St Albans

[martin]

Well, that wasn't a result I wasn't expecting as I sipped my half time cup of tea.
Indeed, as the half time whistle went I would have struggled to remember many more comfortable 1 v 0 nil leads. Without playing particularly well ourselves we were pretty much cruising against a team who, up to that point, didnt really look likely to offer much at all in the way of an attacking threat.

My half time confidence was only enhanced by the opening stages of the second 45...we improved, cranked up a bit of pressure, played some decent football and a second goal began to feel like it was just a matter of time...but then, an incident which with hindsight seems like a crucial turning point. Danny Kedwell given a red card for what I assume the ref must have thought was an elbow during an aerial challenge. Now, I didnt have a clear view so cant give my verdict as such...but, been watching football long enough to know when a players protest looks like he knows a real injustice has occurred and I suspect any footage will probably show the ref has had a bit of a nightmare with that decision.

Having said that, you got to make the man advantage count and credit to St Albans as they basically did that. We came again in the latter stages but a couple of good saves from their keeper kept them ahead (and to be fair Ross made a great double save late on to prevent them getting a 3rd)

So, has the title hope been extinguished today? Well, the result today along with Wealdstones superb consistency suggests it probably has...but stranger things have happened. Certainly think that are chances have gone from fairly slim to highly unlikely after today's results. The more realistic target now is trying to ensure a top 3 finish to avoid the first round of play off games...

[PO6_Hawk]

Strange game, looked comfortable up until the sending off without seemingly getting out of first gear.
St Albans looked pretty poor and didn’t offer a lot.

The sending off, I was stood on the touch line directly in front of it and saw absolutely nothing to warrant a foul let alone a sending off!
It looked like a fair challenge which the St Albans player went down from. However the ref seemingly saw something despite many St Albans players including the lad involved telling the ref he got it wrong.
From then on it swung massively and they could have scored a few more.

That’s now 3 consecutive home games going down to 10 men. Whilst I don’t blame Kedwell it Walton for their bookings it’s something that has resulted in dropped points.

Thought the new left back looked good, as did Bailey and Taylor.
Where was Straker today btw?

I was wondering en route home and most of this evening...is it purely unlucky all these dropped points. Or are we maybe just not as good as we/people think?
In terms of experience and technical ability I think the team is great. Do they have the legs to see out busy schedules on heave pitches? Do they have the pace to cause defences problems? Do they have the composure or skills to play from the back under pressure? As the games go on I’m struggling to see it.

Looking like a home play off place is now the aim, or would a home game be a disadvantage?!

[baz]

Very disappointing! The sending off looks an appalling decision (hope Steve's got it on video so that there may be grounds for appeal) and had an impact, but the brutal truth is we're not very good at the moment. We're making defensive errors game after game, and whilst we win plenty of ball and have the lion's share of possession we don't make enough good use of it. Apart from the goal and the last few minutes we didn't really trouble St Albans. Dos said earlier in the season that his teams get stronger in the second half of the season, well I haven't seen that as yet and the general consensus seems to be we are getting worse.

Having got the negatives out of the way, we are still in a decent position and I'm fairly confident we can still make the play-offs which I believe was the objective at the start of the season and I've no doubt the wet and heavy pitches are not helping the slick passing and movement we witnessed at the start of the season. Hope to see a good reaction on Wednesday and avoid any more red cards.

COYH

[Cowplain-loovillefan]

‘Mugged off’ we were informed by Dos getting promotion to National Conference was easy with the budget he had available. We still have our conference national budget, we train three mornings per week yet our performances have not improved.

Conference national is a minimum requirement with this budget as quoted during meet the manager at the start of the season.

Do not let Derek down words are cheap, let’s see a team that will fight to achieve promotion not the indifference performances we see at home each week by a team of overpaid under performers.

[ade]

‘Mugged off’ we were informed by Dos getting promotion to National Conference was easy with the budget he had available. We still have our conference national budget, we train three mornings per week yet our performances have not improved.

Conference national is a minimum requirement with this budget as quoted during meet the manager at the start of the season.

Do not let Derek down words are cheap, let’s see a team that will fight to achieve promotion not the indifference performances we see at home each week by a team of overpaid under performers.

think you'll find Mr. Doswell said our target was promotion but that this would be the toughest conf south ever?

and yes we had a budget for a struggling nat league side which would be very good for conf south?

'easy' ?. must have been at a different forum pal....

I have no idea or interest in how much our players earn as it's absolutely none of my business....

So can't really help with your last point. suffice to say all I see is 100% effort.

[King of Spades]

So first off, the red card was easily one of the worst decisions I have seen. Everyone knew immediately it was wrong and im pretty sure even the referee did after a few seconds, but he was near enough showing the card as he blew his whistle so gave himself no thinking time then stuck to his decision

That aside, we have now only won 2 of the last 9 games and simply put that is nowhere near good enough. Not beating one of Chippenham, Concord, Dulwich or St Albans could be attributed to a bad day, 2 of them more of a hiccup, but ALL 4 of them?? That's a bigger problem showing somethings not quite right. They're all in that group fighting relegation and if you're going after a title you have to be beating those teams. It's not like any put in a top performance or anything, we just seem to have lost the ability to beat anyone. 3/12 points from those 4 games and only scoring 1 goal is just not good enough. When you add that to a lot of our home games and things like conceding late twice to a Braintree side that were getting thrashed every week and somethings missing
There are plenty of positives, its still only 5 defeats which is least in the league, unbeaten away still and we are capable of beating anyone on our day and have proven it. We're not far off but consistency has been lacking and we dont kill anyone off leading to far too many draws
Doswell will be well aware of it so we will see what steps he takes next to get the balance right

[Pompeyred]

well, its mostly been said but il add a couple of thoughts

first half was a run of the mill conference south game, we were easily the best team without doing all that much, they huffed and puffed and looked every inch a team who are scrapping relegation.we need to score more goals when we are on top of the game, we arent clinical enough in front of goal, the amount of drawn games testifies to this imo.

Second half, the sending off obviously changes the game significantly but they also did something to affect it that neither Dulwich or Weymouth did against our ten men, they went 3 at the back, giving them width from the full backs and an extra man in central midfield. We looked poor from this point in where we hadn't in the mentioned 2 games. The sending off was a joke, looking at the video Keds jumps with his arms to help him as everyone does, he doesn't really touch their lad who jumps up straight away. thew ref didn't give himself time to make a decision, he also didn't consult his linesman either. the red card was out before kedwells feet had hit the ground.

Despite looking poor we probably still had more chances than them, they scored from a corner... which was poor marking and a breakaway which was a good goal.

i loved our formation at the end by the way

Nicky Bailey as the lone defender, 4 midfielders and a front 4 of Alfie, Brad Tarbuck, Robson and Beckwith...... long live the 1 - 4 - 4 formation!!

The young lad on loan had a good debut which was a positive.

[Pompeyred]

just to top it all off Danny Kedwells appeal against the sending off has failed.

despite the lad Tom Bender who was involved stating in the appeal he actually bumped into Danny the FA have turned it down.

suspended now for 3 games.

[Highhawks]

That's a joke, the fa being right idiots, that's a complete farce, hope ayunga is fit to help with Rutherford and dennett to come into the match day squad for attacking options, is deacon getting nearer fitness, maybe Taylor can play up top

[montyles]

The sending off comes about because of the poor standard of refereeing in this league. I. cannot think of one game this season where the refereeing has been decent, or even consistent.