I nipped down to Betfred this morning to put some more money each way on us at 66-1, as early season results suggest this league is quite wide open, so I can see us possibly finishing top 3 if we continue to improve, and I love what Warren has been doing here ever since his arrival, and the more time he has with our new squad the better we will be, even this early in the season our two team goals against Cheshunt were awesome. Us and Chelmsford are both in play off spots at present, so love the well deserved progress from last season's games to avoid relegation, to this season's games to maintain a high place in the table. Exciting times!
Coming up short against the better sides one far this season, tells you where we are at the moment, work to be done, including signing a left back. Onto Monday.
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"Passion for the game.......is Passion for the game" 'Have you got the Spills to pay the bills?'
Another great attendance, 901 today. Against Worthing we created four really good chances, scoring two and hitting the bar twice. Today against Chelmsford we created four really good chances, scoring one, having a shot cleared off the line, hitting the bar and missing a penalty, so are creating a lot in our games, and despite the 1 -2 score were unlucky not to have got something out of the game.
I have my doubts about Dickens, as it seems to me at present the game is too quick for him, so he gives too much time and space to opponents and they create chances in his area of play as a result, and score. But hopefully his learning curve at this level will be quick and he will cut those mistakes out.
Although the opposition were unbeaten going into this match, we matched them everywhere. The ref kept blowing for fouls for our strong tackling, which was annoying, as we are a very committed but not dirty side, so our play got disrupted as a result.
We came out passing and moving much more quickly in the second half. We shot ourselves in the foot with our defending against Worthing, but have looked promising in other games, and understandings are growing between players as they pay more regularly, so a disappointing result, but a promising performance against a probable play off candidate.
-- Edited by Johnny Hartley on Saturday 27th of August 2022 08:09:02 PM
Very unlucky today, probably didn't make their keeper work enough and came up against a solid defence. As mentioned already we had 4 good chances scoring one, on a better day we would have won 4-2. Light years ahead of last season already though, hopefully we can stay in the top half of the league.
Much better match day experience at PVR all round as well, love the big beer tent. Will be very useful come the winter months!
Great crowd as well, just shy of 1K, and it wasn't due to a large away following either!
-- Edited by trev83 on Saturday 27th of August 2022 06:43:44 PM
-- Edited by trev83 on Saturday 27th of August 2022 06:45:54 PM
No comments so far about the handball in the first half. Was it just us that saw their player rise above the defence like a keeper, and punch the ball, or did we dream it?
I'll take nothing away from Chelmsford, however, there are missing penalties and missing penalties at critical times. We missed one at a critical time, which I believe could have changed the whole course of the game. Added to this it would seem that the referee, and the inept linesman on the main stand side, were the only two people not to see a punch on the ball (in 5he penalty area) by a Chelmsford defender that at would have done Joshua proud. We huffed and puffed and looked competent at times but gave there keeper little to do. Chelmsford seem a more than reasonable side but we need to hold our own against such opposition and must get back on the road again on Monday.
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In three words I can sum up everything i've learnt in life; it goes on.
How unlucky where we two pivotal moments, the penalty miss all on other days could of gone our way. To be thinking about winning games again , instead of how many we going to get beat by is a massive positive step. Attendance great, beer tent excellent , food again spot on, dont want to be too optimistic but its actually quite a pleasant afternoon now !
Wrong tactics for me yesterday, similar to the Worthing game in hoofing the ball long is bread and butter to two big centre halves who cleared things up all day.
If Payne's penalty and Maloney's free kicks gone in at the time they were taken its a different game, but that's football! Thought the officials were very poor and missed a blatant handball for us in the first half, but the officials aren't to blame for the loss today.
It's still a new team and it's going to take time to gel but there are plenty of positives on and off the pitch. On the pitch Taylor Maloney is starting to shine in a playmaker style roll. I also think there's a future star in Ashley Nzala, and would have liked to see him come on earlier yesterday as we looked better with wingers on the pitch. Off the pitch the bar set up was very good yesterday and apart from a bit of a hiccup at half time the service was good and efficient.
Onwards and upwards hopefully in what will be another tough test at Dulwich tomorrow. Hopefully plenty of Wings fans will be there as well.
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Welling United FC. Banging on the walls of Woking dressing rooms since 1963..
As others have said, didnt get the rub of the green yesterday.
4-4-2 long hopeful balls were not giving us time for midfield to catch up on any balls won.
Thought we would have gone 4-3-3 in the second half as we did at Hemel.
When we did make that change we was 0-2 down.
To be fair it would appear we was trying to do that when Chelmsford scored their second.
Still a lot of positives to take. We look a very fit side, and a hell of an improvement on last year.
Both on and off the pitch.
I agree with Polo. The disappointment for me is not so much in getting beat (that's going to happen with a new side that haven't played together much), but it's the persistence with this overly direct style, even when it clearly isn't working. Most of us called it in the first 15 minutes i.e. that the two big lumps they had at the back were treating it like heading practice....and so it carried on for the best part of 80 minutes
When the game was up at 0-2 and Nzala came on, we started spraying it around, getting it down the flanks and putting in some decent balls. If the game had been another 10 minutes long, I think we'd have at least drawn and possibly won
In both the Cheshunt and Hemel games our best spells (and goals) have come from when we're getting it down the wings and getting some good balls into the box from wide.....which is why it is so mystifying when we spend 70-80 minutes pumping it long to Payne and Azeez
Hope we can see more of the wing play in the games ahead, and less of the Route One
Ironically when the route 1 comes against us, we look vulnerable. Their keeper almost assisted a comedy goal in the first half, and when their first goal did eventually come it was from a repeat punt upfield. When we tried it, we didn't look like scoring once
Tactical tweaks needed - there's some decent players out there who are good on the ball. Lets use them more
I agree with Polo. The disappointment for me is not so much in getting beat (that's going to happen with a new side that haven't played together much), but it's the persistence with this overly direct style, even when it clearly isn't working. Most of us called it in the first 15 minutes i.e. that the two big lumps they had at the back were treating it like heading practice....and so it carried on for the best part of 80 minutes
When the game was up at 0-2 and Nzala came on, we started spraying it around, getting it down the flanks and putting in some decent balls. If the game had been another 10 minutes long, I think we'd have at least drawn and possibly won
In both the Cheshunt and Hemel games our best spells (and goals) have come from when we're getting it down the wings and getting some good balls into the box from wide.....which is why it is so mystifying when we spend 70-80 minutes pumping it long to Payne and Azeez
Hope we can see more of the wing play in the games ahead, and less of the Route One
Ironically when the route 1 comes against us, we look vulnerable. Their keeper almost assisted a comedy goal in the first half, and when their first goal did eventually come it was from a repeat punt upfield. When we tried it, we didn't look like scoring once
Tactical tweaks needed - there's some decent players out there who are good on the ball. Lets use them more
The longer the game went on I thought one goal would win it either with a touch of class or a mistake and their first goal was a bit of both!. Over the years we have become the masters of turning attack into defence and we proved it again yesterday. We had an attacking set piece and, 20 seconds later, the ball is on our net..?! Granted it was a great strike by their lad but it was preventable and we had been warned at the end of the first half. The second goal we switched off waiting for a change to be made but that's no excuse - most of us were taught at primary school to play to the whistle...?!
Some puzzling tactics for me as well (not least starting with four central midfielders..??) and going direct far too often that was meat and drink to their centre backs.
It's still very early days for us and it will take time to work out the best combinations and the best formation. Good crowd again but what will keep them coming back is not only the much improved match day experience but, even more so, winning football matches...
I re-started watching Welling just before Warren took over, so saw the repeat shambles of Peter Taylor's team, that kept making defensive mistakes, Peter Taylor saying we need to do something to stop those defensive mistakes (which was basically clumsy defending giving away cheap free kicks the opposition scored headers from, as our Peter Taylor defence was clumsy, and hopeless in the air), and him doing nothing to stop those mistakes. We are in a similar position now, lost to Worthing because of some stupid defending, lost to Chelmsford because of some stupid defending (and some tragic refereeing). I am confident Warren will act quickly to fix the issues. But this is all proof of just how challenging and skilful this division is, as in a bad level of football we could get away with making mistakes, but against skilled teams we get punished for making mistakes. Watching the match I always thought it would be decided by one goal either way, and that is a sign of the progress we have made with Warren, as he has turned us into a really competitive side.
I love the quality of fans knowledgeable comments here, that make me reconsider, and sometimes change, my views.
Warren has a really interesting challenge, a team full of quality players, so how best to use their abilities. Route one direct football has its strengths, and weaknesses, as does play down the wings. Our team are on a massive learning curve, but are still level on points for a play off place, so are performing ahead of expectations.
Chelmsford were unbeaten going into the match, so maybe route one against such a team isn't that bad a call, not pretty, but quite effective, as we made lots of chances (they cleared off the line, we hit the post, and missed a penalty).
