Interesting I though Purse looked much better yesterday although I thought the sponsors were spot on making Henly man of the match, despite a look of disbelief from one quarter.
Sitting in the stand for the first half I thought Purse had a good game....second half who knows from the other end...he also does a lot of encouraging too
I saw a lot of positives in the game also, - Reece looks a handful has scored one goal in one full start - Rowan looked a bit sharper and once fully match fit will get better - Vose I think is a quality signing - henly made some good saves, - I felt we were in control of the game before the sending off, we had a good spell with 10 men after the substitutions and had Chester not had three players on the goal line St Ammie would have scored as his header beat the keeper but unfortunately had a outfielder standing just behind the keeper. - Personally my first reaction was no intent for the penalty, My general feeling is once Anthony arrives with his pace on on wing and and Reece on the other with Vine and Vose playing central I envisage defenders having busy afternoons and goals will start coming.
No doubt the game changed with the sending off but I also felt Chester are a decent side and very good at their transitional play.
Also very good and honest interview with Jody's reflection of the game on the website
Henly should have got both Man of the Matches. He was absolutely outstanding yesterday.
The keeping when he saved it 4 times in 5 seconds was the single best bit of goalkeeping in the clubs history, i still can't believe he saved it 4 times in that short space of time. When we were throwing men forward Henly stopped it being a cricket score, he made at least 7 or 8 saves from great chances.
Benji didn't want to stay at the club for the rest of the season as he wants to play league football but don't let facts put you off. If Reading had let Jon play in the FA Cup he would have been our keeper, Daisy brought in Benji and stuck with him, which was harsh on Jon as it was his club that wouldn't let him play for us in the Cup,
Benji is a top keeper, no doubts but yesterday Henly was absolutely top class.
Ref ruined us and we still had chances with 10 men, if we were playing like a pub team and getting torn to pieces i would be worried. Reece Harris impressed me through the middle, he had a goal disallowed when he looked onside too remember.
We just need Vine and Purse being nasty and pulling the younger ones and new players through this spell and we need a ref to be consistent, the good thing is all the sides below us are toss and we've got away with the poor run so far.
Hopefully we can sign Jeffrey and play how we are playing and cut out one or two bits of switching off at the back. I am not overly worried as i can see we are playing well at times but we do need 4 points out of the next 3 games to get the confidence going before doom and gloom and panic sets in and we do need to convert a few chances.
Its hard not to blame refs when you see no consistency and us getting the worst of it all the time.
Jake both feet on floor gets ball cleanly red card, Their guy both feet OFF floor gets ball cleanly and ref said it was fine as he got ball... We were one nil up when their tackle was allowed..
We really need a siege mentality and to expect refs to be poor and hurt us and use that to motivate us. We have lost a lot of points and had games changed by some very wrong big decisions. We cannot change that but this is part of the reason that there isnt a lot wrong, of course we need to sharpen up in both boxes but we need to stay confident as we are opening sides up, just not punishing them.
Stay behind the team, and slagging off Henly and Gallagher by a few is poor, especially when Jake shouldnt have been sent off and Henly was absolutely top class yesterday. If they play **** or get sent off by being stupid then theres substance in criticism, to do it when the criticism is wrong is poor stuff in my opinion.
Darren Purse looks a player sadly "past it". He made several errors especially when trying to play the ball out of defence and arguably at fault for two of the goals. I thought initially it was a penalty although if Tom's video shows chest I accept that. Although how Tom could film over the standing Chester fans is a mystery!
I thought it was a pen live and a red and on video i think it was a pen and a red, that said i though Darren was ok yesterday and looked more comfortable than his debut?
The filming was a complete nightmare, as they were standing on my level and the levels below it was impossible to film the road half of the pitch. Our fans asked them to sit and they were told to **** off... so i stood on the ledge at the back of the stand and got 7 feet of height out of the tripod, couldn't get behind camera for obvious reasons, try balancing on a 6 inch ledge with the back of the stand stopping you being able to stand solid and film fast moving action, but, i managed to get all bar the near corner filmed. Club asked if i would like to change position at half time which helped a lot even though the main stand view for filming is hard as you have to sit down to get a view and the camera is above your head. Just as well i'm amazing isn't it, the highlights are decent.
No way could you have got the Chester fans sitting down and we don't have enough stewards or old bill to make them, so you just get on with it, i said to our fans do yourselves a favour, go and sit elsewhere cos you cant win and you are liable to get battered if you kick off.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
It was a clumsy challenge, and although a red card was harsh it was idiotic to put the referee in that situation. Jake should be stripped of the captaincy and learn to change his tackling technique or it will ruin his career.
Yes it is the case that most referee's seem to be against us but that is always likely when we have such a small and largely passive support.
Almost all the pitches in the Conference are likely to be in as dreadful a state as PVR looked yesterday. We need to abandon possession based football and grind out a few results.
Starting to get corners off the ground would be a good start.
We are in a dog fight now and performances mean nothing- only results
Jody needs to look his players in the eye- and kick out those who he would n't want alongside him in the trenches. I'm pleased Bassile has gone. We need fighters- not moaners.
COYW
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Chris, Superb point about the passive support being a factor in the way we get shafted by refs. Yesterday their fans went mad... red, same for jake at Dartford, same at Bristol Rovers... Here you get 3 old boys say i say ref book that chap. Its not hostile for refs here at other grounds they **** themselves and bottle it so they dont get abuse.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
I disagree about his tackling though Chris, why should he change it just because a ref makes a wrong decision. Two reds this year for tackles, both one footed and won the ball, someone i know, nothing to do with the club, tells me he will be watched by a northern football league club when hes back or if we get the red overturned and that the scout feels his tackling is a great thing with the right development.
-- Edited by JgFc on Sunday 1st of February 2015 02:41:30 PM
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
He needs to change it to ensure that he does n't smash into the man after he has touched the ball. It is potentially dangerous and can result in an injury as happened to Jack Evan's a couple of years back. It is obvious that this has held back Jake's career as he admitted once in an interview that the Millwall manager made him train with the reserves as he kept smashing the first teamers in training. Perhaps he'd be better used as a full time centre back where he would n't have the temptation to go in for such tackles in the middle of the field?
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Honestly i cant see us getting three points any time soon, honestly think Mr brown means well but something is not quite working at the moment. hopefully soon we get back to winning ways and stop conceding silly goals though stupid mistakes and scoring a few more would help too
If we are to expect refs to be dire you have to prevent them having a opportunity to make a crap decision which is why Jake needs to adapt a bit. He could get wrongly or harshly sent off in every game until the end of the season, get all the cards rescinded but you can't get the game back you've just lost with 10 men.
Generally he is a good player at this level but even Cristiano Ronaldo would be crap at this level if he was sat in the stand every other week. Unfortunately every time this comes up there is a lot of heat and light but there is only one thing we can do that is in our power and that is work with Jake to change without becoming less effective. Everything else relies on someone or something else changing which doesn't look likely at the moment as we have no power to make it happen and they don't seem to want to.
With regards to the keepers, those with long memories will remember Knight was a good shot stopper in our last relegation season but Wilkerson didn't need to be so good because he got those in front of him to reduce the workload he got and consequently the defence improved. It won't be easy to forget some of Henly's howlers but he undoubtedly has some talent. Where the questions really lie are does he have the experience and authority at this stage to improve his decision making and organise those in front of him. I guess we'll find out in the next three months (I am not convinced Buchel was necessarily better in these aspects either).
Purse is past is and I made that call before he signed, this reliance on older players is going to be our downfall and only contribute to the foul count.