City 4-0 Maidenhead

Nothing on here? There had been about 100 posts the other week after we were battered!

Everyone's busy watching our boys in white give Slovenia a footballing lesson!

ROONEY!!!!!

WELBECK!!!!

I thought we played really well today. Maidenhead looked another poor side, in fact no team coming to Twerton has really impressed me this season. Whitehawk looked ok but we were poor that day.
Biggest difference for me from early season is Chas Hemmings. Early on in the season we were just getting out muscled in midfield and being overwhelmed. Chas sits in there and knocks the ball about. They can't knock him off the ball easily and he actually sees a good pass. He may not be the most mobile but he is doing a great job and deserved his MOM today.

See my last post!

Agree with Steve. Probably the best performance of the season I've seen. For the first ten minutes of each half I thought Maidenhead didn't look too bad a side so credit to us for making them look pretty poor for the rest of the game.

Confidence growing. 2nd goal critical. Gd build up well put away by Nick. Pratts goal sums him up. Energy. Vision. Finish. Happy days.

Good game to watch today.Hemmings thoroughly deserved Mom.Some of his passes today were exceptional .After the first half always felt there would be a red card somewhere .It luckily went to a Maidenhead player.Not sure what he did? After this we made the most of the advantage and moved the ball about as we used to do.Much more encouraging.

Thoroughly enjoyed today.

Reminded me of I ever neede it- as to why we must save our Club!

Hemmings imperious and Pratty astonishing.

I think we are heading for the top 5

Enjoyable game today - a good workmanlike performance to gradually assert control and then finish off the opposition. Maidenhead looked useful for periods of time but we always had better quality play and I don't think the red card affected the final outcome. As usual Pratt put in an energetic shift, and as mentioned by other posters Hemmings is an entirely different proposition when playing in midfield - you wouldn't think of him in that role given his physique but it appears to be his natural position. Play-offs definitely within our grasp if we can continue this level of performance and avoid any more crops of injuries.
Just one pedantic query - why did the ref permit Mellor to wear a yellow shirt and dark shorts when the opposition are in near-identical kit?

I think the ref had more fundamental issues than the keeper's jersey. He was very poor. It is noticeable how bad the standard is in the conference South compared to the premier.
Big chas played well, he is a very useful player when he has time. Allen and artus both put in a shift alongside him and I think that helps, I don't think adelsbury does enough when he plays next to the big man.
Pratty, great as ever and pleased for big nick McCootie who worked hard - looked like nothing was going for him today and then he scored a cracker.
Well done all round to the players and the managers. Incidentally , the Maidenhead manager was going nuts for most of the game until they went 2-0 down and then he just seemed to accept it wasn't going to be a good day for him!

Nice to see the City play football for almost 90 minutes today. A bit wobbly to start with but once the og went in it was all City. Well done lads, that t'was great to see.

So after the cup disaster, we've played 270 minutes without conceding. Well done to all concerned for tightening things up. With players returning from injury, the management are provided with options and some difficult selections. Bring on Gosport!

Great game today. Good to see Walshy get a few minutes at the end - I thought he would walk back in the team a couple of weeks ago, but who would get dropped? Would be be harsh on Keary based on recent results. Best day of football I've had since supporting City last year (although that was more about seeing my boy play for Bath City Youth U7's this morning winning 5-2 as well!). Well done to all the players. Can't wait for Tuesday night....should be a great game as both teams on top form....just a shame Dave Pratt is suspended (hope it's not the difference)

Some of us have just returned from celebrating the win, sj. A great match, at least two brilliant goals and a clean sheet. Nothing to complain about from Bath City but the ref, Maidenhead United and, especially, their manager left a lot to be desired. However, it was all positive from our point of view and, yes, Hemmings was well deserving of MOM. The whole thing made the first half of the England match look very boring.

Interestingly, the first sight of Howells and Britton was at the final whistle. I am not having a go - well, any more than I have before - but I thought it was apposite to point out that they did the same today - in a brilliant performance - that they do when we have a terrible performance.

Lots of positives but its worth getting things in perspective. Being able to pick from a full squad must help. Agree the refereeing was sub-standard. Every now and again we seem to get refs which seem to make random decisions. They worry me. Today's ref sent one of their players off but it could just as easily been one of ours. It think that did change the game. Sometimes going down to 10 galvanizes a team but the encouraging thing is that we completely passed them to death from that point and made the extra man count. Credit for that.

I think we played everyone in position today which - with the brief exception when AG was playing at left back with Simpson at CB for a while. I never understand Pratt wide right and Stearn in Centre mid, for example, which I've seen more than once.

Agree that Adlesbury should be the midfielder on the bench at the moment, based on poor form. I want my midfielders to be either strong ball winners or intelligent users of the ball (preferably both) but i don't see him as either.

I'll risk the wrath of the forum and also suggest that Watkins has not been very effective lately. He seems to drift out of games for long periods. No doubting his ability and he is exciting to watch him running at teams but we need more end product (decent crosses or goals pls) and I'd like to see him more involved. I have a theory that teams have worked him out after last season and he gets special attention - often one marking and one in behind because they have seen what he can do.

I am curious to know who the preferred back 4 is once we have Ball, AG, Walsh, Bowman, Simpson and Keary all fit.

I don't post much, but can assure anyone that Archie was out of his box at 3-0, encouraging the players to push forward and extend the lead. Something encouraging as I was worried we might sit back, when it was clear Maidenhead were there for the taking.

An excellent performance - the best I've seen this season. Credit to the players and management.

Last home game Watkins made both goals including an amazing touch and run for the 2nd. At Ebbsfleet last week he was clear through and fouled for the red card and he made the first goal today. Is that not effective?

Ashley wrote:Last home game Watkins made both goals including an amazing touch and run for the 2nd. At Ebbsfleet last week he was clear through and fouled for the red card and he made the first goal today. Is that not effective?

Good points, well made.
Maybe I can't articulate what I mean. He does have an impact and I admit that an assist is a pretty decent impact. I worry about the long periods of invisibility, the low goal tally and the ability to get in good positions and then no decent cross - especially early in games. Seems to take a long time to start a game. Just a gut feel and somebody will, no doubt, trot out a bunch of stats to prove me wrong. Perhaps he is a victim of his own high standards and I always expect a bit more. PS. He is by no means our biggest area of concern - just to put it in perspective.

It seems the Maidenhead player who went off in the first half ended the day in hospital. Let's hope his injury is not serious.

While he may not be regularly as effective as last season, I think it's encouraging that we have others who are offering a threat. I can think of seasons where we were totally reliant on someone with Watkins' pace and dangerous crossing - if he had a poor run, we had little alternative. I thought McCootie was very ordinary for much of today, but his finish for the goal was excellent. Maidenhead seemed to keep Pratt quiet for long periods, but he finished really strongly and I love the way the Kaiser (Big Chaz) is looking to pick him out with long, sweeping passes.

Ashley wrote:It seems the Maidenhead player who went off in the first half ended the day in hospital. Let's hope his injury is not serious.

Agreed. And perhaps the bloke in the stand shouting at him to get off the pitch, so the game could resume, wishes he'd kept quiet now...

Ashley wrote:It seems the Maidenhead player who went off in the first half ended the day in hospital. Let's hope his injury is not serious.

I seem to recall Artus got cautioned for this. He was pretty reckless and landed on his head as he went down

To be fair to Artus I think his challenge was clumsy rather than malicious. And it was his 5th booking of the season so he is now suspended for the Trophy game.

Going back to the point about Howells/Britton sitting down for the majority of the game, it does back up my long held view that managers shouting on the touchline makes no difference to a team's performance. And, of course, we now have Jimmer fulfilling that role most of the time to appease anyone who thinks it does.

Spot on! And do you agree with my long held view that if they're not going to rant and rave on the touch line, managers should be sitting in the stand from where they can get a much better view of the game?