It was very positive to hear Parkinson say in the interview that Coombes' injury isn't as bad as first feared. With him and Jebb back we have a real chance of making the play offs and challenging in the play offs if we can stay injury and suspension free. If we could get Bradbrook and PJD back that would also be a huge boost.
Whitehawk will not be as easy as the table might suggest, they have gained some good results lately but if we play to our full potential we should come through with all three points.
COYW!
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What is the point in naming Coombes as a sub when clearly he was not fit, absolutely ridiculous. If he was, then surely he would have been thrown on at some stage of the game. Rather have Ollie Milton as a sub if thats the case seeing as he is scoring for fun in the Academy. Really poor result. Nice of Bradbrook to help out his mate Coyle by getting sent off.
I was going to post that at least other results had gone our way but then I spotted that Braintree had scored a winner in the 99th minute. We need a miracle now. Weve bloody bottled it.
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Was terrible today but we have to look at the season as a whole. Weve improved on last season, weve got stability with JC and JP, weve had a much regular squad compared to other seasons and Coombes is a masterstroke. I know this league isnt great and weve probably got tougher seasons to come with the teams coming up but finishing 6th or 7th isnt promotion chasing material. Its only the league rules thats allowed teams to think finishing top half deserves a crack with the new play off rules.
Dont get me wrong - Im fuming after that display but at least a bad display this season doesnt mean possible relegation. It has the last two or three years.
I wasn't there yesterday so can't comment on the game but it's very unlikely we'll reach the play offs now. Finishing top half and at least chasing a play off place is an improvement on last season. I do wonder however on how we expected to win or challenge for the title when we only train once a week. When you put a entirely new squad together you need more than a couple of hours on a Thursday to get them playing as a well tuned unit. Surely that has to change for next season or I fear we will be looking at the same old same old stuff again.
I wasn't there yesterday so can't comment on the game but it's very unlikely we'll reach the play offs now. Finishing top half and at least chasing a play off place is an improvement on last season. I do wonder however on how we expected to win or challenge for the title when we only train once a week. When you put a entirely new squad together you need more than a couple of hours on a Thursday to get them playing as a well tuned unit. Surely that has to change for next season or I fear we will be looking at the same old same old stuff again.
I was under the impression that we train on Mondays and Thursdays when we have no midweek games. Has that changed?
I believe we do now but did nt at the start of the season. During pre-season and in August and September when we play 2 matches a week we would only train once a week anyway. But it was at the start of the season where we dropped the most points and we have been playing catch up ever since. In my view this was down to starting pre season too late and playing too few friendlies which was not sufficient for a whole new squad.
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Tuesday's match didn't have the air of a key home game and yesterday didn't have the performance of the first of four cup finals.
We've blown any chance of promotion to the Kent Premier League and, on the showing of the last 2 performances particularly, I sense that's probably not a bad thing. What would we do had we got there? Not very much on latest performances.
Agreed, it would be nice to be in contention, but wed have a torrid time in the National League with the current set-up, but if we improve next season, as much as we have this, then who knows?
Another trip to Brighton/Whitehawk spoilt by the bit between 3 and 5 on the Saturday afternoon!
You wouldn't have known we were fighting for the play offs if you had witnessed that game - outthought and outfought throughout even with an extra man for over half the game?! When we equalised early in the second half, it was set up to go on to win the game comfortably yet once again we doze off at a set piece (how many times is that in the last few weeks...??) and pay the price. Of course the loss of Coombes at this stage of the season was always going to be a huge blow but other players needed to step up and they patently haven't. The fact that we had to bring a (semi) retired striker off the bench says it all and all the clear chances we had in the second half fell his way and he wasn't able to take them. I don't think we extended the keeper at all in the second half that I can recall..??
Bringing on Bradbrook was the right move but we didn't get the supply into him from the right areas. Often we had overlaps out wide with the full backs and yet we tried to go through the middle?! It reminded me in some ways of the Hungerford game where , apart from the pitch being much heavier, it was a wide playing area, a big slope but a very uneven surface. That afternoon we played in the right areas, turned them round and kept the pressure on them at the back - on Saturday we did none of those things. Someone said to me on Saturday that they felt the late goal at Hampton has really killed us and there may be some truth in that. Two points in the last four games is not exactly play off form but we are not getting beaten by better teams but beating ourselves half the time and that has to be a concern.
This league is a weak as it is ever likely to be in my opinion. Next year we could have big spending Billyricky, Torquay, possibly Hereford and maybe Woking and Dulwich as well - all clubs that will be big fishes at this level either size wise or finance wise. I have no doubt that whoever goes up this season from this division has a massive job on their hands to survive at National level but it would be fun to try!
I just get the impression that people at the club are not really fussed if we get in the plays off or not and I find that quite sad.
Nothing about the game to say that hasn't already been, although I don't agree with the amount of times "missing coombes" has come out, he only joined a month ago and now we are reliant on him?
A bigger issue for me is that due to us having less width than a Morrison's parking space the man who seems good at scoring headers (philpot) was constantly forced to chase long balls out wide and be the one crossing it in, absolute ridiculous and waste of time trying to put it on Goldberg's head yet that's all we tried to do.
The other thing I would touch on is why we didn't get a team coach, i predicted a loss as soon as I heard we hadn't got one. Might sound simplistic but there was none of the team spirit have had in recent away wins. Players turn up in dribs and drabs, looking like they have the hump cos they have just had to drive themselves, hardly say 2 words to each other and then try play a game of football, it didn't look or feel right from the moment we turned up.
Way out of our depth for the playoffs, anyway. But this league will be a lot harder next season with the teams mentioned above coming into it.
