Hungerford

Tonight's team:

Coleman
Canavan
Richards
Ramsey-Dickson
Geddes
Fitzpatrick
Francis
Broadhurst
Brown
Billingham
Benbow

Subs: Washbourne Birch Drake Tye Knight

1-0 Richards

1-1 penalty

1-2

FT 1-2

Absolute dross...total and utter crap.
I don't want to read excuses...if you're gunna make excuses then you are a moron.

Another very difficult evening, had a good spell after we took the lead, but after the equaliser where second best and a lot of the failings of recent performances where to the fore again, we went close on a few occasions towards the end but being in a slump, the breaks just didn't go our way.

I say slump but it's becoming more like a freefall, injuries and suspension haven't helped in getting a consistent team selection, but we are still capable of much better than what's been produced recently, it's been dreadful for the most part.

I fear it may get worse before it get's better, plenty of head scratching after tonight.

At best that was a very very poor second half! I could say worse...

Glimmer of hope in the later stages of the first half utterly extinguished after the break with a terrible performance, barely a chance created, and bizarre substitutions in taking off two of our better players tonight in Francis and Fitzpatrick, whilst certain players continue to get 90 minutes after 90 minutes.

Three lost at home on the bounce. Frankly, on recent showings we have shown nothing to deserve a play off birth at all.

stour_boy wrote:At best that was a very very poor second half! I could say worse...

Glimmer of hope in the later stages of the first half utterly extinguished after the break with a terrible performance, barely a chance created, and bizarre substitutions in taking off two of our better players tonight in Francis and Fitzpatrick, whilst certain players continue to get 90 minutes after 90 minutes.

Three lost at home on the bounce. Frankly, on recent showings we have shown nothing to deserve a play off birth at all.  

What certain players could you possibly be referring to Stour boy?
If your face fits or you give good enough head then you get a game regardless of how you play.

An unhappy response on Facebook & Twitter from the 'keyboard warriors' as well...not a good night.

Still trying to cope with how awful we were last night, especially in the second half where we didn't seem to have a plan A let alone plan B.

Another needless penalty given away and then we just went to pieces.

I have to echo the above comments - how certain players seem to be automatic choices when they've had about four good games in as many years is astonishing.

Forget the play-offs this season, let's use the rest of the games with the next one in mind. (Some of the players already seem to be thinking of their summer holidays judging by how uninterested they appeared to be last night).

Our season is imploding before our very eyes here at Amblecote where our wretched home form is no better than teams near the bottom of the league. Our away record is good but, with visits to Hemel, Chesham and Poole, I can't see us winning many games on our travels. Our only hope is that Poole's backlog will catch up with them, letting us into the play-offs through the back door.

Last night, I thought we had a good first half even though our goal was debatable, given by a linesman who must have X-ray vision. But, in the second half, there was only one team going to win and deservedly so. Hungerford were much better than expected and I thought one of the best teams seen here this season.

Luke and Ben offered nothing up front. Dickson had a promising debut and offered something new with his long throw-ins. Francis is out of his depth at this level and our midfield, although chasing the game, were overrun and not for the first time.

Perhaps we have flattered to deceive so far because, based on our recent form, particularly at home, we are not good enough for promotion.

Another utter shambles, and im really not sure where our club is going at present on and off the field. There have been far to many questionable decisions made in the past 18 months or so, and these decisions are becoming more frequent and baffling week by week.

Im a believer that we have a number of quality players in our side, far more than we had a few seasons ago. The likes of Brown, Richards, Sansara are better quality players but are surrounded by a few that lets says, simply shouldnt be in the team. Other good players who have done a good job for us in the past are asked to play regularly in 'alien' positions.

Im sick to death of excuse after excuse. There is only so much a supporter will believe and give the 'benefit of the doubt' to before it gets tiresome, boring and delusional. I hear the injuries and suspensions excuse far to much. Youth team players being on the bench and Ford being on bench for a number of away games this season. This should not be happening at or level with the resources we have. Its also pointless to have youth team players on the bench as they're rarely given a chance, and when they do its when were chasing a game. We all know how difficult it is for an experienced player to come off the bench with a new formation to change a game in the last ten minutes, yet we expect youth players to do this!

Far to many players are played out of position far to regularly. Washborne, Drake, Broadhurst, Agbor to name just a few.

Other players such as Drake and Rock are sent packing on loan, when they could do a far better job than others who get a game no matter what performances they produce week in week out.

We have no Plan A, let alone a Plan B, if we do have a Plan A i would suggest it would be nice to let the players aware of what it is. What is done in training every week? We see no new ideas (set pieces etc), what is being done simply isnt producing the goods.

The team spirit is shot, there is a vast difference in the spirit from a few seasons ago to now. This all comes from the managerial staff having favourites, players being asked to play in alien positions, and players not trusting the managerial staff, theyre simply not believing in what theyre being told.

We do not learn from our mistakes. We continue to struggle against the physical hard to break down teams. This was in evidence again last night, and has been for many seasons.

So what is the answer?
Well im sure the majority of us know what is needed, it is unlikely to happen in the short term due to the structure of the club.

For me the players are good enough, the club has resources, but its not working.

One final comment about a fan who was escorted from the ground last night. I agree to the reasons why, but going on from what has happened in previous weeks with 'fan bans' I would reckon we can welcome him back in 7 days! Concerning the refreshment bar further for a moment... The food is awful, im sorry but its true. Im personally thankful that i have usually given up on that front by the time Ive worked out if I have to go to the round, square or triangle f****n window!

And why oh why, do we still have a small patch of grass no bigger than a cricket square by the refreshment area? Would it not be possible to simply dig this up and throw a few tonnes of hardcore down. Then we can get rid of some of the 53 miles of fencing we have around Amblecote.   


RED ARMY   

Great post Neil.....absolutely spot on apart from digging up the grass..
Where are my boys gunna have a kick about during the match if that goes?

Tricky you might as well dress your kids up in a red and white shirt and send them on the pitch surely can't do any worse than what some players do.

Totally agree with you about Brockmoor post.

One other thing to mean which people are probably fed up of me mentioning is why do the management team have to have a go at the officials. They are not going to change their minds. Why can't they encourage the players and try and assit them when things are not going our way. I know that may be hard.

Last night our coach was more concerned with their management team being out of their technical area than the match. Where was he standing yes you have guessed it outside our technical area.

Gary sort it out on Thursday in training please. Play players in the right positions and give us a chance of the play offs even if we don't make them.

My boys would show more bloody fight and spirit than certain players within the squad.

Their bench last night was animated throughout whilst ours just sat hunched up resigned to the fact that we were devoid of any creativity and were gunna lose again.

Wasn't there last night so I can't comment on the performance. But for me, last nights result and St Albans Saturday has proved that the squad we have isn't good enough. 1 to 11 when everyone is fit imo, we could beat anyone and I include Hemel in that. However when you take 2 or 3 out of that-like Saturday and last night-we don't have good enough players. When you look at the team we had towards the end of last year when we went on that long run to the team we have now it's depressing.

Yes, losing Macca doesn't help, nor Nathan however the main problem comes up again, GOALS. We never replaced Rowey firstly, and when we did we left it too late. I have  no doubt whatsoever if Mackey had been at the club the whole of last season we'd have won the league. Whether people say he didn't look all that or not, the fact is he's scored circa 70 odd goals in 2 seasons says it all. I seriously rate Luke, however he isn't that natural goal scorer. The Ryan we had this year isn't the Ryan we sold to Kiddy and that's always been a blind spot for Gary and the team imo, signing a genuine 30 goal a season striker which all the good teams need to have.

The midfield debacle has been done to death, personally I think Harris has done very well and fits the role and we looked a lot more solid with him in the team. He alllowed Sean to go forward with Ben etc and dictate the play. It's no coincidence that as soon as he gets suspended we lose.

A lot of work has got to be done. We're by no means out of it, and I do still think it's in our hands. However, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not right now.

I've thought long and hard about posting anything following our last two matches.

I find it difficult to say exactly what i'm feeling due to the fact i know Andy P very well and like him immensely and i've spoken to Gary Hackett a couple of times at reasonable length and i think he's a great bloke,surely one of the most decent bloke's you could ever wish to represent your football club.

Making comment's on this forum have a much greater impact than when you go on a West Brom,Villa or Wolves forum to vent your spleen,being one of 500 ( or 250 when the form is poor! ) makes you very visible to fellow fan's and management and board member's alike and can lead to bad feeling when ultimately it's purely borne out of frustration against a group of people who are all aiming for one successful goal.

I know Gary and Andy read the forum,Gary told me so himself so i hope that if and when he does read all recent comments that he does so knowing that the feelings come from the heart of the regular's and that it's not just a case of people putting the boot in without thinking.

I thought Brockmoor's post was one of the best i've ever read on here,i thought Jack's was at the same level as well and Stoursi,OHGB,Redpike and other's have all made excellent point's.

I'd echo a lot of their sentiment's and i also have the same sort of question's swimming around in my head and it would be nice to have some answer's from those that have the answer's,maybe a delegation of concerned fan's could be allowed a meeting with Andy P and Gary to ask the question's that the majority of fan's are discussing at games and on the forum?

I'm not suggesting a hundred fan's hurling question's in a "bunfight" but maybe two or three respected fan's such as TRM,Brockmoor,Any Hill or Jim could have an open meeting with the top bod's and then report back what was said,i'd be interested in everyone's thought's on this.

The last 10 years haven't just happened by luck although i will say that i think we have been lucky with the amount of locally sourced lads who have brought the club through almost three divisions,Solley,Bennett,Billingham,Bellingham,Canavan,Broadhurst,Rowe and a good few others i've no doubt missed and i apologise to those lads for not name checking them.

From a personal point of view my concern's are,

1/ First and foremost training sessions.

From what i've witnessed myself and heard from others it seems that the majority of our training takes place on that "postage stamp" sized piece of grass outside the clubhouse,if this is the case it's simply not good enough at our level,i did higher quality training than this in the middle leagues of Kiddie Sunday football,Stourbridge have to be better than this.

2/ As an aside to point one i can't see why the main pitch is not used for most training sessions as this would allow more work to be done on set pieces ( defending and attacking ) as we are dire at both.

3/ Coaching in general worries me,i'm not alone in thinking that the team look lost in respect of what the plan is,we obviously do have a plan A but once it start's to fail we seem to look devoid of ideas and the lack of direction from the bench is alarming,cries of "work harder" like were heard v Hungerford simply don't cut it.

4/ Player recruitment.

Boy this is a tough one,Mourinho and Wenger can't get this right all the time so what chance have Gary and his team got BUT,and it's a big "BUT" at our level,players like Mackey ( as mentioned by Jack ) Dhillon and Roberts at Chesham,Draycott from Hungerford,make a massive difference and i think we need to look at players within a reasonable geographical area who might cost us extra wonga but who are proven to make a difference at this level.

I wanted Rowey back and i actually mentioned Berwick to Andy and i didn't exactly set the world alight with those as it was proved but at least we tried.

5/ The war chest!

This is a real problem,"chicken and egg" scenario,what to do with all the cup booty?

I'll be totally honest here,i'm not in the "save it for a rainy day/ground building fund SHOULD we ever get promoted" club like the committee appear to be.

I'd rather invest the money into the playing squad to try and get that promotion whilst spending the money needed to put crash barriers into The Shed to increase it's capacity from less than 400 up to closer to 1500-2000.

This would give us the capacity needed to cope with a decent cup run without going the whole hog with all the seating required for Conference North football.

My position is that IF we can get promotion then people like our major sponsor's the Bhandal's,and the lower level sponsor's like Hingley Transport,Baldwins,A+H Construction and myself and many other's will then be willing to dip deeper into their pocket's to find the extra needed to top up the money given by the FA in grant's towards the ground improvement's,i've alway's made it clear to Andy that IF the club is progressing then i'll increase my support as i want to see us playing Kiddie in the Conference Premier before i die and time is running out.

There is a great deal of affection for Gary and Fordy amongst the fan's and Andy P is a top bloke,we'd struggle to find more decent people to run our club but i do feel that fan's deserve answer's to key question's at this point.

A bit of "open book" between management,board and fan's could see harmony maintained and the club continue to take step's forward so i hope this post is taken in the spirit in which i've written it.

Dave the Glassboy wrote:Still trying to cope with how awful we were last night, especially in the second half where we didn't seem to have a plan A let alone plan B.

Another needless penalty given away and then we just went to pieces.

I have to echo the above comments - how certain players seem to be automatic choices when they've had about four good games in as many years is astonishing.

Forget the play-offs this season, let's use the rest of the games with the next one in mind. (Some of the players already seem to be thinking of their summer holidays judging by how uninterested they appeared to be last night).

Fully agree with this. It was a fairly soft penalty but a needless foul to commit in that position, and we were exposed very quickly at the back for both of their goals. Confidence seemed to flow back just before half time after we scored but absolutely vanished off the face of the earth as soon as they had equalised.

Ben's tweet after the match did not make for good reading. Sounds like there is genuine discontent in the squad which is very worrying.

stour_boy wrote:

Dave the Glassboy wrote:Still trying to cope with how awful we were last night, especially in the second half where we didn't seem to have a plan A let alone plan B.

Another needless penalty given away and then we just went to pieces.

I have to echo the above comments - how certain players seem to be automatic choices when they've had about four good games in as many years is astonishing.

Forget the play-offs this season, let's use the rest of the games with the next one in mind. (Some of the players already seem to be thinking of their summer holidays judging by how uninterested they appeared to be last night).

Fully agree with this. It was a fairly soft penalty but a needless foul to commit in that position, and we were exposed very quickly at the back for both of their goals. Confidence seemed to flow back just before half time after we scored but absolutely vanished off the face of the earth as soon as they had equalised.

Ben's tweet after the match did not make for good reading. Sounds like there is genuine discontent in the squad which is very worrying.

So what did he say SB?

Read what's been said so far and the main thing is to me is this that the whole of the forum support the team and want the club to go forward.

Jack makes the point about Mackey but for me he didn't do anything for the club apart from cost us loads of money. Apart from his first game he didn't contribute that much.

As with Berwick travelling to far might have been a problem.

As for Ryan we remember him when he was fully fit and playing every game. His last game for us against Truro he was at his best and miles  better than Mackey and Berwick.

Think DA points makes loads of sense and the club must address these points.

I just hope we slip in to the play offs and give us a few extra games.

One thing the board and gary should realise is that the fans are right behind them and wanting this promotion into conference north.

I remember the glory days and I want them again with directors and management in charge.

I also said Si that whatever you say about Mackey's BRIEF spell with us you have to aaccept that the boy scores goals. It's no fluke and its more than any of our players this year. Our CM is our top scorer this year fgs and most of them are penalties!

stoursi wrote:Read what's been said so far and the main thing is to me is this that the whole of the forum support the team and want the club to go forward.

Jack makes the point about Mackey but for me he didn't do anything for the club apart from cost us loads of money. Apart from his first game he didn't contribute that much.

As with Berwick travelling to far might have been a problem.

As for Ryan we remember him when he was fully fit and playing every game. His last game for us against Truro he was at his best and miles  better than Mackey and Berwick.

Think DA points makes loads of sense and the club must address these points.

I just hope we slip in to the play offs and give us a few extra games.

One thing the board and gary should realise is that the fans are right behind them and wanting this promotion into conference north.

I remember the glory days and I want them again with directors and management in charge.

I think you give Mackey a bit of a poor write up Stoursi,yes he disappointed v Gosport but i travelled to a lot of the way matches at the end of last season and Ben was absolute quality in a lot of those games and his finishing was amongst the best i've witnessed at this level.

I think he scored 11/12 goals in his short time with us and that was in less than a third of a season!

I've heard Tricky has been offered a contract by Gary and is on his treadmill as we speak :-}}

Devil expanding on my point. You sign Mackey you sign goals. We didn't do that and in those 1 0 defeats back in the Autumn time, he could have made the difference.