[ Sat 20th Feb ] v Kings Langley, KO 3pm SL1DC HOME

[diamondsteve]

I didn't go today, listened to radio diamonds. I feel really annoyed that the players didn't create enough as last Saturday and Tuesday when I went to watch. How can that happen?? Why didn't hall and claud have a good game like previous? Many questions but..... there is a long way to go yet ! Let others have the pressure. Let's focus on potters bar game . And forget the other teams for a few weeks. 3 points next that's all we need to think about. Kings L and Egham will drop points! Like egham did today!
We go on a winning run after a lose don't we

pigman calm down

[Olly]

This is the first time in years I've come home from a game being angry. It was a pathetic performance and we didn't deserve anything. It's bad that we lost but the manner in which we lost was even worse. Thought the ref generally had a good game today, think we might have had a case for their number 6 seeing red though. I'm particularly disappointed in our complete inability to adapt. Playing out from the back wasn't working so what did we do? We continued to do it right until the final whistle. They were bossing the midfield because they had more players in that area so what did we do? We kept the same formation and continued to lose the midfield battle. Stevenson needs to be put on the bench on Saturday to kick him up the arse after 2 sub-par performances in a row. Hoban was awful - once again he must've completed 10% of his attempted passes, completed 10% of his attempted dribbles. It just isn't good enough and I'm getting increasingly frustrated with him. And what's the point in bringing Parsons off the bench with 5 minutes to go? What is he able to do in that time? It's completely pointless.

Agree with most of that, I'm not sure I can remember an AFC Diamonds game where we've created so little, we didn't even come close to a half chance in front of goal, let alone a clear cut chance at goal, credit to KL for completely shutting us out in that regard and deserving 3 points, even if they have some cynical, fouling, whining twats in their team. The subs weren't great, no, I thought maybe we could have even brought on Richards at HT really, even if he didn't do much when he did finally come on. Stevenson just doesn't work hard enough, he's clearly a quality player for this level, but needs a kick up the backside, benching him might be a good idea to see whether he's willing to work hard for his place in the team, hope Shariff is better soon to increase competition up front. And yeah, referee was definitely one of the better refs we've seen at this level, he probably could have dished out a few more cards, but other than that much better than the usual I thought.

We'll bounce back for sure, we always do and I trust us to keep picking up the points against the lesser sides, but what was a decent place at the top of the table now has become an extremely precarious place at the top of the table, especially with Egham's games in hand, it's an exciting position to be in knowing that we almost certainly will take at least a playoff place at this point, but gonna need another one of our strong finishing runs to get automatic promotion, I'd worry about our record in big games if it came to the playoffs.

[SouthRushdenJFC]

I haven't seen many games this season but it seemed to me that a couple of players didn't turn up today.

Kings Langley hunted in packs with two, three and sometimes four players round the bal not giving us time to settle on the ball.

The pitch was really heavy as well, perhaps playing on pitches like that you need to change tactics, push the wingers up high and have the ball delivered up field quickly. It won't be pretty but it will keep the ball in the danger area.

[diamondsteve]

Not worried about Egham at the moment , they let too many goals in , like today again , but not having enough to score more than Uxbridge. With the back log of games they have too I just see it being too hard for them also the April for them is tough to get maximum points every game. Csp have lost it . St Ives not enough talent. So it's just us and kings L! I'd take that for sure at this stage of the season.

[Pigman]

pigman calm down

I think you've mixed my post up with someone else's, I'm quite calm I assure you!

We can still do it, of course we can, but today's performance has made it far harder - today for me, as I said before the game, was a must not lose match!

We've now given the upper hand to the chasing pack - we've now got to respond next Saturday !

I've been around far too long and seen things change in the matter of two or three games to lose faith now - but to ignore the fact that that wasn't good enough would be foolish!

[BartonRaz]

Easy to be seriously cheesed off after that, but it's worth remembering that we were playing 2nd in the table and a team that (now) have a better playing record than us. We can't expect to steamroller teams week in week out and they're an extremely well organised young team. The start of the game literally couldn't have been any worse given that we already know from past encounters how willing and able Kings Langley are to frustrate and time waste.

Having said that, christ we were awful. Our passing lacked any conviction and was as bad as i've ever seen it. There was even a couple of cases where effort could legitimately be questioned IMO. Not sure what the onlooking Darren Collins would have made of our forward play.

I'm also in the camp that after today I don't believe we can be considered favourites given our remaining games. It'll be an interesting end to the season though. One thing's for sure, we're going to need to address our recent inconsistent displays as 20 points from the last 36 available is not title winning form, or play-off winning form for that matter.

[Trek]

Andy Peaks was spot on in his recent tweet referring to 'a lack of quality'. How we could have gone from our dominant performance on Tuesday evening to that display this afternoon beggar's belief? I felt pitch conditions didn't suit us. Credit must, however, be given to Kings Langley for coming with a game plan and producing a first class away performance aided by us conceding that very early goal which gave them a great platform. There was no build up from us from the back or through midfield and aimless aerial balls to Stevo were meat and drink to their number 5. We missed Bunting big time today.

The team need to put today behind them and get three points next Saturday at Potters Bar. Whilst Kings Langley, Egham and Royston, if they win all their games in hand, can jump above us we all know that this is unlikely to happen. Our games at Royston and Egham will now be very important and I'm hopeful that we can produce away performances such as we witnessed by Kings Langley this afternoon.

[Easton Diamond]

Admittedly it was a very disappointing day today, a totally out of sorts performance from most players. Hall and Stevenson never got going at all, whilst we really did miss a fully firing Liam Dolman too. Jack Ashton was MOTM for me hands down, looks like he’s slowly returning to his pre-injury self.

Kings Langley stifled our threat well, did a real job on us particularly in that second half and should probably have won by more. Finlay made a wonderful save at 0-1 to keep us in the match and how their striker fired that chance over near the end I’ll never know. We will have our off days just like anyone else of course; it’s how you respond that matters. Hopefully it will be in positive fashion. Every match from here on in really is like a cup final isn’t it!

With regards to the title race itself, not that many people have mentioned Royston who have real promotion aspirations of their own. Only one defeat in the last eight matches for them I believe (in their last eight away games, they’ve won five and drawn three). It’ll be interesting to see how they get on at Egham on Tuesday night. There’s simply no way to predict what will happen at this stage of the season. Who could have foreseen Holbeach’s utter capitulation last time around? To me this league really is just too close to call. It’s certainly exciting and it looks like it’ll go right down to the wire!

[BartonRaz]

If you're feeling a bit miserable after yesterday's defeat, don't look at Kings Langley's remaining fixtures.

[corby diamond]

If you're feeling a bit miserable after yesterday's defeat, don't look at Kings Langley's remaining fixtures.

If Kings Langley win all their remaining fixtures and others slip up, then regardless of what happened at their place hats off to them! Don't think anyone could say it wouldn't be deserved.