1-0

Apologies...still 1-0

2-1

4-1

Disappointing, safe journey home everyone

Bad time to be playing Hemel as they and Tonbridge are the only 2 unbeaten teams in the league.

But after playing 6 games tonight we are mid table, above well fancied teams Bath, Maidstone, Chelmsford, and St Albans who've also played 6, and above Aveley who've played 7, so overall a very pleasing sound start to the season.

you mean us and one other Bexlyheath? 

Lets wait for that thin line of 10 games played before casting despondency upon the season Mark. And remember, we have a game in hand albeit a toughie. And would agree, it's not the greatest of starts, but two wins from six games is survival form.

-- Edited by bexleylion on Monday 2nd of September 2024 10:47:25 PM

Poor defending and look out of depth up front. With the budget we have (one of the lowest in league), I suppose we cant expect much more. Early days but with this squad and we had three or four clear cut chances, but we need another attacking midfielder or striker imo. Not enough up top.

I was at Hemel this evening. The score was 4-2 but in my eyes that score didnt reflect the balance of play. We had at least 3 clear chances in the first half. All of those chances were on target and their keeper pulled of two great saves and a wonder save to keep his team at 1-0. One of the saves even the Welling fans behind the goal praised him for.
Hemel defended their 18 yard box really well for most of the game but we seemed to be lacking numbers when defending ours. For a couple of their goals we seemed to lose the ball whilst attacking in their goal then 30 seconds later picking the ball out of our net. So frustrating to say the least. We played some nice football tonight even a blind man will tell you that but as Rod Stringer said we have a soft underbelly. (Message for Anointed Get nasty mate. You are 6ft 5 or 6. A big athletic lump. Start using your physique. Make the CB life a nightmare. Do it or this league will eat you up)
Overall I cannot say we deserved that score line but we really need to harden up and be horrible to play against
Ref was quite good tonight. Very even handed.

PS. Good luck to Polo and his wife who I understand are off to live in Dubai. Im sure Polo will be the first and probably only member of the WUSA Dubai branch.

Two disappointing results yes but its a marathon not a sprint. Sure now things are settling and transfer window shut well start to see loan additions to fill in the gaps.

I think this is the 1st time to an extent I have disagreed with Rod's assessment. I think he was watching a different game last night. Yes I agree we started brightly and were playing the better football but as it got wetter Hemel got better.

2nd half we again started the brighter and deserved our equaliser but the half turned into a cup tie for me. End to end with some industrial tackles flying in from both teams but given the wet conditions I think the referee was good to let a lot go for both teams and let the game flow which for a neutral made for an interesting entertaining game. In the end though I did feel Hemel deserved to win the game. They were bigger and stronger and were winning the 2nd balls. Fortunately our late 2nd goal reduced the goal difference.

In our defence though, forgive the pun, we have lost our right full back and now 3 left backs. Playing Burchell right and Wells left, for most of the match yesterday out of position didn't help our cause. I would note when everyone is fit our defence is very strong and I think it will do well this season. So too early to press the panic button just yet. I have been concerned with the forward line and if we will score enough goals. I have to disagree about Martell Taylor-Crossdale though. In fact I voted for him as player of the month. I missed Bath away and Chesham at home, though I've seen the highlights and he was stupid to get himself sent off against Chesham, but in the 4 games I've seen he scored a beauty of a goal to win the match against Aveley, He was one of the best players against Farnborough along with Chuckwu and Martin. He scored a goal at Hornchurch which I felt wasn't offside and should have stood. I do agree he probably isn't a centre forward but wide with Anointed in the centre and Charlie Pegrum the other side, who I thought was player of the match on his debut last night, could be formidable.

Be interesting to ask Jimmy who he doesn't rate as I believe it's too early to draw conclusions. P6 W2 D1 L3 is a reasonable start and certainly mid table form. It could easily be W3 D1 L2 as I thought we should have and could have won at Hornchurch plus the whole football world agree we were robbed of a penalty away at Bath. As Rod says we have a lot of injuries and a few walking wounded at the moment. I certainly don't think it's all doom and gloom.

Verdict: Onwards and upwards to the next match

Yep 18th

Like many I was perplexed when I saw the starting XI on Monday night and even more so when I saw the formation..?! We conceded 2 goals in the first 4 matches and, Chesham apart, our back three/five had performed well individually and collectively yet, with one of them out injured, we change the positions of three of the remaining four and introduce another player who was injured pre season and hadn't played a competitive minute all season..?!

Having said all that, one wonder strike apart, we dominated for twenty minutes but, as in other games, missed gilt edged chances to score which we could or rather should have taken. With one out and out forward the ball needs to stick and we need to take the pressure off the defence but that didn't happen. When Anointed came on he asked more questions of the Hemel defence and brought his team mates into the game. He now has two goals in three and a half league games and he won't be doing too badly if he maintains that ratio.

It's still very early in the season and I trust that Rod, Kevin and Co will get things right (budget and injuries permitting) and the Orient lad certainly looked promising on Monday night. We need a bit of patience and hopefully we will get consistently better results and performances as the season progresses.

Up the Wings!

Welcome back Wingnut 2. Keep those posts coming Gavin.

If the Wings...