chelmsford

A substantially better performance but by golly Chelmsford are a strong side. We needed to show spirit and we did in spades but it was a backs to the wall game that we just couldn't see out. I felt the ref was looking for a way to make up for Southwood's unpunished mistake when handling outside the area for the whole of the second half, but to be fair, we didn't have enough to trouble their defence.

Ryan Case was very good and Jack Batten showed that he is a good player with Ball alongside him. But we are getting overrun in midfield which is non existent. Nothing went right for Watkins, he game was too big for Lemonhaigh-Evans, and Big Nick suffered from what might be termed physical stuff that merely caused him to get frustrated.

It is the fans that get frustrated with Morgan. Why doesn't he play the same way as he did in the friendlies? Once again it was all arms and holding. It isn't even as though he fools the ref, so what is it all about?

Please can we have Welch-Hayes on the left?

But despite the defeat I was pretty happy with a gutsy performance.

But were we really that much better? Shy of a decent first ten minutes, and a slightly more organised central defence I wasn't sure that we'd improved terribly much from Saturday's debacle.

Mind you, what do I know. I was chatting to a Chelmsford fan afters and he enthused "What a player that Morgan is!"

I agree that we are still woefully short of pace throughout the side and especially in midfield. Every single Chelmsford player was quicker - even the wide arsed No5.

And I do have concerns about the new recruits, with only Ryan Case showing anything like the ability we needed to bring in to improve.

Does anyone know if the rumours that Darren Jones has walked out on us are true? And where was Naby today?

Tapper80 wrote:Does anyone know if the rumours that Darren Jones has walked out on us are true? And where was Naby today?

Jones was in the stand today according to the radio commentary.  Sorry if that's bad news.

Roy D Hacksaw wrote:Mind you, what do I know. I was chatting to a Chelmsford fan afters and he enthused "What a player that Morgan is!"

That's the thing now with Morgan, to many City fans he will never be able to do anything right now.

And Jones was sat on the bench before the game started (and, I think, during the first half at least) so as is often the case with these sort of rumours it was nonsense.

For me, we miss Chas...a player who can put his foot on the ball and control things a bit. I think moving Miles to the left (as someone else mentioned) and putting Rigg to RB, with Batten and Ball in the middle, will allow Case to play the Chas role in midfield.
Billy and Frankie seem to be chasing shadows whenever they play as the central two....I don't think it's a coincidence that we played better in the first half with just Frankie.
I thought Marvin did okay and I have generally been impressed with his application so far this season....I think his style doesn't do him any favours from a spectators point of view.
One change I would also like to see is Cafer in goal. I think it's very unfair that he hasn't had a chance since playing great in the initial pre-season games. Ive been watching him a lot in the warm-ups and half time in the league games and he has come across very professionally and always has a smile on his face (he wasn't even a sub today, but got stuck into half time session....he was better at the tika taka than the outfield subs!).....I think a lot of keepers who had his start with Club, doing nothing wrong (in fact most things right) yet finding himself on the bench to a younger player, you would understand if they gave off a bit of a negative vibe, but not a sign of it. He seems a real talker and a big character, has lots of confidence and seems adept in all parts of the Keeper's game. In fairness to Southcott, don't think he's played that badly despite all the goals shipped, but he's a young player trying to build confidence, and don't see how he is currently better than Cafer....we need all the calming influence at the back we can get at the moment!

Yes I agree with that Dusty but can't see it happening.

yuffie wrote:

That's the thing now with Morgan, to many City fans he will never be able to do anything right now.

And Jones was sat on the bench before the game started (and, I think, during the first half at least) so as is often the case with these sort of rumours it was nonsense.

I am actually prepared to give him a chance, but I think he has far more talent than he displays.

For me I've always been underwhelmed by Frankie, don't think he is bad.... I just don't see him be the player I feel he should be.
We have been moaning about midfield for at least a few seasons now... so don't expect changes.

First thing was, as I mentioned previously, I was expecting Jones to be in the starting line-up due to Owers belligerence. However, he justifiably dropped Jones so fair play to him for that. He also reacted to Tuesday's game by going with a back 5. Now, I think that didn't work. 5 at the back is going to work, to a certain extent, due to sheer numbers - it is hard to break down a back 5 initially. However, when you have a team full of players who know each other, at least if you ask them to play in a back 4, they know where they are supposed to be, vaguely. However, it is hard enough to get a team who know each other to change to 5 at the back. For a team that hardly know each other is really hard. To be fair to Owers, he did try it as a reaction to Tuesday and, when that wasn't working today, he changed it to a back 4.

Even though we had a good pre-season, I am not sure that we had the players fully settled and organised for the start of the season. I am not sure whether this is Gary's fault or circumstances. Someone pointed out to me today that Gary's signings at the start of last season were pretty terrible and it was his loan signings that really worked.

Marc Monitor wrote:Someone pointed out to me today that Gary's signings at the start of last season were pretty terrible and it was his loan signings that really worked.

That would be Monthe, Rigg, Diallo, Murphy, all good I'd say. Marshall and Hunter, two young prospects, a bit meh but not terrible. And Fleetwood, a shame it didn't work out for whatever reason, but his stint at Weymouth showed he was worth the look initially. Are there others?

bath Chron has Jones being left out due to a 'late hamstring strain' - hmm

2weirdtown wrote:bath Chron has Jones being left out due to a 'late hamstring strain' - hmm

Apparently pulled it reaching for the Mega-Bucket in his local KFC

No lack of effort today and defence looked a lot better so I assume no one is going to dispute that it was correct to leave Jones out, injured or not.
Keeper did well under the barrage of long throws in the first half. Inevitable that they would score and after their second we offered no threat apart from the hopeful long ball forward.
Midfield was generally overrun and we lack the quality and pace to trouble teams. Morgan tried but the points re pace and quality apply to him.
Very disappointing start, I was not getting carried away with the talk of the play offs but was hopeful we would have at least 4 points by now.

Palms wrote:

Marc Monitor wrote:Someone pointed out to me today that Gary's signings at the start of last season were pretty terrible and it was his loan signings that really worked.

That would be Monthe, Rigg, Diallo, Murphy, all good I'd say. Marshall and Hunter, two young prospects, a bit meh but not terrible. And Fleetwood, a shame it didn't work out for whatever reason, but his stint at Weymouth showed he was worth the look initially. Are there others?

Manny was the exception that was mentioned. Fleetwood was definitely seen as a bad signing as was Mclllelan. Naby wasn't really an unknown quanity, was he? Good point on Rigg.

Marc Monitor wrote:

Palms wrote:

Marc Monitor wrote:Someone pointed out to me today that Gary's signings at the start of last season were pretty terrible and it was his loan signings that really worked.

That would be Monthe, Rigg, Diallo, Murphy, all good I'd say. Marshall and Hunter, two young prospects, a bit meh but not terrible. And Fleetwood, a shame it didn't work out for whatever reason, but his stint at Weymouth showed he was worth the look initially. Are there others?

Manny was the exception that was mentioned. Fleetwood was definitely seen as a bad signing as was Mclllelan. Naby wasn't really an unknown quanity, was he? Good point on Rigg.

Howells signed McLennan

Fair play. As I said, someone pointed it out to me rather than me making the claim.

Steve Whites Missus wrote:

2weirdtown wrote:bath Chron has Jones being left out due to a 'late hamstring strain' - hmm

Apparently pulled it reaching for the Mega-Bucket in his local KFC

I honestly don't think Jones is fat. Had to take his profile picture for team photo and instantly noticed his arms are huge. I expect he's got a rather muscular physique and probably does weights at the gym more than treadmill.

Can't comment about the game as I wasn't there. Will be at Truro, fingers crossed we turn it around.

stillmanjunior wrote:

Steve Whites Missus wrote:

2weirdtown wrote:bath Chron has Jones being left out due to a 'late hamstring strain' - hmm

Apparently pulled it reaching for the Mega-Bucket in his local KFC

I honestly don't think Jones is fat. Had to take his profile picture for team photo and instantly noticed his arms are huge. I expect he's got a rather muscular physique and probably does weights at the gym more than treadmill.

Can't comment about the game as I wasn't there. Will be at Truro, fingers crossed we turn it around.

I take the fat comment back then.... he must have been going for the mega-bucket protein fix.... hopefully not another Jon Davies

SteveS wrote:No lack of effort today and defence looked a lot better so I assume no one is going to dispute that it was correct to leave Jones out, injured or not.
Keeper did well under the barrage of long throws in the first half. Inevitable that they would score and after their second we offered no threat apart from the hopeful long ball forward.
Midfield was generally overrun and we lack the quality and pace to trouble teams. Morgan tried but the points re pace and quality apply to him.
Very disappointing start, I was not getting carried away with the talk of the play offs but was hopeful we would have at least 4 points by now.

'Very disappointing start' is a massive understatement Steve and Gary Owers will know this more than anyone.

However, Gary knows football inside out and has done brilliantly for the club since he came back and I have every confidence that he will sort it out but it does seem his pre-season optimism was hugely misplaced.

Has he put faith in some players that aren't really buying into what he is trying to achieve at Bath City or maybe having come out of the full time ranks think that National League South is a cakewalk?

Darren Jones, who has spent most of his career as a full time professional centre half, obviously was a good and very tough player during his League career, but he is made team captain immediately having missed most of pre-season and turns up patently overweight & unfit and so off the pace it was embarrassing to watch at times against Chippenham - not a great example to the younger players or the team ethos of challenging for success. Straker seems talented but a soft touch in the tackle and not really switched on a lot of the time - Pratt made him look silly on more than one occasion last Tuesday -  and the two new strikers, well Jarvis is adequate & offers an option but nothing more and Lucas doesn't look anywhere near fit either and his touch is very poor for an ex-pro and neither of them are the going to be pulling up any trees for us in the foreseeable future.

We finished last season with a pretty good squad which needed carefully strengthening to really have a go this season - we needed a good, tall & experienced, commanding goalkeeper, a solid & strong left sided/footed centre back to allow Batten to play his natural right side, a decent midfielder with some pace to compliment the slower but skilful Artus & Murphy and a out and out goal scorer up front.....and from what I have seen so far we do not appear to have signed any of these?  

All successful teams at any level have a good dominant goalkeeper who controls the 6 yard box, two good solid centre backs, a decent box to box midfield player who scores his fair share of goals in a season and a striker who scores 20 plus.....a solid and reliable spine within the team, not easy to find all these I accept that, but IMO that is what we should have been striving to get within the agreed wage budget.

Have to feel sorry for the youngster Southwood on-loan from Reading in goal, he is 18 or 19 I think and it is proving a tough baptism into men's' football for him..... but at least he is getting lots of practice and can hopefully learn from it and not fall apart watching what has gone on in front of him, especially in the first 2 games.

The defence which was gelling quite well - albeit with the excellent Axel organising it - in the 2nd half of last season has been changed around completely and Welch-Hayes who looked pretty decent at left back doesn't offer anything more and at times quite a lot less than Rigg ever did at right back and we now have Straker at left back well below the standard Welch-Hayes set last season in that position.....lets change this back now!

We lack any real pace in midfield as Artus and Murphy, who both strongly favour their left foot, do not cover the ground fast enough in comparison with opposition midfielders, Lemonheigh-Evans is very promising but young and with Diallo now gone, Gary is going to have to get someone in to change this situation as we are constantly being over run here, especially if you play the excellent Watkins and vastly improved McCootie as wide men either side.

Morgan, who struggled at times last season, looked great at the end of season and in the friendlies, but isn't really the answer up front if we really do want to challenge for anything, let alone get some points on the table - although he is an experienced ex-pro and if he had a sharp nippy striker alongside him it might be different.

Overall the team do not have any real creative X-factor player options (Jack Compton maybe one but time will tell?) who can be introduced to really bring some energy to the party, its all very predictable, slow and ponderous and despite the improvement yesterday from Tuesday - and that wasn't difficult to achieve after one of the truly all time woeful Bath City performance over the past 15-20 years - at present I cannot see a great deal of light at the end of the tunnel with the squad as it stands.

Lets hope I am very wrong and Gary and Jim can get it all moving in the right direction again....but Truro & Havant away next up are huge challenges for them.

stillmanjunior wrote:

Steve Whites Missus wrote:

2weirdtown wrote:bath Chron has Jones being left out due to a 'late hamstring strain' - hmm

Apparently pulled it reaching for the Mega-Bucket in his local KFC

I honestly don't think Jones is fat. Had to take his profile picture for team photo and instantly noticed his arms are huge. I expect he's got a rather muscular physique and probably does weights at the gym more than treadmill.

Can't comment about the game as I wasn't there. Will be at Truro, fingers crossed we turn it around.

Let's not forget that Chas Hemmings was over-weight and pretty useless in the first few games after he joined us.

A bit of match fitness and a move into a holding midfield position, and he quickly grew into being one of our key players.

I'm not saying that Jones will be the new Chas Hemmings, but let's at least give the man a chance.

So has Diallo actually gone, or was he just unavailable?

"and with Diallo now gone"
Is this the case?