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Post by 1883 on Jul 15, 2014 20:50:47 GMT
can someone give us some individual players scores? I know matty taylor had a shot on goal, people said Sinclair did OK, just some numbers would help give some perspective, accepting its their first match together. I will be down for Twerton Saturday, cant wait!!
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Post by Centenary Gas on Jul 15, 2014 21:56:23 GMT
I'm very positive after tonight. We were very much on top for parts of the game, against an experienced team from a tier above what we will face. It's not that easy to create a lot with a side who haven't played together, away from home.
Good passing football out from the back.
Sinclair was very impressive. The fans who were there love him already, covers plenty of ground.
Taylor also very good. Fantastic touch, oozes some class on the ball and I can see him playing higher.
White didn't get much service to really do anything.
Gosling also looked good when he came on. I didn't know it was him, but we commented on good play from the 'number 14' many times.
Mansell was the leader in the centre of the pitch, very vocal.
Based on tonights showing, if we can add 3 or 4 quality players, I am optimistic for the season. These are the sorts of players we could of done with last season.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2014 22:05:03 GMT
That's an encouraging read CG - thanks for posting. UTG!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2014 22:09:08 GMT
Thanks for posting CG. There are some positive comments on Twitter, from people who were also there.
Onwards and upwards to Twerton Park on Saturday.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2014 22:25:50 GMT
Hi guys, just back from the game.
Was your prototypical early friendly game. We had our spells of good play, decent in the first half, impressive for a spell of 15/20 in the second. Both teams lacked a bit of creativity, particularly us & it was only really a long range effort that was going to settle it, in which Byron Harrison showed his ability with an excellent finish.
We started off in a 5-3-2. I thought the RWB Ryan Higgins had a decent game, he was caught a couple of times up the pitch but in the wing back slot that will happen. Parkes does look noticably trimmer and his short game passing was good, he just has a issue with the distribution. Infact, Parkes, McChrystal and Brown were much like their usual selves. Thought Lockyer had a good game at RCB, does balance out the defense rather than having two left footed defenders.
Stuart Sinclair was the standout player in midfield. Full of energy, complete workhorse and decent on the ball. Think he could well become a fans favorite this season. Pressed well and like most, grew into the game.
Another who grew into the game was Matty Taylor. Didn't have much/any service in the first half, but in the second he linked the play very well. Didn't see a lot of attempts from him at goal, except one where he turned well from the middle of Cheltenham's half away from the center half and shot but was parried away.
We clearly need a few players, particularly in the wing positions of the creative mold. That was the main thing that lacked for me tonight, but it was a decent performance against a Cheltenham team who, in realism, is the league above us and fielded their established L2 side. As I said, a spell of 15/20 in the second half was good until Harrison's excellent goal.
Also, we definitely need that option of a target upfront. White and Taylor showed good movement at times and looked good receiving to feet but will get overpowered from defenders and didn't win a lot aerially when they had the chance.
I'm more encouraged, after tonight, than I was before. We need two wingers & a striker, I predict Mitchell will sign and Higgins if Smith leaves. I'd write more but quite frankly it's far past my bedtime.
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Post by Centenary Gas on Jul 15, 2014 22:31:30 GMT
Hi guys, just back from the game. Was your prototypical early friendly game. We had our spells of good play, decent in the first half, impressive for a spell of 15/20 in the second. Both teams lacked a bit of creativity, particularly us & it was only really a long range effort that was going to settle it, in which Byron Harrison showed his ability with an excellent finish. We started off in a 5-3-2. I thought the RWB Ryan Higgins had a decent game, he was caught a couple of times up the pitch but in the wing back slot that will happen. Parkes does look noticably trimmer and his short game passing was good, he just has a issue with the distribution. Infact, Parkes, McChrystal and Brown were much like their usual selves. Thought Lockyer had a good game at RCB, does balance out the defense rather than having two left footed defenders. Stuart Sinclair was the standout player in midfield. Full of energy, complete workhorse and decent on the ball. Think he could well become a fans favorite this season. Pressed well and like most, grew into the game. Another who grew into the game was Matty Taylor. Didn't have much/any service in the first half, but in the second he linked the play very well. Didn't see a lot of attempts from him at goal, except one where he turned well from the middle of Cheltenham's half away from the center half and shot but was parried away. We clearly need a few players, particularly in the wing positions of the creative mold. That was the main thing that lacked for me tonight, but it was a decent performance against a Cheltenham team who, in realism, is the league above us and fielded their established L2 side. As I said, a spell of 15/20 in the second half was good until Harrison's excellent goal. Also, we definitely need that option of a target upfront. White and Taylor showed good movement at times and looked good receiving to feet but will get overpowered from defenders and didn't win a lot aerially when they had the chance. I'm more encouraged, after tonight, than I was before. We need two wingers & a striker, I predict Mitchell will sign and Higgins if Smith leaves. I'd write more but quite frankly it's far past my bedtime. Assuming Mitchell and Higgins sign, you are pretty accurate IMO in saying we need a couple of creative midfielders and a big man up front. Three quality signings and we will be looking good for the season. |
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Post by wakeygas on Jul 15, 2014 23:43:49 GMT
Thanks to everyone who reported on the game. Sounds like we have some reasons to be cheerful.  |
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Post by Fetch on Jul 15, 2014 23:55:26 GMT
STARTING XI
GK Mildenhall - Made a couple of saves. Nothing he could do about the goal. His short distribution was okay but his long kicking was poor at times.
RWB Higgins - Looked very comfortable at RWB despite his age. Wasn't afraid to go past people and have a run down the wing, equally he didn't shy out of tackles. Looks useful. Worth a contract as he can't have been on that much at Birmingham.
LCB Parkes - Looked slimmer, fitter and more switched on. He intercepted a lot of passes and he was superb in the air. He made a few runs in-field too, whilst the other four defenders covered him. Was able to get on the end of a few crosses when he ran up with the strikers. Probably the best player for us tonight, in my opinion.
CB McChrystal - Same old. His passing is better now - He doesn't hoof it as much. He even back-heeled it at one point, my eyes did not deceive me.
RCB Lockyer - Looks bigger than the last time I saw him, might just be my imagination. He looks solid at RCB, and put in a few good challenges. Definitely maturing into a talented young player.
LWB Brown - Very vocal tonight. Made some good runs up the left. Clearance took a deflection off him I think, and fell to Byron Harrison who scored a worldy, but I don't think it was his fault at all. Just bad luck. He got some good crosses in today, but we didn't have much of an aerial threat.
RCM Sinclair - Another stand out player. Shorter than I would imagine but he leaps like a salmon. Won a lot in the air and never stopped running. He's really quick, and has a fantastic first touch. Played in some good passes to Taylor from awkward positions. Looks a great signing from what I saw.
LCM Mansell - Had his moments. A few dodgy ones and some of class. Very vocal. He lead the midfielders. Reassuring to have some experience in the middle.
ACM Clarke - Looked sub-par tonight in my opinion. Gave the ball away cheaply and/or didn't do much with it. Hopefully he can push on against Bath.
LF Harrison - Again, sub-par. He played as a striker. He didn't win much in the air, and when he got it to feet he couldn't beat his man or play a forward pass. He belongs on the wing.
RF Taylor - Looks a class act. It's such a breath of fresh air to have a striker who wants to run at goal. His movement is very encouraging, and he had a few shots on target from range. Couldn't quite get in on goal, but did his best. His touch is class and he has a good footballing brain. Linked well with Sinclair and Mansell, I thought.
SUBS
RWB Pierce - Looked solid. Didn't put a foot wrong in the time he was on. Played RB.
LF White - Only touches he got of the ball in his twenty minutes were weak passes to his feet or poor crosses. He needed the ball in space. Practically had no chances. I'd like to see him start against Bath, as he didn't really get into the game at all. Not his fault though.
RCM Thomas - Looked fine. Didn't get much of the ball in his ten/fifteen minutes stint. He was good at Cirencester. One for the future, probably.
ACM Gosling - Hot and cold tonight. Made a few dangerous runs forwards and tried some creative passes. He played in the hole, but occasionally gave the ball away cheaply. Shot when he should have passed, panicked at times. Give him time though, I think he'll come good for us.
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Post by Fetch on Jul 16, 2014 0:01:58 GMT
As for the performance, it was very refreshing to see a different style and formation. We seemed to focus on short passing and possession play. We tried to play through the middle and not out wide. It worked in period, but the lack of width was odd(?) We can definitely be positive. The new signings looked good and you can see what Clarke is trying to set up. I just hope we can be flexible if we need to be and revert to 4-4-2. Defensively we were very solid, and their goal was a bit lucky to fall to their striker like it did, even if the finish was of Premier League quality. I think we were all applauding it.
Onto Bath, I hope we can take the positives and build on them. Get a few goals at bath. We need a target man like Brunt in that formation ideally, and maybe a more creative attacking CM. Ollie Clarke didn't fit the bill for me - Gow would have been perfect there. We'll see what Darrell does this week. Not all doom and gloom, folks.
I choked on my 1/2 pound beefburger before kick-off. Fanboy thought that was funny.
We also got diverted on the way home and nearly ended up in Wales. Less funny.
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Post by BishopstonBRFC on Jul 16, 2014 6:02:02 GMT
As for the performance, it was very refreshing to see a different style and formation. We seemed to focus on short passing and possession play. We tried to play through the middle and not out wide. It worked in period, but the lack of width was odd(?) We can definitely be positive. The new signings looked good and you can see what Clarke is trying to set up. I just hope we can be flexible if we need to be and revert to 4-4-2. Defensively we were very solid, and their goal was a bit lucky to fall to their striker like it did, even if the finish was of Premier League quality. I think we were all applauding it. Onto Bath, I hope we can take the positives and build on them. Get a few goals at bath. We need a target man like Brunt in that formation ideally, and maybe a more creative attacking CM. Ollie Clarke didn't fit the bill for me - Gow would have been perfect there. We'll see what Darrell does this week. Not all doom and gloom, folks. I choked on my 1/2 pound beefburger before kick-off. Fanboy thought that was funny. We also got diverted on the way home and nearly ended up in Wales. Less funny. If we can get the wing backs bombing forward in the 352 we will over run many teams this season. Glad we're actually trying something different! |
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Post by fanboy on Jul 16, 2014 6:52:09 GMT
As for the performance, it was very refreshing to see a different style and formation. We seemed to focus on short passing and possession play. We tried to play through the middle and not out wide. It worked in period, but the lack of width was odd(?) We can definitely be positive. The new signings looked good and you can see what Clarke is trying to set up. I just hope we can be flexible if we need to be and revert to 4-4-2. Defensively we were very solid, and their goal was a bit lucky to fall to their striker like it did, even if the finish was of Premier League quality. I think we were all applauding it. Onto Bath, I hope we can take the positives and build on them. Get a few goals at bath. We need a target man like Brunt in that formation ideally, and maybe a more creative attacking CM. Ollie Clarke didn't fit the bill for me - Gow would have been perfect there. We'll see what Darrell does this week. Not all doom and gloom, folks. I choked on my 1/2 pound beefburger before kick-off. Fanboy thought that was funny. We also got diverted on the way home and nearly ended up in Wales. Less funny. If we can get the wing backs bombing forward in the 352 we will over run many teams this season. Glad we're actually trying something different! They ended up with a fair bit of space and I feel that, if Brunt was in the middle, they'd have easily found him in good heading positions a fair few times. And I'd back him to finish it. |
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Post by Rovers 12th Man on Jul 16, 2014 7:04:53 GMT
I certainly feel a bit more optimistic after reading those comments. Cheltenham are a decent L2 side and it sounds like we more than matched them for most of the game.
Hopefully we will sign up these 2 young defenders and the other more creative players DC says he is looking to get and I feel we can have a successful season.
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Post by Jon the Stripe on Jul 16, 2014 7:09:56 GMT
FFS guys,...cut to the important stuff..
Rumours abounding the beard has been trimmed?
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Post by stevek192 on Jul 16, 2014 7:29:33 GMT
Well reading some of the details people who WENT have posted has certainly given me a boost at this time. I take from it this-
Goalkeeper- The youngster being given a chance is not a bad thing at all because we have lost two good youth goalkeepers in the last year and neither played a game. Only 5 subs so this seems a good idea to save money for more important areas as loan goalkeepers in emergencies are always easy to get.
Full Backs Sounds like both new full backs did well so could be sensible to sign both and really bring them on. Could both turn out to be the next Michael Smiths and probably not going to cost the earth.
Central defence If we are going to play with three central defenders then we are going to need to sign a new centre half but it sounds like Parkes is going to0 be back to his best which will be absolutely huge in the Conference.
Midfield- Sounds like Clark was very poor and IMO he is just not ready for regular first team football. Mansell should be ok but we will need somebody in who can create a bit. Not sure from reading accounts of the match where Sinclair played but he sounds excellent. If we could sign a creative central midfielder then that area could be covered too.
Wingers - From the reports this seems to be the area which has not really been improved. Gosling may be capable of developing but not sure how much time we give Harrison. Personally I think we should be looking at bringing two wingers pronto.
Strikers - Not sure if Harrison played as a striker or a winger but feel we need to sign one more striker to have a full quota of strikers in the squad. Sounds very much like Taylor can do the business and I am pretty sure that White will be a big asset with more creativity signed ie Midfield and Wingers.
So we don't seem to be in as bad a shape as I thought we were but still a mighty thin squad which if we sign Higgins and the other FB,keeping Smith would be a bonus! Then need 1 central defender,1 central MF,two wingers and a robust striker. (Brunt fit will be a bonus).
If DC can sign these in the next couple of weeks then perhaps we can go into the season with a bit of optimism. Thanks to those people who took the trouble to post about last nights game. It is good to see some positives at this time.
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Post by fanboy on Jul 16, 2014 7:35:12 GMT
Well reading some of the details people who WENT have posted has certainly given me a boost at this time. I take from it this- Goalkeeper- The youngster being given a chance is not a bad thing at all because we have lost two good youth goalkeepers in the last year and neither played a game. Only 5 subs so this seems a good idea to save money for more important areas as loan goalkeepers in emergencies are always easy to get. Full Backs Sounds like both new full backs did well so could be sensible to sign both and really bring them on. Could both turn out to be the next Michael Smiths and probably not going to cost the earth. Central defence If we are going to play with three central defenders then we are going to need to sign a new centre half but it sounds like Parkes is going to0 be back to his best which will be absolutely huge in the Conference. Midfield- Sounds like Clark was very poor and IMO he is just not ready for regular first team football. Mansell should be ok but we will need somebody in who can create a bit. Not sure from reading accounts of the match where Sinclair played but he sounds excellent. If we could sign a creative central midfielder then that area could be covered too. Wingers - From the reports this seems to be the area which has not really been improved. Gosling may be capable of developing but not sure how much time we give Harrison. Personally I think we should be looking at bringing two wingers pronto. Strikers - Not sure if Harrison played as a striker or a winger but feel we need to sign one more striker to have a full quota of strikers in the squad. Sounds very much like Taylor can do the business and I am pretty sure that White will be a big asset with more creativity signed ie Midfield and Wingers. So we don't seem to be in as bad a shape as I thought we were but still a mighty thin squad which if we sign Higgins and the other FB,keeping Smith would be a bonus! Then need 1 central defender,1 central MF,two wingers and a robust striker. (Brunt fit will be a bonus). If DC can sign these in the next couple of weeks then perhaps we can go into the season with a bit of optimism. Thanks to those people who took the trouble to post about last nights game. It is good to see some positives at this time. Thing about wingers is Clarkes formation did not have them. Therefore signing them would be fairly pointless. Maybe one or two would do so we could switch it up at times against different teams, give us a bit of variety. But the wing backs got forward a lot more than you'd expect and honestly I didn't see an issue with the centre backs. All were decent last night and as the game went on they only got better together. They even allowed Parkes to roam, and he can be dangerous when he starts to run at people. His short passing was surpringly good and he creates a bit himself to be honest! We need some creativity in the middle, I think Gosling could potentially play instead of Clarke but he didn't have the best of games yesterday, Exeter fans speed well of him though so me thinks there could be more to come from him. Lawson D'ath would have been perfect but he's clearly a level above us and there will be other options. Time for Clarke to bring them in. Finally, Ryan Brunt would have been brilliant in yesterday's side in place of Harrison. He'd have won a lot of those headers with ease and could have brought others into the game. There are a lot of positives IMO, Clarke really is building what he described and I'm excited now. Let's hope he can push on with the signings and we can have a good go at a return. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2014 8:05:13 GMT
Thanks to all who have posted excellent reports on last nights game.
Most encouraging to hear after all the recent doom and gloom about the strength of our squad.
DC has said three or four more are required so I await there arrival wiith keen interest.
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Post by stigofthegas on Jul 16, 2014 8:11:42 GMT
SteveK, Fanboy got it pretty much spot on. We sat behind the dugout and DC was the most vocal man on or anywhere near the pitch. He was bellowing at the wingbacks to keep pushing on and not to sit deep so it was definitely 3 at the back. Looked like 3-4-1-2 to me with Harrison and Taylor up top. He also hated it if anyone dwelt on the ball, kept shouting move it on, keep it moving etc. We pressed very high. My wife, who is not a tactician, even said "Wow, it's not like John Ward football is it?"
In this format, wingers with no defensive qualities and a big engine just don't fit. Harrison played up top and Gosling in the hole when he came on. If we want to swap to 4-4-2 though we may need wingers but I suspect he will go for wing backs.
Unlike others I thought the defence looked a lot weaker when Pierce Mitchell replaced Lockyer who moved into CM. They started to have a lot more success down their left and twice he got caught well out of position.
Sinclair was great to watch. He is very short and runs hunched over so looks about 3 feet tall at times but boy did he run. He was like a Jack Russell, running continuously, biting at people's ankles, and never giving up. Moved to RWB when Higgins went off.
Encouraging signs, clearly some creativity required and some depth in the squad. We are currently 3 injuries away from playing school boys.
Looking forward to Bath now.
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Post by mjhgas on Jul 16, 2014 8:15:37 GMT
Will Ryan Brunt be the answer to our "big man" upfront issue?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2014 9:04:03 GMT
Thanks for the feedback guys.
I am more concerned than ever now. There are some good bits though I suppose.
Already feeling sorry for some who are going to come down with a bump.
Sounds like we need 4 players min and another 6 weeks of pre season to be ready then?
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Post by stevek192 on Jul 16, 2014 9:19:28 GMT
I would say 4 players minimum required but as regards another 6 weeks of pre season training this would not be necessary as most of the players are there and getting fit and four players should be able to slot in no problem. I would still say it should be 1 defender 2 wingers and one creative central midfielder or 1 defender 2 creative midfielders and 1 winger. In an ideal world it would be 5 or 6 signings particularly if Smith goes. As regards the formation whilst it is ok playing with wing backs there are many times where you will need to change to possibly a straight 4-4-2 and therefore I have no confidence that we have ANY wingers of any quality.
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