Hemel 3 City 1

Andrew, Boris, Novax, England Mens cricket test team, Bath City.....poor decision making, lack of ability to fix things when going wrong, little hope of change in the short term at least.

Groundhog day yesterday for those at Chelmsford. Gradually forced back in the 1st half, increasing pressure, frequent corners and free kicks, Clarke flying around, keeping us in the game, they score. This time we did create a bit more in the 1st half, snap shot from Fletcher that went wide, then a strong run from DSB, a lovely arcing cross, and a sumptuous volley from Cody Cooke, perfectly timed before half time. The sizeable City following sensed that our game might light up in contrast to the gloomy weather around the ground.

No. We were wrong. Apart from a good save from their keeper from a Fletcher flick and a cross goal belter from DSB, that was as good as it got from City. Hemel sensed this was the day they were going to get their first home win of the season. They were quicker, sharper, more physical, etc,etc, you know the rest. We seemed to never get on the 2nd ball never mind the 3rd, 4th..... Their 2nd goal must be worth a watch on the highlights as a seemingly Maradonesque mazy run, evading tackles, ended with a ?mishit across Clarke that rolled in. There was no way back for City as the glowing scoreboard taunted us with the score and minutes disappearing. The deflected 3rd summed up the day.

My views:

- searing lack of physicality across the team;
- lack of confidence in many players, if Tom Smith is getting a game at the moment that is worrying we have no one better;
- Midfield. We need one. To battle, to win the ball to provide service to the front guys. Cooke's 11th league goal yesterday in 21 games is some achievement, and other clubs will have noted that.

The large City support yesterday, by far the majority coming under their own steam from far and wide deserve better. A lot better.

One of the frustrations is that Jerry did say that he had identified that one of our problems in previous seasons was a lack of physicality, but apart from Gerring none of the signings addressed this.

The midfield has been a problem from the start of the season. I know it is a bit of a broken record, but the fact is that we never replaced Frankie and neither Tom Smith nor Omar are the type of players to assume that role. I can't believe that there aren't players out there who could have.

Cody Cooke does look like we might finally have found our 20 goal a season striker - ironic that it should come in a season when we are averaging almost two goals against in each game.

Really need to win the two home games coming up (and possibly get something at Hampton) as February looks difficult to say the least.

"Maradonesque mazy run"  - https://twitter.com/i/status/1482772621607452676 -

Beau Nash wrote:"Maradonesque mazy run"  - https://twitter.com/i/status/1482772621607452676 -

Good find. He beats 5 or 6 players, some more than once !

Smith and Holness looked like they had finally got to grips with the role against Chip but it isn't either's natural style and many of the teams in this division have very physical midfields.
This is why we end up giving away fouls as we can't compete and why we can't get our game going.
As Luton says this has all been seen before and I think we have to accept that this will continue to be a difficult season for us. A clean sheet against Eastbourne would be good.

Beau Nash wrote:"Maradonesque mazy run"  - https://twitter.com/i/status/1482772621607452676 -

Doesn't look mishit to me. Goes where Clarkey couldn't reach.

We're simply not good enough.

The footwork and balance for the second is excellent, I'll give Hughes that. Not too happy with some of the half-hearted challenges but he did well to negotiate the gap.

The finish is a total scuff, I'm sure even he'll admit that, and assume it's just deceived Clarke. Yet another social media account I file under 'over-exaggerated' with the goal description but I guess it's their job to get more publicity rather than accuracy. There's the bias too of course, their own supporters might see it differently. I'd have probably gone with 'superb footwork and balance before his finish has enough to beat Clarke, c'mon Tudors' with a few irritating emojis or, even worse, GIFs.

But that's making me look a bit bitter. It gave them a lead to end this awful home record (they'll win a few more from that display) and it wasn't quite on par when Oxford labelling Josh Ashby's cross-shot as magnificent or whatever. We were beaten by the better team and no complaints about the margin of defeat.

Luton Roman wrote:

Beau Nash wrote:"Maradonesque mazy run"  - https://twitter.com/i/status/1482772621607452676 -

Good find. He beats 5 or 6 players, some more than once !

He didn't as much beat them as they stood back and let him through! In recent games we have given away a lot of unnecessary free kicks on the edge of the area, and had enough opportunities to stop him before he got that far. Defence needs to be better on Saturday as Eastbourne are third highest scorers (and we have third worst goals against).

Looks like both Wood and Batten were missing from the heart of the defence. Presumably Dyer then played at the back rather than as a midfield holding player which is where he is needed.
Needless to say I have been impressed by this lad.

I feel sorry for Jerry Gill. I just listened to his (sound only this time) post match interview at Hemel H. He is a good coach and City have done relatively well under his leadership, but there is a sameness about the post match interviews this season, which is worrying. I can only assume that we have not got a playing budget sufficient to enable us to compete with the big boys of the league. But when I say big boys I noted that some of the clubs above us are far from big. It is puzzling and I just hope that next season Jerry can be given a budget that will allow us to compete with the clubs nearer, and in, the play-off zone. If we cannot afford such a budget then we will have to be content with trying to avoid relegation. The growing attendances at Twerton Park is fantastic and one thing we can really celebrate, with the resultant increase in revenue for the club. Perhaps growing the crowds even higher is a route to competing for promotion. Yet, the National League Premier Division is looking increasingly tough to survive in and we might not be able to afford playing at that level until our finances have improved sufficiently.

City 'til we're relegated wrote:I feel sorry for Jerry Gill. I just listened to his (sound only this time) post match interview at Hemel H. He is a good coach and City have done relatively well under his leadership, but there is a sameness about the post match interviews this season, which is worrying. I can only assume that we have not got a playing budget sufficient to enable us to compete with the big boys of the league. But when I say big boys I noted that some of the clubs above us are far from big. It is puzzling and I just hope that next season Jerry can be given a budget that will allow us to compete with the clubs nearer, and in, the play-off zone. If we cannot afford such a budget then we will have to be content with trying to avoid relegation. The growing attendances at Twerton Park is fantastic and one thing we can really celebrate, with the resultant increase in revenue for the club. Perhaps growing the crowds even higher is a route to competing for promotion. Yet, the National League Premier Division is looking increasingly tough to survive in and we might not be able to afford playing at that level until our finances have improved sufficiently.

I agree about the interviews, we do seem to have heard the same one a few times this season. The concerning thing is that you get the feeling that Jerry doesn't know what the answer is to our ongoing struggles.

The budget is an interesting one. Somebody raised this on the Facebook group and Jerry liked a comment about it not being big enough (despite I thought the club telling him not to). I actually thought that the budget was higher this season, along with some of the money from the crowdfunder, and that we had decided to go with a smaller but better quality squad, hence signing the likes of Frear, Gerring and Holness (with the aim of avoiding the play off eliminator round this time) and supplementing it with loanees as before. The only part of this that appears to have worked is avoiding the play off eliminator!

If you look at an old Conference league table from just over twenty years ago there were still fairly small "traditional" non league teams like Hayes, Nuneaton, Hednesford and Northwich making up the places.

Those teams have been replaced by big ex league sides like Wrexham, Notts Country and Grimsby in what is effectively League 3. You could argue that the National South / North is now the pinnacle of "real" non league football given the budgets, history and crowds of the teams in these leagues.

Don't get me wrong I'd love for City to become an established National League side but without serious new financial backing I don't see how that is currently possible given the scale of the teams we would be up against.

That is almost exactly the sentiments being expressed on the Weymouth fans forum.