Hemel Hempstead

We were missing some crucial players today. You know it is dodgy when Frankie has to play center half. And having struggled so far this season you can do without that.
The referee was exceptionally poor but we were never going to win this one despite scoring first. Our goal was completely against the run of play and we failed to trouble Hemel much after that.
Clarkey made some terrific saves to keep us in it but this young side cannot compete against these big physical teams.
We survived without a proper midfield in the first half but despite looking more balanced with James after half time never looked like scoring.
We aren't playing as a team and the youngsters are not strong enough. I know the whole point of their loan is to toughen them up but they are too slight.
It is a bit of a puzzle because Jerry identified our lack of physicality before the play off and does not appear to been able to bring in the players to address it.

The stream was very poor. I think many lost much of the first half with frustration trying to get to the bottom of the buffering stream.

Thought Frankie showed what a vital player he is, just a shame that circumstances meant that he had to play in central defence as we clearly needed him in midfield. Defence didn't do too badly overall, but we have to stop giving way so many free kicks - If it hadn't been for that great save from Ryan we would have paid the price again.

Agree with tovid about the lack of physicality - frustrating that two of our strongest players last season decided to take a break from the game and then surfaced at our rivals up the A4.

As for the stream, started buffering about time of Hemel's penalty but was okay in second half after it was turned off and turned on again! Couldn't believe that the commentator kept referring to Buse as 'bus' and didn't know that you pronounce the first 'e' in Hertfordshire as an 'a'. Still, it could have been the Dorking guy I suppose!

I’ll let Matt know re pronunciations. You say better than the Dorking guy, it’s a claim you could label at a lot actually. Wait until we play Hampton in a few weeks... I might do the Havant or Dulwich games.

It’s been mentioned elsewhere but our midfield hasn’t produced the goods this season. One goal, a fortunate deflection, and we seem to create more from full-backs than through the middle. Wilson looks like the 20-goal striker we’ve been craving and can see him and Conway* working well together. But as Jim said after it’s a few problems, not just one. Evans has been decent this season but first half yesterday particularly he was off it.

With two games away I hope it builds some sort of team spirit with players spending hours together on the coach. They’ll need to come together on Tuesday. Fear we could get roughened up - Dorking’s disciplinary record is shocking and they had another six booked Saturday. But they also get a lot sent off against them. Could really do with Batten and Ball but that is against us right now.

* someone on Matchchat said Conway has coronavirus. That hasn’t been confirmed anywhere. Can people please not start false rumours trying to be an ‘in the know’ source particularly with things like that. Was unnecessary.

I am pretty sure that in his interview after the Slough game Jerry said that Conway had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus so was self isolating for 14 days hence his not being available. Perhaps that is where the comment that he has the virus came from. Doesn't help that the club isn't always very forthcoming on these things - unless I missed it there was no explanation for the absences of Ball, Batten and Harley other than in Jim's interview after the game when he said that they had had to send two players home from training on Tuesday and one yesterday morning.

Will be interesting to see Wilson and Conway working together, but in a way I feel that both would benefit from the presence of a Ryan Brunt type player.

The next couple of games, and the rest of the month come to that with the games coming thick and fast, will be a real test and we need to start picking up points because by the end we will have played a quarter of the season and could find ourselves playing catch up.

LB wrote:I am pretty sure that in his interview after the Slough game Jerry said that Conway had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus so was self isolating for 14 days hence his not being available. Perhaps that is where the comment that he has the virus came from. Doesn't help that the club isn't always very forthcoming on these things - unless I missed it there was no explanation for the absences of Ball, Batten and Harley other than in Jim's interview after the game when he said that they had had to send two players home from training on Tuesday and one yesterday morning.

Correct LB.  
The "secrecy" of why players are absent is so frustrating as everyone, including the opposition but not supporters, know the reasons. Supporters will speculate reasons for absences in social media where there is information from people "in the know".

LB wrote:The next couple of games, and the rest of the month come to that with the games coming thick and fast, will be a real test and we need to start picking up points because by the end we will have played a quarter of the season and could find ourselves playing catch up.

More openness would go a long way to "including" supporters, who are showing extreme patience, in the fight against relegation which is where the club is going on recent performances.

Beau Nash wrote:The "secrecy" of why players are absent is so frustrating as everyone, including the opposition but not supporters, know the reasons. Supporters will speculate reasons for absences in social media where there is information from people "in the know".

So that gives you the right to say one of our players has coronavirus with no evidence of it whatsoever? Don't do it again.

I can admit it was a bit more secretive on Saturday but I don't think it has been before. Which other games has it happened? In the pre-match interview before Slough Jerry explained why Conway wasn't playing and it wasn't 'he's got coronavirus'. If it was my next question would have been 'why are we still playing, then?'

stillmanjunior wrote:
I can admit it was a bit more secretive on Saturday but I don't think it has been before.'

Why is that? Were you asked to before the game?

I noted in the friendlies that you refused to name some of the trialists. That seemed a bit strange to me because their availability cannot have been a secret within the industry.

It isn’t at all unusual not to name triallists, as the club they are playing for often don’t want to alert others to their availability.

During the friendlies Wealdstone named a squad including 12 triallists who they simply named Triallist A to Triallist L and Hereford did the same using Triallist 1 to Triallist 12, and some wag joked that Mrs Triallist must have been proud of her sons!

Exactly as Les says above. We didn’t know the names of some of those players anyway, on the teamsheet they were down as Trialist so we used alternatives. I didn’t know the scorer of our goal at Salisbury until the other week and can’t remember who it was, he’s not at the club still. In some cases I am told but am politely asked to not share it. It only takes me to say his name once on radio for someone to spread it about online and bingo, a player we had lined up goes for more money elsewhere. And as also said, we are not alone in being secretive here. We went to Dartford the other week and they gave us a teamsheet where half the numbers were wrong, and there’s no way that was all by accident. Felt like another way to get one up on us and confuse opposition management. Instead it could have been embarrassing on commentary or writing a report as there would have been stacks of errors.

I do love how all these debates come out after we lose a few games mind. If I’m allowed access to do a pre or post-match we will see if anything else is cleared up.

This would make sense if the players were not in a position to alert other clubs themselves. Which I would have expected them to do if they want to get the best deal.
I did mean to bring this up at the time.
It is interesting that all clubs carry out this subterfuge. I do wonder whether it is always worth it.

Personally I can’t stand it but sadly that’s the way football works - if any club gets a sniff of an opportunity to sign someone they’ll do whatever it takes. I expect we’ve done it before too. There’s no gentleman’s agreement or whatever.

This year we only covered the friendlies because we just wanted to get back to doing games after such a break but in future we might be more selective. At Swindon I think we had three trialists and loads of their teamsheet was wrong. It’s a report full of inaccuracies

stillmanjunior wrote:Personally I can’t stand it but sadly that’s the way football works - if any club gets a sniff of an opportunity to sign someone they’ll do whatever it takes. I expect we’ve done it before too. There’s no gentleman’s agreement or whatever.

This year we only covered the friendlies because we just wanted to get back to doing games after such a break but in future we might be more selective. At Swindon I think we had three trialists and loads of their teamsheet was wrong. It’s a report full of inaccuracies

Your memory is usually brilliant, but, there were 4 (all featured on the pitch).

I’ve tried three times (or maybe four) to conjure up a reasoned response to that but can’t do it. That has to be one of the most extraordinary ‘ignore the gist of argument but comment on something irrelevant’ response I’ve ever seen.

stillmanjunior wrote:I’ve tried three times (or maybe four) to conjure up a reasoned response to that but can’t do it. That has to be one of the most extraordinary ‘ignore the gist of argument but comment on something irrelevant’ response I’ve ever seen.

agreed

Hopefully those who are 'so frustrated’ by the Club’s communications on player availability will accept the explanation for limited information here....

https://www.bathcityfc.com/jerry-gill-interview/

Good interview.

Really great interview. We get more info and analysis from Jerry than from any manager I recall in my time following City.

Pleased to see the reference to more permanent signings and hopefully more physicality

Statsbomb looks like a good partnership for us.