Drawn [ Sat 6th Aug ] v Needham Market, KO 3pm SLPDC HOME

[Three of Diamonds]

Every journey begins with the first step. You can see the inexperience in our team, it made a few mistakes but it kept trying. The back 4 looked OK I thought, midfield was held together by Hicks but needs to compete better for second balls and the forwards need to start with just holding up the ball and passing. Too many pretty flicks that were too easy to pick off.
Snedker was possibly world class.
It's a point on the board.

[AFCRD_Dan]

Based on that performance it’s going to be a long season, but a points a point. Against a better side we would have lost that.

No communication, no leaders, the players seemed to just walk around not knowing what to do at times, Sneds kept us in it once again.

Strange choice of sub as I would have taken off Jack Connor, who did nothing instead of Jenson. Ngwa looks promising, but he needs support.

[sussexdiamond]

Wearing my Mr Positive hat, at least we have more points on the board than at this stage last year.

[BartonRaz]

First 30 minutes or so I thought we were the better side and had either Cooper / Evan put their chances away we may have picked up 3 points there. From 30 minute onwards it felt like everybody except Snedker and Evan seemed to lose their way a little bit and we didn't manage to pull ourselves back together. Second half was a really dull affair, it has to be said. I also thought the early substitution of Cooper was a really odd one and on today's evidence we are clearly very light in that area.

Overall I think Needham will be disappointed with a point whereas for us, as others have said, it's a start and I certainly wasn't expecting a clean sheet so that's a positive. Albeit with any other goalkeeper it certainly wouldn't have been.

I can only really call it as I see it and to me the squad as a whole, compared to what we had 6 months ago, gives the impression that the budget has been slashed, which I don't believe is the case.

[davealbon]

I think more like a case of only being at 50-75% of the weekly budget at present.

[mattparker]

Does anyone know today’s attendance?

[fentiger79]

Wasn’t sure what to expect today but my assessment is

Sneds is a top top quality keeper

Thought Courtney at left back and Evan are very promising. Paddy doesn’t seem happy. Midfield was a bit average as a whole and the attack was weak but, I though for the first game it was pretty much ok. Yes, they had some good chances but we did hit the post and miss an open goal. Additions most definitely needed especially around the target man position. The lad from cobblers was a bit lost and owned by their centre half.

[Olly]

Does anyone know today’s attendance?

SL website says 369, so a bit low, but that's what I expect our average to be this season, certainly don't see a playoff push this year, I'd take a lower mid table finish, I just want to see us make this a season for the club to build upon for the future and for Burge to build something long term.

Edit: Twitter says 388.

[AFCRD_Dan]

Does anyone know today’s attendance?

Official Twitter account said 388

[bozzer]

For a start I will take that as a result, as people have said Sneds made some great saves but it was great to have a clean sheet, Evan was class and Courtney looks promising. Miguel also looks a great prospect. I thought Jessie was slightly off his usual game. Cooper looked decent too, for a first competitive fixture for this lot as a team it is certainly something to build on.
As the players improve and develop we will only get better, add a couple of additions and Fossen back and I’m happy where we are.