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Focus!
Views: 3563
The final XI looked like a return to the old guard, perhaps with Saturday in mind. To date, and similar to Dulwich our performances are not anywhere near reflective of our respective underlying talents. Makes things mouth-watering. Negatives persist, our delivery into the box is amateurish, our formations limitations leaves us bereft of bodies in the box. Everything we have disregarded to date, will probably be our salvation at some point. Casey, Big Dave, Murphs. The talent is there. Ollie, class act - he and Seebs needed to stem the in-coming.
We are stuck in second gear with that lot sat on the bench. Even one intervention can change the whole complexion. We are making medicocre opposition look equal.
Last season I went to Dulwich and Tonbridge and for the first time in nearly nine years I felt defeat before departure, and didn't like it. I don't want that feeling again - and for disclosure purposes, right now, I don't have the same sentiment. In fact, I full faith in the lads - It's in the locker.
I genuinely believe we can win. Plenty of the season left, push on, be bold.
Footnote to the Met. I maintain, he's a decent manager. Along with Gary and Dowson, decent stock. I thought that was a tough break today. There's some tough lessons out there.
Re: Focus!
Views: 3229
The match had a number of parallels with the Dulwich league game. We looked sharp and incisive for the first 15 to 20 minutes but we then lost concentration. The passing discipline went awry and we conceded lots of silly unnecessary free kicks near our box.
Better finishers than the Police would have had a field day with all the free kick opportunities.
I agree with the blogger who has pointed out that Kezie's excellent hold-up play is wasted on too many occasions as the mid-fielders and other front players fail to support him and provide the much needed passing opportunities. Some work needed on the coaching side here - playing off and supporting the central striker?
Finally, can we wean ourselves off the defending deep obsession. If we try this next week and give them the initiative from minute one we wIll get thrashed and deserve it.
Re: Focus!
Views: 3299
Wasn't the finest performance yesterday, but there was plenty of grit and determination.
Also, given my many posts on discipline last season, seeing the Met's shower of dissent in front of a crowd with dozens of youngsters was pretty embarrassing. The four Hendon cautions were largely part and parcel of football rather than any kind of crass, self-inflicted idiocy.
https://hfchomecoming.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/three-penalty-points-and-muir-nickos-the-win/
Re: Focus!
Views: 3161
First up - the referee. Most of you know I'm usually the first to defend officials - but he had a shocker! My gut feeling when the penalty was awarded was that he'd got it wrong - and the highlights back that view up, so I have sympathy with Met Police for being upset with him.
However, that didn't excuse their continued moaning and dissent, and they only have themselves to blame to end up with 6 players booked and a £500 fine.
We clearly noted that moaning at the referee wasn't going to get us anywhere - and whilst we had 4 booked - 2 were for fouls - I'll never have an issue with yellows for fouls, 1, that I thought was justified, I'm told by others with a better view was harsh at best, and 1 that was complete nonsense as by then the referee had completely lost the plot.
Positives for me were the way we kept battling to the end once again - there was a real determination not to let the three points slip after Niko's goal (which was very well taken), and also that such a young side is now starting to produce the results that pre-season was promising. That said, I don't think it's a complete coincidence that we're unbeaten since Kevin Maclaren came back to the side.
Agree about our defending so deep - not sure why we're doing that, but I doubt its intentional, and I was getting very frustrated about the number of free kicks we gave away rather too close to our goal for my liking. It was inevitable that their goal would come from one eventually. Our defending generally seems pretty solid - our defending from set pieces needs some work.
I know I've not seen much over the past couple of years - but I suspect that's a game that we would have lost last season.
Be interesting to see how many changes there are on both sides on Tuesday.
The Law fought the Ref and the Ref won
Views: 3149
To back up SteveHFC’s observations, I don’t normally make a note of the time of cautions and especially not the offences, but I did on Saturday. Our four were three fouls and one time-wasting: first Alfie Young, 32mins – very poor decision – second Kevin Maclaren, 35mins – probably right, but his reputation goes before him – third Mayo Balogun, 48mins – absolutely correct (and his foul three minutes later may well have merited another one) – and fourth Spencer McCall, 87mins – understandable, except it was an attacking move to let someone else take the throw-in so he could continue the attack. As their half-dozen: the first two were for dissent inside eight minutes (Will Salmon, their skipper, then Nathan Smart), two more for what I can only imagine were the same thing in the last five minutes (Ty Smith and Richard Pacquette), one for shenanigans lining up for a set-piece in our box (Charlie Collins) and one for a foul (I think Rob Bartley). However, there were at least three fouls which were at least as bad as the one which got Mayo booked and all three players were let off with a warning.
Re: The Law fought the Ref and the Ref won
Views: 3230
I actually thought Rob Bartley was booked twice on Saturday.
I was sure that he was booked for a foul on Kezie around the centre circle early-ish in the second half and then towards the end of the game when he was one of three players down injured (Brendan Norris, Bartley and one other "policeman"), I was convinced that the ref showed him a second yellow as he went off the pitch after treatment.
Ordinarily, I would assume that I was wrong and the ref was right but, in this particular case .....
Re: The Law fought the Ref and the Ref won
Views: 2994
I too thought that Bartley had been booked twice, only the occasion when he was going off for treatment being his first caution. He was very upset over a challenge from Kevin where it looked from where I was sitting as though he'd been caught by a stray forearm. The video doesn't bear that out though, thankfully. What I thought was his second must have been Pacquette.
Re: The Law fought the Ref and the Ref won
Views: 3172
It was very hard to keep track of the 10-card trick, but I think although Bartley was involved in that incident, it was Ty Smith, for the about the fourth time, said something out of turn and it was he who received the caution. Smith, from what I saw, might have seen yellow when Smart was cautioned in the eighth minute, then, around 20 minutes, committed a bad foul midway inside his own half, then had at least two more pops at the man with the whistle in the second half.
Two yellows and subbed
Views: 3124
I can recall only one Hendon player who has escaped a red after receiving two yellows (Kevin nearly did so against Sutton at Wembley late in the 2008–09 season, but the Sutton fans persuaded the referee and his assistant to get it right before play could resume).
In this other incident, our bench knew immediately what had happened and substituted him, within seconds of the second caution. As I couldn’t believe what I had seen, I spoke with the player after the game and he admitted that he was about to walk off, but then realised the referee wasn’t feeling in his pocket for a second card (it turned out that the referee had written 12 – who had been on the pitch a matter of seconds – instead of 2 for that second booking).
By the way, you can trawl through all the reports to find the player and match in question, but it was agreed that to protect the guilty, none of the card incidents would be mentioned.
Edited by David B at 18:35:32 on 12th September 2016
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