Cambridge City away.

I'm pretty sure it was a tongue in cheek comment folks, calm down! Currently 1 all by the way, Geddes equalizer.

Aled wrote:I'm pretty sure it was a tongue in cheek comment folks, calm down! Currently 1 all by the way, Geddes equalizer.

2-1 down now.

Lost 2-1. Hackett out!

Aled wrote:Lost 2-1. Hackett out!

Are you saying that Hackett can no longer "hack it"

Not great tonight, but hard to be critical after 12 straight wins. Cambridge were poor and at 1-1 we looked more likely to get the winner, but they scored a wonder goal from about 25 yards that you can't do much about. Their first was a free header from a corner though. 5 league defeats by mid November doesn't leave much room for many more over the rest of the season.

First I've seen of Agbor - he looked bright when he came on and gave us more of a threat. Until then we didn't have any width to our play. Worth a start or is he better as an impact sub? Good to see Ben come on for the last 10 minutes - hopefully he will be back starting soon.

Hopefully Westley will have gone away thinking we're not that good and he has nothing to worry about. Doubt it though unfortunately.

Winning run had to end sometime, hope we can start another one Saturday!!

Right from the first minute tonight we were off the pace.

No lack of effort or endeavour but the intensity of recent games was missing,it was almost as if our lad's were emotionally drained.

Great game by Sean Geddes though,he ran the midfield but we lacked creative width and Benbow and Rowey just didn't get into the game at all.

Personally i thought we should've pushed Will Richards up front much earlier because they were a physical side and if anything we lacked that tonight,this seems to be our slight achilies heel in midfield and up front,"hoofing" sides like Cambridge now are do seem to cause us problems.

A big "well done" to the travelling support tonight,around 40-50 of us were there in a 241 crowd and we did our best but alas it wasn't enough to bring the lad's home.

Worst case scenario now is a draw on Saturday and a replay next week,a win or out altogether would be my hope.

What a hideous journey home though,diversions badly signposted mean't a horrible trip back for us arriving home around 12.30am with the bus a good hour at least behind!

Would agree with DA that we never started the match last night.

First half for us was a performance to forget and one of the worst this season. We were perhaps lucky to go in at all square as Dean made one good save and they missed a few chances.

Second half started like the first. Slack marking gave their player a free header to make it one nil. With the height we have we should be making it really hard for teams to score from set pieces.

However after the goal we picked up the pace slightly and they really didn't off much to increase their lead. As said when Sean scored there seem to be only one winner but we really didn't test their keeper.

The second goal for them was a good strike but how far did their player run without being challenged by any of our players. We have to be better at closing down the opposition in our midfield.

Agree we lacked width but I didn't see that Agbor gave us any more width. He is a right footed player that was playing on the left so has to turned back and cross with his right. Also his delivery of crosses was poor but so were many others. Why didn't Gary use Washbourne who is a left footed player and will try to go past the defender. Personally can only think of one cross that was perhaps decent which Nathan headed wide which isn't good enough.

Would agree that Luke and Ryan were not a pair last night which is a shame as they seemed to have started to gel a bit better lately.

Great to see Ben back but looked very uncertain about anyone making contact with him. Really hope he hasn't come back to quickly after his operation. Health is more important.

One defeat in 13 is a good record as someone has said though 5 defeats already doesn't give us much room for further defeats. Lets hope we start another run of wins on Saturday as I don't fancy the replay on Tuesday.

Great support last night since it was a long journey and even longer as DA mentioned due to the crap diversion signposted.

Agree with previous posts, a poor first half where we did well to hang on and go in still goalless.
A much better second half and after we equalised I thought we could go on to win.
I thought their goal (good as it was) was against the run of play.
After 12 straight wins I find it hard to criticise the players, they all gave 100% and as DA says in a separate post you cannot doubt their commitment.
Good support again from everyone.

Perhaps to clear up a one point raised by Stoursi, chatting to Nathan in the bar after the game, we mentioned the header
that he put wide. He agreed it was an opportunity missed, but explained that he got blinded by the glare of the floodlights
and could not see the ball when it got to him.
It was also clear after the game that Luke was not 100% fit and was suffering from a heavy cold which may explain his quieter than usual game.

MotM was sean Geddes with 10 votes, Jamie received 9 and Leon, Nathan & Ryan 1 each.

The wine was won by Kevin Broadhurst.

If Luke was suffering from a heavy cold then should he really have started the game? The front two were totally out of sorts all evening,this could well go some way to explaining it. Roly could have started down the middle with Ryan, he did bugger all on the left wing when he came on which is a shame as up until last night he has appeared to be a very exciting player,not afraid to run at defences.

I dont think we played too badly until reaching the final third of the pitch. I think we played with a certain amount of composure until we reached a brick wall 25 yards from goal. To be fair, I thought Cambridge defended very well all evening, but we didnt have any real quality out wide to get round the back of them. Drew and Fitzpatrick were ineffective all evening, Ryan hardly had a touch.

Saturday becomes much more important now. I would hate to see the effect on confidence that two successive defeats could have on the lads. A win last night and we could maybe have kept it safe and comfortable in the Trophy, but we now need to bounce back with a good performance.

Most of it has been said already. It just looked like a game too far for us. Started alright for the first ten minutes or so but after that the first half was mostly Cambridge's, although what chances they created they didn't really look like taking.

We had a go at the beginning of the second half - Jamie's (I think) header very well saved by their keeper - before conceding that soft goal from the corner. As others have said, we should be able to defend that better and generally we do. I can't remember conceding many like that this season.

Responded well to equalise soon after with the help of a little deflection and after that we were on top for twenty minutes or so without really threatening to score. Three or four shots just wide from distance and Nathan's header were the closest we came. Cambridge defended well as a team all night - their midfield worked hard to close us down and whenever we got a shooting chance we seemed to be crowded out by masses of bodies. I don't think we protect our defence as well in comparison, but then we do set ourselves up to attack and it works more often than not.

Not many had good games - only Sean out of the "front six" was up to his usual mark - but I'm not going to criticise anybody for that after the last few weeks. However, we do need to lift ourselves for Saturday. I think it will be a tall order to win but a strong performance is definitely needed.

Tricky Tree wrote:

sirsmilerIII wrote:

TRM wrote:Nothing less than proof of attendance at Cambridge, Bideford, Biggleswade and Burnham should suffice in my book!

That's all good and well, but what about the long time supporters who cannot afford to go to every away game and have to prioritise which matches they attend  

Or even the not so long time supporters who went to most pre season matches and a fair wack of away games this season until they fell upon hard times?!

Of course it was tongue in cheek, as Aled said!!!

FFS chaps, do you seriously think I'm in favour of us turning up at Stevenage with about a dozen supporters, which is what would happen if the club did as I "suggested"???!!!

Honestly!    

TRM wrote:Most of it has been said already. It just looked like a game too far for us. Started alright for the first ten minutes or so but after that the first half was mostly Cambridge's, although what chances they created they didn't really look like taking.

We had a go at the beginning of the second half - Jamie's (I think) header very well saved by their keeper - before conceding that soft goal from the corner. As others have said, we should be able to defend that better and generally we do. I can't remember conceding many like that this season.

Responded well to equalise soon after with the help of a little deflection and after that we were on top for twenty minutes or so without really threatening to score. Three or four shots just wide from distance and Nathan's header were the closest we came. Cambridge defended well as a team all night - their midfield worked hard to close us down and whenever we got a shooting chance we seemed to be crowded out by masses of bodies. I don't think we protect our defence as well in comparison, but then we do set ourselves up to attack and it works more often than not.

Not many had good games - only Sean out of the "front six" was up to his usual mark - but I'm not going to criticise anybody for that after the last few weeks. However, we do need to lift ourselves for Saturday. I think it will be a tall order to win but a strong performance is definitely needed.

"whenever we got a shooting chance we seemed to be crowded out by masses of bodies. I don't think we protect our defence as well in comparison"

This is an excellent point Rich and something that Brockmoor and myself have said for a long time.

Leon has to cover a lot of ground "harrying" opponents and doesn't get a lot of help from the other five midfield and front players in this regard,add to that the fact he's not exactly built like Viera or Yaya Toure then it leaves us short of height and physical power in the engine room.

I can't see us ever really dominating this division until we do add more physical presence to the side,for me this would include a large but mobile front player so that we can mix things around more often rather than play Ryan and Luke together all the time.

When we're playing well and getting on top of teams such as Biggleswade on Saturday Ryan and Luke look like a top notch pairing BUT when we're having a slightly off night like last night they tend to become anonymous,i feel we need an additional and different type of option,for me Will was moved up front far too late last night but that said their big,mobile unit at number 10 was causing us plenty of problems,the sort of problems i would have liked to have been causing them.


We are are "pretty" side once you look past out back four,this leads to us giving some great performances when things are going well but we are so intricate in our style of play that it only takes one or two components to be dodgy for the whole thing to perform poorly.

If we could find a big target man to either compliment Ryan or Luke or even on ocaission to play up front alone in a 4-5-1 then i think it'd be a worthwhile squad addition.

We now seem to either win or lose,we need to learn how to grind out draws as well,last night was a case in point,a draw would've been a good result there especially if we'd ground out draws at home to Chippenham and away to Hungerford,two games we should really not be losing in.

I'm hopeful that some of the £50,000 cup prize money will be put into a new,holding midfielder and a proper,proven centre forward who can hold the ball up and bring the midfielders into play.

Roll on the return of Rocky......

Tricky Tree wrote:Roll on the return of Rocky......

I'm not rising to the bait Tricky!

Devil's Advocate wrote:

Tricky Tree wrote:Roll on the return of Rocky......

I'm not rising to the bait Tricky!

You know you want to Devil.

Tricky Tree wrote:

Devil's Advocate wrote:

Tricky Tree wrote:Roll on the return of Rocky......

I'm not rising to the bait Tricky!

You know you want to Devil.

We enquired of young Jack last night as to your footballing "credential's" Tricky.


In fairness Jack was quite glowing in his report as to your goalscoring record…..alas the disciplinary record somewhat tarnished your reputation but it was only what i'd expected.


It appears you could be the team's "missing link" and your detail's will be forwarded to Gary and Fordy.


Funny really……………i'd always thought you might be the "missing link" but in an entirely different aspect!

Only two red cards in 16 seasons and one was harsh to say the least.

Tricky Tree wrote:Only two red cards in 16 seasons and one was harsh to say the least.

The other one wasn't though was it Trickster!

Did you pay for the referee's dental treatment?

Ahhhh. Paying for someone's dental treatment. We have things in common tricky. Although I will say similarities do end there!

I'll admit that having my hand around someone's throat two minutes into a game wasn't the cleverest of moves.

My mistake.....three red cards and yes that was deserved aswell. 

I'll admit that having my hand around someone's throat two minutes into a game wasn't the cleverest of moves.

Did that happen Tricky or was that a dream you had concerning Devil!

brockmoor wrote:
I'll admit that having my hand around someone's throat two minutes into a game wasn't the cleverest of moves.

Did that happen Tricky or was that a dream you had concerning Devil!

I take Devil with a pinch of salt....an enormous pinch mind you.

Just a quick thank you to Brian for the updates last night.

I suppose a "bad day at the office" was inevitable after the good run. Hopefully it was a one-off as we'll need to be on top form on Saturday.

Dave the Glassboy wrote:Just a quick thank you to Brian for the updates last night.

I suppose a "bad day at the office" was inevitable after the good run. Hopefully it was a one-off as we'll need to be on top form on Saturday.

Add to that the fact that your beloved M6 was a nightmare to get back on as well Dave.

Can't you have a word with someone? :-)