Are we going to struggle?

[Greenfinch]

First of all thankyou for all your nice comments,it's good to see our forum so active once again.
So, here are my thoughts, football is such a simple game,it's only the so called coaches that have turned it into a game of Chess.A holding midfielder, what the hell is that? Striker, you mean Centre Forward,back four, you mean defence, I could go on.Release the energy, flair,and enthusiasm of young blood, and the will to win, instead of supressing them with the anxiety of fear, passing along their own 18yd box, and then losing the ball to a tackle or misplaced pass on the half way line.We watch England, and even they can't get it right,and oh, the endless frustration of it all.

[Chris_N]

Pleased to see a bit of action on here. Have had a hectic week on the domestic front so haven't been able to engage again as I would have liked.
I have written a piece for the Weekly Bulletin about the Forum... unfortunately I missed the deadline for this week but I will get it in next week's bulletin.
Stuart you are so right in that there are a number of us who would still like the conversations and banter.
Interesting comments by Greenfinch about football being a simple game. Probably the best player I ever saw who was so consistent at shooting was Bobby Charlton. Read in his book that as a youngster, his coach Jimmy Murphy told him : "If you see any part of the goal, shoot. For every hundred shots, you'll miss 90, but you'll have 10 goals".

[Neil]

I believe the team is no better than mid-table on what I've seen so far, but it is difficult to judge so early in the season. To me, the problem of the past few years is still there - no punch, lack of competitiveness and sloppy passing. You cannot keep doing the same things over and over again and expect the outcome to be any different. A better assessment is half a dozen games away, but I am quite pessimistic about the team's prospects. Some bold decisions need to be taken soon.

[Chris_N]

One fact that is evident in the past year is.....we have been more successful away from home than at home. Why?

I am no football tactician, but what I see is that we do seem to have difficulty at home breaking down teams that sit back on us, sometimes in two ranks of four. We cannot pass our way through them, many teams we encounter have two big centre halves who can head a ball but often have the turning circle of the Titanic. When we beat Harborough and Spalding last season, it was because we were able to play - they gave us the space to do so. Royston did pre-season and Billy Heaps had for me one of the best games from an individual I've seen since Matty Lench (oh if only!).

We play the better football and lose....Stamford and Stratford last season, even Biggleswade Town last Tuesday. On Saturday there was an upsurge in urgency shown in the last 15 minutes or so.

I'm just grateful that the Supporters keep coming back for me....how many more would if we started winning home games again on a regular basis? The beautiful football has to end up with goals, results and points.

Away from home when teams attack us...we are good on the break and the aforementioned centre halves can be done for pace.

Hoping we can start on Wednesday. Having seen an airshot of their pitch - well, will be interesting to see how we tackle it.

[Brian Parker]

There's too much emphasis on playing out from the back. Apart from the risk of stray passing and giving away possession in dangerous areas there is the time it gives our opponents to fall back on defence before the ball gets played forward. There is no need for much of it. Very often players receive the ball in bags of space where they have the time to turn and look for a forward pass down one of the channels before the opposition has had time to fall back in numbers. But instead of doing this they often choose the easy backward or square pass which slows down any counter attack. It's OK to pass back or square to retain possession if under pressure, but not otherwise. The mantra should always be to look for the early forward pass whenever possible.

[DarrenW]

Pleased to see a bit of action on here. Have had a hectic week on the domestic front so haven't been able to engage again as I would have liked.
I have written a piece for the Weekly Bulletin about the Forum... unfortunately I missed the deadline for this week but I will get it in next week's bulletin.
Stuart you are so right in that there are a number of us who would still like the conversations and banter.

Great you gave it a mention Chris but want to put my input in for what it's worth.

I have long advocated for the older supporters especially with the ticketing a few years ago. The forum is no different to my thoughts on that.

Many older people could use this forum in a way many others use social media. Social media is very challenging for the older generation and those that can do it have my highest respect.

The Club needs to do the thing and publish results within say half hour of the result? (I can do this but im not free every Saturday) Maybe even half time score?. You hit on the announcements part but these seem confined to Facebook and Twitter (Sorry X) now. What about those guys who want to see the result within a reasonable time frame after the game? I would appeal the results are announced on here not just social media for the benefit of those not able or unwilling to use social media. Announce the result let the debate begin. Way it should be?

Finally want to put a shout out to Brian Parker. His view points on here are an asset to any club forum and club and who could blame him for not wanting to do social media at his time of life? Bringing the forum back to life would be great. The communication on Facebook at least is not a touch on what this forum used to be back in the 00's. Brian's reports and debating skills ive really missed these past few years.

Without wishing in anyway to sound like Trump. This forum can be great again!

[Chris_N]

Nice post Darren and it does sum up what I was getting at in the bulletin article I posted last week.

Great to be getting some debate going again...as you say there are some supporters who want to converse, not just have one liner "Throwaways"?

You say about putting results on here within half an hour of the game finishing.

It would be a nice to have but there's backroom stuff that people don't see or understand what it takes to just keep the club "compliant" with League, FA and County requirements increases season on season. Paul and I have had to undertake training for a new reporting system for League results - and because there are website implications for the League (and not only the Southern League, all the other Leagues down to Step 4 as well), there are deadlines that must be met for reporting match information - failure to do so results in a fine. So current people just don't have the time.

Couple that with the fact that committed, regular volunteers are becoming harder and harder to find, and 16 of the 43 club volunteers are over the age of 60 (7 of that 16 over 70) - finding people to help on match days is becoming a greater challenge, as I am sure Kate Deller would agree.

So a nice to have but at the end of the game we have a number of other priorities on the ticketing, reporting and Club Shop front. Last Saturday, as soon as the game had finished, I was on the ticketing website setting up the coach sales for tomorrow. Within 2 minutes I had supporters coming in and enquiring about booking - as I would have expected. Oh yes and while I'm at it, don't forget to email the result and attendance to the League within their deadline for doing so......

Would be great if someone were able to take up your suggestion...but needs someone willing to do it, and to be credible needs to be consistent and regular if people are to be confident in accessing it.

The more we can make the Forum interesting again, the better. It can also be a source of relevant (irrelevant?) information - like the fact we are playing in yellow tomorrow evening not purple....so wear your yellow shirts everyone......

[Chris_N]

And if you didn't know/remember, last time we were at Step 4:

Season 2010/11, when we lost in the play-offs, we scored 91 goals in the regular season.
Season 2011/12 , when we were promoted via the play-offs, we scored 107 goals during the regular season.

[Alan C]

…..didn’t we also amass 100 points in 2010-2011, Chris?

[Chris_N]

…..didn’t we also amass 100 points in 2010-2011, Chris?

Indeed we did Alan. And lost the play-off semi-final to Slough Town who finished 23 points below us in the League.