[ Sat 29th Sep ] v St Ives Town, KO 3pm ESCP HOME

[Dazzler]

Just to confirm for all those that want to see the early West Ham v Man Utd game, that the turnstiles will be open from Midday for access through to the Bar. And the Burger Monster will also have the hot food available from Midday as well.



We currently have 2 TV's in the Bar, but plan to add a couple more shortly as well as sorting better sound etc.. so bear with us on that.

[Three of Diamonds]

Bluddy hell, how many tellies do we need?

[Dazzler]

Bluddy hell, how many tellies do we need?

As many as we get donated :-)

[YoungDiamond]

Wrong tactics again. Ben Diamond is a striker not a right midfielder who spent most of the first half covering our right back. First half was dreadful, no tempo or creativity. Second half was an improvement and we looked more likely to score but we have to be beating poor sides like St Ives at home if we want to do anything in this league. The back 4 looks nervous playing out the back which results in us hitting it long every time to Bowen or Shanks who seemed to flick the ball on to no-one. We need to get back to winning ways in the league ASAP.

[Diamond88]

Totally agree why have a right back on the bench and plays hicks makes no sense at all,diamond looks fed up playing out on the right just play players in there position instead of trying to just accomadate certain players just to get them in the team. st Ives are a poor team and all I hear is at least we didn't lose!

[BartonRaz]

The style of play today was dreadful. We banged it up in the air again and again and again and again, almost certainly as a result of playing two targetmen together. The fact we’re forcing Ben Diamond to play out of position to accommodate this ‘style’ is ridiculous. We’re making one of our better players totally ineffective - so the opposition don’t have to! Madness.

You have to start wondering where the next 3 points are coming from.

[Olly]

Should have seen a 0-0 coming, after today's game, St Ives are now the team with the fewest goals for AND against, only 10 goals in 8 games

I wouldn't have said St Ives were a bad team though, they were very solid defensively and are sitting in 8th, they were just very negative in their tactics, you would have thought going away to a team 8 places below them in the table, they would have at least have been a little bit more ambitious, but it was obvious they were happy with a 0-0 and we unfortunately didn't have what it took to break them down which is the story of our season so far.

I was pleased though with how we improved in the second half and at least gave it a good go after what must have been one of the dullest first halves I've seen in a long time.

[Three Nips]

Totally agree why have a right back on the bench and plays hicks makes no sense at all,diamond looks fed up playing out on the right just play players in there position instead of trying to just accomadate certain players just to get them in the team. st Ives are a poor team and all I hear is at least we didn't lose!

I imagine it's something to do with the 'don't train, don't play' policy'.

Which I fully respect.

However, watching us today was akin to watching paint dry.

Personally, I don't think we've shown our true colours until the end of October in the last 4 or so seasons, so I'll reserve judgement until then.

Whether that is down to reactive rather than proactive management (which at this moment in time I would lean towards the former as we have yet again signed a former player; a tad tedious now) is up for discussion.

If Rogers plays, we have 2 x wide players in the squad and given I'd trust my Great Nan to operate better in a defensive capacity than him, we can't contemplate playing the 3-5-2 that was successful last year.

With the 2 wide players we have (Shawn Richards not counted as he is massively unreliable in both productivity and availability), we have to go back to a standard 4-4-2 with Westbrook and Farrell in the middle of the park and Bowen & Diamond up top.

[sussexdiamond]

Shame Reynolds was unavailable. IMO our strongest XI are, Heath, Reynolds, Dolman, Punter,Brown. Dean, Farrell, Westbrook, Gyasi, Diamond & Bowen. Yesterday I thought Sam Brown had his best game so far this season and putting Farrell on the bench had the desired effect. Can we assume we have seen last of Hopkins and Lobjoit, Gilchrist and Richards.?

[Pressman]

Hopkins and Lobjoit have returned to their parent clubs but I don't know about Gilchrist and Richards.

Interviewing Peaksy after the game he gave his usual honest opinion - happier with the second half performance but unhappy with what we did in the final third.

I agree we just weren't at the races yesterday and didn't try anything different. A long range shot maybe? I also agree that Ben Diamond would be better playing up front or at least in the hole behind Jack Bowen who I thought was a real class act yesterday and my MOM.