Banbury 1 City lucky- to-get 0

Quick, sharp, clever, inventive, confident, yes City fans were out in force for this one and in good mood. Good first 15 mins when we looked bright and forced several corners. A shot on goal would surely come at some stage. No, at no stage did it come. A poor a City performance I struggle to remember, perhaps East Thurrock, or Harlow or Potters Bar hmm common denominator,  the FA Cup the 1st Round of which we won't grace for at least 11 years now. There are kids in primary school that don't know City have been that far !

Banbury fully deserved their win, skilful, hard working  certainly looked the step 2 team. After that start we became the 1 dimensional launch to Cooke tactics, occasionally found Frear before he was doubled up. Even when it became desperate nothing happened. How good is their keeper at shot stopping? WE  SHALL NEVER KNOW COS WE DIDNT HAVE ONE !!!

Oh City, we came in numbers, but you didn't turn up and you let us down, that is the most damning thing I can say of my team today.

There was a similar lack of enthusiasm for City's efforts from the usually "can always find something positive" BCR commentary.  

I am wondering if all the coaching and systems is stifling the natural talent of the players?    
Robotic play, like England v Hungary, will not win games...flair does;  see MotD tonight, Mo Salah WOW!    

Agree with all of that Jerry. The fans had 0 to cheer about.

No heart no fight no skill no team spirit

Very miserable performance

As dismal a match for City as I can remember for a long time. I headed out immediately at the final whistle but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that some fans made their feelings heard about what they had witnessed. Hopefully those Board members present will agree with the loyal fans who travelled that such a performance is unacceptable and will seek reassurances that measures will be taken to rectify it.

The person I feel really sorry for tonight is Bob Chester. He has single handedly raised countless thousands of pounds for the Club, helping the Board to provide various managers with a competitive playing budget. Today was the opportunity for the team to help pay back some of the effort by getting us into the stage of the competition where the prize money, sponsorship deals and possible tv fees can make all the difference to a season’s finances and even beyond.

I thought Banbury were excellent today (and didn’t need to waste so much time) - hopefully they get the likes of Portsmouth or Sunderland next to underline what today’s performance has cost us.

I am always concerned when I see a team huddle before the game. It rarely results in a more cohesive performance. In fact the opposite.

Yes it was truly awful. Agree with all these comments.

Half hearted and toothless.

Lots of anger post match.

Grim indeed.

The saddest thing for me is that I expected defeat in the light of recent performances. Something bad is happening. We have been on a roll with crowds increasing and a talented manager with a competitive budget. Two great seasons in the play offs and the fans are ready for a further push towards the top of the league. This season we have been served a golden route through to the first round, and who knows beyond that. Yeovil were always referred to as a ‘cup’ side, but they made it in the league as well. We have not had that ‘cup’ label, but we are not appearing to be a league side either. Despite all the optimism and excitement around the club these days I am expecting us to be turfed out of the Trophy to leave fighting a relegation battle. We might end up grateful that league reorganisation saves us with fewer clubs being relegated. I was concerned at our heavy defeats, only being able to scrape past Shaftesbury and finally Jerry Gill losing the plot with the players last week. Surely it is time for all concerned to have a major rethink about the current demise and how to address it.

Depressing listening on BCIR. Full of phrases 'poor touch', 'underhit/overhit pass' and so on. A shame the great efforts behind the scenes in raising the club's profile and attendances are not being matched on the pitch.

City 'til we're relegated wrote:We have been on a roll with crowds increasing and a talented manager with a competitive budget.

So what do you think is the issue? Something about the team?

Banbury have drawn Barrow. Not much reward for their success.

BenE wrote:

City 'til we're relegated wrote:We have been on a roll with crowds increasing and a talented manager with a competitive budget.

So what do you think is the issue? Something about the team?

That is for others to decide.

tovid wrote:Banbury have drawn Barrow. Not much reward for their success.

Looking on social media they don't seem too disappointed and I am pretty sure we would have been happy with it.

LB wrote:

tovid wrote:Banbury have drawn Barrow. Not much reward for their success.

Looking on social media they don't seem too disappointed and I am pretty sure we would have been happy with it.

3 level gap could attract tv. We've played Barrow plenty of times so it would have no novelty but yes would have been great opportunity.

I am sure that at one of the Zoom meetings earlier this year Nick Blofeld said that the target this season was to avoid having to take part in the play off 'eliminator round' again - I assumed he meant by finishing in the top 3 not missing out on the play offs completely!

Like 2weirdtown I found it depressing listening to the BCIR commentary, but sadly the game and the result were what I expected. It will be interesting to see if there is a post match interview with Jerry - hard to see that he can say much that will be different from last week. He frequently says that you have to keep believing in 'the process' but whatever that process is it doesn't seem to be working. 

I know it probably isn't fair to do so because of the unusual circumstances, but if you add last season's league results to this we have won 7 and lost 13 of the last 21 averaging almost 2 goals against.   

Despite all these years of supporting City I remain an optimist (I posted on Facebook yesterday that the season we lost 7-1 at East Thurrock we went on to win at the Mem and got to within a penalty shoot out of Wembley!), and there are still 32 games to go so lots of points to play for. Having said that, the next three games in the space of a week might well set the direction for the rest of the season, especially if we lose them all.

I was thinking of the East Thurrock game today and, despite the hugely different score lines, in both games we made strong starts before falling away. With respect to our Essex friends I think their win was a bit of a freak result with everything on the day coming off for them. Had we played them seven days later we could well have won. I don’t feel the same about yesterday and saw it as a more shattering defeat.

It was shattering.
In his interview Jerry questioning whether he and his team can take this forward.

Luton Roman wrote:

LB wrote:

tovid wrote:Banbury have drawn Barrow. Not much reward for their success.

Looking on social media they don't seem too disappointed and I am pretty sure we would have been happy with it.

3 level gap could attract tv. We've played Barrow plenty of times so it would have no novelty but yes would have been great opportunity.

Live on ITV4

And £50k tv appearance money. St Albans also to receive this booty. We have missed out big time...

I think it far from certain that it would have been televised if we had got through. I imagine the attraction is the gap between Banbury and Barrow which is one step more. St Albans possibly picked because FGR top of League 2. Whatever, it is water under the bridge now so we need to look forward and not backwards.

Agree that it is a bit of a lottery whether or not your club gets a televised game but it would be nice to take part in that lottery occasionally.

Continual failure to reach the 1st Round creates increasing frustration and disallusionment for many of us longer term supporters. Obviously has less effect on those who have become more recent additions to the fan base- but it is (probably) the former who have been the most forthcoming with donations/crowfunding supoort over the last 18 months or so.

Anyway all this will be forgotten when we reach the Trophy final!

Peter Newman wrote:
Anyway all this will be forgotten when we reach the Trophy final!

You defeatist, don't you mean win the Trophy Final?

Peter Newman wrote:Agree that it is a bit of a lottery whether or not your club gets a televised game but it would be nice to take part in that lottery occasionally.

Continual failure to reach the 1st Round creates increasing frustration and disillusionment for many of us  longer term supporters.  Obviously has less effect on those who have become  more recent additions to the fan base- but it is (probably) the former who have been the most forthcoming with donations/crowdfunding support over the last 18 months or so.

Anyway all this will be forgotten when we reach the Trophy final!

Take all your points Peter, but I view this current slump as more damaging to the possible effect it will have on the more recent additions to the fan base. Us die-hards have had to be thick-skinned for years - we will support the Club come rain or shine, but the newbies may not take much more of this current string of poor results to be put off from watching ever again!

Come on Gerry - the League is tight - now is your big chance to shine, and propel the team back to the play-off positions.