Redditch at home on Boxing Day.

2-1 HT

Geddes booked for a 'robust' challenge!

3-1 Canavan!

4-1 Fitzpatrick

Attendance 637

5-1 Rowe

5-1 FT!

I quite enjoyed that.
Thanks for the lift TRM.

A better game than the torrential rain induced drab 1-0s of the last two league meetings and a large crowd to enjoy it.

A great goal to put us in the lead but the equaliser was well deserved and they caused us problems at time, a good time to go in front just before the interval another "present" for Nathan Bennett form the goalkeeper!

We still looked wobbly and an equaliser would have made it uncomfortable, but played really well for the last 20 and superb goals from the substitutes, good to see Rowe get one at the end. Hope Broadhurst's injury isn't too serious.

I thought we started a bit slow, and was worried it could become another Arlesey. We didnt start on the front foot and Redditch caused us a few problems.

When Redditch equalized I thought they deserved it, but we didnt really seem in trouble after we scored the second goal. The third goal finished them off and it could have ended up anything in the end.

I thought it was a professional performance overall and we seem to be scoring goals freely at the moment. Good to see us better last seasons attendance.

My MOM was Sean Geddes, but all played well today.   

Nice to see us come through a game which had the potential to go the wrong way and end up with plenty to spare. How often have we started games slowly and never picked up? I thought it was a good all round team performance, difficult to pick a man of the match as no one had a bad game and there were several notable performances, Haynes, Richards, Geddes and Brown in particular for me.

Went for Ben as Man of the Match personally - he just seemed to be involved in everything.

Went for Kyle Haynes for MOTM although Billingham and Brown ran him close.

A great afternoon on the terraces, with some great laughs - wish I had the quick humour some people possess!

Well done to the lads for the result.

Didn't think we were at the races really for the first 15 minutes, maybe longer. They looked a bit sharper and clearly wanted to get at us and put us off our game - nowt wrong with that and they deserved the equaliser on the balance of play.

We did take a bit more control up to half time and perhaps merited the lead at that point. If Luke's shot had gone in instead of hitting the post the second half might have been a bit more comfortable than it looked like being for a time.

Should have made our chances count early in the second half but from about 60 to 75 they pushed us back and we looked a bit too happy to settle for 2-1 at that point, hoping to hit them on the break. I don't really remember them having a real chance but the way we go about things sometimes there's always the chance that we'll give a daft one away. You'd certainly have got good odds on 5-1 during that period. Got a bit of fortune with Drew paying a 1-2 off a defender for the third and then a good move and smart ball from Geds setting up Fitz for 4-1. Those two goals were well-finished rather than some of the slightly snatched efforts before then. From behind the goal I was surprised Rowey wasn't flagged offside for the fifth but perhaps I didn't spot a defender lurking on the line?

Very good crowd after the last two home games. Higher than I expected. Only Weymouth (v Poole) and St Albans (v Chesham) were higher in the division.

Redditch were better than 5-1 suggests. Pity they had to rent some gobby fans from Blues for the day - if only they'd got behind their own team instead of being anti-Stour with most of their chants. And if they'd ever set foot inside the Valley they'd not have had the brass neck to criticise the Temple of Amblecote.

Saturday will be a test now - St Neots in better form of late and brought in some good players since the manager moved from Arlesey.

Thought it was a good team performance after a slow start.

Still think we need to defend better in midfield where we give the opposition too much time. Better teams will exploit this more than Redditch did.

Pleased to see the attendance was quite high compared to the Frome game.

For me there was only one player in contention for MoM and that was
Kyle Haynes.

stoursi wrote:For me there was only one player in contention for MoM and that was
Kyle Haynes.

I went for Geddes but it wasn't an easy choice. A lot of players had good games but I didn't think anybody really stood out.

Haynes added something going forward although his crosses needed more of an end product, which was partly due to players not making a run for the near post where two or three of his crosses went. I thought both full backs looked a little vulnerable when attacked, especially early on, but they could have done with a bit more help from those in front of them - again our midfield not protecting the back four enough.

MotM was Sean Geddes with 11 votes, Luke received 4, Will & Kyle 3 each, Nathan, Ben & Andre 1 each.

Wine was won by Steve Hyde.

Can't believe MOM I have said midfield we do not defend and many people have said it too so how can we vote for a player who doesn't defend. Also the player doesn't delivery that many scoring opportunities from dead balls. Could have been sent off yesterday before creating a goal for fitz.

Can't believe he is ever in contention when Leon does his defensive work.

Sorry but the player who you all consider so good goes missing when we need a captain and a midfielder to take control goes missing.

Can't see any club above trying to sign him.

stoursi wrote:Can't believe MOM I have said midfield we do not defend and many people have said it too so how can we vote for a player who doesn't defend. Also the player doesn't delivery that many scoring opportunities from dead balls. Could have been sent off yesterday before creating a goal for fitz.

Can't believe he is ever in contention when Leon does his defensive work.

Sorry but the player who you all consider so good goes missing when we need a captain and a midfielder to take control goes missing.

Can't see any club above trying to sign him.

I voted for him as I thought he had a good steady game.
You say Leon does his defending so surely that gives Sean licence to venture forward or are we meant to have both central midfielder's protecting the back four?

Sorry but Geddes for me wasn't in my top four.

Leon ain't a defending midfielder for us at all.

Geddes all round game needs to improve to go further if he is to play higher than what we are.

Will bet you per dead ball we have scored more goals when Ben is on the ball than Sean apart from pens which every should score in my opinion

stoursi wrote:Can't believe MOM

I believe it's called "democracy."

I buy a MotM ticket from Brian before the game and then rarely give it a second thought until his smiling face hoves into view afterwards seeking the return of said ticket, at which point I find myself struggling to come up with a name unless a particular player stands out.

Often I get home and on reflection I think maybe I should have gone for somebody else. Yesterday I thought lots of players did well, but nobody was head and shoulders above the rest. Several players played as well as Sean and could easily have got my vote instead. I didn't think anybody was better than him, though, Kyle included.

At the end of the day, does it really matter?

Sean creates so many more chances in our attacking third of the pitch than Leon could ever dream of....Surely you don't believe Sean should protect the back four and let Leon constantly give the ball away in our attacking third.
Leon has a job to do and that job is to cover ground and break up play,certainly not to create chances for our forward players.
Sean scores a fair few goals from open play and that's because he ventures forward and has an eye for goal....keep him doing what he does,that's what I say.

Tricky think you are missing my point when we haven't got the ball we should be lined up as a solid 4 4 2 but Sean doesn't do that he is always in front of the other three.

As said before by me and others we give too much space away when we are defending in between the defence and midfield and usually it is where Sean should be when we haven't got the ball. Heard that loads of times but not many fans come on this forum for so many reasons. DA says we need a ball winning midfielder so where does that leave Sean and Leon. How many goals has Sean scored in open play to Leon in previous seasons. So who would you pick.

For me  the most creative player we have is Ben who I think under performs so many times.

If Sean is so good as some think he is then this league should present no problems at all to him to command that midfield as other players have done but he doesn't.

That's why I can't see why he got MOM.

stoursi wrote:Sorry but Geddes for me wasn't in my top four.

Leon ain't a defending midfielder for us at all.

Geddes all round game needs to improve to go further if he is to play higher than what we are.

Will bet you per dead ball we have scored more goals when Ben is on the ball than Sean apart from pens which every should score in my opinion

That'll be why Northampton Town have been seriously looking at him then!

I'm not going to start knocking other players just to justify why i was one of those who voted for Geddes yesterday.

This season i've probably voted for Will Richards on 70% of occasions and he was again in contention yesterday,i think it was only the second time i've voted for Sean this season but it was well deserved.

Sean sets the tempo for the team,if he play's well the team tend's to play well but FFS….you can't expect him to be the ball winner and the ball player as well,why not shove a broom up his @rse and get him to sweep the terraces whilst he's at it!

Ridiculous to slag off a player and bitch about him and those that voted for him when the margin by which he won the award was significant.

It's not as if we all huddled together in the piss house to confer before we voted,like TRM said….it was democracy in action.

Devil's Advocate wrote:

stoursi wrote:Sorry but Geddes for me wasn't in my top four.

Leon ain't a defending midfielder for us at all.

Geddes all round game needs to improve to go further if he is to play higher than what we are.

Will bet you per dead ball we have scored more goals when Ben is on the ball than Sean apart from pens which every should score in my opinion

That'll be why Northampton Town have been seriously looking at him then!

I'm not going to start knocking other players just to justify why i was one of those who voted for Geddes yesterday.

This season i've probably voted for Will Richards on 70% of occasions and he was again in contention yesterday,i think it was only the second time i've voted for Sean this season but it was well deserved.

Sean sets the tempo for the team,if he play's well the team tend's to play well but FFS….you can't expect him to be the ball winner and the ball player as well,why not shove a broom up his @rse and get him to sweep the terraces whilst he's at it!

Ridiculous to slag off a player and bitch about him and those that voted for him when the margin by which he won the award was significant.

It's not as if we all huddled together in the piss house to confer before we voted,like TRM said….it was democracy in action.

I enjoyed our huddle in the piss house devil and I thought you did too?