FGR v Eastleigh

[tenacres]

Flitney

Partington

Cresswell (C)

Johnson

Green

Taylor

Drury

Howells

Coulson

Mandron

Constable

Subs

Huddart

Dugdale

Pipe

Dawson

Bird

[tenacres]

0-0 HT.

[tenacres]

Beano booked, sounds like there have been a few chances at either end.

[tenacres]

1-0 Eastleigh!!

Mandron

[tenacres]

1-1

[tenacres]

Full time 1-1

[efcspitfire]

Thought last night was a very entertaining game between two sides I would be very surprised not to finish in the top three.
Both had a game plan to actually go out and win,and a draw was a very fair result.
Coulson,Reda and Mandron the stand out players,just need that goalscorer to play with mandron now,however I really feel for beano,he put a shift in yesterday and came close on a few occasions,it just wasn't to be.

[nobadspitfire]

Just about a fair result last night. I thought FGR looked dangerous for longer periods in the game than us, but with a bit of luck or a lesser keeper than Sam Russell we could have won. So basically we had the better chances but couldn't put them away. Agree with previous comments about where we need to strenthen, although I have a feeling Luke Coulson can fulfill which ever role RM asks him to undertake. Last night was evidence of how he's been missed in previous games

I tend not to complain about referees, but last night..........!! On Saturday v Southport, Adam Bromley was anonymous,  so he had a good game, just the way it should be. Last night's ref was poor. How many did we have booked? 4 or 5? And FGR? None, I think. No way  was there any justice in how David Rock refereed the game, certainly seemed to favour the home team. Don't think there was a card for the foul on Jukes which has put him out for 2 or 3 weeks. Rant over.

[Deleted]

Totally agree with every aspect of your post Simon, spot on mate!

A great game and a really enjoyable one to watch too, with both sides really going for it, it was end to end stuff all night.
Yes agree regarding the strike partnership, the biggest thing for me is finding the right partner for Mandron. The kid has goals in him and he can and will score all kinds of goals, but he needs someone with him who will score a few aswell as being a partner who he can link better with to play each other in more often. I can never fault Beanos effort or workrate, but he doesnt have enough goals nor do i think he is able to play in a way that will give Mike the assists he is crying out for, so we need to be looking at someone to take his place. Scott Wilson may or may not be the answer (is he really injured?), but i suspect we will be looking to sign another tried and tested L1/L2 striker to partner Mandron week in week out.
My only other concern is the lack of forward momentum and creativity from the middle of the park. We are now playing with wingers and fullbacks who are bombing on and providing the majority of our creativity, so our middle two tend to have to sit and hold, but as teams suss out that we are going wide every time, they can stifle our width, so you wonder what other option we will have to break teams down when we need to go to Plan B. I feel we are going to need greater creativity from the middle & will need midfielders going beyond our front two and getting into the box into scoring positions, not just sitting back and holding. I felt that was the only thing we lacked last night, not enough presence in the opposition box when the delicious crosses came in from Howells & Coulson. At least twice Coulson put crosses right along the 6 yard box, which Beano and Mika just stood & stared at. Where was the anticipation or desire to get on the end of those crosses? Then in behind them, we had nothing flying into the danger area from midfield, so the crosses went straight through the FGR backline and out to safety, with everyone looking at each other thinking how did they not score from that!?...

Ending on a positive - A very enjoyable game, more of that against the weaker sides aswell (consistency), and we really will be top 3 no doubt about that. Another goalscorer will propel us to the title. Our defence is awesome, so let's give our central midfielders freedom to roam forward, as not much gets through our back four, so they dont need as much protection, especially against the weaker sides, as that four can cope with it by themselves. That will then be where we need a more creative player than Taylor (although he is growing on me as an enforcer)

[dave]

Thought Greener had an awesome first half last night

[hantslondoner]

Drury has been benefitting from the midfield setup (particularly Taylor) to ghost in and score some goals this year. Hope he'll be able to continue that when fit again.

Wonder who will replace him in the middle for the time being? Pipe? He's more of the enforcer type too.

Looks like a good result, especially looking at the other games last night, and different from having to force the pace at home against lower-places teams scrapping for everything. 

[Deleted]

...it has to be Jai.
If we have Pipe & Taylor in the middle we are setting ourselves up to be defensive & i feel that lessens our attacking threat and allows the opposition to come onto us.
That said, if it were to be Jai, it makes a mockery of him not even being in the matchday 16 since Ronnie took over.  Which goes back to our bench not having any creativity on it (other than Dawson as the like for like winger option)
I suspect Ronnie will try Coulson in there, but we've seen him there before, and he isn't as effective in the middle as he is when playing wide. The only other option i can see is playing Howells in the middle, but again, he's better suited to a wider role, but at least he's neat and tidy on the ball.
We'll probably just go and buy someone for 3 games... 

[hantslondoner]

Jai would indeed be a good choice. But if he's going to be released..... or will this be his big/last chance to impress?

Coulson might try and bulldoze his way through the middle, which would be interesting - he was quite effective doing that on the wing against Southport on Saturday.

Howells is quite creative, so it may end up being him. Strevs of course would have been ideal.

[swb]

Sept 14, 2016 11:17:49 GMT dave said:

Thought Greener had an awesome first half last night

He is having an awesome season so far. During our troubled start he shone out and is still doing so

[back4more]

I agree totally with Martin re the ref. FGR are a very attritional side and a lot of their holding, pushing and shoving went unpenalised. We got away with nothing. I'm not sure what Reda Johnson was booked for - I think the referee doesn't like very tall players. 

The match overall was certainly a big improvement on Southport but we need to see more mobility through the 90 minutes. When their player stepped inside Partington for the cross that they scored from, he was in bags of space. He should have been hit with a tackle as soon as Parts was wrong footed. Where was the cover? I think we'd dozed off for a while after just scoring ourselves. It's an old saying I know but the most dangerous time in a match can be when you have just scored and for those 15 minutes or so it seemed to be all green shirts. In fairness to the manager he was using clear body language to try to get the players to stay awake but we still got caught out.

Our goal was superb. Was it Coulson who carried it into the danger area for Mandron to crack another sublime shot? I was sitting side of pitch in our half so wasn't 100% sure.

And who will take Drury's place while he is out? The tackle on him by the way was a regular red card offence right under the ref's nose but there was no reaction from him. Not even a caution. Not even a talking to. 

I would assume Pipe would come in but are there other options? It was a bit strange by the way to see the match start with the two players who'd swapped clubs, Pipe and Tubbs, both on the bench.

Finally a big thanks to the players and the club for the free travel to the match. This is my first season in four that I haven't been a regular at almost all away games, and I will probably only get to a few aways this season. I would have definitely been going anyway to this one, but it was good to be part of the superb away contingent that travelled on a week night thanks to that fantastic gesture.