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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 9:42:48 GMT
Do you seriously believe a big improvement is possible next week?? Its Grimsby away, they've lost only twice there this season (Macclesfield and Cheltenham), they've knocked in 43 goals and conceded only 14. I'm afraid our football has gone pear shaped. CT's post match interview should have been a public blast at his players instead he moaned about 3 incidents to hide their inept performance.
1) Constable Penalty? Not on your life, he went down looking for it, the referee didn't fall for it, he moaned and complained, got a talking to. I'd say he was damn lucky not to get a yellow for stimulation. 2) Soft free kick for their equaliser? These things happen, some you win, some you don't, they were awarded a free kick and scored because Flits didn't cover his side of the goal well enough and Hurst exploited it superbly. 3) Coulson Tackle? For me a straight red card so I would agree with him on that, it was an absolute terrible tackle and the referee was very weak.
The end of the season can't come soon enough for me now, put it to bed. That is quite a statement considering where EFC were a few years ago and how our dreams have risen, we're aiming for the football league and we've taken a wrong turning off the road. Why will no doubt be the subject of an internal review when the season ends and how to move forward. I suspect we might be having major surgery carried out.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 12:34:57 GMT
I never saw this negativity coming, and we didnt even lose.
That thread should be interesting when it happens.
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Post by stewartdonald on Apr 3, 2016 13:35:09 GMT
I know we are not playing entertaining football and was not there yesterday but we have still come along way and I think to say we are not worthy of the play offs is extremely unfair - how much worse are we than our rivals. I cannot help but feel this season things are wide open. We are not happy with our goals scored in the last 6 games etc but look at our rivals. Tranmere lost at home to Welling, Braintree and Grimsby lost and FGR could not win. If we assume Cheltenham win the league which is a fair assumption at the moment, our play off rivals in the last 6 games have scored -
FGR - 4 Goals 7 PTS Grimsby - 7 Goals 10 PTS Braintree - 4 Goals 8 PTS Tranmere - 9 Goals 9 PTS Eastleigh - 7 Goals 14 PTS Dover - 11 Goals 13 PTS Wrexham - 6 Goals 11 PTS
Now I know we are not playing the best football but I would argue neither are any of our play off rivals. If you check there forums they are mainly negative. Tranmere gutted to lose to Welling, Braintree over achieving. Wrexham frustrated and Grimsby also. Braintree just happy but possibly falling away - another tough away game Tuesday. Dover quite happy but barely any fans attending with an owner questioning their crowds and admittedly play football in a very direct fashion. Our fans always moan about their style. In that list only two teams have scored more and not much more and we have picked up the most points. We may not have beaten 10 men in one game but we did win with 10 men in another.
Not one of the teams are playing free flowing scoring football looking and the goals scored column and teams are fighting for their lives to either stay up or go up which does make for tenser football. We may have a view we are not good enough for promotion but I don't. We took 4 points off Cheltenham and have had some great wins through the season. We have played poorly at times but who hasn't. We were unlucky to lose at FGR and played with fight and commitment. We are 2 points off the play offs with 2 games in hand on merit. We have very winnable home games but a tough game Saturday I appreciate. The other teams are all playing each other but I do not think we are that poor that we have no chance and will be embarrassed in the play offs or are not worthy of division 2. If we got promoted - which is something that is impossible judging by the feeling here - then I would take the £1 -£1.5 million on offer and strengthen the club and I am sure we would challenge again.
Our performances as mentioned are not great and we have not got things quite right but on our day we are a match for our rivals. We have some big game players possibly too so you never know. It does show how far we have come since losing to Chippenham 4 years ago at my first game that we can pick up 14 points in 6 games in the top tier of Non league and then suggest to ourselves we are not up to the standard of the teams from 2 to 7. Our budget is not top 3 but is top 7 so financially we are also about where we should be and CT has had very little control financially of that budget so far. I am sure there is a lot to improve but we are very glass half empty at the moment and ultra negative - which after a poor performance is understandable. In modern football win a game and your world beaters - lose a game and the whole club needs changing - I understand that but rarely is either view right. Poor performances that need to improve I can agree with - to suggest we may embarrass ourselves in the play offs against FGR, Tranmere or Dover. Not sure about that we beat two of them away for starters - perhaps we raise our game against the better teams - and issue - but if we can make the play offs it might not be a bad trait for 3 games!
I know it is frustrating but stick with us we will try and get it right for the rest of the season and if we can't we will certainly be trying over the summer (which I am sure you already knew!!).
Off to enjoy the sun and OUFC at Wembley off course!! They are 2nd in the league and at Wembley and this thread would be seen as positive on there forum!!!!
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Post by Bruce Forbes on Apr 3, 2016 14:14:53 GMT
Don't worry, Stewart, I'll stick with the club. It will be a bonus if we make the play offs, but really think that another season (or two) will not be a problem. Already renewed for next season, and still trying to drum up new recruits. Good luck at Wembley. Would love to see Barnsley lose. I have a long memory, from my Chelsea days.
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Post by bomber on Apr 3, 2016 14:23:11 GMT
Thanks for your input Stewart. I must highlight this.."We have very winnable home games"..we did against Welling and Guiseley but instead of six points we got two. We're fortunate that the teams around us have the jitters also I must add. The facts are that at home our strikers aren't doing the business and haven't for a while.
We should've capitalised against the bottom teams especially at home and failure to score against them could cost us.
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Post by taylov on Apr 3, 2016 14:23:32 GMT
Half way there, Stewart (OUFC 1-0 up at HT)
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Post by efcspitfire on Apr 3, 2016 15:25:30 GMT
For Grimsby I think Fanimo has to start in place of Yemi.he offered a great outlet when he came on yesterday and Grimsby full backs won't want to face him.after a weeks training,hopefully Drury can slot back in too.
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Post by hantslondoner on Apr 3, 2016 15:46:15 GMT
Fanimo normally replaces Cook on the left. Cook's been doing quite well.
I think apart from yesterday, Yemi's been one of our most dangerous attackers for most of this season.
Maybe seeing what that thug Lockwood did to Coulson didn't help, it also stopped the Coulson/Yemi combination down the right which has looked promising, IMO. I agree with CT that was a red card offense. Well, it looked bad real-time.
I think Fanimo's fine to have as sub.
I don't think Lafayette is the answer either.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 16:10:02 GMT
I'll be honest, and have not seen any replays or anything, but my first thought was it wasn't a red.
The angle I had I thought Luke saw him coming and left himself there a bit on purpose to take the hit and roll it and to roll around in agony to prompt the red. Now clearly, in hindsight, Luke did pick up a knock, even if wanted to carry on, but that was my first impression in the couple of seconds directly after incident. I honestly thought there was over exaggeration going on, so I wonder if the ref thought that too in the heat of the moment ?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2016 10:24:19 GMT
I'm bored of saying it, but if a team scores 1 goal against us, they will get either a point or all 3 points. What are we doing to address that?
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Post by back4more on Apr 4, 2016 10:45:10 GMT
On a general note, I think only Dover and Macclesfield in our league have picked up more points than Eastleigh from their last four matches. I think that tends to support some of the points Stewart is making.
I agree Guiseley are not one of the best sides in the league. I'm thinking a non league version of Leeds without the finesse. They have been able to strengthen their side recently though and have some very good experienced players.
I didn't honestly expect to see any excellent football yesterday and we won't see high quality on our pitch this season regardless of who is playing and how good they are.
Despite that, I thought in the first half we did show creativity and chances were made but not taken. The stand out example was down to the referee and that was when Constable was clearly tripped when their defender provided a straight leg for him to topple over when the ball was running perfectly for him. No penalty, no card, nothing. Other than that we did see some wayward shooting and it's fair to take issue with that but with the ball bobbling and the problems of moving it around on the pitch surface, even to take a touch, it's hard to be too judgemental. I wonder if anyone who pillories the side for its performance should be invited to run down the centre of the pitch with the ball at their feet and take a shot at the south stand goal.
In the second half we lost one of the games stand out players when Luke Coulson was hit by a sickeningly vicious and cynical kick to his ankle when he was looking at his most dangerous. The damage was bad enough for the duty club doctor to have to be called onto the pitch. Once again the referee seemed not to understand what he was seeing. He treated it merely as a professional foul and gave only a yellow card. From that point, some of our spark went.
The excellent Guiseley free kick that beat the wall and keeper meant they were no longer chasing the game and that allowed them to concentrate on soaking up any pressure we could muster and of course they had their chances on the break.
Re the mention of Ross Lafayette in one of the posts on here I'm not sure he's exactly bagging a hatful at Aldershot, but with the loan period gone, who knows. I see the Shots have managed four goals in their last seven matches.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2016 11:29:29 GMT
Lafayette isn't the answer, although you could argue that having Lafayette on the bench would give us a greater chance of grabbing a goal off the bench, than the likes of Midson, Fanimo, Yemi & Tubbs who have all been coming off the bench of late, but to no avail. However, we don't need to be bringing back loan players who were not good enough to start games. We just need to play the obvious choice upfront, especially at home where it would appear that because of the pitch, we now bypass our most creative players, to go long ball to two strikers who are not equipped to play the long ball game. If the pitch really is as bad as described by John (i'm not disputing it), then no matter how good Jai, Dury, Payne & Cook are, they are not going to get much success on it when they do have the ball, but if they are watching it fly over their heads all game, then we may aswell go 4-2-4 as its pointless packing a midfield when playing on a pitch like that, then employing a predominantly long ball tactic. With 4 upfront, we can't fail to create and score chances off Will Evan's long balls. Horses for courses.
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Post by hantslondoner on Apr 4, 2016 11:53:52 GMT
Looking at the forward lineups for the last six home games: We won four playing well enough, with a pressure game, then drew two (against teams lower in the league), not playing very well:
CHELT Constable-Tubbs (Yemi, Midson subs) WOK Constable-Yemi (Midson sub) CHEST Tubbs-Yemi (Midson sub) BROM Tubbs-Yemi (Constable, Midson subs)
WELL Tubbs-Midson Yemi midfield (Constable sub) GUISE Constable-Yemi (Tubbs sub)
Not sure what this proves! From this a Tubbs-Yemi combination might be the best bet, with Midson and Constable ready to come on?
More importantly, that 'pressure' style I keep harping on about, which suits our pitch, and which was lacking in that last two games.... Tubbs and Yemi up front seem to support that better than Beano, but it's not conclusive. In my opinion.
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Post by blackie on Apr 4, 2016 12:57:47 GMT
The only creditable win in the last 6 above was Cheltenham and that took an own goal to win it. All the other games we have flattered to deceive and really should have picked up more points. As Sattsy has stated if the opponents score they are almost guaranteed to get a result off us. We are not playing well and don't look a cohesive side and I don't think the manager knows his best or balanced side to put out. We have the games left bar Grimsby that could get a PO spot, if we don't from this run in then I see it as a failure.
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Post by hantslondoner on Apr 4, 2016 13:44:01 GMT
Cheltenham were the only team in the top half that we played in those six games.
We should have won by several more against Chester - their keeper made some great saves and was MOM.
Bromley were on a good run before we beat them.
It's really just the last two games where it's been poor, and we didn't play the way we did in the previous four.
Barrow, here next, are unbeaten in 8 so that won't be easy either.
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