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Last Night
Views: 3484
Hard to add to Gary's tweet last night really.
'We didn't get what we deserved last night.... we deserved to get beaten by more.'
At least we got to see what was probably the goal of the season - superb move, cross and header by Carl for the second. Defensively, an absolute horror show.
Re: Last Night
Views: 3422
John summed it up perfectly by describing it as a defensive horror show. The weird thing is that when Carl gave us the lead and Keagan had a goal disallowed, I couldn’t see us losing the game. I felt one more goal and Leatherhead would never have come back. Instead, we retreated into our shell and made horrendous errors to give away three points.
Have to agree about our second goal being one of the best all season. Funnily enough when we won at Fetcham Grove in the earlier Leatherhead fixture, we scored a couple of crackers too. How the team has changed since that glorious sunny afternoon. From the starting 11 in September, Melvin Minter, Mark Kirby, Russell Short, Lee O’Leary and Leon Smith have all moved on, Luke Tingey and Maz Bettache were unavailable and only Sam Flegg, Ollie Sprague, Dave Diedhiou and Tony Taggart started (Joe Wright and Kezie Ibe were on the bench, along with the departed Jake Cass and Ben Frempah and I am not sure what Max McCann’s status is).
Sadly, this relegation battle isn’t quite over yet. My gut feeling is we have enough points with Farnborough’s fate already confirmed, but I don’t know if the the fourth place team in Step 3 with the most points will get reprieve or it will be the Ryman Premier side irrespectively. If it is the latter, it will take a miraculous performance from Brentwood to get out of the mire; if it is the former, there is much work still to do.
Re: Last Night
Views: 3344
My understanding, having spoken with an FA official (who I know outside of football) earlier in the campaign, is that Farnborough will be treated as being one of the four relegated clubs from the Premier Division. If they finish outside the bottom four, whoever finishes 21st will stay up in their place. The other Step 3 divisions won't come into it.
Therefore, there is 1 relegation spot up for grabs (so to speak).
Re: Last Night
Views: 3297
Things aren't looking too good. Looking ahead to the Bognor game I'm wondering if a defeat of Leyton proportions is on the cards?
Re: Last Night
Views: 3392
I doubt there was anything last night which no-one was really surprised by. Objectively, Leatherhead knock the ball around very well - Hampton-esque. As for the back, whoever has played there this season has frankly fallen short of what we and probably themselves expect. We've tried everything. In contrast to the likes of Leatherhead our renowned game of passing for me has been our achiles heel, giving our backs no restbite.
Only four teams have conceded more and with a lack of potency up-front we are where we find ourselves.
The amount of crosses we have had to contend with into the box this season has been worrisome. I find it hard to believe any defence could with-hold such pressure.
I maintain our game will revert next season to more possession orientated style once we grace SJP, and hopefully, our real underlying skillset will re-emerge.
Re: Last Night
Views: 3269
Brentwood losing tonight is a favour, still think finishing 21st and getting off on a technicality is an embarrassment and is something that should be avoided.
Re: Last Night
Views: 3225
Agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, Paul.
Re: Last Night
Views: 3201
Please get the collective finger off the self destruct button - we must avoid keeping our place because of a technicality, this has already happened once too often just a few short years ago. That said, can't see where we can pick up any points with horrifically difficult games against Billericay, Burgess Hill and Bognor (if they can put 6 past Wingate, we will probably need calculators to keep score).
Roll on the end of what has arguably our worst season ever.
Would not agree with worst ever
Views: 3186
Whilst there is no doubt that this features high in all-time disappointing seasons, there is so much positivity regarding next season and the hopes and aspirations at SJP, that worst season ever is an exaggeration.
The year we escaped the drop because of another club’s misfortune, 2005-06 (and, it could be said, the three-manager campaign the year before), was far worse – we mustered fewer than 10 wins and achieved only 39 points, with a team arguably more experienced than this one – and the uncertainty about our future, with the imminent loss of Claremont Road, made things far bleaker.
I do concede, however, that our travails in 2015-16 were much more surprising. It should be noted, however, that in the last few years, Ryman Premier teams have lost playoff finals or been relegated from Conference South and gone down 12 months later, so negative reactions are not unheard of. AFC Hornchurch lost the playoff final to Lowestoft in 2014 and were relegated to Ryman North in 2015. It was the same in professional football in 2014 when Leyton Orient missed out on automatic promotion to the Championship on the last day of the season, threw away a two-goal playoff final lead before losing on penalties and were relegated to League Two in 2015. When Bognor went down from Conference South in 2009, they were relegated the following season (and Tonbridge almost emulated them last season.
Re: Would not agree with worst ever
Views: 3125
I should have made it clear that this was a purely a personal view based on games seen. OK this season we have managed (in 42 games) 48 points - 9 more than in 2005/06 but we have shipped in some 80 goals, a total I cannot from my admittedly awful and failing memory think we have achieved before. Defensively we have in all honesty been truly awful and in attack toothless since the departure of Leon Smith (no, I'm not blaming Kezie - it was much too much to expect him to continue to bang in hatfulls of goals in his mainly solitary role up front).
On a different note, it's sad that Dave D's 300th appearance is likely to be made before just a handful of spectators on Monday night. Perhaps the powers that be can organise a presentation in front of hopefully a bigger crowd at SJP in August.
Re: Would not agree with worst ever
Views: 3149
I agree that this season has been nowhere near the worst ever. On the back of one of the best ever seasons, Gary and his team have worked very hard this season to overcome any number of obstacles. How could anyone blame Scunthorpe for signing Charlie Goode? Likewise, how could blame be attached to long term injuries to key defenders? I opined at the start of the season that this might be one of consolidation ahead of (hopefully) SJP at the start of 2016/17. This looks likely to be the case.
There are so many positives to be drawn from this year - the great run of unbeaten games after Christmas when some impressive performances all but saved us from relegation fears, the tireless work by so many people behind the scenes on the SJP development and the week to week Earlsmead responsibilities.
All I can say is, whilst it has not been a great season, nonetheless - Thank You. Let us keep spirits up!
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