I'm relaxed about these pre-season friendlies, obviously it would be nice to win them, but they are really mostly about getting match fit and letting the manager see what the options are like in matches, which is more useful than just basing decisions on non competitive training sessions. The result says we lost 1 - 3, but actually that doesn't tell the whole story, as our goal was a really good one from Lewis White on his debut for us, who I looked forward to seeing play for us, and who didn't disappoint, and gave an attacking threat we had missed in the two previous friendlies, and all last season when none of our wide players looked likely to score.
And the goals we conceded were silly, new player Ayo Agboso making a mess of passing back to our triallist keeper he wont have had much understanding with, and him also conceding a silly penalty, and Taofiq carrying on his too casual and slow approach that led to him being involved in a couple of goals conceded against Charlton.
But we got lots of crosses into the box, just lacked enough players in the box to knock it in, some triallists played well, and we got punished for making silly mistakes, which is good, as it is no point playing pre-season games getting away with individually defending badly. Danny will learn a lot about his players from the game. Woking on Saturday will be good, another tough test against a higher team, but we improve with each pre-season game we play.
There's only so many times you can say 'it's only pre season ' but tonight was rubbish. First half was ok, but not Conf South standard and second was quite frankly useless.
-- Edited by 50p head on Wednesday 19th of July 2023 01:06:17 AM
I'd not seen Danny's interview before posting above. I knew he was looking forward to this match as he planned to mainly play our likely regular players for the first time, but the interview shows due to 3 injuries in defence we ended up playing 3 non regular starters and 3 trialists, so it wasn't the settled side he was hoping to field.
One can't say for sure, but I doubt our unavailable defenders would have made the three mistakes from 2 players indecisive play that led to goals conceded, then we'd be thinking about a 1 - 0 win. So we haven't yet been able to field a near full starting team, hopefully injuries will clear up by Saturday and Woking, and we are closer to a regular starting team.
This pre-season is trying to catch up with more settled teams, as we only had 2 guys in the first half, and 2 in the second half, with us last season. Once we've had a run of games with our eventual settled starting team we'll see what we are really like. In the meantime it is interesting seeing the new team forming.
Welling were the authors of their own misfortune I'm afraid, hopefully we can sort the defensive mistakes out before the season starts, otherwise it's going to be a tough season ahead.
Decent first half. Lewis White looks a serious player if we can keep him fit. Was impressed by the young centre half and the other two lads who signed yesterday had their moments as well.
Second half was a tale of defensive mistakes - better they come now than in a few weeks time! We shouldn't forget either that at 1-1 in a real game Ming would have been sent off for a blatant elbow and it would have been a different game.
Clearly we need to stretch our budget as best we can and, if that means playing the loan market, then I trust this manager to do that. In my opinion we need at least one centre forward and also a left back as priorities.
Clearly we need to stretch our budget as best we can and, if that means playing the loan market, then I trust this manager to do that.
He has a good track record in that respect. Two years ago he had Charley Kendall from QPR, and he was amongst the best players in this league. Last season, he had players from Crystal Palace who were a 'cut above'. I'm sure that he is holding back some budget for this very reason. He has probably already got someone lined up.
We create lots of crosses across the goalmouth, but just now miss players in position to tap it in. Antony in midfield shot in each of the 3 games so far, with some great set ups for other players, Lewis looked sharp which is great after his injury break. The trialist 10 in attack didn't have supply to score from, but looked good and mobile, maybe in time he could be an answer in attack, but attack looks the last area particularly needing additional players.
Danny was only appointed just over a month ago on 13 June, so less than 2 months to prepare for the 5 August league kick off. In just over a month he has already got most of his squad, already got them match fit, so time for patience. Our PVR development won't be built in a day...
I think it's nothing short of a miracle what he's managed to pull together on a shoe string and in such short time, and bring about such positivity from previous toxicity. We might not rip the league apart but we'll have a fit and committed squad with some stand out players, a few experienced heads, and development of youngsters.
It could be a tough start, we'll probably need to grow into the season - so patience is key. Winning isn't everything.
Critics of early matches lost sight of our current position, Danny is only in the job for about four weeks, doing three training sessions a week, so done around 12 training sessions, started with just three signed players if I recall (Antony, Lewis and Sadik), maybe one or two more, and quickly built a squad and already had to play three pre-season matches with such limited preparation time. Yes, some individual problems at time, but what else can one expect?
In theory these games are pre-season friendlies, but actually they aren't really friendly, as the triallists all play their hardest to get signed up, signed up players try their hardest to impress the manager for the new season, so our 3 pre-season games so far were really tough competitive games and enjoyable to watch to see the new team forming. Even with such limited preparation time we create lots of chances, I think Antony and Lewis in midfield will be so good to watch develop, both did lots of great things against Dulwich, giving us midfield pace we never had last season.
