We were slow out the blocks today but after 10-15 mins we were ok. Tanga was superb and really gave them some problems down the right. People have said we didn't create chances, maybe not straight on goal, but we had plenty of width and possession and got some good crosses in. Some were over hit but we are lacking up top to pounce. Macallister has to do too much on his own up front, like a number 10 rather than 9. What can I say about ref? Best I don't! But with a finisher we could have got three points. Anyone just looking at the result won't see some of the decent play today.
A promising performance, playing as a team, rather than 11 individuals, correcting the mistakes of Truro so getting in lots of tackles and quickly closing down, gelling much quicker than I had expected, we didnt look like just our second league match.
Unfortunately as everyone says the actual result was created by the ref, who in a clean, normal game, managed to come up with two red cards and a penalty. They didn't look that likely to score in open play, so our move to a back 4 worked really well. Lewis White was missing injured, but he is likely to be back on Tuesday.
Our red card looked a joke, the "injured" opponent got up and jumped up and down in front of the fans to jokingly say he wasn't injured. I'll have to watch the highlights to see if the penalty we conceded was fair or not, but as the ref got so much else wrong it won't be a surprise if the penalty decision was a mistake as well.
We didnt look likely to score ourselves, even with the advantage of an extra player for lots of the match. Sometimes solutions to a striker problem are answered within the team, maybe Cameron Green or Jephte Tanga in attack could work, as both can dribble and shoot. After last week's false start, this feels like we are now off and running.
After the Truro result, I did fear the worst and the first 10 mins didn't help. But, after settling down I thought the Wings played some decent stuff and spread the ball around. Tanga was a constant threat and wanted the ball.
Thought the ref lost the plot after a decent start. Was hard to tell for the penalty as I was at the Park End - but it looked v soft.
What was the crack with the marquee bar? Seats all full - but no staff serving?
I paid full price to get in, even though I could be a concession - to give the extra fiver to the club. A group of Hemel fans were laughing about getting in as concessions and one got in for nothing. Turnstiles need sorting out.
After the Truro result, I did fear the worst and the first 10 mins didn't help. But, after settling down I thought the Wings played some decent stuff and spread the ball around. Tanga was a constant threat and wanted the ball.
Thought the ref lost the plot after a decent start. Was hard to tell for the penalty as I was at the Park End - but it looked v soft.
What was the crack with the marquee bar? Seats all full - but no staff serving?
I paid full price to get in, even though I could be a concession - to give the extra fiver to the club. A group of Hemel fans were laughing about getting in as concessions and one got in for nothing. Turnstiles need sorting out.
I wondered if the assessor said something to the ref at half time and it made him loose the plot. From my vantage point I didnt think it was a penalty. The ref was taking stick from Hemel fans after the incident by the pitch gate and may have feared further abuse from them.
Think the idea of marquee is to serve there on larger crowds but for fans to get drinks from wings bar when crowd is expected to be low and use for seating.
Thought turnstiles could be supervised better. At least one operative using vape which is not a good image for the club. Youngsters on them may think anyone over 40 is old and a concession, never seen any club ask for proof of age.
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Having endured the trip to Plymouth last Saturday, it was good to see that after the first 15 min we actually got into the match and put on a reasonable display. That having been said, with little impact up front, the Hampton keeper had little to do during the whole proceedings. However, with a little tinkering and more gametime we may turn into a reasonable side, particularly when the injuries come back. Notwithstanding this, what happened with the referee, after a reasonable first half he turned into something we haven't seen down here since Packman. He was abysmal, card happy for no apparent reason and, whilst due to distance, I cannot comment on the Bramble dismissal, I would aver a guess that even the most ardent Hampton fan would wonder how the penalty decision was given. Regardless of this we didn't make the most of our opportunities, lets hope we see further improvement on Tuesday.
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No, before anyone says anything. I don't want Danny Bloor sacked. I want to finally have a long term manager.
The defending was much much better today. It was never a penalty in a million years. I was right by it. However, we never looked like scoring. In my opinion our best player in terms of ability Lewis White is still out injured so when he returns I hope that changes.
Didn't really think we played that well but it was better. Still not convinced we have the right manager but I'm in it for the long haul. I do find it infuriating that after every match, almost all of which we've lost. He says 'I'll take the positives out of the game'.
I thought after we lost our first game by 3 goals it would take months to catch up, slowly progress from losing by 3, to losing by 2, then just by 1, eventually closing the gap and matching and overtaking. So yesterday was a nice surprise, way ahead of schedule. From letting in 5 to letting in 0 (if you discount the wrong penalty) is impressive progress.
Alan misreads Danny. I know Danny looks and acts mild mannered, but actually he is very tough and decisive, Sadik Balarabe hadn't struck me pre-season, and clearly didn't strike Danny, as he ruthlessly moved him out before the season had even started. He changes formation or players when he sees the original plan isnt working in a game. He was very clear in his disagreement with the ref yesterday.
Welling fans are impressively straightforward and knowledgeable, you can't fool fans into thinking something is good if it isn't. I like how Danny is like this too, if we play badly he says so, if there's good things he says that too. After the Woking pre-season game I said to him as I left the ground we matched them all over the pitch. But he was honest, told me he was disappointed about something, that he then went on to also mention in his post match interview, and that is good, much better than these sugarcoating managers. So yes, he is balanced so sees both positives and negatives, and doesnt overreact.
I talked with him for around 10 minutes at the development launch, as I wanted to find out for myself what he is all about, and was so impressed, he totally understands the problems he has to fix. So my advice to Alan is talk with Danny and you will better understand his effective calm balanced approach.
With no real height in our attack at set pieces, putting high balls into the penalty area is going to give you little reward.
Played the ball around well, but no real end product.
Thought our centre forward was isolated and needed another body alongside him to play off of.
Team looked set up as 4-5-1, whereas I would like to see a more direct 4-4-2.
Improvement on Truro game, but make no mistake, Tuesday night will be tough.
Chelmsford are a very physical side, and I just dont see that trait present in this current crop.
Although Danny means well, he doesnt have to constantly give praise to the supporters every week.
What was the attendance? 500?
Nothing to get too excited about in my opinion.
I don't find it infuriating that Danny takes the positives from every game. It's light years ahead of the bingo card that was unveiled after every game last season, with "Remember where we were last year" "supporters get carried away" or "It's just another game" after getting spanked 5-1 by your local rivals...
I thought Tanga was superb yesterday and caused Hemel a lot of problems, Alfie Matthews should arguable have had his second Yellow before he actually got it. Both the Hemel manager and Assistant who I spoke to after the game said it was never a penalty. I got a look at our sending off after the game, it definitely was a bit clumsy rather than reckless and should have been a Yellow card, but I can't see it getting over turned if we appealed it.
We looked fantastic first half and arguable better against 11 than we did 10. Hemel defended very well when they went a man down. I know that forwards are the most expensive and difficult assets to find but we still lack something up front, Macalister should have scored in the first half and a more prolific striker would have tucked it away.
Definitely positive to take from the game, can't fault the workrate and effort at all and that will guarantee a few points this season.
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Two seasons ago Man City didnt really have a proper striker, so the whole midfield pushed up as striking options and that worked really well for them. I wonder if our team could take that sort of approach, as I remember against Charlton they were outstanding at pushing 5 or more guys up into our penalty area when they attacked, and we weren't quick enough to mark so many attacking players.
I think we have some potentially high scoring midfielders, really liked Tanga, Lewis White has goals in him, Antony's development is so interesting to watch, he played a new playmaker role really well yesterday, and him learning to make time and space for himself on the ball means he could well do really well in attack. He has become much stronger, nice to see him knock over a bigger defender a few matches ago. Playing up front alone one either has to be strong and a hold up player to bring others in, or good enough to play ones way through a defence, and apart from Antony I dont think we have that player, so agree it would be good to have two up front, or we'll be back to last season's Plan A that didn't work. Lots of top strikers - Thierry Henri, Salah etc started as wingers and then moved into central attack, so we may already have the striking solution in our team just havent identified him yet. But keeping, defence and midfield all looked sound yesterday so early with this new team, and the speed of our play was quicker than last season, so looking forward to Chelmsford, who are the toughest team we have played yet. 8 teams haven't won yet, so we are not the only team finding our feet.
For me, I thought we stared a little slow but grew as the game went on, especially our midfield. There was some great movement in the middle of the pitch going forward, but the final pass from a number of our players was in question. Their keeper made a couple of very good saves, one in particular was from point blank range. I didnt think it was a penalty, but our defender got turned and their attacker done what he had to do. Our attack, although made some great chances, need to improve on their decision making. I thought Will Wood started well but faded and the support behind him by Cameron was very good. I did like the little fella Tanga but our number 10 has to reign himself in and not bite as teams may target this.
I don't know Danny's thinking, but I guess bar from Lewis White and Mitchell Dickenson missing through injury we started with our best 11, and thought we looked competitive yesterday, and would be even more competitive with those 2 players. In their first match Hemel beat the favourites to win the league, they needed a wrong penalty to beat us, so once one looks beyond distractions of the ref losing control, we were very promising. Danny's approach of letting the guys get on with it was great, as they communicated so much in the match, building up those understandings, not like last season waiting for Jayke or the goalkeeping coach to scream what to do.
Just to say, I really love match threads, almost as important as the games, as I come away from matches thinking whatever I think about the game, but it is so interesting to have these thoughts challenged, and sometimes changed, by match thread comments. Tuesday is so challenging, I dont see Truro or Hemel as end of season challengers, but unbeaten Chelmsford are so damned solid, all a team must be, so a good result is seriously good news.
Very frustrating afternoon yesterday. Like others I felt we played better 11 v 11 in the first half without quite having the final ball and/or enough bodies in the box at times. The first fifteen minutes we looked suspect and throughout we struggled to deal with long straight balls which should be easy to deal with at this level. Having watched the highlights it was a very poor decision for the penalty but also poor defending on our part.
We are missing two big players in Dickenson and White and if/when they are fit they will make a difference. Like others I was impressed with Tanga and hope we can secure him for longer. Don't quite understand why he switched wings second half when the left back had been booked and he was giving him a torrid time.
However we still don't work the keeper enough apart from a couple of late saves. Mcallister should have scored late in the first half and Adom late in the second half- we can't afford to miss opportunities like that. What was more of a concern for me was that two or three players looked to be struggling physically late in the game which shouldn't be an issue at this stage of the season...??
A big improvement on Truro as I understand it and I am sure there will be more tinkering with the squad in the coming weeks and we will undoubtedly improve.
I wish I hadn't looked at the match highlights, as it makes me feel even worse about the result!
In the 93 minute their keeper jumped up for the ball, caught it, then accidentally dropped it on his way down when it hit our player's head who had his back to the keeper. We put it in the net, but the clueless ref thought our player had fouled the keeper, and hadn't realised Hemel were play acting as they'd sussed how gullible he was.
So their wrong penalty and our disallowed fine goal meant we lost 0 - 1 instead of the 1 - 0 win we would have got if it were reffed by a ref who didnt get all the big decisions wrong! A criminal robbery in front of 525 witnesses!
I wasn't at the game yesterday but have just seen the highlights. The penalty decision is shocking as our player clearly comes away with the ball from a good tackle. I was at the Truro game where we got absolutely battered in that 1st half (apart from the good move & finish for our goal) but improved in the 2nd half. I am pleased to hear that we played better yesterday but must improve further if we are to pick up our first win of the season. Agree regarding Tanga as I thought he was our danger man against Truro. Sounds like a draw would have been a fair result yesterday.
This is another thing that does my head in because it always gets punished. Yes the keeper has hold of the ball, but as he came down he dropped it with no fault of our player onto his head and lost control to give us a scoring opportunity. But because he went down its given a foul. After God knows how long of this happening all over the country you would of thought there would be a bit more leniency towards it by now. If players on the pitch can get punished for diving why can't a goalkeeper for doing this.
The penalty was one of those decisions where you doubt yourself. Looked a clean tackle from the Park End and I thought I must have seen it wrong. Watched the video a few times and it looks to be a perfectly timed intervention and not from behind - so can't see why it's a pen.
