretty useless in his early games' and 'George must see something in him' theories, but time is running out. He did - finally - get involved in the game in the his last 10 minutes or so, but the rest of the time, we were effectively playing with 10 men.

2) Starting line-up - why do we always seem to start with at least three of our best players on the bench? I'm all for having a 'super-sub' in reserve - like Flish in his latter days - but three or four of them?! If we had started Saturday with the side we finished with, we'd have won that game comfortably.

3) Andre - being a good shot-stopper isn't enough. From what I've seen over the last few games, he is always going to do something horribly wrong at least once in every game. For their first on Saturday, for instance, WTF was he doing? Fowler had to go for the ball - it would have been suicidal to have left it. He did his best, but went down in trying to get it away - a nasty situation, sure enough, but not necessarily disastrous - Greenidge was coming in fast and their player still had to beat Andre. Except he didn't because Andre was lying on the pitch yards outside his goal, having effectively tackled one of his own players!

Much as I support George, he does seem to have a blind spot in (apparently) not learning from his mistakes in earlier games. So no doubt Andre will be in goal again at Herne Bay. But, surely if there's one game in which to give Holden a chance to show what he can do, it's that one? If not, then we may as well have hung on to Earle. As for the 'he's only 18' argument - H&RB's Ted Curd is 'only' 18, and we only managed to put one past him from open play over two games.

[Deleted]

Mostly agree with the above, but the game was only decent for the last 20 minutes, which strangely coincided with Ludo being subbed which meant we then had eleven on the pitch.
There is certainly something odd about the way we start games though.
Wrong starting eleven, far too often. Are the coaches being too clever, trying to pick a team to supposedly counter the opposition, instead of picking our best team?
We usually start brightly, then fade when we don't score, and/or let the opposition by going to sleep. Rare to have a game where we are not hoping for George to give the kick up the arse half time team talk.
Chelmsford excepted, we usually stir ourselves for the last quarter.
Overall, game management doesn't seem great. Have we got any leaders on the pitch, since George hung up his boots? It all points to recruitment - management, coaches, players - because while some gems have been unearthed in recent years, they are far outweighed by dross and an inability to retain better players too.
Whisper it quietly, but isn't Bill still heavily involved in such matters and have we got to the stage where others should be involved more, or even (heaven forbid) instead?

[Deleted]

Sept 23, 2024 22:27:25 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

I've delayed commenting on this game until I saw the highlights, as my impression seemed fairly at odds with most of the posters on here.

But, now I've seen the highlights, I still feel that this was a good game - spoiled only by two defensive cock-ups: Andre's moment of madness and our switching off in the last 5 minutes and not marking (or even, apparently, noticing) the player who crossed the ball for their 2nd. We played well enough to deserve all three points, but threw two of them away.

But, we've definitely improved over the last few games and I felt this trend carried on in this game. Two of the three new players look excellent (the third is a mystery and makes me wonder if George smokes a brand of cigarettes called Lodovica). And we scored two cracking goals - both from open play, and both from strikers - if that isn't an improvement over recent form, I don't know what is!

But I'm still left with several questions:

1) Lodovica - I'm still clinging to the 'Amanchi looked pretty useless in his early games' and 'George must see something in him' theories, but time is running out. He did - finally - get involved in the game in the his last 10 minutes or so, but the rest of the time, we were effectively playing with 10 men.

2) Starting line-up - why do we always seem to start with at least three of our best players on the bench? I'm all for having a 'super-sub' in reserve - like Flish in his latter days - but three or four of them?! If we had started Saturday with the side we finished with, we'd have won that game comfortably.

3) Andre - being a good shot-stopper isn't enough. From what I've seen over the last few games, he is always going to do something horribly wrong at least once in every game. For their first on Saturday, for instance, WTF was he doing? Fowler had to go for the ball - it would have been suicidal to have left it. He did his best, but went down in trying to get it away - a nasty situation, sure enough, but not necessarily disastrous - Greenidge was coming in fast and their player still had to beat Andre. Except he didn't because Andre was lying on the pitch yards outside his goal, having effectively tackled one of his own players!

Much as I support George, he does seem to have a blind spot in (apparently) not learning from his mistakes in earlier games. So no doubt Andre will be in goal again at Herne Bay. But, surely if there's one game in which to give Holden a chance to show what he can do, it's that one? If not, then we may as well have hung on to Earle. As for the 'he's only 18' argument - H&RB's Ted Curd is 'only' 18, and we only managed to put one past him from open play over two games.

I’m glad someone else saw what I saw for their first. There are people on here and on Facebook blaming Fowler and defending AAJ. What I see is a keeper who’s very good on his line but has poor judgment coming off it, and what’s worse is inconsistent in his judgement, sometimes overly hesitant and at other times rushing out like a headless chicken.

[Deleted]

We were lucky with our keeper last year. Can I remind people of the keepers we had in our last year in the NL. Would you swap Andre and Holden for Hadler and Mersin?

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 10:23:21 GMT pigbag said:

We were lucky with our keeper last year. Can I remind people of the keepers we had in our last year in the NL. Would you swap Andre and Holden for Hadler and Mersin?

Can’t really judge Holden till he gets a chance but he looked very composed and confident in pre season. I would say Hadler and Mersin were both better than André. I would put him marginally better than Dion Curtis-Henry.

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 11:33:53 GMT daveu said:

Sept 24, 2024 10:23:21 GMT pigbag said:

We were lucky with our keeper last year. Can I remind people of the keepers we had in our last year in the NL. Would you swap Andre and Holden for Hadler and Mersin?

Can’t really judge Holden till he gets a chance but he looked very composed and confident in pre season. I would say Hadler and Mersin were both better than André. I would put him marginally better than Dion Curtis-Henry.

Yeah , I never rated Mersin but Haddler was definitely better than AndreJr from what I've seen so far.

[Deleted]

Sept 23, 2024 22:27:25 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

I've delayed commenting on this game until I saw the highlights, as my impression seemed fairly at odds with most of the posters on here.

But, now I've seen the highlights, I still feel that this was a good game - spoiled only by two defensive cock-ups: Andre's moment of madness and our switching off in the last 5 minutes and not marking (or even, apparently, noticing) the player who crossed the ball for their 2nd. We played well enough to deserve all three points, but threw two of them away.

But, we've definitely improved over the last few games and I felt this trend carried on in this game. Two of the three new players look excellent (the third is a mystery and makes me wonder if George smokes a brand of cigarettes called Lodovica). And we scored two cracking goals - both from open play, and both from strikers - if that isn't an improvement over recent form, I don't know what is!

But I'm still left with several questions:

1) Lodovica - I'm still clinging to the 'Amanchi looked pretty useless in his early games' and 'George must see something in him' theories, but time is running out. He did - finally - get involved in the game in the his last 10 minutes or so, but the rest of the time, we were effectively playing with 10 men.

2) Starting line-up - why do we always seem to start with at least three of our best players on the bench? I'm all for having a 'super-sub' in reserve - like Flish in his latter days - but three or four of them?! If we had started Saturday with the side we finished with, we'd have won that game comfortably.

3) Andre - being a good shot-stopper isn't enough. From what I've seen over the last few games, he is always going to do something horribly wrong at least once in every game. For their first on Saturday, for instance, WTF was he doing? Fowler had to go for the ball - it would have been suicidal to have left it. He did his best, but went down in trying to get it away - a nasty situation, sure enough, but not necessarily disastrous - Greenidge was coming in fast and their player still had to beat Andre. Except he didn't because Andre was lying on the pitch yards outside his goal, having effectively tackled one of his own players!

Much as I support George, he does seem to have a blind spot in (apparently) not learning from his mistakes in earlier games. So no doubt Andre will be in goal again at Herne Bay. But, surely if there's one game in which to give Holden a chance to show what he can do, it's that one? If not, then we may as well have hung on to Earle. As for the 'he's only 18' argument - H&RB's Ted Curd is 'only' 18, and we only managed to put one past him from open play over two games.

We didn’t hang on to Earle as it was made clear he wouldn’t be playing and it wasn’t fair to park him on the bench all season. Holden may well be in the same position at the end of this season.