Chesham

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Sept 24, 2024 12:02:29 GMT pwoodstone said:

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.

I imagine Holden will make his long awaited debut in the KSC on the 29th October away at Welling. Odd that game isn't listed on the fixtures?

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 7:47:31 GMT daveu said:

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.

He is definitely the weak point in our defence. This was up there with the stupidity of going so far up the pitch in the Chelmsford game, that he couldn't get back to the goal in time (and what a critical goal to concede that turned out to be!). Arguably, we should never have been in that situation to start with, of course. But, we were, and Andre's job was to stay in his goal and do what he could to stop the Chesham player from scoring.

As for blaming Fowler - someone on here actually criticised him for not passing back to Andre! They obviously hadn't watched the highlights - Fowler doesn't actually reach the ball until just before Andre clatters him. Passing back to him at that point - even if he'd managed to stay on his feet - would have been physically impossible! Fowler did the only thing he could, as last man and with their forward running in. Greenidge wouldn't have got there in time, so, once Fowler went down, we were entirely dependent on Andre to prevent the goal - which, with his shot-stopping ability - he might have done. Except that he was yards away - on the ground and then arguing with Fowler!!

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As for why we were in that situation at all, it's rather ironic that the move that led to that goal was as a result of Lodovica actually doing something and managing to stop Seaman's rather wild pass from going out. Unfortunately, he then lost the ball to a Chesham player, who promptly booted it forward to their no 16, who laid if off for Minhas. So it turned out that the most useful thing Lodovica could have done in his entire time on the pitch would have been to let that ball go out!

[Deleted]

Both were at fault IMHO. AAJ shouldn't have come as Fowler was still there. However once he did Fowler has two options shield it for the keeper or put his boot through it, he did neither. I agree with others that AAJ needs to be more commanding with his communication tho. Does his shot stopping ability outweigh his other possible flaws? In my opinion yes.

You are not going to get perfection at this level ( although Covolan came close). For example if Blair had a stronger left foot he would probably be playing 3 divisions higher IMHO.

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 14:47:01 GMT royalstone said:

Both were at fault IMHO. AAJ shouldn't have come as Fowler was still there. However once he did Fowler has two options shield it for the keeper or put his boot through it, he did neither. I agree with others that AAJ needs to be more commanding with his communication tho. Does his shot stopping ability outweigh his other possible flaws? In my opinion yes.

You are not going to get perfection at this level ( although Covolan came close). For example if Blair had a stronger left foot he would probably be playing 3 divisions higher IMHO.

If you watch the replay, Fowler doesn't reach the ball in time to shield it, or even kick it away. All he can do is stretch to reach it before Minhas gets to it, and in so doing, he goes down. He did all he could, but couldn't stop Minhas getting the ball. But at least he was in the right place and tried to do something - if there is any blame for our poor defending, perhaps we should be asking where the other two defenders were and why they weren't better placed and were caught out by Chesham's counter attack?

[ontheup]

Sept 24, 2024 14:46:23 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

As for why we were in that situation at all, it's rather ironic that the move that led to that goal was as a result of Lodovica actually doing something and managing to stop Seaman's rather wild pass from going out. Unfortunately, he then lost the ball to a Chesham player, who promptly booted it forward to their no 16, who laid if off for Minhas. So it turned out that the most useful thing Lodovica could have done in his entire time on the pitch would have been to let that ball go out!

Almost as ironic as the Chesham bench claiming the ball had gone out (which the highlights clearly show.)

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 14:46:23 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

As for why we were in that situation at all, it's rather ironic that the move that led to that goal was as a result of Lodovica actually doing something and managing to stop Seaman's rather wild pass from going out. Unfortunately, he then lost the ball to a Chesham player, who promptly booted it forward to their no 16, who laid if off for Minhas. So it turned out that the most useful thing Lodovica could have done in his entire time on the pitch would have been to let that ball go out!

Perhaps even more useful if Lodovica hadn't come onto the pitch at all .

Maybe a shade harsh, but at least his performances can only go in one direction from this point.

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 16:03:22 GMT nick said:

Sept 24, 2024 14:46:23 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

As for why we were in that situation at all, it's rather ironic that the move that led to that goal was as a result of Lodovica actually doing something and managing to stop Seaman's rather wild pass from going out. Unfortunately, he then lost the ball to a Chesham player, who promptly booted it forward to their no 16, who laid if off for Minhas. So it turned out that the most useful thing Lodovica could have done in his entire time on the pitch would have been to let that ball go out!

Perhaps even more useful if Lodovica hadn't come onto the pitch at all .

Maybe a shade harsh, but at least his performances can only go in one direction from this point.

I’m still clinging to the prospect of an Amanchi type improvement, after all he was pretty awful for a few games. However reports from Chelmsford fans and his overall record don’t hold out a lot of hope.

[Deleted]

Sept 24, 2024 15:08:23 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

Sept 24, 2024 14:47:01 GMT royalstone said:

Both were at fault IMHO. AAJ shouldn't have come as Fowler was still there. However once he did Fowler has two options shield it for the keeper or put his boot through it, he did neither. I agree with others that AAJ needs to be more commanding with his communication tho. Does his shot stopping ability outweigh his other possible flaws? In my opinion yes.

You are not going to get perfection at this level ( although Covolan came close). For example if Blair had a stronger left foot he would probably be playing 3 divisions higher IMHO.

If you watch the replay, Fowler doesn't reach the ball in time to shield it, or even kick it away. All he can do is stretch to reach it before Minhas gets to it, and in so doing, he goes down. He did all he could, but couldn't stop Minhas getting the ball. But at least he was in the right place and tried to do something - if there is any blame for our poor defending, perhaps we should be asking where the other two defenders were and why they weren't better placed and were caught out by Chesham's counter attack?

I've watched the replay again. Only my opinion but Fowler is goalside of the attacker and favourite to get there first. If he reacts quicker or gets his body in the right position there is no way the attacker should be getting to the ball. As I said just my opinion.

[edos78]

Sept 23, 2024 8:49:54 GMT daveu said:

Sept 23, 2024 8:26:52 GMT edos78 said:

if Fowler was in control he'd have sherpherded the ball back to the keeper who called for it, or put it out for a throw

he did neither, so it's on him I'm afraid

Rubbish. Fowler was already committed when AAJ came rushing out. One of his big problems is his lack of communication. Absolutely no way Fowler could have known what he was doing. And it wasn’t his only misjudgement in the game. First half came for a cross, changed his mind and almost got caught off his line rapidly backtracking. Second half came for a cross through a crowd of players and got nowhere near it, and only redeemed himself by sticking out a foot to prevent a goal from the resulting shot. He’s a very good shot stopper, but at this level we need a lot more than that.

this has aged, predictably, like cat shit in the mid day sun

[Deleted]

Plus a couple more vital stops today.