todays game

[Alan W (GNFC)]

Re the defending from the corner - Andy said Chris Moore actually got up and beat his man to the ball, but unfortunately his clearing header hit Rogers and looped back in.

 

So, a little unfair to criticise the defending on this occasion.

[EUFC FAN]

Quote:

Nols1974 said:
Incidentally I cannot believe some of the comments I heard on the terraces today. Do these people really believe the rubbish they come out with or is it they just don't understand the game. Is Steve Mckimm -a player I rate - exempt from criticism, unlike certain other players, it certainly wasn't one of his better games today

I too am getting pissed off at the comments on the terraces! Now I may be wrong and this is just my personal view, but I see my role at GNFC as a faithful fan to cheer and encourage the 11 players on the pitch. Okay there may be one or two players that are having a bad game, but instead of hurling abuse at them we should be getting behind them and encouraging them. Abuse is the oppositions fan’s job not ours. It might also explain the comments in today’s programme from the editor. That we play better away because the GNFC fans that travel are more supportive and less critical.

So let’s make a difference and get behind the lads. It’s better to say nothing than to abuse our own players.

I also hope that we don’t get into trouble for the racist comments from the band of supporters behind the goal. Race does not only concern colour you know!

[FourFourTwo]

Well said

[FleetFanatic]

However we will forgive them as Perez is French.....

[new to the game]

all i heard was positive support for the team

[EUFC FAN]

Quote:

new to the game said:
all i heard was positive support for the team

Yes. Today's game the fans were supportive. But I went to the Dover game at home and when your own fans start cheering the opposition and singing "We want 4!". That's not on and does not help anyone!!!

[Fleet fan]

couldn't agree more.

[Paulo GNFC]

Some interesting views on this thread.....

 

Maamria shud have gone, ref bottled it. Would have changed the game completely.

 

Some good play today but lost our shape a bit, especially on the right. So much space...wasted!

 

Played second half a little better but still not good enough.

 

A poor decision by AF, seemed to take off Abbey because he appeared to question his judgement. If AF wants to discipline a player then do it after the game but not at the expense of the team & supporters. Certainly were a few crashes & bangs in the dressing room... Ben will be lucky to get another game this season! or sent to Bedford! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

 

Don't get me wrong, Louis did real good when he came on, some of the best I've seen from him, but Roy should have been taken off.

 

Agree Mooro & Shears at the back.

 

Re: Mckimm - loses his head too easily and should set example for the team. Agree with some points made by others, he seems to do no wrong in many peoples eyes. For example, he does need to improve his discipline, ball distribution and finishing. He regularly gets good ratings in the papers and MOM from sponsors even for a poor game!! Interestingly, he's not won the supporters' MOM once this season.

 

 

Up the fleet!

 

[jc]

I agree that discipline has been a problem with McKimm at times this season, but I thought he played pretty well yesterday, with his tackling particularly strong.

 

It was tough for the referee out there, with so many pressure-point decisions to make, but his decision-making was certainly inconsistent. I have to say that I wasn't 100% sure that Duku had fouled Richards for his red card, and I also thought their first penalty was a little dubious. Having said that, I think he got our penalty and their second penalty pretty much right.

 

In the end, I feel we may have lost even if some decisions hadn't gone against us like they did. Stevenage closed us down well all game, meaning that we had to resort too much to the long ball again, particularly in the second half. With Leigh and Farnborough both winning handsomely today, and with our next two games being against Exeter and Hereford, we are clearly not out of the woods yet.

[jc]

I agree that discipline has been a problem with McKimm at times this season, but I thought he played pretty well yesterday, with his tackling particularly strong.

 

It was tough for the referee out there, with so many pressure-point decisions to make, but his decision-making was certainly inconsistent. I have to say that I wasn't 100% sure that Duku had fouled Richards for his red card, and I also thought their first penalty was a little dubious. Having said that, I think he got our penalty and their second penalty pretty much right.

 

In the end, I feel we may have lost even if some decisions hadn't gone against us like they did. Stevenage closed us down well all game, meaning that we had to resort too much to the long ball again, particularly in the second half. With Leigh and Farnborough both winning handsomely yesterday, and with our next two games being against Exeter and Hereford, we are clearly not out of the woods yet.

[Malcolm S]

Very poor decision by Andy Ford to take Ben Abbey off, i think that

Ben & Louie together would have tore there defence apart today.

Essendoah is absolute rubbish he wandered around the pitch waiting for the ball to come to him, he was out jumped 95% of the time by their defenders with just one tame header on goal. All he brings to the team is a added burden on the wage bill.

Andy Ford said on radio Kent he would have liked to have started him on the bench, so would i on the bench waiting for the No 390 bus to take him out of Gravesend & Northfleet.

[Andy Y. (G&NFC)]

Both penalties at our end were valid. Although Maamaria went down like a sack of spuds every time he was anywhere near the penalty area. His contribution sums up Stevenage in my opinion. An obviously talented team, who were too professional for us to cope with. BUT also a highly unpleasant team to watch, with lots of sly off the ball stuff, blatant time wasting and general bad sportsmanship. A typical Graham Westley team in fact.

 

As for Duku's sending off? Think the ref got it very wrong. Not only was there a covering player, (Protheroe I think?) but O'Reilly was favourite to get the ball, which doesn't make it a goalscoring opportunity.

 

 

[FourFourTwo]

Quote:

new to the game said:
all i heard was positive support for the team

Well I can't agree. Maybe a minority but I am so sick of some of the comments on the side terrace I'm off to sit in the stand in future. Forty years of watching football, and sorry but it's the worst home support I've known (Minority of course, the players have no escape though)

[Vera]

As a family we moved from terrace to centre stand about 32 years ago as it was my first season with young children there and I said I was not going any more as the abuse and bad language thrown towards players (Pip Jefferey) in particular was completely out as far as children were concerned. If it is worse now as would appear from the above statement then it must be disgusting. I wonder how many other families get lost to the club because of this. It was only my husband's suggestion that we move to the stand which kept us going. I would say that by continuing to go, we as a family have spent thousands of pounds that the club would not have had.

Incidentally, yesterday I had four Charlton Athletic supporters one side of me and six Millwall supporters the other. Some of their comments were :- Good ball; oh what a good ball: yes directed at our players and on more that one occasion. When their player's foot found its way into Alex's stomach a Charlton supporter said "I don't

believe I have seen that" He repeated this three times. When a yellow card was handed out a Millwall supporter said "Garbage decision" and aside someone said the ref is colour blind he thought it was red. Their comments not mine.

 

[Unrecognized Genius]

Agree, Vera.

 

The abuse throwers & their "descendants" are pathetic little individuals who compensate for a truly deadful lack of self esteem by hurling abuse at people who are in no position to take them to task.

 

People have said on here before that unless you are an inadequate little [***!!***], then you never shout any thing at a player that you wouldn't be prepared to say after the game, on your own with him, at 12 inches distance.

 

EC

[smithyman]

Thought that in the main the team played well and put in a lot of effort - didn't deserve to lose.

 

Totally agree the ref was very poor - as Andy said, if an outfield player had gone into another outfield player in the way Maamaria went into Alex it would have been straight red. I wonder whether the ref felt it was too early in the game to send someone off. The decision for their first penalty looked bad from where I was - I actually thought for a moment the ref was going to book Maamaria for diving - which would have been his second booking and a deserved sending off. From where I was standing in the lead up to their second penalty it looked like Duku was fouled by Maamaria outside the box which then got him the ball and the resulting penalty. Thought Duku's sending off was a bit 'six of one and half a dozen of the other' - two players tussling for the same ball but by then the ref was only seeing incidents one way.

 

As for our team, most of the players gave a creditable performance. Duku obviously looked uncomfortable for most of the time he was on the pitch. Essandoah had a quiet start - maybe people were expecting miracles. ON THE DAY I thought Ben looked out of sorts and a bit disinclined to put in the effort and didn't seem to link up that well with Essandoah. Louie came on and showed much more determination and willingness to get at their defence. I want to stress the fact that my view of Ben was based solely on his performance yesterday as there does seem to be some people in the crowd who have formed some sort of anti-Ben alliance irrespective of how well he plays. My view is if he plays well I will applaud him, if not then criticism is due.

 

At the end of the day I just feel sorry for all the players who were cheated out of a well deserved point at least.

[Stu M]

Quote:

smithyman said:
there does seem to be some people in the crowd who have formed some sort of anti-Ben alliance irrespective of how well he plays.

True. There's a few people that wait until he gets the ball and does something wrong with it, or even if he can't get on the end of a hopelessly overhit pass from another player, and then they launch vitriolic attacks on him which you don't hear when other players screw up. And then if he does do something good, they're all quiet until his next mistake. Get off his back. He's not the best striker I've ever seen, but he's certainly not the worst.

[Hempstead Gaz]

Sadly, I think the Duke's performances have dropped well below Conference standard. Miskicks, misdirected headers, slow, not reading the play, giving away penalties, then to cap it all arguing the toss with Lee Gledhill whilst waiting his red card.

All in all a very unprofessional performance.

Louis again looked sharper than Ben, who I thought didn't do badly.

Alex couldn't be faulted and handled well.

McKimm simply ran too much, too far, instead of playing a simple game behind the front 2. Protheroe sits quite happily in front of the defence playing the simple passes, Stevie Mac should follow Prothers, and would be a better player for it.

Bit dissapointeed overall, but a draw would have been fair result.

 

[frankie]

new to board just got to say gradley is a good player. abbey should never of been taken off. and to say we play better without walshe you are having a laugh football is a funny old game.

[Rotten Johnny Shawcraw]

Maamaria should undoubtably have got a red card for the challenge on O'Rielly, there was no excuse the ref and lino both clearly saw it yet the ref clearly didn't have the bottle to send him off after only a few minutes. It then adds insult to injury that he stays on and scores from two penalties, not sure about the first but someone who was behind the goal said the second one was correct. I think Duku's red card was fair enough the bloke would have otherwise had a clear run on goal, a few other debatable bookings though.

 

As for Maamaria's diving lets be honest Abbey went down trying to get a pen early in the game and there was the incident in the Margit game when Protheroe (allegedly) went down clutching his face trying to get one of their players sent off, we can't complain when it happens to us if we condone our own players doing it.

 

Abbey and Essendoah were both poor, Duku is a smashing bloke but he does look out of his depth at Conference level, all in all another poor performance.