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Post by cheshuntsaint on Nov 17, 2014 11:07:26 GMT
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Post by Hatboy on Nov 17, 2014 18:11:41 GMT
Farnborough (H) Preview Written by Jake Ellacott
Following a tough few weeks for the club, The Saints recorded an impressive victory away to high-flying Basingstoke Town on Saturday. Tonight we will looking to make it two victories in a row as Farnboroughfc-logowe welcome Farnborough to Clarence Park.
We have already played Boro, having visited Hampshire in mid-August. A James Comley strike just before half time proved to be the winner, as a resolute City side held on for the three points. A win tonight will see the Saints pick up their first double of the season.
Farnborough have had a mixed start to their 2014-15 League campaign, and currently find themselves in 18th place, with 13 points from the 15 league matches that they have played so far. The Yellows will be disappointed with their point return up to now, and will surely be looking to give themselves a boost with a win this evening.
Their recent League form can be described as less than ideal, having lost their last six league matches, while their last win (Not including Cup competitions) came on the 20th of September, when they defeated Staines Town 2-1 at Wheatsheaf Park. This poor run has coincided with difficult fixtures both home and away to Ebbsfleet United, at home to Sutton, and a visit of Gosport Borough, all of which are tough matches in an already very competitive Vanarama Conference South.
Boro’s last outing, away to Ebbsfleet United, saw Spencer Day’s men fall to a disappointing 3-0 defeat. After a tightly contested first half, the home side came out all guns blazing following the interval, with forward Matt Godden leading the charge, as he grabbed an impressive hat-trick, which left Farnborough licking their wounds on the journey back to Hampshire.
Following their difficult start to the new season, Farnborough’s management team, led by Day, have acted quickly to try and stop the rot. The club from Paddy Power Park have invested heavily in the squad, with the signings of Lloyd Foot from Eastbrourne, Louis Theophanous from Staines Town (Last season’s top goal scorer in the Conference South) and also Hary Grant (Ex-Bromley) and David Banjo (Ex-Arbroath). This squad overhaul means that the Boro will surely be confident that they can pick up their first points in nearly two months at Clarence Park.
The Saints, meanwhile, as already mentioned, picked up their first points since a victory away to Weston-Super-Mare in October with a thoroughly deserved 1-0 win away to Basingstoke Town; one of the early pace setters in the division. City gave one of their best performances so far this season in the opening 45 minutes at the Camrose, with Basingstoke goalkeeper Stuart Moore having to deal with nine-separate shots on target from the visitors in the first half alone. However, despite the heroics of Moore, the game winning goal came in the 19th minute, as debutant Charlie Smith turned a defender, before curling it into the far corner of the ‘Stoke net. It was a fully deserved three points for St Albans, and will go some way to returning the positivity to the club after a disappointing few weeks both on and off the pitch.
Prior to Saturday’s match, James Gray and Graham Golds reacted to the concerns of fans after a number of disappointing results, and secured the loan signings of Charlie Smith from Luton Town, and Ian Gayle from League Two’s Dagenham & Redbridge, who joins fellow Dagger Sean Shields at the club. There was also the arrival of Omar Beckles, who joins City on a permanent deal from AFC Hornchurch. There was one departure, as James Kaloczi has re-joined Wingate & Finchley on loan after an impressive loan spell at the Ryman Premier Club earlier in the season.
Having picked up an unexpected, but very impressive win on Saturday, the Saints will be looking to heap even more misery on Farnborough with victory at Clarence Park this evening. With a win, City could move up one spot to seventh, for 24 hours at least.
Come On You Saints!
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Post by Hatboy on Nov 17, 2014 18:15:23 GMT
Midweek best available odds:
Monday 17th November 2014 Chelmsford (19/20) Draw (3) Wealdstone (14/5) St Albans (1/2) Draw (10/3) Farnborough (5) Tuesday 18th November 2014 Bath City (15/8) Draw (5/2) Gosport Borough (7/5) Eastbourne (13/10) Draw (12/5) Hayes & Yeading (2)
Form guide:
Saints at Home LWLDWLL F 12 A 14 Farnboro Away LWDWWL F 6 A 8
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 19:46:51 GMT
Saints Team To Play Farnborough, Welch Kyriacou Gayle Martin Chappell Gorman Beckles Corcoran Comley Smith Frendo
Subs, Wales Keenleyside Nouble Locke Taylor
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 19:47:16 GMT
Herts Ad Sport @hertsadsport · 8m 8 minutes ago No Sean Shields tonight- been told he's ill. His loan deal ends on Saturday
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Post by Hatboy on Nov 17, 2014 19:59:41 GMT
1-0 Farnborough
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 20:21:06 GMT
2-0
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 20:38:09 GMT
Farny 2-0 HT.
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:04:40 GMT
Saints Subs, Gorman & Corcoran OFF Nouble & Wales ON
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:10:33 GMT
Sub, Keenleyside ON Smith OFF
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:15:19 GMT
Goal for Saints Nouble 1-2 #sacfc
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:20:59 GMT
ATT 344.
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:28:05 GMT
GOAL 2-2 Wales
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:34:04 GMT
Goal for Farnborough 3-2
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:38:19 GMT
Chappell sent off.
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2014 21:40:59 GMT
FT: 2-3
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Post by Canary Saint on Nov 17, 2014 22:04:50 GMT
I think frustrating may be the way to describe City's progress so far this season.
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Post by notsorecentconvert on Nov 17, 2014 22:29:18 GMT
Incredibly frustrating, Canary Saint.
We're just not a good home team. After the Basingstoke match (which I didn't see), I was hopeful of a positive performance and the first three or four minutes were bright and lively but after that we invited all the trouble on ourselves. Ben Martin had a ten minute spell were nothing went right for him. Dave T's video may prove me wrong but the four or five touches of the ball he had immediately before Farnborough's opening goal went straight to an opposition player. A mistake gave them a clear sight of goal and although it was a great finish the ball should never have got into that position in the first place.
Similarly, the second goal was a self-inflicted disaster. By all accounts Welch was outstanding at Basingstoke so it's not fair to be too critical. Even good goalkeepers make mistakes but it was a poor slip and a desperate attempt at a recovery and it gifted the Farnborough striker an easy chance.
The response was more or less non-existent. Really poor stuff. I counted one serious chance to get a goal back before the break but I could be mistaken. I was struggling to pay attention.
Too many players were off their game. Gorman's touch deserted him. Corcoran looked at his most casual and careless. The idea of playing Frendo up on his own with players supporting him from deeper or wider positions is hopeless when chasing a game at 2-0 down.
The changes did make a difference. Nouble looked much more threatening than against Whitehawk. Wales got into some great positions, as did Keenleyside, and although we didn't look all that fluid we were well on top, particularly after we'd got one goal back.
After the equaliser, I really thought we might steal an unlikely and undeserved three points, but the winner came after the defence collectively sat on the self-destruct button.
Farnborough looked vulnerable when anyone did anything at any speed, whether that was run at them or play the ball with pace. If we could have kept it tight and continued to bombard them, we might have won.
Chappell's sending off was strange. I didn't see what happened. Did he push someone? It was a straight red. Perhaps he's got tickets for the Nou Camp (ho, ho, only joking!) I hope he doesn't miss the Wealdstone game in the Trophy but I have a feeling he might.
Anyway, let's be honest, a point would have been much more than we deserved over the 90 minutes but the manner of the defeat still stings.
Here's a quick fact. Number of points won at home this season: 7 from a possible 24. Number of points won away: 15 from 27. I think I'll start going to the away games!
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Post by Boomer on Nov 17, 2014 22:49:53 GMT
Chappell's three match ban will kick in 14 days after tonight's game, i.e. our first game after Dec 1. Therefore he will be available for the Wealdstone game but not the three games after that. Not sure if it that includes the Kings Langley HSC game on Dec 2 or not. On the other hand, we could be involved in a replay at Wealdstone the previous evening if the F.A. Trophy game is not settled on the Saturday.
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Post by Hatboy on Nov 17, 2014 22:54:12 GMT
Only two sides in the division have lost more games than us
Only four sides have conceded more goals than us
W 2 D 1 L 5 F 14 A 17 Pts 7 @ Home
And yet we're the fifth highest scorers.
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Post by notsorecentconvert on Nov 17, 2014 22:56:41 GMT
Cheers Boomer. At least he's available for the Wealdstone match. On Twitter he's apologised for the rush of blood, so clearly he did lash out in some way.
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Post by Boomer on Nov 17, 2014 23:15:58 GMT
From what I could see, he was trying to get the ball to take a free kick and the Farnborough player was deliberately using delaying tactics by being obstructive, wasting time and preventing Chappell from getting the ball. Chappell seemed to hack away at the back of the player's legs to get the ball away from him and was then red carded. The strange thing was that the Farnborough player was not even yellow carded, when he was the initial cause of the whole incident. That's what it looked like to me but I was little way away from it.
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Post by dunstablesaint on Nov 17, 2014 23:30:04 GMT
I thought this was one of the worst Saints performances I have seen in years. Ben Martin was an embarrassment, one full back looked out of his depth and the other one was deservedly sent off for behaving like a petulant 10 year old. None of the midfielders looked good enough, especially Smith, and Frendo is clearly not fit and quite possibly not good enough for this league. The subs did OK but it was too late by then.
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porkypig
Saints Youth Team Player
Posts: 245
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Post by porkypig on Nov 18, 2014 6:06:40 GMT
the new signings don't look good enough for this division neither are we at this rate we will be fighting off relegation after christmas!
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Post by St Michael on Nov 18, 2014 7:08:14 GMT
Don't worry, Loick Pires is back soon.
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yellowalf
Saints Reserve Team Player
Posts: 301
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Post by yellowalf on Nov 18, 2014 9:30:48 GMT
It's all getting a bit depressing for me. We lack the basic ability to pass the ball to a team-mate, and to move into spaces so that we are in a position to receive a pass. Well, we don't lack that ability because we showed it enough in the last 20 minutes, yet we didn't seem to be able to do it effectively in the first half.
I did think that, player for player, we weren't any worse than Whitehawk: it was just their incredible organisation, movement and ability to know where each other were that gave them the win; and with players like Mills, Robinson, Torres and Kissock running a forward diamond then there's a very good reason why they were such a pleasure to watch. Farnborough weren't as good as Whitehawk yet they still had quick movement and the vision to find each other with passes that undid us. Meanwhile we were struggling to find anyone to pass to and far too often ended up going backwards to move the ball.
There isn't that much difference between success and failure at this level and despite being, to my eyes, outplayed in the first half we could very well have gone into the interval level had Ben Martin not appeared to clear off their goal-line from one yard out, then when both Beckles and Comley missed the same cross for a clear header on goal. Ifs, buts and speculation maybe, my point is that we had the clear chances to be 2-2 at half time and, for whatever reason, we failed to take them.
If we can play for 90 minutes like we did for the last 20 then we'll win more games than we lose, if we play for 90 minutes like we did in the first 20 we'll lose more than we win. We need a bit of consistency to win enough points and the stupid part of this is that in the past three days we have won away at a side in the play-offs places (Basingstoke) and lost at home to a team in the relegation zone (Farnborough) when we would all have expected the result to have been reversed! We're now 8th in the table, but if you adopt a points per game sorting order then we are actually 15th with 1.2491 pts per game.
One last point, this one about Lee Chappell. I think he's a great left back, defensively solid and strong going forward. My personal opinion is that his throw-ins have become wasteful: whereas initially they were a major weapon, now they rarely beat the first defender and are cleared easily if they do get into the middle of the box. His free-kicks are still dangerous but not as dangerous as his temperament. I've noticed over the past three or four home games how "chippy" he has become to the lino asst ref and referee, always questioning their decisions and talking back at them. About five mins before the sending off he was spoken to by the ref for something so you might think he'd be on best behaviour, instead he let his emotions rule his head when we did win a deep free-kick by kicking out at the opponent. Yes, the Farnsborough player was in the wrong but there is a ref in the middle for a reason. I'm not, at this point, interested in why whoever it was wasn't booked by the ref, I'm interested in how Chappell thought he would benefit by kicking the player. Its a no-win situation, especially with last night's ref who gave some strange decisions all game. Now we face three games without him and I'm wondering who the replacement left-back will be. I see that Chappers has tweeted that he hopes the club will report the ref for calling a number of players "effing Richard-heads" (amended to avoid breaking any ProBoards regulations). If that is true then it is unacceptable behaviour on the part of the official, although it does mirror exactly what I said about Chappell when he got his red card.
Anyway, on to Havant & Waterlooville this Saturday: they're in the play off zone so its an easy home game and I predict a 4-0 win to Saints; although I may have changed my mind before I get to post it in the prediction thread....
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2014 9:33:14 GMT
I thought it was more of a 90 minute spell, to be honest. There was too much whinging and moaning at both the ref and each other for my liking - I was surprised the ref took as long as he did to book Corcoran, and the Farnborough 3 knew he was an easy target so got stuck in to him early on. You're pretty much spot on about Chappell's red, Boomer - the Farnborough 11 stood on and in the way of the ball, shielding it to stop us taking a free kick (maybe 10 yards inside our own half, I might add) and Chappell got frustrated and kicked the back of his legs. Stupid and not particularly subtle either. Nouble looked good (especially that run past about four men late on before he was scythed down), also I thought there were a few times (more in the first but some in the second) where either Corkers or Frendo was off the last defender and a good ball would've put us through 1-on-1 but that ball never came. Basically a very, very bad day at the office. I'm sure Golds and Gray will be on here soon to see fans' opinions and find out how to put it right
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Post by asaintreborn on Nov 18, 2014 10:54:22 GMT
the new signings don't look good enough for this division neither are we at this rate we will be fighting off relegation after christmas! Couldn't agree with you less! I thought despite conceding 3 goals Ian Gayle was superb, although he made the one mistake he was solid all night. He was solid in the air, marshaled his area well, covered any mistakes he could get too and carried the ball out of defense superbly. He played some lovely diagonal balls over the top of there defence, but our strikers timing of runs were shocking. He could do nothing about any of the goals last night and to suggest otherwise is crazy. Ben had a night to forget and he knows it we all have bad days that we can do nothing about. Beckles played well too, he won countless headers and controlled the Ariel battle, unfortunately our failure to anticipate the second ball was classic city and there not a lot you can do about that if your winning the initial challenge, meaning his efforts were undermined. He actually can play football with both feet which is a rare quality in footy and will look to play the ball forward. Gorman despite his tenacious attitude to win the ball is far to negative, he seems to turn away from a pass to play the ball backwards or sideways far to many times. The only newbie that didn't get involved was Charlie Smith, I didn't particularly think he did anything wrong, but he was barley given the ball, you could count how many times he touched the ball on two hands. I'm not going to comment on the game itself or the ref, I am already frustrated enough.....
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2014 11:07:17 GMT
It's a shame some of those new signings won't be here that long...
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yellowalf
Saints Reserve Team Player
Posts: 301
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Post by yellowalf on Nov 18, 2014 12:29:09 GMT
Couldn't agree with you less! I agree! Gayle was excellent, Beckles showed loads of promise and Smith is a young player who will go on to have an excellent FL career. On a slightly separate topic, I see Hatters have extended their loan of QPR right back Michael Harriman for a second month to 6th December. I remember him from his time at Clarence Park: he was very good. It isn't relevant to this thread but every time I saw Smith lose possession or get a pass wrong last night I thought of how young players need more experience before they can translate their potential into performance and, being from Luton, Harriman's name kept coming to the front of my mind. Smith is very highly rated at Kenilworth Road - I first heard his name mentioned about three years ago - and if we can keep him for the season (unlikely I know) I believe he will become one of our better players.
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