Hemel away.

Oh and for the Hemel fans questioning how many times I've been to their ground 4 Times now. Cheers

Make no mistake,this was a tremendous game and Stour deserved at least a draw.

Best match i've seen this season and a performance of heart and passion from Stour who showed everything that is good about our game.

Geddes and Harris were excellent in the middle,Benbow and Brown were a real handful up front and Ben was my motm,he had there full back's on toast time after time.

Sansara was back in form going forward as was Haynes,Knight had a good game as did Leon but Ramsey-Dickson was a bit under par and i think it was his horrendous 30 yard,lob back pass over Coleman that caused the third goal.

I have to say though that Coleman had another nightmare as did their keeper,if you'd taken the best part's of both keeper's and stitched them together you wouldn't have made one competent goalie out of the available components.

Dean's decision ( or not! ) making was hopeless again and his handling betrayed his obvious nerves,i feel the time has come to look elsewhere and this was the general opinion of the many who'd travelled.

In his defence he did also make two or three top notch saves but the error's are just too frequent.

What of Hemel.

Mackey was the stand out player for me,his opener for them was the mark of a class player at this level,a player like him can almost guarantee promotion if the right player's are fitted in around him.

I was not impressed by Hemel overall BUT i must say that their finishing is lethal,the best i've seen at this level for a while.

If we maintain this level of performance for the rest of the season i think we'll win the play offs regardless of who we play should we reach them.

We must not slip up and lose silly points from this point on,this performance set the benchmark.

Great support by the way,around 50 Stour out of 424 on a midweek is a fine effort.

We know that Deano is a good goalkeeper. He quite rightly deserved to keep his place when Lewis came back from injury last year. However the trouble is, we're at the stage of the season where we simply cannot afford individual mistakes and when your confidence is down, the last position you want to be playing is in goal. Your mistakes will ultimately be more costly than a wingers. For example, Bens miss or Luke's etc etc.

The one player who is now getting some praise, but for me, not enough is Harris. We look so much more in control when he's in the team. I think every Stour fan was crying out for a defensive midfielder, I think if we keep hold of him, we've got him.

I thought we played very well last night, if we did have a recognised defence I have no doubt we could have got a result. That's not taking anything away from the defence as I thought they were largely excellent.

Hemel are one of the best teams at this level and I suspect the level above too, it is what happens when you do spend money. I'm not saying we should try and buy the league, but at the end of the day Mackey has now scored 41 goals for them this season, where would we be with them? Luke and Browny are a very good pairing but they're not our 30 goals a season striker, Mackey simply should have been that.

I said to my mom last night at 3 3 that even if we lose this, we've proved we can match anyone in this league when we are up for it. 6 more Hemel aways, starting Saturday and I have no doubt we will finish in the Play Offs. If we do, I think we will then go on and win them. Keep the faith, because we're a very good team, its about time we showed it more often.

Reading the Hemel and Southern League forums it appears the chants of "Chesham Chesham" have really wound some of their supporters up. Don't they understand banter?

I found it quite amusing when the Hemel Youth Firm came down our end for a bit of a sing song and Devil responded to them with "Does your mother still do tricks" Proper football banter.

UlsterJim wrote:Reading the Hemel and Southern League forums it appears the chants of "Chesham Chesham" have really wound some of their supporters up.  Don't they understand banter?

I found it quite amusing when the Hemel Youth Firm came down our end for a bit of a sing song and Devil responded to them with "Does your mother still do tricks"  Proper football banter.

I thought my second verse of…."Come and meet your father" was of an equal standard Jim.


If i were Jack i wouldn't make Hemel a future holiday destination,they seem to have him in their crosshair's down there now,he's hardly flavour of the month with their lot.

I notice on their forum that they seem to be using some sort of hand gesture on their replies to Jack,i'm just trying to work out what it mean's :-))

They really were very easy to wind up though,especially old "Deputy Dawg" as Alan christened him,the old twat along the touchline near the corner flag.

Those chant's of "Scrap iron" also seemed to irritate them :-))

Was nice to see the team spirit back,on the match shame could of not got at least a draw out of it,the Hemel lot dont seem to like banter,wonder why they took exception to our Chesham chant? Tbf other comments they have praised us and was good to see a good following away on a midweek game.on a side note does anyone know the Stratford score? Dont reply that was banter lol  

Great game, atmosphere and we were unlucky not to get a point. Proud of the boys yesterday. Keep going and we can get those play offs!

Have to say though, the absolute highlight for me is reading on their forum is Jack being called the village idiot. Sorry J but could not stop laughing. ;-):-D Put you in a line up of so.e of our more colourful fans and you would be the last one picked out. Seems that some of your implications touched a nerve!:-$ :-$

Jane.N wrote:Great game, atmosphere and we were unlucky not to get a point. Proud of the boys yesterday. Keep going and we can get those play offs!

Have to say though, the absolute highlight for me is reading on their forum is Jack being called the village idiot. Sorry J but could not stop laughing. ;-):-D Put you in a line up of so.e of our more colourful fans and you would be the last one picked out. Seems that some of your implications touched a nerve!:-$ :-$

That line up would be funny though Jane.


The candidates for the job would be many.


Please put your name forward on here for selection :-))

Devil's Advocate wrote:That line up would be funny though Jane.
The candidates for the job would be many.
Please put your name forward on here for selection :-))

Now that in itself would be worth seeing. Stour fans new and old or just the new section?

Excellent all round performance, pity we did not get the point we deserved. Carry that spirit & play into the final 6 games and we can get into the play offs.

MotM was Ben with 11 votes , Luke received 3 , Kyle 2 , Leon , Kristian & Kayelden 1 each.

Wine was won by Ian Pilkington

Highlights...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o08AkO0qgU

Saw the highlights via twitter. Their 2nd and 3rd goal looked really bad defending. Seems we had plenty of chances especially in the 1st half. Solely based on the highlights provided.

TRM wrote:Highlights...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o08AkO0qgU

Amazing what you don't pick up live at the match sometimes.

The first goal was awful,it looked a "worldy" by Mackey but just what on earth was Coleman doing,he was in no man's land.

That said we had enough people close to Mackey for that not to have happened.

The second goal was courtesy of an awful defensive header,i can't tell if it was Brown or Ramsey-Dickson but it should've been cleared and then Coleman tries to come through a ruck of players and misses it totally.

Baz thought Coleman was to blame for number three but i disputed that,the lofted back pass by Ramsey-Dickson was dreadful as was his failure to track Toomey's run,he just stood and watched but Mackey got lucky because his crap attempt to control the ball actually teed up Toomey so i don't blame Dean for this one.

Goal four was the result of a makeshift defence in my opinion,firstly Broadhurst allowed the ball to drop over his head and then Knighty ( who played well otherwise ) switched off and Mackey "ghosted" in behind him to set up the chance but once again Toomey was in acres.

Why players of any standard don't track runners from the opposition is beyond me.

As for the Geddes incident and the opinion of the person who did the video in favour of their player.

1/ Geddes was high and it looked a poor challenge.

2/ Their player was almost as reckless.

3/ The videoer conveniently ignores what looks like a stamp on Geddes as the other player runs away from the incident.

The Benbow incident.

In hindsight it looks poor and it's probably best that we failed to score.

I still maintain it was the match of the season though,an absolute belter of a game.

I thought at the time Mackey's goal was taking advantage of Deano's position more than simply a world class strike-video proves this to be correct.

I noticed the stamp too! The only thing I would say in Luke's defence is that from the original incident via faffing and retaken kicks it was fairly lengthy, could it just have been a genuine forgetful moment - or am I being too generous? ;-)

Has nobody noticed that the winning goal was at least three miles offside?

And the "stamp" on Geddes looks to me totally accidental.

TRM wrote:Has nobody noticed that the winning goal was at least three miles offside?

And the "stamp" on Geddes looks to me totally accidental.

Is there not a Specsavers close to where you live TRM? :-))


If you check the fourth goal again you will see Toomey's starting position is right on the white line on the edge of the box,the picture quality is not great so i can see why you thought he was offside Rich but if you scan across to Ramsay-Dickson you can see he is in line with him as he too is on the line by the look's off it,very close either way but hardly "three miles" old chap.

Hemel fans also thought the 4th was offside

Jack wrote:Hemel fans also thought the 4th was offside

They need an eye test as well.

Watch the video,Toomey is level with Ramsey-Dickson at the second the ball is flicked onto him.


Are you saying that you think Hemel fan's are alway's right Jack?


Very charitable of you considering what they've been saying about you today on their forum :-))


Great result for Liverpool tonight btw.

Devil's Advocate wrote:

TRM wrote:Highlights...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o08AkO0qgU

Amazing what you don't pick up live at the match sometimes.

The first goal was awful,it looked a "worldy" by Mackey but just what on earth was Coleman doing,he was in no man's land.

That said we had enough people close to Mackey for that not to have happened.

The second goal was courtesy of an awful defensive header,i can't tell if it was Brown or Ramsey-Dickson but it should've been cleared and then Coleman tries to come through a ruck of players and misses it totally.

Baz thought Coleman was to blame for number three but i disputed that,the lofted back pass by Ramsey-Dickson was dreadful as was his failure to track Toomey's run,he just stood and watched but Mackey got lucky because his crap attempt to control the ball actually teed up Toomey so i don't blame Dean for this one.

Goal four was the result of a makeshift defence in my opinion,firstly Broadhurst allowed the ball to drop over his head and then Knighty ( who played well otherwise ) switched off and Mackey "ghosted" in behind him to set up the chance but once again Toomey was in acres.

Why players of any standard don't track runners from the opposition is beyond me.

As for the Geddes incident and the opinion of the person who did the video in favour of their player.

1/ Geddes was high and it looked a poor challenge.

2/ Their player was almost as reckless.

3/ The videoer conveniently ignores what looks like a stamp on Geddes as the other player runs away from the incident.

The Benbow incident.

In hindsight it looks poor and it's probably best that we failed to score.

I still maintain it was the match of the season though,an absolute belter of a game.

Good comments based on my viewing of the YouTube clip. Coleman looked totally unfocused, unprepared and out of position for their first. Still a pretty good hit though.

Benbow should have scored! Would have opened a very big can of worms though, so as you say, perhaps for the best. Not that I'd have complained with a 4-4 though...

Re Luke's chance at 4 3. I had forgotten that they had put the ball out so its possible that luke had as well. Speaking to one of our players after the game he said that we would have 'gifted' a goal to Hemel to make amends.

I have thought for a long time that this 'giving the ball back ' is a problem. It should be left to the ref to stop play or for the team with the injured player to put the ball out and concede possession.

I agree, put a stop to all the "put it out" nonsense and leave it up to the ref whether to stop the game or not.

After all it was only another Hemel player trying to get a blanket bath off the physio  

We never did see her sponge either