[ Tue 10th Apr ] v Bedford Town, KO 7:45pm ESE HOME

[therushden]

Robins tends to score a hat trick or nothing. I'd say that's inflated his stats.
Did we have another striker on the bench last night, disappointed in peaks if we did and he wasn't put on.

[Trek]

Our strikers seem to be getting a hammering on this board, however, I feel that this is being caused by a lack of creativity and quality of service to them. Crosses from wide were once again generally very poor and Spencer Weir-Daley is having no real goal scoring opportunities and living on scraps because we aren’t playing to his strengths and he hasn’t become a poor striker overnight as his record at higher level speaks for itself. Ryan Robbins, because he’s not starting, seems to be very frustrated by the time he makes an appearance. Tom Lorraine needs to be rested as he looks spent and Ben Farrell must start this Saturday, in place of Joe Curtis, partnering Ross Oulton in midfield who last evening showed our only goal scoring threat.

[sussexdiamond]

Listening on RD the first half seemed as though we had the best chances to score but second half more huff and puff with not much end result.
Our long throws,corners and free kicks continue to yield very little and crosses into the box always seem to be cut out. I realise some credit should be given to opposing defenders but we do struggle to get to the byline and put in a decent cross.

Our best free kick expert is Dolman but he does not seem to take them anymore.

John Dean should be given a starting chance, he cant be worse than anyone else at present. How much longer do we have to wait for Ben Diamonds return and has Farrell gone on honeymoon with his sister?

At least last night we did not concede and we were playing the only team to have won their previous four games.

There are still some big clashes to come and points will be dropped.
Beacons have yet to play Hayes and Dunstable at home.
Cambridge have Diamonds, Dunstable and CSP
Dunstable have us away.

Hartley are the only ones with no big games.

A big factor for Beaconsfield and Cambridge will be how they cope with seven games in 15 days.

Worse case scenario we get two home games in the play offs?

[Trek]

I touched on the poor quality of crossing in my previous post. Our wide players are always trying to hit the far post and crosses in the second half were either sailing over for goal kicks, claimed by the keeper or defended by their ‘man mountain’ centre half Steve Gentle (ex St Ives) and they need to get to the byline more and cut back the ball to the penalty spot. Perhaps with Farrell’s return on Saturday this will be worked on?

[BartonRaz]

I touched on the poor quality of crossing in my previous post. Our wide players are always trying to hit the far post and crosses in the second half were either sailing over for goal kicks, claimed by the keeper or defended by their ‘man mountain’ centre half Steve Gentle (ex St Ives) and they need to get to the byline more and cut back the ball to the penalty spot. Perhaps with Farrell’s return on Saturday this will be worked on?

There may be some truth regarding the issue of creativity from wide, but I don't see that as a major problem personally. We created plenty of opportunities yesterday but our strikers have been missing straightforward opportunities for weeks. Of the two that started last night one appears to be snatching at everything and the other has always needed 5/6 chances to score a goal.

[gibston]

Our strikers seem to be getting a hammering on this board, however, I feel that this is being caused by a lack of creativity and quality of service to them. Crosses from wide were once again generally very poor and Spencer Weir-Daley is having no real goal scoring opportunities and living on scraps because we aren’t playing to his strengths and he hasn’t become a poor striker overnight as his record at higher level speaks for itself. Ryan Robbins, because he’s not starting, seems to be very frustrated by the time he makes an appearance. Tom Lorraine needs to be rested as he looks spent and Ben Farrell must start this Saturday, in place of Joe Curtis, partnering Ross Oulton in midfield who last evening showed our only goal scoring threat.

Totally agree with this! Both wing backs play far to deep aswell imo,both need to play another 10-20 yards higher for me,every time back 3 in pocession the option is play the ball sideways or it gets lumped to a striker!! its easy to criticise SWD but chasing poor balls down the channels is not his game,its not easy working off shanks because i dont think anyone in the ground knows where it will end up & thats if he wins a header!!! But for me the delivery from wide areas & set pieces has been poor for most of the season,last night we got in some good areas but our decision making was poor. Ben farrell in for JC for me & cannot wait for Ben Diamond to return!! But like i said the other day keep the faith,5 to go & automatic still in our hands,alittle bit of luck needed & to take our chances & fingers crossed its enough to take us up.

[Olly]

Our strikers seem to be getting a hammering on this board, however, I feel that this is being caused by a lack of creativity and quality of service to them. Crosses from wide were once again generally very poor and Spencer Weir-Daley is having no real goal scoring opportunities and living on scraps because we aren’t playing to his strengths and he hasn’t become a poor striker overnight as his record at higher level speaks for itself. Ryan Robbins, because he’s not starting, seems to be very frustrated by the time he makes an appearance. Tom Lorraine needs to be rested as he looks spent and Ben Farrell must start this Saturday, in place of Joe Curtis, partnering Ross Oulton in midfield who last evening showed our only goal scoring threat.

It is a fair point to say that the service for the strikers hasn't been great, the number of long balls toward SWD, a relatively short player, that of course he couldn't get to, was ridiculous and it's like we're just giving the opposing defence a heading training session with the amount of long balls that go absolutely nowhere, why do we persist with this, I've lost count of the number of times this season we've tried the long ball game and it's not paid off.

And where is Ben Diamond again, is there any chance he'll be back on Saturday?

[AFCRD_Dan]

I personally think that Bedford came for the draw, they offered very little going forward. Apparently they had an ex-pro in their side, no idea who though.

Their fans were rowdy as always, but we were in good voice too.

I think we were just extremely unlucky, on another day we may have scored a couple. Initially I wasn't impressed with Spencer Weir-Daley, but reading some of the previous comments I agree that he had poor service.
As for Ryan Robbins I can see why he appears frustrated. Peaksy signed SWD he lost his place as a result, he can either be amazing by scoring a hat-trick, or he's fairly anonymous, or he wants to fight the opposition!!

I think the fact he's been quiet on Twitter is very telling, as he always tweets about the game afterwards, nothing about last nights result. I'd like to see him given another chance on Saturday, maybe give Tom a rest.

We must get a result on Saturday, if we don't then I'll start to worry!

[sussexdiamond]

Once we start scoring again I think it will open the floodgates and someone is going to get a whalloping. Just a matter of WHEN.

[MarkH]