Concord game

Listened to the excellent commentary and you have to say that it has all gone a bit flat since the Torquay game. A Brisl City supporter told me that Hinds is the real deal but so far he has not lived up to the standards set by Semenyo last season. Is he lacking a bit of confidence? I know he was disappointed not to get a game at Wrexham.

Of course we missed Joe Raynes and Riggy showed how effective he is, but there is just not the intensity there.

They need to up their game for Slough next week.

Semenyo was special, so I think it is hard to judge Hinds by that standard. I feel the main difference between the two is his physical strength. For a young man Semenyo was phenomenal and skilful with it. Hinds has the skill: his touch is first class and he is very hard to mark. The constant shout from the Concord defenders was, 'No foul!' because he was very tricky with the ball at his feet. However, his impact was constantly snuffed out when surrounded by two or more defenders and it think it would have been fairer to judge him on his finishing had he been in Watkins' position. He was very unlucky not to score against Slough and could be a great asset, but the service up front from the midfield is not there at the moment.

I'm a bit confused by this. Semenyo actually spent most of his time on the bench with us, if he was that good surely he would have been starting more often? Are people being swayed by his Newport form, performance against Leicester and link to a Premier League club?

Don't get me wrong, he got better towards the end of the season and proved to be an excellent player, but he wasn't the next Bobby Zamora with us. I'm sure he'll have a good career. Look at Joe Bryan - few games on loan with us where, harsh as it is, I can't remember him doing anything of note. He's now a Premier League full-back.

I've been impressed with Hinds and agree with the last note above - service for him hasn't been good enough. He didn't have a clear opening Saturday, he tried to do it himself by peeling out wide. I have this feeling we will get a spurt of goals from him. He's actually had a tough run of opening games - Slough good defensively, Torquay we know all about, Gloucester defend in depth (one goal conceded in five games), Dartford he came off at HT and us scoring a goal there is more difficult than defeating the Eggheads, whilst yesterday Concord basically had a back nine they went 2-0 up.

Agree with that, Mark - I've been very impressed with Hinds and am sure he will be scoring regularly in the coming weeks.

Yesterday's match reminded me in some ways of the home fixture with Dulwich who like Concord threatened to win the match by ht with some quick, incisive moves. But after the break both preferred to sit back and resort to the niggly stuff. Despite that, on yesterday's showing Concord look a good bet for the play offs.

So important that we return to winning ways next Saturday and hopefully there will be a good atmosphere for Slough's visit. As always it was very flat yesterday and even Dartford seemed like a library after previous raucous crowds.

I haven’t known silence like that at the end of a game for a while. There are some people at Concord working damn hard, on and off the pitch, and they’ve just won an important game. Feel they should be appreciated more, they’re having a decent season. Otherwise they risk going the same was as teams like North Ferriby and Histon - fight their way up but tumble back down.

stillmanjunior wrote:I'm a bit confused by this. Semenyo actually spent most of his time on the bench with us, if he was that good surely he would have been starting more often? Are people being swayed by his Newport form, performance against Leicester and link to a Premier League club?

Don't get me wrong, he got better towards the end of the season and proved to be an excellent player, but he wasn't the next Bobby Zamora with us. I'm sure he'll have a good career. Look at Joe Bryan - few games on loan with us where, harsh as it is, I can't remember him doing anything of note. He's now a Premier League full-back.

I've been impressed with Hinds and agree with the last note above - service for him hasn't been good enough. He didn't have a clear opening Saturday, he tried to do it himself by peeling out wide. I have this feeling we will get a spurt of goals from him. He's actually had a tough run of opening games - Slough good defensively, Torquay we know all about, Gloucester defend in depth (one goal conceded in five games), Dartford he came off at HT and us scoring a goal there is more difficult than defeating the Eggheads, whilst yesterday Concord basically had a back nine they went 2-0 up.

Well, I'm not a regular at games and Semenyo featured strongly in many of the matches I did see. For a young player he was very competitive and still has so much time to improve further. He also chipped in with quite a few goals. I'm not surprised he's attracted attention.

Don't get me wrong I like the lad but in my opinion when a player is 'on it' things happen for him that don't when they aren't. 
Look at Nat Jarvis, he was never 'on it' during his time at Bath and now he is knocking them in for fun. 
We are creating chances but they aren't falling to Hinds.

I have to agree with Mark that, while Semenyo did a reasonable enough job with us, he didn't stand out that much above other loanees that we have had. Certainly, not above say Tom Smith on his first visit. Having said that, 3 goals in 7 games is a great return for a 19 year old.