Bishop’s Stortford vs Bath City

Dale.

Watkins off for hemmings

Hemmings missed good chance from a cross by pratt

must have been a lengthy stoppage for Allen

1-1 FT I presume

1-1 ft

Still 20th in the league

Poor quality game in truth with probably a draw a fair result though you feel City could have won it with a liittle more quality and purpose. Game regularly disrupted by stoppages for injury so we didnt finish until 5 ish. Allen looks a serious one, that aside we do seem to look lightweight when it comes to challenges. They went ahead with what looked like a soft goal. Short corner wasnt picked up, scruffy shot that somehow went in, may have got touched in. Neither keeper tested and we thought that would be that until the irrepressible Dave Pratt picked up the ball just outside the area, shrigged off two tackles and drove the most thunderous shot in to the back of the net of the underside of the bar. Such a good goal in stark contrast to the ordinariness of the game and City's sluggish display.

2nd half saw better intent from City but surely we cannot rely on Pratt winnining the headers, Pratt to be there for the knock downs, and then Pratt closing down the defenders. The man is a one man dymano and keeps us in many games, Again we saw our first touch and quality lacking but when we did put things together we almost got a subdued Watkins in, and his replacement Hemmings almost turned a Pratt cross in but to be fair it was just behind him. Subs Dale and Gibbons looked off the pace with again touch and quality. Stearn was quiet and well policed by their left side. Given the bare bones of the squad and FIFA's dilatory approach perhaps a draw was fair enough. 4 pts from the last 2 games was the minimum and we achieved that.

Feel we need the dominant defender at the back, somehow need a midfielder that makes things happen and can play players in rather than via long bal, and a container of cotton wool to wrap Dave Pratt in.

My first game of the season. The first half was poor as we struggled to get any fluency and to cope with the physicality of our opponents. We do definitely look lightweight again in midfield. The game was fast and furious with little time to dwell on the ball which made it a pretty dull affair until the genius of Dave Pratt illuminated the afternoon. Thereafter we looked more confident and played the only football to be seen. Bish were very limited and won't do well this year. We will probably look back on this game as 2 missed points and indeed we carved some decent positions from good passing moves. The best of these fell to the lumbering Hemmings who couldn't adjust his body quickly enough to turn a firmly hit cross into an open net. Pratt of course would have scored. As Gerry says Watkins seemed off the pace. At the end of last season I would think he would have reached a couple of those through balls ahead of their stranded keeper and we would be celebrating the victory I think our performance deserved. After the aberration of their goal the defence looked solid too.

What I find interesting from these last two excellent posts is the suggestion of being off the pace. My observation is that a number of players are not as fit as they were last season. I would put Watkins Stearn Ball and Gallinagh in this bracket (as was Walsh before his injury). Hopefully as the season wears on this aspect will improve but we have been caught napping from the season's start.

Hopefully Frankie Artus will return and stay fit. We really need him.

pete mac wrote:Really thin squad today. No slocombe and just Jim hemmings dale and gibbons on the bench. Burnell  another no show. All feels a bit amateur

Agreed, but the development squad players will be back and available soon!

what would have happened if a defender was injured?

Ipswich Ian would have donned his boots and come to the rescue

Luton Roman wrote:Subs Dale and Gibbons looked off the pace with again touch and quality.

I thought Elliott did pretty well in the circumstances. He was still in our Academy last season, certainly a stand-out performer, but this is a major step up. I think he's played in all of Paulton's games this season so certainly progressing.

Dale holds on to the ball a bit too long sometimes. There's ability there and I certainly wouldn't get rid of him or anything, we have hardly any players left!

We're not much more off the pace than last season.  8 points from 8 this and 9 points from 8 last season.  We then lost and drew before the next win in game 11 against a woeful and struggling Farnborough.
It's a marathon .......
Mr Positive

I agree.

its a tight league. 3 points propels you right up the table.

WE need to get a couple of players in though.

We are good enough. I saw enough against Wealdstone to suggest that we can make the playoffs if we can strengthen the squad to cover for the injuries.

Mind you we have failed to take lots of points in these opening games which as Martin P says are points you don't have to get later......and we should have beaten Stortford by the look of it.....

We are starting to sound like Man U fans crowing about winning the league after beating the truly awful QPR
yesterday. Really welcome 4 points v stones and Bish, but let's see the home form improve drastically before talking of play offs and the like. A convincing victory and performance at TP this Saturday is a must for me....

Well, we didn't win at home until November when we won the Southern League...

But I still think our main objective at the moment should be to just pull clear of this drop zone. Once the injured players are fit again we'll know where we stand, it's all a bit up in the air at the moment.

We had 3 yellow cards.

How many did Bish have? I can find no record anywhere.

I find this league wholeheartedly depressing, dreary suburban london sides slogging it out in front of meagre half arsed followings. Charmless and uninspiring to the extreme. Sadly I can't see how a conference return can be achieved and certainly not sustained. Ah well, here's to a relegation and a potentially interesting rivalry with chipnumb being reignited. Maybe Fraser will return n all

Whilst I agree that we're in the dullest league of all time, and that the Southern League would definitely include some more interesting trips, the bit between 3 and 5pm will be almost as depressing as some of the days out at the moment. Most of the football I witnessed in the Southern League, and do now when I very occasionally see it, is poor. Our game with Bishop's Stortford wouldn't have looked out of place in it, but fortunately it's not like that every week.

The standard of football in the Conference Premier was streets ahead of what we see now.

stillmanjunior wrote:The standard of football in the Conference Premier was streets ahead of what we see now.

Yep...and that's why we aren't in it any more

stillmanjunior wrote:Whilst I agree that we're in the dullest league of all time, and that the Southern League would definitely include some more interesting trips, the bit between 3 and 5pm will be almost as depressing as some of the days out at the moment. Most of the football I witnessed in the Southern League, and do now when I very occasionally see it, is poor. Our game with Bishop's Stortford wouldn't have looked out of place in it, but fortunately it's not like that every week.

The standard of football in the Conference Premier was streets ahead of what we see now.

I always find it a funny one, although technically it has to be a 'better standard' at our level, since we dropped from the Conference the football I've witnessed at Bradford Town, Manor Farm and other lower division games has invariably been far more entertaining as a spectacle than the fayre on offer at Twerts over the last three seasons.

Perhaps because Western League defences aren't uniformly constructed of 7ft brick walls, there tends to be things like shots and through balls, which at Conf South level appear to be a rare delight.

...without doubt. I think during western league games there are always a handful of players you can identify as being more than skilful enough to cut it at our level. Some probably will. The general shortcomings in strength, organisation and fitness do sadly tend to make for more entertaining viewing.

Of course, lower levels at football can be more entertaining. Defensive ineptitude can mean that there are far more goals. Mind you, if you want goals, Twerton Park is fairly good as long as you aren't a Bath City supporter.

Wealdstone closed the gap tonight...only silver lining is they beat Steve King's Whitehawk.