First 20 minutes we looked bloody good and had a couple of decent chances from free kicks and corners but couldn't get the ball on target.
Second half was one of the worst I've seen for some time. Second best in every 50/50 against a side who wanted it more. Other than a few routine catches, the keeper only had one save to make, an easy save in injury time.
Nowhere near good enough.
-- Edited by Polo on Saturday 31st of August 2019 05:20:50 PM
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Welling United FC. Banging on the walls of Woking dressing rooms since 1963..
Im going to take a couple of positives from this game, strangely:
1) I know in future not to allow Google Maps to take me through a village called Horndon on the Hill because that was diabolical.
2) If I ever feel I want a holiday where I can also get free footballs Ill have one of those caravans next door cos those lot must have bootloads of them by the end of the day.
3) I was able to sightsee on the way into and out of Canvey and today highlighted to me that I should never take future children to the seaside there as Im sure it would constitute some form of emotional abuse. What a tip...
Everybody is allowed a bad day at the office and this was definitely one of them. After the first 15 mins or so of sizzling each other up, there was only one side that wanted it and that was not Welling United. I cannot remember their keeper being troubled from there on and we seemed devoid of any ideas in respect of breaking them down. Others far better than me will comment on tactics and formations but I must say that either personnel or formations were sadly lacking today and the performance was in no way compensation for the difficulties we had getting there. A big performance is required on Tues night which will, hopefully, get us back on the road again.
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In three words I can sum up everything i've learnt in life; it goes on.
First game of the season for me, and the team just looked completely unrecognisable from last season......which is unsurprising as it is virtually an entirely new team......but desperately lacking in quality all over the field. Nouble absolutely rinsed the defence from the minute he beat three players to get them rolling with the first goal, the midfield looked like paperweights compared to the muscle of Concord and absolutely no cutting edge up front......we could have played till midnight and not scored
However, not going to write everything off on the back of one awful performance. Just hope for a positive reaction on Tuesday night. It surely can't be worse?!
well MG said to judge this team after 10 matches, so 5 oclock on Saturday will be a landmark and give us a good indication as to if we will be up near the playoffs, or down near relegation!
I recall we had a similar very poor performance last season when we played at their ground, perhaps its the sea air?
well MG said to judge this team after 10 matches, so 5 oclock on Saturday will be a landmark and give us a good indication as to if we will be up near the playoffs, or down near relegation!
I recall we had a similar very poor performance last season when we played at their ground, perhaps its the sea air?
On reflection I don't think the first half was too bad on Saturday. Neither side was particularly good in the first half but we had more control of the game. Of course letting a bloke run from the halfway line through three or four "tackles" was not likely to end well and so it proved. Even after that Baghelou could/should have equalised form a free kick and quite why Coombes would fall down when through on goal baffles me. At half time I felt we were well capable of at least a draw...how wrong I was!
The second half was abject. Of course all footballers (and especially semi professional ones) are entitled to have bad games/halves of football but there are some things that should always be present. Effort, commitment, desire, spirit should be a given and there was only one team with any of that on Saturday and they weren't wearing red! The number of aimless hoofs forward or five, ten yard passes that went astray was embarrassing. As in the Tonbridge game we failed to move the ball quickly enough and decided to try and dribble through the opposition on our own at times. I am not sure how many tackles we made/won over the 90 minutes but I think I could count them on one hand...even at 0-3 down there was only one team showing any fight and demanding more of their teammates and they were wearing yellow. This is not an inexperienced team - they have played thousands of non league games between them over the years - the lack of direction on the pitch was alarming and there seemed to me to be very little direction coming from off the pitch as well. Their keeper had one save to make and that came in injury time!
Hopefully that was just a blip and we can bounce back with a better all round performance tomorrow. Eastbourne had a good win at the weekend so their confidence will be high so we need to be at it from the first whistle and at least show some bottle and, by that, I don't mean flying around the field like headless chickens but getting stuck in and putting in a whole hearted effort for 90+ minutes. It will be interesting to see off the back of Saturday what changes the management team makes but they, like us, were badly let down at the weekend and should be demanding a reaction from their squad tomorrow evening. Nobody likes losing football matches but if they give their best and are beaten on the day then fair enough. If they don't put in the effort in the first place then that is a different matter...
