I thought our 5 - 0 win against Oxford was a turning point this season, as it was such a big sign of our ability and made others realise we mean business this season. Opponents now talk about us being full time, and tighten up, as they consider a point is good against us. So recent results some consider disappointing actually just show the increased respect we now get from other teams, and that we now need to break down defensive teams. Weymouth have had a bad start, but changed manager recently, and as we saw with Warren last year a new manager can totally turn things round for a team, so Weymouth's low position in the league from the previous manager's games is no longer relevant to what the new manager can achieve. The Havant CEO was saying how Weymouth had battered them for 75 minutes, and as Havant are good that shows Weymouth have improved with the new manager. So not a match to boldly predict, as anything can happen in cup games, but fingers crossed for a place in the draw for the next round.
-- Edited by Johnny Hartley on Friday 30th of September 2022 07:50:05 PM
For all those that made the trip with all travel disruption, I respect you loads and you obviously showed a lot more heart and grit to be there then our team did on the pitch today.!
It sounds as though this was our first uncompetitive performance of the season, as we have been competitive in all other games so far. This must be due to the high volume of past games finally catching up with us. My immediate thought after the result was that at least we can now concentrate on the league, as we have had 7 games in 29 days, including the two Fisher cup games that definitely contributed to a below par second half against Havant as we ran out of steam, and arguably dropped a couple of points. My son asked me the score today, and when I told him, he said we can concentrate on the League now. In the overall scale of things a top 7 finish would be more useful than a FA cup run, and a cup run could have undermined the league campaign. The good thing is for two weeks now we only have one match a week, so a chance to refresh and regroup before a run of three weeks with two games a week.
A long trip for our travelling fans, through all sorts of difficulties. All I can say is that I hope the team remember that win or lose they will always be there, all they require is 100%commitment, and from what I have heard today, it was not there. It is up to the squad to put it right in the league from now on.
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In three words I can sum up everything i've learnt in life; it goes on.
Still on the road home, difference fans today made an effort, players no effort, I don't mind losing if the team put in a shift, which was missing today.
Sorry I dont buy that regarding player fitness. The manager said himself in the lead up to this game that his pre season plan was based around ensuring player fitness levels and being able to meet the demands of Tuesday, Saturday football when required.
The players and management team let the fans down today and it is a big financial blow as cup runs bring together revenue streams, which would have supported the tremendous off the field work.
Why he left Myles Roberts out is bizzare, to have a cup keeper at this level is pathetic.
Repair work needed now and the first big test Feeny faces imo.
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"Passion for the game.......is Passion for the game" 'Have you got the Spills to pay the bills?'
Sorry I dont buy that regarding player fitness. The manager said himself in the lead up to this game that his pre season plan was based around ensuring player fitness levels and being able to meet the demands of Tuesday, Saturday football when required.
I agree. It's a big squad that trains three times a week so fitness is no excuse.
I was initially an advocate for rotating the squad for this match, as I thought some may need a break after so many intense games, but I also understand the counter argument that it is best to play ones strongest squad, and can see the latter may be the safest option to take.
This was a no win situation for Warren, as if he played his strongest team some people would say he should have rotated, if he had rotated some people would say he should have played his strongest squad.
Recovery for sportsmen is important, but players are not robots, and despite itness advantages from training have not had as much time as ideal to recover for quite a few weeks, but the next couple of weeks are less packed, and gives time to learn lessons from the season so far, and work out the answers to the new challenges our success brings us.
Personally I think it is possible for fans to get spoiled, and lose sight of the bigger picture, which is the virtually whole new team have hit the ground running this season, in two months P 13 W 6, D 4 L 3. We are currently in a play off spot, so if we can maintain this form throughout the season then we'll end in one too.
Very disappointing performance yesterday, we simply didn't get started and it reminded me of last season. I was really surprised at the decision to change the keeper especially as he's been in great form ,I may even ask the manager about that when I see him next. We only had one shot on goal in the entire game and the penalty miss at the end completely summed up our day. They deserved the victory and if they play like that I'd expect them to climb up the league, as for us we can concentrate on challenging for the playoffs. A sign of a good team is how they bounce back after a defeat so I'm hoping for a much improved performance next week at Hampton and Richmond. Well done to the fans that did manage to get there and thank you to everyone that tuned in to Radio Wings. Yes we're all gutted but up until yesterday we was all positive with the season so far
Weymouth manager was at our game last week, seems they scouted us well.
Yes we've had a decent start and it's certainly better than last season, but it would be nice if we had a plan b on the pitch, bit of pace and width up top wouldn't go amiss either.
We are slowly turning into a one trick pony. The constant long ball to either Payne or Azeez to win and hold is becoming our trademark.
Teams recognise this and by putting two defenders on Azeez (as they did yesterday), snuffs out any threat.
Payne appears to be in a similar mould to Coombes and can be frustrating when trying to be better than what he actually is (fancy passes etc).
Going 5 at the back again (as we did against Dover), kind of shows your hand in that you dont want to lose, rather than showing you are out to win.
The better football we have played is when we have gone 4 at the back.
As mentioned earlier, that game had all the traits of the Welling side of 12 months ago.
The club spend out on expenses on the team to stay in Bournemouth the night before so as to keep them fresh.
Looked like they had been on the pi$$ all night.
If I was the chairman, I certainly wouldnt be in a rush to put my hands in my pockets to do that again.
I love our goals against Cheshunt, when we created fantastic moves down the wings. The long ball for Ade to win the header usually doesn't work A) because the defenders are usually taller than him so win the headers, and B) even if he wins the ball usually there aren't our players close enough for him to pass to. Successful teams play to their strengths, and that long ball play certainly isnt playing to our strengths. I understand why it may look an atttactive option to play, as direct play is often rewarded in this division, but when you are doing long passes where you are losing the ball more than half the time this is not a winning tactic. Woah, Payne is fine, I underestimated him at first, but he is among the top scorers in the division, and has set up lots of goals with assists for our players, as well as constantly closing down defenders, and I am sure playing with him has improved Ade and Antony. The Dover game was a bit of a freak result, as we created so many clear cut chances that unusually we didn't put away, I was watching the highlights again the other day, and although the score was disappointing, we outplayed them, and they were lucky to get a point against the run of play. 5 at the back is really 3 at the back, so is a much more attacking formation than it may appear at first sight.
Getting down there early seems a sound preparation, having a long journey on match day is not ideal, and I think it was a case of the heavy schedule finally catching up with the guys, and this standing out more clearly in a knockout competition than if we had lost in the league.
A very disappointing afternoon of football after a long and expensive trip. We didn't play well at any stage in the game with long balls, misplaced passes and a lack of creativity. Would love to see Cameron Andrews play in that sort of match where we needed a spark.
Not sure what went wrong but anyone who watches us knows we can blow teams away (Oxford), get caught out (Dover, Havant and nearly Fisher) and play bad and still win. Maybe that sort of performance was possibly coming with a few tell tale signs lately? I'm probably 20+ years older than most of our players and I'm not sure what the cup means to them? Are they a bit non-fussed like when I go to a London Senior or Kent Senior Cup game? Those games don't 'do it' for me but I'll turn up but my heart's not really in it. Is this what happened? A shocked Weymouth fan at half time said we were making them look like Brazil, I won't tell you what I thought we made ourselves look.
With our budget we should be top 6 and in today's draw for the 4th qualifying round, not top 6 and out of the cup. I'm not going to dig out any individuals and especially not Warren as we have to remember where we were. Personally the team and the atmosphere is the best I've seen for years. Just need to put it right and not get a repeat of that performance.
Whatever the players themselves think about the FA Cup they should have been told in no uncertain terms what it could have meant financially to the Club that pays their wages. If we're now stretching to the odd overnight stay before a game then the least the owners and all at the Club deserve is the required effort.
We've been on a great run of form and are light years removed from last season but wonder if what I perceive to be a change in formation recently (three at the back) has had an adverse affect on our ability to win football matches all of a sudden. They're three good centre halves and it's perhaps allowed Kassarate and Maloney to be more central than wide but it leaves us a body light in midfield and we've lost the opportunity of the dangerous Papadopoulos from the starting line up at a time when their didn't seem to be an awful lot wrong with the defence (in no small part thanks to the brilliance of Roberts in goal). Have heard Feeney say that the first job of full backs is to defend then next minute they've become wing backs with a need to get forward to support a lighter midfield! Am not sure the tinkering was required, when we were in such a rich vein of form, just to accommodate an extra centre half. Warren knows best of course but it's a shame to have lost some momentum.
A very disappointing afternoon of football after a long and expensive trip. We didn't play well at any stage in the game with long balls, misplaced passes and a lack of creativity. Would love to see Cameron Andrews play in that sort of match where we needed a spark.
Not sure what went wrong but anyone who watches us knows we can blow teams away (Oxford), get caught out (Dover, Havant and nearly Fisher) and play bad and still win. Maybe that sort of performance was possibly coming with a few tell tale signs lately? I'm probably 20+ years older than most of our players and I'm not sure what the cup means to them? Are they a bit non-fussed like when I go to a London Senior or Kent Senior Cup game? Those games don't 'do it' for me but I'll turn up but my heart's not really in it. Is this what happened? A shocked Weymouth fan at half time said we were making them look like Brazil, I won't tell you what I thought we made ourselves look.
With our budget we should be top 6 and in today's draw for the 4th qualifying round, not top 6 and out of the cup. I'm not going to dig out any individuals and especially not Warren as we have to remember where we were. Personally the team and the atmosphere is the best I've seen for years. Just need to put it right and not get a repeat of that performance.
Your right about it being expensive, just this minute got back,spent a fortune. Even if we had got through we'd have another journey to Havent to contend with
