Arlesley Town at home.

A game we should win.

I'm going for 3-1 to Stour with a crowd of 397, no doubt some of our regulars will get dragged off Christmas shopping with their lesser halves, which is why my crowd guesstimate is on the low side.

UlsterJim wrote:A game we should win.

I'm going for 3-1 to Stour with a crowd of 397, no doubt some of our regulars will get dragged off Christmas shopping with their lesser halves, which is why my crowd guesstimate is on the low side.

Jim,you're giving me grief about my English yet you can't even spell Arlesey correctly :-)


I love the way you endear yourself to the fairer sex mate……no wonder you're a 49 and 11/12ths year old single bloke.


You'd have been great on "Blind Date" on the TV.

Devil's Advocate wrote:You'd have been great on "Blind Date" on the TV.

I never realised Jim fancied Cilla Black   

Got to miss this one, unfortunately. Agree it's a "should win" but they have won their last two after a bit of upheaval behind the scenes with the manager and a few others moving to St Neots. The last team to come to Stour after a poor run but on the back of two wins was... Weymouth. Hopefully we can come up with a repeat of that one!

sirsmilerIII wrote:

Devil's Advocate wrote:You'd have been great on "Blind Date" on the TV.

I never realised Jim fancied Cilla Black   

A Scouser.............no f**king chance.

2-1 to the mighty Glassboys,
Rowe,Billingham.

In front of 412 loyal,not scared of the cold,nobody drags me around the shops-do what i want me,supporters. :  

Any chance some one can post updates.
Up in Dirty Leeds.
Second match missed in a route. :-(

Missed in a row*
Bloody predictive text... It's a loaf of ship.

0-1 HT

Hopefully against the run of play.
Thanks for the update StourBoy.

Lost 2-0. Hackett out again!

Lost 2-0, and they missed a penalty. Just wasn't our day! Fair play to Arlesey, they executed a perfect game plan and played very well. One of the best sides we've seen at Amblecote this season.

We had a severe lack of sights on goal today which ultimately cost us. Rowe was a bit anonymous although Ben and Sean put in a good shift, as did Oliver at the back. Dean looked like he was at fault for their second although partial amends made by his excellent penalty save. Their first goal was an excellent move neatly finished.

Fair play to them, but we need to assess what went wrong in terms of individual performances and tactics and get it right for Tuesday night.

Gobsmacked!

An utterly shambolic performance devoid of any cohesion after the first ten minutes.

Where on earth this 4-3-3 formation has sprung from was beyond the comprehension of thew many "regulars" i chatted to today.

Add to this the departure of Roly Agbor,a player i feel extremely sorry for AND the shipping out of Wurzel on loan to Stourport,all in all a dumfounding day all round.

Agbor rarely got a chance in his proper position and get's brought on at left back away at Burnham,replacing Wurzel who himself was the "fish out of water" who got subbed to bring him on!

I'm afraid it's a case of "same old,same old" down at Amblecote,the losing of games to poor/mediocre opposition ( at best! ) who turn up armed with muscle and commitment,leave us with not a clue how to break them down.

The cup run has only peppered over the cracks as far as I'm concerned,something is not right at it needs addressing quickly.

How Wurzel can be allowed to go to Stourport is beyond me,he's been given virtually no opportunity in his natural wide position this season yet other player's who are simply not performing get in THEIR favoured position week in,week out.

The entertainment value today was nil…….it's simply not good enough considering the quality of some of our player's.

And Albion lost……..i might just kill myself!

On days like today i hate football.

Think it's a bit harsh to say they were poor/mediocre, I thought they played very well, played some good football as well.

Onwards and upwards to Tuesday, in Gary we trust.

Extremely disappointing, Arlesey played well to their game plan as we where second best in everything, I never felt we where going to score despite forcing a few saves, Benbow was our best player by a mile. The performance Tuesday was not good but I hoped we would have got the FA cup a bit more out of our system for today but it was very lethargic and some puzzling selections, Brown is nowhere near good enough to be in the starting eleven, although the two who went off where having poor games I can't believe he stayed on. Good save from the penalty, unfortunately there was anxious moments every time the ball came into our box. I can understand the hangover and tie it in with the amount of traveling that's been going on but today was simply not good enough. I hope to see a reaction on Tuesday.

Not there today so can't comment on the game but would take DA's comments over most as he is there for most games.

Surprised to hear about certain players but noted youth player on bench.

How can anyone say this squad is better than two years ago is beyond me.

As for the comment in gary we trust. Trust him to do what keep us in the SLP. The club should be with the funds available pushing for promotion and be in a better league position than we are now.

its time for the management to show it has what it takes to get us to the next level and the board must back him. If not then people need to really look at what they want.

stoursi wrote:Not there today so can't comment on the game but would take DA's comments over most as he is there for most games.

Surprised to hear about certain players but noted youth player on bench.

How can anyone say this squad is better than two years ago is beyond me.

As for the comment in gary we trust. Trust him to do what keep us in the SLP. The club should be with the funds available pushing for promotion and be in a better league position than we are now.

its time for the management to show it has what it takes to get us to the next level and the board must back him. If not then people need to really look at what they want.

A good post Stoursi,i agree 100% with everything you say.

£150k in the bank following the latest cup runs……….It's time to "sh-t or get off the potty".

Makes for extremely disappointing reading.
Will be there Tuesday... Hopefully some hard thinking before then.

Just seen the attendance too which is equally disappointing.

A not good enough performance against, let's be fair, a good Arlesey team who, in the first half, were cutting our defence into pieces on at least 3/4 occasions. To go in at only 1 - 0 offered hope but to no avail as we never really looked like scoring in the 2nd half.

Too many players had off-days. I agree that Brown looked out of his depth playing out wide and I could not understand why we finished playing with two right backs. What's happened to Agbor ?

Play-offs are, of course, still within reach but we need to win every home game and not to lose too many away games.

Now's the time to take stock and be ruthless. The money is in the bank - within the next few weeks and no later, we need to invest in new players who might command more money but, let's be frank, if we can't beat teams like Arlesey when we have an off-day, our present squad is not good enough to match the ambitions that most of us share.

We've been long enough in the Southern League to consolidate and, with the help of money-spinning cup runs, to find our feet. Yet another season there and we will start to stagnate as our better players eg Will Richards will leave.

The usual case of us being unable to break down a team that came with a definite game plan. Couldn't understand why Brown played wide right when I'd have thought he'd be better in a much more central role, particularly given his height.

Good game again by Benbow and Geddes but we just couldn't put away the chances we did create.

Incredibly frustrating rather than disastrous but can't afford too many more of these.

Would have been there had I not had more pressing tasks to attend to.

I consider it a lucky escape based on what I've read!

Im not quite sure where to start.

Firstly Im hearing that we have let Agbor leave the club and Drake has gone out on loan to Stourport. Although I have heard that Agbor found it a little difficult to settle at the club I feel sorry for the lad. Hes had a 'bit part' role since hes been at Amblecote, but most of the time hes been played out of position. Mostly on the left side when he hasnt got a left foot.
As for Drake going out to Stourport on loan to 'get games'. Im sorry this simply doesnt cut it with me. I will stick my neck on the line here and say hes simply fallen out of favour and I will be surprised if we see him in a Stourbridge shirt again. In my eyes one of the most skillful players we have at the club for a while who could play on either wing. However has spent most of this season at right back!

As for todays game, I simply do not see how anyone can say that Arlesey were a good side, indeed I have seen comments saying theyre the best team seen at Amblecote this season! Sorry but utter tripe. Arlesey were a limited side with hardly any flair but they were a hard working side.

And here is another problem. I cant remember to many times we have 'grounded' out a win against a physical hard working side. We are far to 'pretty' and have nowhere near enough 'bite' in the side.

Im a believer that our current side is not as good as the one a few years ago. When we bring new players in they dont seem to be any better than what we have let go? Like for like is no good when were aiming for bigger and better.

For me today we simply werent at the races. We should have got right at them from the off but we come out in second gear and we struggled to find third gear all game. Cant remember us stringing many passes together all afternoon. I Quite like Brown, but what on earth he was doing on the left wing I have no idea? I would have loved to have seen him in a 'two' with Benbow. For me the Rowe 'gamble' hasnt paid off and he shouldnt have started today. Or at very least he should have been subbed at half time with Brown making a two. However Brown was left out on the cricket square whilst Knight replaced Rowe. Ive also heard rumours that Brown is leaving, however dont know how true this is?

I cant see why Francis doesnt play regularly, although Im aware that he does have health issues on occasions. But if hes on the bench surely hes ok to play 90 minutes. Im sure Washbourne would have been a better alternative on the left side today?

We have lost 7 games from 18 in the league which is simply not good enough. Teams who get in our face we rarely get anything from and this has been a big problem for a while now. We badly lack consistency and as things stand we are struggling for a play-off place. The league title has already long gone.

Its becoming very annoying that the team seem to be able to get up for it in big games. However the bread and butter of the league we struggle. Burnham was a 'no show', today was the same, Bedford away was another poor performance and result against another struggling side.

For me we need to address our problems urgently, and build our team around the likes of the Bennetts, Richards', Geddes', Broadhurst's & Oliver's of this world.

Come on lads.

RED ARMY.

I agree with Brockmoor in that Arlesey were very ordinary, they just happened to be the better of the two teams on the pitch this afternoon. Thought Saturday might have cleared the FA Cup hangover but apparently not.

I can't argue that Browny had a nightmare game on the wing - looked a shadow of his previous appearances. And, yes, Rowey needs to be shipped back to Kiddy when the loan spell ends - just not cutting the mustard at the moment and that money could be better spent elsewhere.

As for Wurzel, then shipping him out to the elephant's graveyard of Stour players to "get games" sounds iffy. He's played more than he's missed IIRC but most of them in the wrong flaming position. Especially wrong when we have two recognised right-backs at the club, neither of whom gets a start because a winger is placed there. Unfathomable sometimes - obviously not one of the "favourites".

Very surprised that Wash didn't get on as he's looked decent in recent games.

(BTW, who were this "Arseley" that [presumably] Gordon kept mentioning on the PA this afternoon?)