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Post by sword65 on Sept 14, 2022 17:33:47 GMT
It was a funny game. Wealdstone played some nice stuff. We did too but maybe not for as long. I think the game lacked the impetus of home team trying to win it as we were quite cagey. Defence looked stronger but somehow fragile (maybe that was in my head). Barham didn't really get into it that much as our wingers weren't that effective for a change. I really do think that Corne + Booty + "One Good Big CM" could dominate games in this league (No offence to Dom and Gurung btw). It's puzzling, but I felt the same about the defence, despite the fact that they were clearly more solid. Having a proper LB, so Fowler could play in his natural position made a huge difference. With Ellul back next to him, we should be as good at the back as we were last season. It could just be that we've looked (and been) fragile all season, so I've just got used to feeling like that! But we are still letting players get through and round us more than we should, and there was still too much of the last-ditch defending. Not as much as in earier games, but still too much for comfort. But, the defence did look a lot better. If we had managed a couple more goals, I don't think we'd be worrying about it so much! We've effectively lost our main goal scorer for the season, and haven't (yet) replaced him, and at the same time, we're playing against much better defences, so our other regular scorers are finding it a lot harder. Prhaps now the defence is looking better, Hak can concentrate on the other end of the pitch. Leaving aside the odd nightmare like Gateshead and Wrexham (and there'll probably be a few more), we don't actually look that bad against most of the NL sides we've seen so far. I don't think we are stuggling anything like some of the doom-sayers on here predicted. If we can only score a few more, we could well end up on the right side of mid-table. Which, for me at least, would be a cracking end to our first season. Gateshead still have to come here yet,we will do them on aggregate. Not sure when Wrexham is but their bottle will be going by then. We are doing fine ,have faith.
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Post by daveu on Sept 14, 2022 18:05:59 GMT
I said last night that had Ellul played rather than Lyons-Foster we would have won. Too hesitant and seemed to always wait for the ball to bounce before attacking it. So if the defence still looked a touch fragile he was the reason.
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Post by 61666 on Sept 15, 2022 7:50:19 GMT
Highlights reinforce what a dull game it was, but also that Wealdstone had the better chances and maybe should have scored two or three. Overall though, the NL is starting to show there are half a dozen sides capable of rolling over the rest of they have a good day, while everyone else will have to make do. One interesting snippet on the commentary was that Hoyte and Deacon were the only two players over 25 on Tuesday. If so, we at least have youth on our side, but having Ellul back in defence would help in terms of experience.
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Post by Bernie on Sept 15, 2022 11:44:26 GMT
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Post by jdl on Sept 15, 2022 23:03:21 GMT
Just watched the highlights. Usually they paint a pretty good picture of the game, but not this time. The actual match was nothing like the impression you get from the highlights, especially the first half (because there basically weren't any highlights!). But the second half wasn't like the highlights either. Wealdstone didn't anywhere near dominate the half, in fact, I thought we edged it. Our goal didn't come out of nothing, as it appears on the video, it had been coming a long time (although I was beginning to think it would never arrive). The Wealdstone equaliser, on the other hand did seem to come out of nowhere - they didn't equalise, we switched off and let them.
That was the real bummer of that game. Although our defence looked a lot better, we were still letting Wealdstone get through too easily, but they couldn't convert that into goals. Whilst, at the other end, we couldn't score for trying - the game had 0-0 written all over it. Then we finally got our due reward and only had to hang on for another 15 minutes. The fact that we didn't - not against Wrexham or Chesterfield, but only bloody Wealdstone - is, I'm afraid, the real story of that game. We let two points slip in circumstances where almost any other side (and us last season) whould have run the game down and secured all three.
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