Arlesey game

I really enjoy watching the Arlesey defence, their captain especially, & once again they didn't disappoint. Gray gave away a penalty for a blatant handball on the line on 88 mins & after receiving a straight red, then proceeded to offer to take on all of our fans, its nice to see the passion ! Once again I would question whether it was a point gained or 2 dropped, but I think everyone went away quite happy & I think its quite clear now that we are genuine play off contenders, excellent for our first season in the Zamaretto. My m.o.m for us was Ben, who once again put in a captain's performance, 9 out of the 11 players had a good+ game, & I'm sure that the 2 that didn't know who they are and hopefully will be out to make amends next week, WE are the county town of Bucks & expect better performances than that! Well done the other lads, your doing us proud

DB wrote:I really enjoy watching the Arlesey defence, their captain especially, & once again they didn't disappoint. Gray gave away a penalty for a blatant handball on the line on 88 mins & after receiving a straight red, then proceeded to offer to take on all of our fans, its nice to see the passion ! Once again I would question whether it was a point gained or 2 dropped, but I think everyone went away quite happy & I think its quite clear now that we are genuine play off contenders, excellent for our first season in the Zamaretto. My m.o.m for us was Ben, who once again put in a captain's performance, 9 out of the 11 players had a good+ game, & I'm sure that the 2 that didn't know who they are and hopefully will be out to make amends next week, WE are the county town of Bucks & expect better performances than that! Well done the other lads, your doing us proud

I certainly dont feel it was two points dropped, especially as we came from behind twice to grab a share of the spoils, but it certainly wasn't pretty
The NL paper scored it 4 out of 5 for entertainement, dont know where that came from either. This was not an entertaining game of football thats for sure
It was a 90 minute game of attrition, of needed concentration by both teams, calling for and getting effort and endeavour. It was a game where goal mouth action at either end was very much non existent. By it's closeness whilst never really boring it was not one for the neutrals though
I agree with you about Ben, he really did play and lead by example and without the added composure of the missing Darby I thought the whole defence should be given a huge pat on the back
I think thats three games on the trot we have gone behind now and still come away unbeaten which surely speaks volumes for the attitude of the team, who as you say 'collectively' battled, competed and simply showed a never say die level of determination that is equally to their credit
However I did think we got our tactic slightly wrong Saturday. Against a huge Arlsey defence, led superbly by their fruit cake of a skipper Derek Brown who at this level, inspite of his growing years is still class, pumping the ball up in the air was never going to bring rewards
The forwards fed off scraps all afternoon with little service and apart form a ten minute spell in the first half, we never got behind them, something we so badly needed to do to become offensively affective
But 2-2 against the best defence in the league after being behind twice I think is a cracking result and leaves us in the middle of what is becoming a very congested and very close scrap for those play off places
Can we stay there though?
On yesterdays showing and with the huge improvement shown in peformances, attitude and resultds in recent games, I rather think we will

DB wrote:I really enjoy watching the Arlesey defence, their captain especially, & once again they didn't disappoint. Gray gave away a penalty for a blatant handball on the line on 88 mins & after receiving a straight red, then proceeded to offer to take on all of our fans, its nice to see the passion ! Once again I would question whether it was a point gained or 2 dropped, but I think everyone went away quite happy & I think its quite clear now that we are genuine play off contenders, excellent for our first season in the Zamaretto. My m.o.m for us was Ben, who once again put in a captain's performance, 9 out of the 11 players had a good+ game, & I'm sure that the 2 that didn't know who they are and hopefully will be out to make amends next week, WE are the county town of Bucks & expect better performances than that! Well done the other lads, your doing us proud

One of those players has surely got to be young Gareth?

Its alright being one of the fastest players in the league which surely he is, but he really has to learn, when to take players on and where, and then to do so with his head up so he can see what is going on around him

Even though he has popped up with a couple of important goals recently, he is I am afraid losing the ball so often of late, and worse,in the wrong areas of the pitch, which when doing so automatically puts us as a team on the back foot.

It is becoming so frustrating to see him run, head down straight into a couple of eagerly awaiting defenders, and worse still, when with a defender up his bum when he then tries to turn straight into them, rather than play a simple pass backwards.

Its so easy to defend against, especially in this league

Worse still is when he loses the ball as so often happens when running directly across the pitch. Let the ball do the work for you young man, its not rocket science.

If you do lose it, don't stand there bemoaning the fact or trying to deflect losing posession onto others, perhaps showing a determination, a passionate inclination to do something about it would retrieve the situation for everyones benefit?

Lastly, and only a word of constructive advice, if you are going to challenge for 50/50 balls then do so with utter convinction or mark my words, sooner rather than later you stand a real chance of getting a serious injury mate. Tackling tentatively as so often happens is not advisable

I love wingers, I love watching wingers,I love watching Gareth in full flow, but good wing play is very specialised, use your speed when taking on the last man Gareth, or when flying down the wing, not when you have three meatheads queing up to bury you! Few people will catch you when you are in full flow thats for sure, but when doing so,lift your head up,once you have beaten the last man, you will at least see the options open to you and we know you can deliver a great ball and against teams like Arlsey thats how we will beat them

Just an opinion mind, nothing personal against the lad, he's really imortant to the team, but with his pace he could. perhaps should be our match winner

Gareth exploded onto the scene last summer and everyone had high hopes for him,perhaps too high.
We have no idea if Gareth wants to make a living out of football,which he possibly could should he apply himself. Perhaps he fancies taking up other more usual pastimes for 21 yr olds like alnight drinking, womanising, hanging out with his bro's or boy racing ?
But the pitches are far to soft at the moment,(Ricky is struggling with his footing too)he must hate them & he has played 35+ games this season, everyone has a dip in form.

Gareth is my favorite player & a lovely lad, but I thought your comments could have been my own.
"perhaps should be our match winner" I have down as IS our match winner


We expect too much, far too much , it really isn't fair ....thats football for you

Hi all, we are lucky to have 2 young wingers such as Kieron and Gareth, they get better each game and are still learning at this level, but still put panic into the defending team. All good points and advice from the touch line, especially the head up one, as i was advised when coached as a young player, you dont need to look down when running with the ball you should know were it is. Looks like i missed a cracker of a game, well done all concerned, see ya Sat, Bas.

One thing I slightly disagree with is that unlike Keiron who does appear to be getting better with each outing, of late, in maybe the last 5/6 matches Gareth isn't.
Football is about many things including discipline, both personal and collectively as part of a team, and whilst there appears to be nothing wrong with the former his responsibilities as a vital part of the team and make no mistake he is very much a vital clog in the team,get diluted every time he needlesly and wrongly loses posession

No-one minds Gareth losing posession when he is galloping down the wings in full flight, that happens, everyone accepts that, but nothing is more frustrating,and probably worse, more upsetting to a teams momentum if the ball is given away in the wrong areas of the pitch, cheaply and more frustrating still if its lost by not taking what in a lot of instances is a glaring and quite straightforward alternative

You are of course right, he is a youngster and obviously has many things to learn, and I am sure he will. We all make mistakes, every one of us, and only experience stops us making the same mistake over and over, thats the secret he has to learn, thats the balance he has to bring to his game and as we all agree then perhaps his performances will indeed turn in to match winning ones....if we have the ball they cant score. Football at times is that easy