1992/3 was worse

It depends how you judge the games. Results wise 4 losses from 4 games tells a story. But performance wise we deserved at least 2 draws from these 4 games. After the Truro shambles we then narrowly lost our following 3 games by just one goal, so we are not a disaster, we just need to score more.

I look at it as we are a brand new team, so like a promoted team, trying to quickly find out what standard we need to play to be successful, as we don't have the experience advantage that settled teams have over us, so we are playing catch up. My hope is that it doesnt take us so long that we fall too far behind to be able to catch up, ie Cheshunt last season, only 2 wins from their first 12 games, great second half season, but by then it was too late for them. But Weymouth had an equally bad start, and saved themselves.

Our pre-season games showed we were competitive all over the pitch, but don't yet have anyone who stands out in attack. That carried on into the league. I think Danny may end up having to find the answer to the striking issue from within the squad, playing someone unexpected there. Antony did a great job covering defence position, so playing players in unexpected positions often works, until we can get a striker in. But David Kamara is learning how to step up from youth football to mens' football, as first team games are quicker than he is used to, so he will learn to play quicker, and could still be the answer. The table is odd though, we have got 3 goals in 4 games, but 6 of the top 10 teams have only scored 5 goals. It is a really competitive league, after 4 games only (double checks the name!) Chelmsford are unbeaten.

Wallop, I was asked about statistics, so I answered with statistics. I don't know for sure what I'd have done differently as I didn't watch the match, but I listened to Nigel and Mark's commentary which always gives a really reliable view of the match, and it sounds as if Taunton sat back to hold onto the lead. I don't know if we had just one up front today, if so when they sat back for a draw I'd have then played two up front, as asking one striker to single handedly taken on a defence is a big ask. It sounds as if David often had two defenders to deal with, so another striker takes some of the defensive attention away from David. If we already had two up front I'd have added a third.

The penalty taker is a loose end to fix, we'd have two draws if we'd scored both our penalties, David Kamara said in an interview he loves to take penalties, I'd like to see him given a chance with one, as he must have penalty taking experience from his youth games, whereas our more experienced players won't have penalty taking experience.

One of our best performances last season was right at the end against Hampton, we won 3 - 0 with tons of young players, and it would be good if our current team could watch the highlights of the game, as we pushed up in numbers, giving each other tons of options, pressing the opposition back into their half, just say play like that. We have got Havant at home next, I fancy our chances, their inexperienced manager seems grim and uninspiring, and they did badly under him last season, totally collapsing, and carried on doing badly with him this season.

Public statements don't always say the full picture. My total outsiders guess is the new manager will have found it awkward having the previous manager still involved, so behind the scenes will have quietly asked the club to cut ties with the previous manager.

They say don't change a winning formula, but we are in an odd situation where we shouldnt change our losing formula too much. We are a new team, in the last 3 games let in a total of 4 goals, so we are already fine defensively. Steve Lovell's kicked off a season 0 - 3, 1 - 4, 0 - 5, 2 - 1, 2 - 2, 0 - 6 and 0 - 3, so our new team starting off losing recent games by just 1 goal is, in the scale of things, fine. Another team I follow is West Ham, their manager sticks to a 4 2 3 1 formation, which I never liked, it is mainly 6 in defence, only 4 in attack, so good defensively, but hard to score. It hasn't worked for West Ham, as the 1 striker is so isolated, and the manager tells players to sit back and defend and hope to hit them on the break, and is happy with only 30% possession, and to only attack in the last 10 minutes, and fans quite rightly hate that. Danny mentioned this is his preferred formation, so for reasons I mentioned I had doubts, but unlike Moyes he has been successful with this formation, and his 3 top 8 finishes in a row show he knows how to make it work. But I think one needs to lay out a team reflecting ones strengths. I dont think we have a striker who can singlehandedly take on all the opposition defence. David was through on goal the other day, with 2 defenders on him, and no one to pass to after he had drawn the defenders to him. So it may be better if we play 2 up front, playing 4 1 3 2, as when we just played Manny last season as a sole holding midfielder that change worked perfectly, and that freed up a player to play in attack.

But fk it, Wallop, you were there yesterday, so are better placed than me to assess yesterday's game, so Wallop and anyone else who was there, what could we have done to improve our performance on the day?

Wallop wrote:

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That is why they have got rid of him.....

www.havantandwaterloovillefc.co.uk/chairman-statement-paul-doswell/

I would have settled for a point away at Chelmsford.
In all fairness, would have settled for one at home the other night.

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 Paul Doswell was Director of Football not manager,the manager is Jamie Collins

The highlights are up on Taunton's site, once again we had around 8 shots, and normally at least 1 or 2 would go in, so just this weird thing of us defending well, creating lots of chances, and losing. I was joking with my son that football is mad, we lose when we play well, so we will have to play badly, and then we will win! Their goal was caused by Taofiq not clearing a long ball, and the silly mistakes we make are a drag, but the guys are getting sharper and making less of those mistakes. That point about having an experienced striker is a good one, Stefan was great at holding the ball and laying it off to other players and younger strikers could learn a lot from watching him do that.

Where was Kassarate on Saturday. I believe his 2 yellow card sending off does not kick in until the coming Saturday. Is he not in favour or is there hianother reason?

Another case of "what might have been" on Saturday. As in the previous two games there was lots of promise and encouraging signs but, ultimately, we have 0 points out of 12 and are bottom of the league and we need to turn that around and quickly!

We must have had 75% of the possession on Saturday but didn't do enough with it. Tanga was the big threat first half but they doubled and sometimes trebled up on him to nullify that threat. Only when White came on did we have threats on both sides and were able to stretch them. Byrd looked far more comfortable at centre half but he was under very little pressure so it's hard to gauge. We have conceded in every game so far this season and I'm not convinced that it's not just a centre forward we need....

I keep reading how their keeper was brilliant and, without him, the outcome would have been different...?? From memory he made one very good save from Burchall, another chance in the second half simply hit him and most people on this forum would have saved the penalty. With three quarters of the possession we could and, quite frankly should, have tested him more. At least we have a team that cares and you can see that they are incredibly frustrated at the end of the game like all of us! Hard work and committment should be a given but that hasn't always been the case but we can see this squad and management team clearly have it.

Maybe it will just take that one result to kick start our season but it needs to come quickly...

Verdict: Frustration 

There were 8 goals scored spread across 5 games in the league on Saturday that were scored by ex welling players.
You've let me down jimmie by not noticing that.

To make up for that I give an advance stat for the Havant game, 95% certainty Welling win 2 - 0, 5% certainty we win 3 - 0. 100% we won't lose, I am so certain I stake my reputation as statswanker on it. Then I'll go to watch the Tonbridge match, and hope Stefan is playing for them, as like Wallop I miss having that loose cannon in attack! And it would be such fun to see him play against us. He scored for them at the weekend, so hopefully will play on Monday. Though knowing Stefan and his red mist, maybe not play for too long...

Last season Warren unexpectedly partially turned things round at the end of the season by playing Manny as a holding midfielder, which really tightened us at the back. Manny sometimes made mistakes on the ball, but as a holding midfielder that wasnt too serious, as he had defenders behind him to cover him. I wonder if Taofiq would be better off playing that same holding midfielder role, as he also makes mistakes, and made a total mess for the goal against Taunton, just as he had been dodgy in pre-season games. But now the season is started Danny can see what our players are like in high intensity games, and who is up to it and who isn't.