City 4-0 Maidenhead

Yep, particularly as we have two!

Agree with everything said in this thread. My only concern is the recurring slow starts. We could easily have conceded 2 or 3 times in the first 20 minutes before the rather fortunate first goal. It seems to be the start of both halves and again, we allowed the opposition to take the initiative at the start of the second half.
Tuesday will be a tough game.

Just like to add that I'd dearly like to see no more posts about Adie/Jim/Howells and the dugout. It's clearly not going to change so just get over it.

You won't get any wrath from me about that comment, Mike. I would say that his assists and crosses have been brilliant but, yes, it would be great to see him score more. He was a bit anonymous today. A back four of Gallingah, Bowman, Simpson and Keary with back-up of Walsh and Ball looks good to me.

Thanks for that, Sean. I obviously wasn't looking at the bench all afternoon and, if I was, our bench would have been obscured by that dickhead of a Maidenhead manager.

Watkins, it is fair point because he is clearly such a good player that expectations are rightly high. Not sure we have found his correct position yet. Playing him wide left in a front three does seem to limit his opportunities although based on recent results it seems to suit the team.
If we were to revert to 4-4-2 I'd stick him left midfield with stearn wide right and artus and big chas in the centre. Would just like to see what we looked like then with Pratt and McCootie as a more traditional strike pairing,
Walsh and ball are actually my favoured pairing at centre back, keary has done brilliantly but he'd make way.

comrade powell wrote: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?

When you're made untouchable you might as well sit in the Twerton Chippy

For me - Stern, Pratt and Watkins up front first choice. Dave should always be in the traditional centre forward position. Lots of goals to come with these three up front, and McCooty as back-up if/when the injuries resume, especially in the winter months.

Oh, and while I'm tapping the keyboard, I will hold my hand up in response to my previous criticisms of him - big Chas has really begun to impress me now as to his worthiness in the team. He, above all else, by a country mile, keeps the ball on the deck in doing what he does best - making very accurate passes. He is still way behind the rest in other aspects of the game i.e. running, tackling and heading, but is even showing some improvement in these skills too. It does make you wonder why he was ever used as a striker when he joined us - didn't those friendlies tell the manager anything?!!
The whole team did well on Saturday, as it did the week before against a much better team. It is important to win and win well against the likes of Maidenhead,but I'll take a single goal victory against a few others. Nothing to fear - no team to fear, when we are on form (and injury-free). We could be top by Christmas, and win the League by about 20 points at the end. Then our only concern will be finding that money! oh, and celebrating our 125th year?!!

comrade powell wrote:

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...

That was appalling and it has happened before. Surely some people can tell when an injury is genuine and when it isn't? Why would their guy remain on the ground for so long when they're 1-0 down? He was clearly in agony. If anyone reacted the same to one of our players being in the same discomfort I wouldn't be happy.

Someone else pointed out about the bookings etc. I personally think we have to watch our step a bit, didn't we go through an entire campaign two years ago without a single player suspended? Artus has five yellows? I didn't even know he'd started five games. I wouldn't class us as a dirty side and although some of the yellows have been harsh, a lot are justified. Bowman was extremely fortunate to escape one early on when he went straight through one of their players.

Maybe someone needs to show them the Brian Clough "you're no good to me and you're no good to the team if you're suspended" clip. Andy Gallinagh had seven yellows in 102 games for us, Sekani Simpson even fewer I think from 300+ I think. It is doable.

First home game this season I've not been there. Typical!

yuffie wrote: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.

As I said, I wasn't there, but aren't you contradicting what someone above said that Howells was up and shouting on Sat? Maybe if he'd been more like that in games this season when we were losing it might have had the effect it had on Sat.

stillmanjunior wrote:

comrade powell wrote:

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...

That was appalling and it has happened before. Surely some people can tell when an injury is genuine and when it isn't? Why would their guy remain on the ground for so long when they're 1-0 down? He was clearly in agony. If anyone reacted the same to one of our players being in the same discomfort I wouldn't be happy.

Someone else pointed out about the bookings etc. I personally think we have to watch our step a bit, didn't we go through an entire campaign two years ago without a single player suspended? Artus has five yellows? I didn't even know he'd started five games. I wouldn't class us as a dirty side and although some of the yellows have been harsh, a lot are justified. Bowman was extremely fortunate to escape one early on when he went straight through one of their players.

Maybe someone needs to show them the Brian Clough "you're no good to me and you're no good to the team if you're suspended" clip. Andy Gallinagh had seven yellows in 102 games for us, Sekani Simpson even fewer I think from 300+ I think. It is doable.

Good point about the bookings. Artus has managed to pick up five in seven starts and two sub appearance which is a rate Hoggy and Coupe would have struggled to match. Bowman and Hemmings are also on four now and Allen and Keary on three. It would be quite an achievement (though not in a good way) to have seven players suspended before Christmas.

I guess the lack of sending offs show we aren't a dirty side and I don't think any have been for dissent (much to a few people annoyance) so I'm not quite sure why we've been picking up so many.

Eddie Hitler wrote:First home game this season I've not been there. Typical!

yuffie wrote: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.

As I said, I wasn't there, but aren't you contradicting what someone above said that Howells was up and shouting on Sat? Maybe if he'd been more like that in games this season when we were losing it might have had the effect it had on Sat.

If you think that Howells shouting on Saturday had any bearing on the result, I would respectfully suggest you may be watching the wrong sport.

2weirdtown wrote:

Eddie Hitler wrote:First home game this season I've not been there. Typical!

yuffie wrote: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.

As I said, I wasn't there, but aren't you contradicting what someone above said that Howells was up and shouting on Sat? Maybe if he'd been more like that in games this season when we were losing it might have had the effect it had on Sat.

If you think that Howells shouting on Saturday had any bearing on the result, I would respectfully suggest you may be watching the wrong sport.

As I said, I wasn't there.
Just trying to point out that he has been criticised for not getting involved all season, and in the game he does, we have one of our best performances of the season (so others are saying).

I am not sure how actual involved he was. Every time I looked around, it was Rollo. We used to have this issue at Cardiff with Dave Jones. Everyone moaned that he wasn't jumping around and ranting. He was one of our most successful managers.

Good successful managers come in many forms - quiet, ranting, studious, animated, etc. It doesn't matter as long as they are successful. The issue isn't that Britton or Howells isn't jumping up and down the touchline as much as someone else - Rollo - is and, when the issue seems to be communication, this is, perhaps, a telling sign of confused communication. It isn't down to one good or bad match, it is a long-term issue which, at the moment, still could be present.