City v. Truro

I agree with Stillmans post. We had to endure some pretty dire afternoons under previous managements. Owers made some improvement and JG is definitely moving City in the right direction. I take it as a positive that while the squad adapts to JGs style they have at least been difficult to beat. This transition period could have resulted in narrow defeats and us being close to the relegation zone.

I agree with Joe and others who support what Jerry is doing. I got really fed up with the huge clearance kicks under Owers, when the ball just got to the opposition centre-half, and he hoofed it back again towards us. Of course, it would be good to score more goals, but it was only a couple of weeks ago that we could have scored 6 or 7 at the great win at Chippenham. I thought that Weston-super-Mud looked good, and we looked not so good that day, but yesterday Truro were not great at all, and we played really well, apart from scoring. Keep it going, Jerry. I'm enjoying the games now.

Seconded

Just to make it clear, I had no reservations about the performances, or entertaining football, we produced under Owers. It was inconsistent, but we've been like that for years. He did a good job and, like Jerry, had a decent record with player recruitment.

I just don't think players, or management, should cop flack for the performance yesterday. The result is frustrating but I genuinely think we played some nice, positive football.

Jon_BOA wrote:

As much as I am fed up at the moment, I do love how this has reminded me that you can show a group of people the same game and get as many different opinions as you have people. Football might frustrate sometimes but God it's good!

Have to agree with Jon - as can be seen from Jerry Gill's post match interview:
http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bath-city-manager-jerry-gill-1023229
he thought yesterday's performance was 'outstanding' and that Nat Jarvis' was 'terrific'. Well yes we did play well in spells and Jarvis as usual did a lot of running but I am not sure I would particularly agree with either of those adjectives!

I think stillmanjunior's comparison of Gary Owers' early results with Jerry Gill's is a little unfair. Owers took over an out of form team (I think I am right in saying that they had lost 8 of their previous 11 games including 5 in a row) that was almost certainly heading for relegation whereas Gill took over a team that had turned round a disastrous start to the season and, after the win at Hungerford, had got into the play-off zone. However well we may have played since - and the win at Chippenham has to be viewed in the context of the games surrounding it - it is hard to view what has happened since as anything other than a downward spiral.

The fact that we are still only 7 points off the play-offs makes our failure to pick up more than 3 points from the 4 home games in December and January even more frustrating.

I enjoyed Saturday's performance even though it was frustrating, of course, to see another 0-0. Interestingly, a few people who do not come regularly also enjoyed it. We were playing a good team in Truro that we contained to a couple of shots. This was not making Bognor Regis look dangerous as we did a couple of weeks ago. Towards the end of the first half, I felt very relieved to come in at 0-0. The end of the second half, I thought they were probably relieved to get to the final whistle at 0-0.

The issue we have - and it's not Jerry's fault but an issue we have had for a long time - is having to rely on loan players. I would love to see Stearn after a week or two of training and playing with Tom Smith but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. We saw Smith, Pearce and Opi only play together a couple of games and we can say the same about other talented loan players we have had. To a certain extent, the strikers' issue is due to the same issue.

I wasn't there but I think that, at the Meet The Manager evening, Jerry said that he wants to - long-term , I am sure - concentrate more on the U21/development players and bring them through. To me, this is answer in the long-term.

Marc Monitor wrote:
I wasn't there but I think that, at the Meet The Manager evening, Jerry said that he wants to - long-term , I am sure - concentrate more on the U21/development players and bring them through. To me, this is answer in the long-term.

Meet the Manager evening is viewable in the 'club' section on romans on demand site

Here's a question for the stat counters - what is the highest number of players that we've got through in a single season? We can't be too far off that now, surely? I'm not sure that I'd recognise half the faces off the preseason team photo any more!

We've used 36 this season, but that includes SPC where Bird, Drew, Ollis, Pullman, Saunders and McNulty made their only outings.

We used 37 in 2015/16, again with SPC, and again with two permanent managers.

I would hazard a guess that 47/48 used in the Pridham 2001/02 season would be the most.

Roy D Hacksaw wrote:I'm not sure that I'd recognise half the faces off the preseason team photo any more!

It's an age thing

stillmanjunior wrote:I would hazard a guess that 47/48 used in the Pridham 2001/02 season would be the most.

Surely we won't surpass that epic season's total

That must have been one of the lowest league positions of the last 20 years?