Concord Rangers

Team: Mellor. Simpson. Ball. Walsh. Gallinagh. Allen. Bowman. Connolly. Pratt. Low. Burnell. Subs: Stearn. Brown. Wilson. Wring. Keats.

Ht 0-0 end of season feel to it

SImmo and Bowman off Brown and Stearn on

1-0 Connolly near post from 18 yards

2-0 Stearn

Get in there, cwackin result. 7th represents a very good season and there appears to be continual improvement. Lets just pray we can retain our key men and make a real promotion push next year!

UTC

obvious i know but a few of those games with dubious team selection s cost us a crack at the play-off

1-0



2-0

freeview wrote:obvious i know but a few of those games with dubious team selection s  cost us a crack at the play-off

12 draws. 6 of which should have been wins, for starters.
Not clinical or tough enough. Match any team for skill

...and in much better shape, looking at those fat b***** concord players

Were there any supporters in the ground?

in a largely positive season the only real disappointment was the number of late goals conceded and the points they cost us - though it's a trait we appeared to got over once walsh replaced preece (the only games we let in late goals since then he wasn't playing)

very simplistic to say that 'dubious' team selection cost us a play-off place as over 42 games i think a top 10 finish was about right given the clubs resources - so you could argue 7th and just 3 points off the play-offs was a slight over achievement which reflects very well on the players and management team

kermit wrote:Were there any supporters in the ground?

only me and the bloke trying to sneak out as stearn scored

Not many, despite the free entrance! A strange place, with a caravan park on one side and a sewage farm behind one goal, with the Thames Estuary a few yards beyond that. The facilities were Southern League at best, but Concord have clearly come a long way in a short period.

I suppose we were lucky to face opponents who had played so many games recently, but to our credit we looked hard for the win. The pitch was very hard and the ball spent most of the time in the air. Superb opening goal by Connolly - if that was his last game, it was a fitting end to his time at City. The second by Stearn could be a sign of our future - I just hope he heeds Howells' comments in this week's Chronicle.

1 win in the 12 games against the top 6 is a pretty damning stat in the cold light of day. Suggests that as always you deserve to finish where you finish, however more points, goals and wins than last year, 3 players in double figures with league goals all point to steady improvement.

I don't know about damning but it is certainly a telling stat. As has been said, we finished where we deserved to and the room for improvement is fairly clear.

However, if there was one match I would point to where we dropped points needlessly, it was the Basingstoke game. We shouldn't have lost anyway to them but they could have easily beaten us by much more. Of course, we would have still not had enough goals to go up and it probably would have been a disaster if we had. A play-off run would have been nice though and there is no two ways about it that the Preece decision was very much part of that defeat and an appalling bit of man management.

On that note, am I the only one to think that Howells' remarks about Stearn were too critical for a paper interview? I have no doubt that it needs saying but I am of the opinion that such criticism should be kept for the dressing room.

I've long been of the view that our club does itself few favours with statements made to the media. All the more surprising when you remember we had a PR and media guru leading the club for a couple of years.

Regarding stats, a more favourable one is that in our games against the bottom 8, we picked up 12 wins and 3 draws.

The 1 in 12 against the top 6 could have been much better. We came close against Ebbsfleet at home and in both games against Sutton. We should have got something at Eastleigh. It is those narrow margins that have cost us, but I don't want to sound negative as we have played some terrific stuff recently.

the demon headmaster wrote:The 1 in 12 against the top 6 could have been much better. We came close against Ebbsfleet at home and in both games against Sutton. We should have got something at Eastleigh. It is those narrow margins that have cost us, but I don't want to sound negative as we have played some terrific stuff recently.

I am optimistic for next season provided we can keep all our players and perhaps add one or two. As you say, narrow margins have cost us at times. And to honest, alot of these dropped points came from defensive errors at set pieces, which seem to have been ironed out when Preece was replaced by Walsh. As for the Conference Premier again, I would say: Bring it on!

Stripey79 wrote: a lot of these dropped points came from defensive errors at set pieces, which seem to have been ironed out when Preece was replaced by Walsh.

And yet we have conceded more goals per game since Walsh "replaced" Preece. 1.1 goals/game before, 1.3 goals/game after.

comrade powell wrote:The second by Stearn could be a sign of our future - I just hope he heeds Howells' comments in this week's Chronicle.

Stearn scored one goal and had a hand in two others in his first start for weeks but apparently he wasn't playing for the team. Had to be be taught a lesson and put back on the bench. From where he scored another.

Some people didn't like that Jimmy Greaves either - all he ever did was score goals - selfish b*****d.

I heard the interview, and thought that it was out of order to criticise a player so publicly; perhaps Lee Howells was trying to give the 'bigger picture' that we supporters apparently don't see. What we do see in Ross Stearn is a player who excites the crowd, which I sometimes think is a sin in the eyes of the management.

Personally I would be a lot more optimistic for the future if Lee Howells wasn't part of it.