Play Off Semi Final v Chesham.

brockmoor wrote:We will lose on penalties!   

I've had the same horrible thought.

I hope we at least practised some last night and i hope we don't do the ridiculous trick of "saving" our best couple of penalty takers until last if it does go to penalties.

I want to see Sean stepping up first followed by Leon and then Ben,i don't want to see anyone who never get's a real site of the post's during a match wheeling up to have first dibs!

I saw a match on TV recently ( Arsenal v Wigan FA Cup Semi Final ) that was effectively over after Wigan's first couple of pen's due to sending up the Centre Half first followed by a midfielder who rarely takes a pen.

Let us do it properly rather than try to "over think" it if we do get that far.

I can't see it going to penalties in all honesty. I'm very worried about where goals are going to come from tonigt. Would be tempted to stick either Will or KRD upfront.

Jack wrote:I can't see it going to penalties in all honesty. I'm very worried about where goals are going to come from tonigt. Would be tempted to stick either Will or KRD upfront.

We havent had much problem finding the onion bag all season to be fair. Even without Luke we have scored quite a few. He will be a miss but we have got enough decent results of late without him.

Jack wrote:I can't see it going to penalties in all honesty. I'm very worried about where goals are going to come from tonigt. Would be tempted to stick either Will or KRD upfront.

We played them off the park two weeks ago and their keeper made a series of excellent saves to keep them in it whilst Dean had one shot to save.

I don't expect them to play as badly tonight and with Dillon/Roberts up front then we have to be wary but i still see us making chances and Ben and Sean are as likely to get chances as Kayelden and Junior and with Knight,RD, and Leon up for set pieces we have regular scorer's even amongst our back four.

Who know's,it might be Drew who scores one of his "one every ten matches" special's.

Would think Gary will start with the same 11 who started Saturday.

One change on the bench being Ramsey Dickinson for Francis.

As long as we play with a high tempo and don't over elaborate then we have every chance. Must make sure that when we do have a chance we work their keeper. Brown for me needs to certainly improve on this. Should have scored on Saturday in the first 15 minutes with a header.

Not only do we need to watch Dillon/Roberts but also Potton who seems to create most of their chances.

If we are drawing towards the end I would certainly give Kristan a chance upfront as his pace against there defence might be a big factor.

When we played them recently they were missing Stewart in their defence who seems to be the leader at the back. If the defence is the same we need to keep turning them as they didn't look very quick.

Good luck to the players and management.

For all those travelling have a safe journey there and back.

Devil's Advocate wrote:

Taniwha wrote:I'm gutted I can't make it now as I have to go up north for work tomorrow and won't be back in Wolvo until 6pm at the latest.

Does anyone know if the Bridge are covering this one live? I will of course be glued to Twitter, which is fantastic (thanks TRM) but every game time tweet now gives me palpitations after that Hemel game!

Happy to text you only specific goal news as it happens if you wish.

Just need your mobile number?

Mick The Devil.

This is the first chance I've had to post today and glad to hear it will be covered but thanks for the offer DA.

Final comments........COYG!!!!!!

Roll on Halesowen away

Unlucky boys. Onwards! Up the Glassboys!

Gutted, but can't argue with the result. Played well till they scored, but after that we didn't look like getting back in it. Can only remember 2 shots from distance second half. Looked like 2 poor goals to give away from the other end.

Congratulations to the players on getting to the play-offs again, which looked doubtful a couple of months ago. Third time lucky wherever we are next season, although be nice to win the league and skip the play-offs. Team looks a lot stronger now than earlier in the season - if only we'd had Harris as the missing link in midfield all season. Keep the squad together and add a bit of depth then confident we'll be up there again next year.

Just got home absolutely shattered so full thoughts to follow tomorrow.

Well done to the players on their efforts - top notch. Lovely of them to clap the fans at the end.

Superb support from our lot. They were very well supported too apart from 3 mindless morons. But let's gloss over that :/

We played well with lots of effort, but Chesham were simply the better side, both tonight and of course over the whole season. Good luck to them in the final.

Went for Brown as MOTM. He must have read Stour Si's message to take his chances more as it was a great goal.

Let's try and keep the nucleus of the squad together and go for it next season wherever we are placed.

Considering the problems that we've had this season regarding injuries, I think it has been brilliant that we managed to get to the play-offs again.  

When we started the game we were all over them, and thoroughly deserved to go 1-0 up.  But during this period Jim said if the game carries on like this it will be an easy win, and I replied by saying that all they need was for us to make one mistake and they would be back in the game.  Unfortunately my words were proved right as they equalised, and from that moment on our heads seem to drop and we never really recovered.

As others have already said on here if we can keep the squad that we've got now, then I'm certain we can look forward to another exciting run next season.  And that is regardless of whether we are in the northern or southern league.  COYG  

stour_boy wrote:They were very well supported too apart from 3 mindless morons.

I take it the 3 morons include the cockney chav, who was all tits and no brains 

Defeat is never easy to take. However I don't feel half as bad as I did this time last year. The Play offs are a very cruel thing and ultimately we all felt robbed last year when Gosport some 15 odd points behind us won it. So in that respect, Chesham did deserve it. On the other hand, I personally don't think we did ourselves justice. Chesh are an excellent team and it was always going to take all of our team to be 100% and really, I don't think that was the case. Our most influential players weren't at it and like I predicted, we missed Luke massively. First half hour we were well on top and should have been 2 or 3 up however a mistake at the back cost us ad after they scored we never ever got into it again. If we conceded 2 excellent individual or team goals I think we could accept it. But to lose to stupid mistakes that under 9's are taught on a Saturday morning is annoying. But that's football and the lads are only human. First half the support was excellent. 2nd half not so good. However it doesn't help that people we spread out along the terrace. Thought it was very good to see that the 3 chavs looking for trouble duly got what they wanted. Well done on that front. Ruthless.   I personally hope this sees the end of our time in the league. Always felt there's been a slight agenda against us and the Northern League would see a nice change of scenery and games against FC and Halesowen would be nice. Quick mention to FC, got to feel for them. Lost the last 3 Play Offs finals and then conceded a late equaliser last night and then a last minute winner in Extra time.

If we keep this squad together as a core we will be up there whatever league we are in. However we simply need to strengthen overall.

Agree with sir smiler 111 that, when we scored, we were by far the better team AND we were playing football. But, as soon as Chesham equalised, our footballing skills seemed to be forgotten and we resorted to long punts upfield. Not pretty to watch and totally unproductive.

To me, both Chris and Leon had very good games, as did Kayelden in the first half. Unfortunately, too many of our players underperformed on the night with Dean, I suspect, having a few nightmares with both of the goals.

All in all, a very disappointing performance when it really mattered for, as we all know, particularly the players, if only we'd performed to anything like our true form, it would be us in the final.

Still, Chesham deserved to win on the night and I wish them well for next Monday.

A final thought. No doubt we've all got opinions on what needs to be next season to win promotion and I look forward to seeing the views of our usual forum contributors. But, let the dust settle firstly and let's see what actions the Directors take, if any, to take the club forward. Because, let's be honest, with our comparative healthy financial position, we SHOULD be playing at a higher level !!!

Once again….a case of what might have been.

If only we'd invested in a second striker of Benbow's quality so that we had the sort of season long firepower that Hemel and Chesham possessed.

Our pre season was a fiasco,numerous poor quality trialists and fringe player's making up our starting eleven rather than playing the majority of our potential first team and fitting in the odd trialist into a recognisable Stourbridge side.

I watched nearly all pre season matches and didn't see a single decent performance,when i spoke to Gary a few weeks ago he acknowledged that pre season had not been a good exercise this time around,i hope we have learned from it.

It has been very noticeable at Stour that when we are good we are very good but alas when we are mediocre we can be bloody awful!

"Non performances" to crap opposition such as Chippenham and Arlesey at home and especially away at Bedford and Burnham have really cost us,to win a championship you really have to cut the nightmare performances/results down to the odd one and we had far too many of them.

The loss at Chesham was a strange affair,it didn't fit our normal modus operandi as described above,we started like a train and has Chesham chasing shadows,the goal topped off a superb opening period which in truth could have yielded two or three stour goal's,Kyle Haynes was particularly unlucky with his solo effort.

It was hard to work out ( from my viewing position ) exactly how Chesham's goal originated but unlike some I don't feel Coleman was to blame,I thought he did well to try and close their guy down before he crossed the ball,it would have been easy to have conceded a penalty and to have got himself sent off in those circumstances.

The second goal was a joke though!

In the build up to that goal Chesham broke down their left and had TWO player's completely unmarked on the right side of our area,if the ball carrier had noticed them they would've had an easy chance to score rather than only gain a corner.

You'd think that might have woken us up but alas no,in comes the corner and they have a free man in acres of space at the back post,how on earth does that happen,it's hardly possible to get that much space playing in a pub league yet we gifted them it.

After that it was "game over",we produced nothing which was hard to fathom considering our opening 30 minutes of excellence.

We didn't lack for effort though,this wasn't a meek surrender,i thought Louis Harris was superb last night,wrongly subbed in my opinion.

I thought Chris Knight was excellent again as was Leon,Sean probed well but both he and Ben got pinned too deep for the last 60 minutes of the match.

Brown also had a good game but Smikle faded after a good start,i did think that Sansara had a very poor match though and Drew made no impression having excelled against Chesham just two weeks ago.

Chesham's side was stronger last night than in our league fixture and I thought they well deserved their victory,I think they'll win the final if they play Cambridge but lose if they play St Albans.

From my point of view i think it's time that as a club we either "Poo or get off the potty",this saving for ground improvement's should we ever get promoted policy need's amending.

The cup runs have yielded a "war chest" of around £160,000 in prize money alone,i now want to see some of that money put into three or four,proven,quality players to help take us to the next level.

I don't want to see all the money blown on players but I feel the time has come to invest some of it on the playing side to give Gary a better chance of winning the division.

I've had some cracking away days this season watching Stour ( and some hideous low's! ) but I have greatly enjoyed the banter of our travelling crew.

My thank's to my regular passengers such as Brockmoor,Baz,Jim,DY9 Paul and any other's I have ferried to away games,their company has seen the miles travelled flit by in no time at all,I look forward to doing it all again next season.

Finally a thank you to everyone on the playing side at Stour,your commitment,especially in the miles you travel to play hard for not great money is appreciated by myself and the other fan's,your effort is alway's evident even on days when we're playing poorly.

Enjoy your rest.

Good post DA has that taken you all morning to do.

Can't really say anything more than what has already been said just a pity when we needed a performance it really only lasted 30 minutes.

For me again we got over run in the middle. Yes Louis has made a big difference but the lad can't do it all on hs own. We must set up better when we don't have the ball. Block of 4 with the other in front and perhaps contesting for te ball.

Thought the support was brillant for a night match with quite a long journey but where did all those Chesham fans come from more than double than at the league game.

Over the summer the club as a whole must look at why we failed to get promotion again. No i am not saying its time for a change but i do think Gary needs the best option possible to give us the chance to get promoted. As a club i think we deserve it and certainly would increase attendances.

Feel disappointed this morning but not as gutting as last years semi defeat. Chesham were better all season and better on the night.
Can't fault the players effort, we were just beaten by a better side.

Thought our support was bloody marvelous for a midweek long journey.got behind the boys all game, although like jack said the noise in the first half was better due to the fans standing together - still great though and I think the players and officials really appreciated our efforts. :-)

Wasn't to be, so off we go again next season. I know I am outnumbered in my desire to stay south but halesowen over the Christmas break will be something to look forward to if we switch North.

Thanks to all at the club for another good season - have a good break everyone and see you in July!

Think we need some sort of scandal to happen over the next few weeks to keepthe forum alive and kicking. :-)

Jane.N wrote:Think we need some sort of scandal to happen over the next few weeks to keepthe forum alive and kicking. :-)

There is some tin pot competition starting in a few weeks called the "World Cup", and I'm sure someone will start a thread on that 

Disappointed like everyone else, but that's football.
I think if we can keep this squad together with the addition of a quality striker, a 2nd keeper to challenge Dean & an out & out winger , plus the return of Sam & Nathan (at the top of their games) then I believe we can challenge for the title in whichever league we are placed in.

Would like to say 'thank you' and 'well done' to the Players, Management & board for another great season, your hard work & commitment is appreciated.
As DA has stated the commitment shown by players & supporters in travelling great distances and giving up time is not to be forgotten

To all those supporters who travel away, thanks for your great support. I follow Stourbridge because I enjoy it , win or lose (obviously winning makes it better) and the banter and camaraderie amongst the regular travellers is second to none. Even when the football on the pitch is not quite up to expectation the humour on the terraces is top class.
I look forward to seeing you all in pre season, have a great summer.

MotM was won by Leon with 9 votes , Kayelden received 7, Chris 3 & Kyle 2.

The wine was won by Pauline Wiley.

A huge feeling of disappointment but somehow not as much as last season, given the respective positions of the two clubs in the League table.

Everything I wanted to say about the match has really already been said. Over all Chesham were the better side and we can have no complaints. A pity that the two goals were gift-wrapped (no point glossing over it).

I also wonder if, vital though it was at the time, our performance in the League game worked against us - we showed our full potential in that game and I think Chesham looked at that game and worked hard on how they were going to stop us playing - fair play to them for that. On the other hand the way they played that day gave us no real clues as to their potential, other than the obvious "Stop Roberts and Dillon." If anything I was disappointed that we didn't combat them better. It's not our game plan to stop the other team playing. For all the big wins we've had this season, there have been times when we could have done with just stopping the opposition first and foremost - maybe something to look at for next season.

I agree that Benbow's absence made a difference, but not just last night. Had he been available at Hitchin I'd have fancied us for the win which would have meant going to Cambridge tonight instead, and I'd have given us a good chance there (with Benbow). All ifs and buts, of course...

All in all, however, it's been a great season. I remember saying at one stage that Gary was facing possibly the biggest challenge of his time at Stour in turning round a ship that was threatening to head wildly off course. Given the chopping and changing we've had to do with the defence, and the influx of new players which has been more than at any stage in the last few seasons, I think he's gone a long way to doing so.

The close season is vital now. We cannot take our eyes off the ball. We need to identify the areas that need strengthening and the players that are not up to the necessary standard, and we need to not be caught with our pants round our ankles like I think we have been for the last two summers. Gary was quoted somewhere in the last few days as saying the start of this season was a hangover from last season's play-off defeat. How are we going to ensure that doesn't happen again? How are we going to learn from the mistakes? Next season starts RIGHT NOW - not when the players report back, or when the friendlies begin.

I'm not going to get into the debate about money. I trust the Board and Gary between them to work out how best to fund the team and to get the balance right between the playing side and the ground - the only thing I would say is that ground improvements if and when we are promoted, will make a bigger hole in the funds than you might imagine (that sort of thing always does - and Andy P gave me some insight into that at a recent match). We can get grants but that always relies on you providing a certain amount of the funding yourselves. It's a balancing act as to how much money is "just enough" to get promoted and money doesn't always buy you what you want. With only one guaranteed promotion place at this level are we prepared to break the bank to blow away the opposition (a la Hemel, and even they were run pretty close by Chesham) or do you aim for the play-offs (hoping to God you don't fall short) and take your chances there?

I also wonder if we could do without another Cup run. Both of the recent runs to the second round have left us shot to pieces mentally as well as with a lot of games to play. I don't think anybody would be daft enough to blame that for us not winning last night but might we otherwise have finished second or third and had a home semi-final? Might that have made a difference?

End of the day, though - still incredibly proud of my Club and the team, and incredibly proud to be a Glassboy!

Nothing else to add following my previous musings. Everything that's been said I agree with.

They were the better side, just a shame about the nature of the goals conceded of course.

Much to ponder on for next season.

As always, the reaction of the Facebook 'keyboard warriors' is a disappointment. One guy even said we should move to the Northern to renew rivalries with Hednesford, Chasetown and Romulus. When did he last look at a league table one wonders?

No offence to anyone who is a supporter of a league team, but it seems like a lot of these moaners are people who usually go up the Wolves or the Albion or the Villa, and come and watch us whenever there's a big game on or we've won six on the trot and for the rest of the time complain on Facebook about a bad result.

Anyone calling the Chesham result 'not good enough', 'time for change' etc. as a few people did on there need their head examining IMHO. Thankfully the voices of sanity seem to have drowned the others out in the subsequent comments on there.

For those not on twitter, a couple of comments I have received from Chesham since Tuesday...

Alan Calder (Chesham's Vice-Chairman) - "Have to say Stourbridge supporters, players and officials did their club proud last night - Amazingly gracious in defeat, great club"

In reply to me thanking him for his comments, he added...

"Genuinely mean it, a true (rare) credit - Brilliant to see, and good luck wherever you end up next season"

And a follow-up comment from Mike Warwick (just a supporter, I think) - "Absolutely! From the keeper at the end to all in the bar. Dignity and good grace. One of the proper football clubs."


That's on top of the reply Clive had from Hitchin's secretary after Clive thanked him for their hospitality last Saturday. It's on the website, but if you haven't seen it...

"Clive

Many thanks for your kind words. I will have your email put on the official club website so our fans are aware of your comments.

I would like you to pass on our thanks to your supporters who created a brilliant atmosphere both in the ground and in the clubhouse. It showed me just what non-league football should be about with impeccable behaviour from your fans and no need for stewards or segregation.

On behalf of Hitchin Town FC can I wish you the best of luck for the play offs and I hope you win promotion even though we would miss playing you next season.

Regards

Roy"


I think we have a lot to be quietly proud of...

TRM wrote:For those not on twitter, a couple of comments I have received from Chesham since Tuesday...

Alan Calder (Chesham's Vice-Chairman) - "Have to say Stourbridge supporters, players and officials did their club proud last night - Amazingly gracious in defeat, great club"

In reply to me thanking him for his comments, he added...

"Genuinely mean it, a true (rare) credit - Brilliant to see, and good luck wherever you end up next season"

And a follow-up comment from Mike Warwick (just a supporter, I think) - "Absolutely! From the keeper at the end to all in the bar. Dignity and good grace. One of the proper football clubs."


That's on top of the reply Clive had from Hitchin's secretary after Clive thanked him for their hospitality last Saturday. It's on the website, but if you haven't seen it...

"Clive

Many thanks for your kind words. I will have your email put on the official club website so our fans are aware of your comments.

I would like you to pass on our thanks to your supporters who created a brilliant atmosphere both in the ground and in the clubhouse. It showed me just what non-league football should be about with impeccable behaviour from your fans and no need for stewards or segregation.

On behalf of Hitchin Town FC can I wish you the best of luck for the play offs and I hope you win promotion even though we would miss playing you next season.

Regards

Roy"


I think we have a lot to be quietly proud of...

It was a pity that a small element of CHAV Chesham fan's thought that coming up our end and "offering out" the Stourbridge fan's was part of the evening's entertainment though.

I was surprised at the lack of a single police officer at the match and I also thought their stewarding of the match was more than a bit lame.

One of their moron's who came looking for trouble was wandering around the stadium with a can of Carlsberg on the go ( as mentioned to him by Baz! ),i would have thought that this was in breach of league/club rules and he should've been ejected before having the chance to cause trouble.

The site of Chesham's CHAV female queen "offering out" all comers was one of the most extraordinary sites i've witnessed at a football ground in 42 years of attending games   

In conclusion I would say that I thought we all "took it on the chin" extremely well considering how disappointing the result was,I enjoyed the night and the company as always at Stour matches,if anything the pain was duller than the losing to Gosport last year.

I can't wait for the friendlies to start,I trust i'll need the mosquito repellant for a trip to Stourport?

I really do hope we find a way of accommodating a pre season fixture against Lye this time around,I think it would create a good atmosphere and a decent crowd as well as a very competitive workout for Stour.

A rueful "sigh" from me in west cornwall on tuesday evening (thanks to trm for the updates), after the league game a few weeks ago I feared lighting wouldn't strike twice and typical the "much vaunted strike duo" I mentioned at the time scored the goals! reading the match report, the manner of the goals conceded is frustrating (and a bit too familiar). I hope Chesham do it now as they finished well clear in 2nd and am not a fan of play offs really.

Another successful season with 5th place and 2nd round of the cup, despite struggling at times. Look forward to next season, hopefully with the odd addition to what's already in place.

Devil's Advocate wrote:Once again….a case of what might have been.

If only we'd invested in a second striker of Benbow's quality so that we had the sort of season long firepower that Hemel and Chesham possessed.

Our pre season was a fiasco,numerous poor quality trialists and fringe player's making up our starting eleven rather than playing the majority of our potential first team and fitting in the odd trialist into a recognisable Stourbridge side.

I watched nearly all pre season matches and didn't see a single decent performance,when i spoke to Gary a few weeks ago he acknowledged that pre season had not been a good exercise this time around,i hope we have learned from it.

It has been very noticeable at Stour that when we are good we are very good but alas when we are mediocre we can be bloody awful!

"Non performances" to crap opposition such as Chippenham and Arlesey at home and especially away at Bedford and Burnham have really cost us,to win a championship you really have to cut the nightmare performances/results down to the odd one and we had far too many of them.

The loss at Chesham was a strange affair,it didn't fit our normal modus operandi as described above,we started like a train and has Chesham chasing shadows,the goal topped off a superb opening period which in truth could have yielded two or three stour goal's,Kyle Haynes was particularly unlucky with his solo effort.

It was hard to work out ( from my viewing position ) exactly how Chesham's goal originated but unlike some I don't feel Coleman was to blame,I thought he did well to try and close their guy down before he crossed the ball,it would have been easy to have conceded a penalty and to have got himself sent off in those circumstances.

The second goal was a joke though!

In the build up to that goal Chesham broke down their left and had TWO player's completely unmarked on the right side of our area,if the ball carrier had noticed them they would've had an easy chance to score rather than only gain a corner.

You'd think that might have woken us up but alas no,in comes the corner and they have a free man in acres of space at the back post,how on earth does that happen,it's hardly possible to get that much space playing in a pub league yet we gifted them it.

After that it was "game over",we produced nothing which was hard to fathom considering our opening 30 minutes of excellence.

We didn't lack for effort though,this wasn't a meek surrender,i thought Louis Harris was superb last night,wrongly subbed in my opinion.

I thought Chris Knight was excellent again as was Leon,Sean probed well but both he and Ben got pinned too deep for the last 60 minutes of the match.

Brown also had a good game but Smikle faded after a good start,i did think that Sansara had a very poor match though and Drew made no impression having excelled against Chesham just two weeks ago.

Chesham's side was stronger last night than in our league fixture and I thought they well deserved their victory,I think they'll win the final if they play Cambridge but lose if they play St Albans.

From my point of view i think it's time that as a club we either "Poo or get off the potty",this saving for ground improvement's should we ever get promoted policy need's amending.

The cup runs have yielded a "war chest" of around £160,000 in prize money alone,i now want to see some of that money put into three or four,proven,quality players to help take us to the next level.

I don't want to see all the money blown on players but I feel the time has come to invest some of it on the playing side to give Gary a better chance of winning the division.

I've had some cracking away days this season watching Stour ( and some hideous low's! ) but I have greatly enjoyed the banter of our travelling crew.

My thank's to my regular passengers such as Brockmoor,Baz,Jim,DY9 Paul and any other's I have ferried to away games,their company has seen the miles travelled flit by in no time at all,I look forward to doing it all again next season.

Finally a thank you to everyone on the playing side at Stour,your commitment,especially in the miles you travel to play hard for not great money is appreciated by myself and the other fan's,your effort is alway's evident even on days when we're playing poorly.

Enjoy your rest.

"Chesham's side was stronger last night than in our league fixture and I thought they well deserved their victory,I think they'll win the final if they play Cambridge but lose if they play St Albans"


St Albans it is then afar a 3-1 win at Chesham in the final.

I fancied them to do it having seen how well organised they were when winning at our place a few weeks ago.

Once again the "big player" in the guise of John Frendo on this occasion came up with two goal's to take his team up.

Frendo,Mackey,Marriot,Draycott,Dillon and Roberts are the "top gun's" at our level of Southern League football,they charge a premium but come up with the good's time after time.

Well done to St Albans.