City 0 Ebbsfleet 2

Ok didn't expect a win tbh but did expect a bit of a battling performance. Didn't see that . We need it now. Cmon Jerry instil the spirit and pick the right players.

Who do you have in mind?
I assume that Fletcher was unavailable but of those starting on the bench today I’d like to see Frear starting. If nothing else he is an excellent crosser and plays to Cooke’s strengths.

Our situation is worsening by the week and I hope that those who have kept on about our tough run of games will now be proved right with victory next Saturday in what is looking a crucial match and one we dare not lose.

Yes on Frear and DSB. Smith better today though missed big chance. Omar not doing it Dyer was poor. Fletcher energy missed. Still rather in our position than Billericay.

Ebbsfleet were stronger and quicker in every position. We never looked like any of the players thought we could get anything out of the game. There was zero reaction to either goal. It was a very flat performance.
A number of people said they couldn't understand why Cooke was playing out wide when he was the lone striker. No one was getting into the box from midfield.
Not really the sort of performance you want to see in our position.

BenE wrote:Ebbsfleet were stronger and quicker in every position.

Unfortunately this season we could replace this sentence with:

[OppositionTeamName] were stronger and quicker in every position.

In his pre match interview Jerry said that we need to score first for a change - not sure starting off with Cody effectively as lone striker and Smith and Frear on the bench was the way to achieve that. The game was effectively over in the second minute when they scored, and apart from the chance that Omar missed from virtually on the goalline in the first half and Tom Smith's shot in the second half we rarely looked like scoring. Like Luton Roman, I don't mind us losing to the top teams, but it would be nice to think that we had actually made them work for it - I don't think either Dorking or Ebbsfleet ever got out of second gear.

I assume that Rowe's loan must be on the basis that he plays every week - I can't recall a player who gives the ball away so often.

Post match, Jerry bemoaned our lack of physicality again - this has been a problem ever since he has been here, but none of his signings have addressed this, and as has been said umpteen times we have not replaced Frankie. My recollection is that Frankie left because he was offered reduced terms on the basis that Jerry wanted a player who could play 40 games a season and Frankie had had problems with injuries - if he had stayed I am sure he would have played more games that Harley and cost us less!  

Whatever happens over the rest of the season, and even if we do get some results against the 'weaker' teams, losing 19 or more games when the stated aim was to make the top three to avoid the play off 'eliminator round' (probably always ambitious when you consider the resources of the likes of Dorking, Dartford, Maidstone etc) should mean some serious questions being asked.

Such a shame that big attendances are coinciding with flat performances at home

Stating the obvious but if we just had 1 or 2 more experienced players that could keep hold of possession then perhaps the young loan signings would be less exposed.

I was thinking that we have been constantly disrupted by injuries but in fact we only have 13 players at the club. 2 goalies, 3 and a half defenders (Joe Raynes), 4 and a half midfielders (Joe Raynes), 3 forwards. The rest are kids on loan who are frankly here to be toughened up. It is a very thin squad operating in a division that is getting stronger every season. The idea that there are full time teams in it is ridiculous but true. As we can see we cannot compete with the sides at the top at all even when we give it a right good go as we did last week against St Albans. And this seems to be the same at every level where there are effectively two divisions in each league.
We should measure ourselves against the teams we can compete with starting with Welling next week.

By full time we’re probably not talking about it in the same sense as in the League. I understand at non league level those clubs labelled full time usually operate with a squad where at least some of the players can train on perhaps two or three mornings a week. But that should give them an advantage over those where a couple of evenings a week are the only together time.

I believe Dorking came a day early and stayed overnight in a hotel.

BenE wrote:I was thinking that we have been constantly disrupted by injuries but in fact we only have 13 players at the club. 2 goalies, 3 and a half defenders (Joe Raynes), 4 and a half midfielders (Joe Raynes), 3 forwards. The rest are kids on loan who are frankly here to be toughened up. It is a very thin squad operating in a division that is getting stronger every season. The idea that there are full time teams in it is ridiculous but true. As we can see we cannot compete with the sides at the top at all even when we give it a right good go as we did last week against St Albans. And this seems to be the same at every level where there are effectively two divisions in each league.
We should measure ourselves against the teams we can compete with starting with Welling next week.

In one of his recent post match interviews Jerry said how difficult it is to operate with a 16 man squad and this might be something to look at next season. I am pretty sure we never got above 15, and that soon became 13 with the early departures of Gerring and Harley, two of whom were keepers. I am pretty sure that at one point Lloyd James and Dan Ball were out on loan at the same time leaving us just 11. We have added Sims-Burgess but he seems to have spent most of the time injured.  

It was perhaps a case of quality over quantity, as I don't imagine the likes of Gerring, Cooke and Frear came cheap, but I don't for the life of me understand why we need two goalkeepers on contract. When Ryan was injured early in the season we had no problem in getting ones in on loan, and there always seem to be goalkeepers available. No disrespect to Will Fuller, but I am sure we would have been better off spending the money on a midfielder.

In one of his recent post match interviews Jerry said how difficult it is to operate with a 16 man squad and this might be something to look at next season. I am pretty sure we never got above 15, and that soon became 13 with the early departures of Gerring and Harley, two of whom were keepers. I am pretty sure that at one point Lloyd James and Dan Ball were out on loan at the same time leaving us just 11. We have added Sims-Burgess but he seems to have spent most of the time injured.  

It was perhaps a case of quality over quantity, as I don't imagine the likes of Gerring, Cooke and Frear came cheap, but I don't for the life of me understand why we need two goalkeepers on contract. When Ryan was injured early in the season we had no problem in getting ones in on loan, and there always seem to be goalkeepers available. No disrespect to Will Fuller, but I am sure we would have been better off spending the money on a midfielder.[/quote]

Recruitment has been the key issue, I guess always is with struggling teams. Do you invest in some quality players, spread the rest of the budget more thinly and add loan players? hoping you choose wisely at every stage? I do wonder whether the ex pro model of Harley, Frear, James, and Brunt previously, can be sustained, performance has been mixed to put it kindly, whereas non league journeyman such as Cooke, Fletcher, Eddie Jones, our own Joe Raynes, have been more impressive.

Questions I have:
why Chip and Hungerford have recruited better, judging by league position, fishing in the same regional pool? Bigger budget? surely not, Better contacts? Really?; and

did Gerring tell JG some unacceptable home truths about the squad strength which have come to pass?

Great point about Chipp and Hungerford.

I can't remember the last time City had a squad with more than 2 of the tough tackling, mouthy, "professional" players you need to compete in the NLS.

Bath is an expensive place to live in comparison to Havant, Ebbsfleet or Dorking so maybe that puts players off.

London Road City wrote:Bath is an expensive place to live in comparison to Havant, Ebbsfleet or Dorking so maybe that puts players off.

There are less expensive places they can live which are not too far from the city though e.g. Radstock, Peasedown, Keynsham, Trowbridge.

SteveBradley wrote:

London Road City wrote:Bath is an expensive place to live in comparison to Havant, Ebbsfleet or Dorking so maybe that puts players off.

There are less expensive places they can live which are not too far from the city though e.g.  Radstock, Peasedown, Keynsham, Trowbridge.

Much less true than it use to be.

Intrigued that Dorking is considered to be a cheaper housing option than Bath.

I very much doubt that property prices in the Bath area have much bearing on our player recruitment as most players at our level simply travel from their existing location.

According to one website I looked at the average monthly rent for 3 bed house around Crawley (nearest I could find to Dorking) is £1,250 Vs £1,483 for the same in the suburbs of Bath.

I can imagine players coming in from Bristol, Wiltshire, North Somerset but do our players really commute from further afield to play for us?

Elliott Frear, Cody Cooke and Alex Fletcher all live in Devon, Ryan Clarke is in Oxford and I assume that Will Fuller is based in Wales as he has previously played for clubs there, and of course Andy Watkins used to travel from the depths of Cornwall. Two of the current loan players are also from Exeter, and presumably Zac Delaney travels down from the Midlands for games.

Wow didn't know that.They must rack up a fair few miles between them.

I believe that Matt Richards used to commute from Essex.

With respects to any Crawley residents reading this thread, I’d imagine properties in Dorking are considerably more pricey.

Perhaps this thread should be moved to Rightmove.

Would be nice to be in a position when a potential signing says " Sorry Jerry would love to sign but have you seen the prices in the Royal Crescent"

I didn’t realise we could like our own posts!

Not sure how that happened. Certainly not intentional but just probably reflects lack of IT capability.