Braintree v Eastleigh

[tenacres]

Constable & mandron upfront

Coulson still out

[tenacres]

0-0 Ht.

[Deleted]

Listening on Radio Solent, sounds a dull game.
Ayo not in the 16 again..next to leave?
Will he be captain of the Wyvern team next week..?
Defence sound in control, but doesnt sounds like the exciting brand of football we were all wishing for?
Let's hope for a better 2nd half. Wilson to come on and score.

[Bruce Forbes]

0-1 Constable

[Bruce Forbes]

1-1

[grumpy]

Parts off injured as well. Hopefully not too long term.

[tenacres]

1-1 all over.

[tenacres]

1-0 up through an OG on 64, equaliser on 71.

Guess it feels a bit like 2 points dropped, though a point on the road against a playoff team from last season can't be that bad!

[blackie]

Braintree won't be anywhere near the PO's this season.
This should be seen as not a great result.

[tenacres]

No certainly not a great result, but not an awful one either.

As often is the case, somewhere in the middle.

[Deleted]

Remember that's 1 point more than we took off of them in total last season.

[Deleted]

Lets not forget this is the same Braintree side who took 1pt off North Ferriby the weekend, the same team who got tonked 6 - 1 at Lincoln tonight, so if you are going to compare last season under Cowley then perhaps compare this result as a comparison of Braintree then, and Braintree now.

I actually enjoyed the game from an entertainment perspective, but make no bones about it, there was no entertaining football.

The first half was dire, with the ball pretty much going nowhere near either goal, just a couple of speculative shots from Mandron and Beano.
The 2nd half saw chants from our fans when we had a shot of "we had a shot on goal, one more than you", or something along those lines.

Both teams set out to not lose this game, and congratulations, they achieved it. Todd made his first change when Partington got injured and made the 2nd and 3rd with absolutely no change in plan in mind. There was no use of tactics or subs in any way to affect the shape or dynamic of the game. Why did we play the exact same starting 11 in an away game that was 3 days after a game in hot conditions on Saturday ? I thought we had a very strong squad now so why didnt we rotate ?

Dawson, well, i was right pre season. He will be gone by January. Todd still wont play Mandron and Wilson together up top. Beano was as effective as last year, and before you say he scored, it deflected off a players head and looped over the keeper into the corner, which is ironic, because it was one of a handful of shots all night. Funny what can happen when you pull the trigger.

I dont think I saw Bird touch the ball again after he came on.

If you asked me to pick a man of the match it would be Cresswell, followed by Essam, which is ironic as they were two of the better players the other day also, which says something about our play. We do look solid in defence though and if Ross hadnt made a howler then we would have come away with 3pts, but it wasnt deserved. Neither team did anything to really affect the game in a positive way, so draw was the fair result as fortune did not favour the brave in this encounter.

If this is Todds idea of entertaining football, then he can keep it. If someone tells me its only two games then ill come back and repeat this exact same sentence in a months time.

SD was there watching. If only I could read his mind as to what he thought as that did not meet the new mandate.

I think we have played 2 of the bottom 5 teams come the end of the season.

To finish with the positive though.... We looked pretty solid in defence, but so did they, neither team offered much up top. Creswell and Essam could be forging a decent partnership. We are still undefeated, but there is a lot to be desired.

p.s If someone says its a team with 5 new starters in then how many did Braintree have tonight ?
p.p.s BT Sports had camera everywhere trying out there new trucks and cameras as a tester. You may see highlights, but dont expect to see any highlights.

[efcspitfire]

Over-critical as per usual then SS.

we weren't brilliant don't get me wrong but Dawson didn't do a lot wrong for me,and as for Essam being one of our better players I'm not sure you were at the same game.

[Deleted]

Aug 10, 2016 6:31:25 GMT efcspitfire said:

Over-critical as per usual then SS.

we weren't brilliant don't get me wrong but Dawson didn't do a lot wrong for me,and as for Essam being one of our better players I'm not sure you were at the same game.

Actually, I was under critical. If you want to go away and watch that every week then that is up to you, but I'm not going to tart it up from fear of upsetting CT or the players. If any of them think that was an acceptable performance against quite a weak team then there lies the problem.

Essam did nothing wrong at all, won pretty much most of his duels. Dont get me wrong, he wasn't superb, but you'd struggle to pick any players out on that performance. Dawson gave away the ball a few times, one they nearly took advantage of, and he was only on the pitch for a third of the match. He did nothing to affect the game in those minutes after he came on as sub.

We shouldn't be going away, with the squad we have, and show that much respect to a team like Braintree. It was nothing but a poor plan A, with little thought for plan b and c.

In essence, as I've said, we didn't deserve to lose, but neither did Braintree, and neither deserved to win. Both goals were fortuitous, little other chances, neither manager did anything positive to affect the game. If this were Tranmere, fine, a pt is good as it's a promotion rival , but it's Braintree, a team who this year are nothing like last year. We shouldn't be looking control for a 1 nil victory. It does not work out that way in this league.

You take the bull by the horns, make brave positive decisions and affect the game and take 3 pts against teams not around you. It's those 3pt to 1pt games against non rivals that kill you come the end of the season.

Being undefeated is great, but familiarity breeds content, and two games in a row now we haven't upped our urgency and that is not a good pattern to get into. Its all about the quality of opposition for me, but at the end of the day, it's not about me criticising the players, they are just actioning a dictated game plan after all. The buck stops in one place in the main.

Hope we tonk Tranmere Saturday as the pressure is on them in this one, not us.

[Deleted]

Saturdays game is going to be very interesting then, but one thing about our players is that they do tend to play well at the big league grounds with a big crowd. Obviously not at Braintree so can't really comment but if Braintree were that poor we simply have to roll those types of teams over, we finished 7th last season and the main reason was because we let the bottom teams take too many points off us. It sounds as if we were afraid to take Braintree on, particularly if they were more interested in defending and getting a point. Roll on Saturday then.....