Hemel at home.

With Albion also be at home i'm sorry to be missing this match.

It has all the ingredient's for a cracker,i see a high scoring game but can't call a winner.

Defensively though we have to be better than of late otherwise Toomey,Mackey and Mpi will have a romp.

I think that if we can get a draw it would be good, regardless of our recent performances. We have to remain positive at all times, and hope for the best.

I predict stour to lose 3-1, but that's only because I always get it wrong which should hopefully mean we win instead   And I look forward to giving Makey some stick as well, the money grabbing stour reject...


COYG  

I thin it's a game we CAN win but I'd make us second favourites. The League table suggests they are just that bit better than us (better than everybody, come to that!) at both ends of the pitch. It might be a high-ish scoring game but my feeling is that they will score more than us.

What really worries me is our defence against the sort of quality they have. Although on paper we're about the fourth or fifth best team in the Division for goals conceded per game, we keep far too few clean sheets - you can usually bank on us to let in one a game, even against the weaker teams. Example - we've played five matches so far against the three teams marooned at the bottom of the table, and in those games we've not kept one clean sheet. OK, we've won them all except the Bedford away game, but it just illustrates that we give opponents too many chances, and Hemel will punish that.

If we get enough hold in the game to put pressure on them then I think we have a chance but that in turn leaves us vulnerable to break-aways as our midfield pushes up and leaves the defence exposed.

Smiler's 1-3 is not a bad guess, in my book. I'll go for 2-4.

Hoping we might get over 600 through the gate.

Preview from today's Stourbridge News...

http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/sport/football/sfc/evo_stik_southern_premier_2013_2014/read_article/11024969.Glassboys_plot_to_humble_Hemel_/

Today's team:

Coleman Canavan Richards Sansara Geddes Harris Haynes Broadhurst Brown Billingham Berwick

Subs:

Fitzpatrick
Benbow
Knight
Francis
Bennett

Ref ruined it within half hour. Absolutle joke.

Wonder how they would be doing if theyhad been correctly relegated - not top of this league that's for sure! Not bitter or anything! ;-)

More than controlled the game, had more chances than them. If Mr Mackey was a Stour player today... Cannot fault the performance, 2 very well taken goals and a penalty. Can see why Hemel are top, physically imposing and ruthless, which was the difference today. Ref was absolutely pathetic. As was the Linesman on the near side second half. One slight gripe, wonder if the Hemel fans singing 'That's why you're staying down' supported them when they should have been relegated? I think not.

All about taking your chances. We had enough of them.

Credit to the players for digging in and giving their all,must draw a line under this and get behind the players Tuesday.

A mixture of emotions after that one! well done lads for digging deep and making a cracking game of it but annoyed they had to.

Hemel were stong, organised and skilful, easy to see why they are top of the league but we more than matched them, we bettered them, for long periods. Unfortunately we couldn't take some of the chances we created and they did, scoreline doesn't reflect the game really. Their 3rd was a superb effort so my hat off to that.

Ref was shocking today and that's the most annoying thing for me but at the end when some were throwing things at him and his assistants, that's out of order. I don't know what it was that was thrown as I was over the other side of the ground but anything thrown is unacceptable as far as I'm concerened.

Onwards and upwards for the next game.
COYG!

After gifting Hemel a two goal lead and going further behind to a wonder (or should it be a fluke) strike, the team then did themselves proud with a spirited and determined display, epitomised by Sean and Ben.

Even though we played with only 10 men for 2/3 of the game, if it hadn't been for a very impressive goalkeeper and if the woodwork hadn't saved Hemel twice, the scoreline would have been much closer.

Trying very hard to be fair to the very young-looking ref., I have to say he gave us absolutely nothing eg several clear penalty shouts, and even sent off the wrong player.

All in all, 4 - 1 flatters Hemel. If we carry on showing the same positive qualities for the rest of the season (we need to tighten our defence though) , we WILL make the play-offs.

I can't comment on the performance as I was suffering a dire match at Albion but suffice to say quality always show's through in the end and Hemel have it in spades.

They were the best side i saw at Amblecote last season and having added to that squad they deserve their promotion.

Their are quality players out there who would travel to Stour for the right money,possibly it's time to have a re-think at the end of the season in regards to "money for a rainy day/promotion upgrade" account.

Given the choice out of a new green fence ( which will have to come down anyway for the cricket season ) OR a "Ben Mackey" type of player ( or three! ) added to the squad i'd go for the latter.

It's not ALL about the money of course but even at our level the club's that pay for the quality tend to get the promotion.

And then 3 years later find themselves fighting for financial survival.

Jack wrote:And then 3 years later find themselves fighting for financial survival.

Oh give it a rest Jack!

You don't have to spend all £160k made from the cup runs,nobody would advocate that.

So you'd rather have an £8000 fence than Mackey,Toomey or a John Frendo type scorer and a Liam Daley in defence then?

I half expected that kind of result, but not to pan out the way it did! allowing too much space and conceding a goal after 20 seconds was an absolutely disastrous start and during those first 10 minutes we looked extremely shaky with offside after offside when we where attacking.  We got into it, their keeper made 3 excellent saves and we where dictating it for a while, then the soft penalty and as stated not sure the right player went off.  3rd goal was a screamer and from a very good contest the game was over in a minute.

Thought we continued to play some good stuff, despite things going against us, the officiating was beyond appalling and even I let them have some "constructive criticism"!, I usually manage to remain more detached but it was very poor indeed, Mr Jones.

A good goal and it was the very least we deserved from the match, then we had two penaltys not given in my opinion! Hemel had some decent players but Mackey didn't do a lot.  It did seem ugly by the tunnel at the end, unfortunately not surprising, during the match felt the crowd made a lot more noise  and got behind the team when the going got tough.  Draw  a line under this one as quickly as possible I think.

Devil's Advocate wrote:

Jack wrote:And then 3 years later find themselves fighting for financial survival.

Oh give it a rest Jack!

You don't have to spend all £160k made from the cup runs,nobody would advocate that.

So you'd rather have an £8000 fence than Mackey,Toomey or a John Frendo type scorer and a Liam Daley in defence then?

Yep, I obviously would.   

The trouble is, you mention these players over and over, why would they travel to Stour when they get paid money elsewhere? It isn't as easy as you make it out to be.

Terrible start conceding so early and playing with 10 men for so long. We had chances though and didn't take them. Didn't deserve to lose 1-4 however.

managed to make the game today, nearly spoilt by the ref but at the end of the day hemel took their chances. I was sad to see the incident at the end not a pretty sight. I think the observations from other forum users about the game today is very fair. unfortunately DA had to make his irrelevant comments, he wasn't there so his input is pretty much the same when we do well we are the greatest team on earth when we lose he has all the answers.
Jack I don't know who you are but fair play I think you had an interesting steer on things today. Good luck to the team on Tuesday and at Poole,hope to get the updates via this forum when away on business for the next couple of weeks.

rasam wrote:managed to make the game today, nearly spoilt by the ref but at the end of the day hemel took their chances. I was sad to see the incident at the end not a pretty sight. I think the observations from other forum users  about the game today is very fair. unfortunately DA had to make his irrelevant comments, he wasn't there so his input is pretty much the same when we do well we are the greatest team on earth when we lose he has all the answers.
Jack I don't know who you are but fair play I think you had an interesting steer on things today. Good luck to the team on Tuesday and at Poole,hope to get the updates via this forum when away on business for the next couple of weeks.

We don't know who you are either rasam as you prefer to stay in the shadows then after days/weeks with nothing to say you come on just to have a personal dig at me,when it comes to "irrelevant ' you take the meaning to a whole new level.

It's obvious you're in some way related or attached to someone within the squad etc because anything that i say that question's the way thing's are done has you immediately going on the defensive.

An excellent performance from the players, which on any other day would have resulted in victory.  After all we must of hit the woodwork at least 6 times, not to mention the 5 blatant penalty decisions that didn't go our way.  Unfortunately it was ruined by the referee, and apparently even their manager said that he spoiled the game as well.  How on earth can the referee make the mistake of dismissing the wrong player, it just proved how in control he wasn't  

I look forward to watching their carefully edited video of the game, and I bet we don't get to see the very nice hand gesture that their keeper did behind his back to our fans in the 2nd half 

As to the so-called supporter who decided to throw their drink at the ref when he was walking off the pitch and then verbally abuse Jane when she complained to them, not a very good thing to do.  We were all upset at him but there was no need to do that, as when he files his match report he could quite easily mention that event.  And it would be the club that get's into trouble not the person responsible.

The thing which worried me most is that the only people standing nearby who didn't see it happen where the stewards, or if they did then why didn't they speak to the person instead of Jane.  It's events like that which can give the club a bad name, and that is something we don't want.

Like everyone else has said we have to put the result behind us and concentrate on Tuesdays game at Banbury, especially as we never seem to do well there.  And I am glad that the game at Hemel has been rearranged as it means I will be able to go.

Just hope I never see that referee again...

sirsmilerIII wrote:An excellent performance from the players, which on any other day would have resulted in victory.  After all we must of hit the woodwork at least 6 times, not to mention the 5 blatant penalty decisions that didn't go our way.  Unfortunately it was ruined by the referee, and apparently even their manager said that he spoiled the game as well.  How on earth can the referee make the mistake of dismissing the wrong player, it just proved how in control he wasn't  

I look forward to watching their carefully edited video of the game, and I bet we don't get to see the very nice hand gesture that their keeper did behind his back to our fans in the 2nd half 

As to the so-called supporter who decided to throw their drink at the ref when he was walking off the pitch and then verbally abuse Jane when she complained to them, not a very good thing to do.  We were all upset at him but there was no need to do that, as when he files his match report he could quite easily mention that event.  And it would be the club that get's into trouble not the person responsible.

The thing which worried me most is that the only people standing nearby who didn't see it happen where the stewards, or if they did then why didn't they speak to the person instead of Jane.  It's events like that which can give the club a bad name, and that is something we don't want.

Like everyone else has said we have to put the result behind us and concentrate on Tuesdays game at Banbury, especially as we never seem to do well there.  And I am glad that the game at Hemel has been rearranged as it means I will be able to go.

Just hope I never see that referee again...

Very sad to hear that Jane took abuse in this way.

Extremely uncalled for i must say and i hope the culprit's are spoken to.

People like Jane are the lifeblood of true support and she does her bit behind the scenes at times as well.

Chin up Jane,don't let it get you down.

First of all DA you were at the Hawthorns so if you are going to comment on a game comment on that and nothing else.

Team selection wrong from the start how on earth can Luke be left on the bench for Berwick. Sorry but that Berwick will never get us in the play offs. Scoring in this league is just average. Not the signing we should have made.

Awful start by us not even making one challenge on Tooney for the first goal. Supporters have talked all season about midfielders not making a challenge and today that proved it.

The penalty whether it was or it wasn't I am not sure but how can you send a player off for I would think being the last man when we have two defenders going for the ball. A rubbish decision for me.

We had our chances but all credit to Walker for making some good saves.

Negatives for me today Ford and Clifton on the pitch questioning decisions. Yes most were wrong but it ain't going to get us anywhere we have to carry on.

Thought we should have brought Berwick off when Will was sent off and gone with Ben upfront. Thought bringing on Fitz was just a waste of time again and that perhaps that shows our ambition because he certainly doesn't improve things at all.

Hopefully we can improve things on Tuesday and get back to winning ways.

Photo's from today's game...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/squadronleaderhayes/sets/72157641372951723/with/12704976843/