Why so quiet?

[Brian A]

It's now 6.25 and I can't believe no one has posted anything about today's game.

Could someone who was behind the Swanscombe goal please give an opinion on the "dive"? From the stand it looked like there was a push in the back before Moussa went over.

Also, it looked to us if their 9 more than nudged Moussa while the was on the ground - which is ironic given his theatrical falling about whenever brushed from behind!

Early days and no cause for panic or any moans - the first 20 mins and once Moussa came on were great to watch. Felt a bit sorry for Drury as he hadn't seen much of the ball and when he did have it he made things happen. Anyway, here's to a great entertaining season.

[Stu M]

Couldn't really see the Moussa incident, but their No.9 reacted badly and he later booted the ball away - both while on a yellow card, so he should've walked as well... but when has consistency ever distracted a Conference ref?

 

Thought we started brightly, Surey's passing was superb (but then he deteriorated big-time in the second-half). Probably always on the cards that this would be frustrating when we always thought we'd walk it. Nice to see Jacko mark his return with a goal.

 

We'll have to play better for 90mins on Tuesday if we want to take anything, however...

[carjam]

Would love to have seen the match, but the news from Radio Kent of Northwich's late arrival ment I had to turn around and go home. Had to be back for 5 (if I wasnt I would be dead now). So missed the game. If the club wanna claim my what would have been £15 entry late Northwich should be liable. Northwich leave earlier next time.

[gnfc_guy]

To me i had quite a decent view of the incident and it seemed that the player clipped Moussa's ankles. Ref looked familliar any one think they recognised him?? If so what game was he involved in??

I heard that there was a Ref acessor(dnt know how to spell it) in the crowd?

What happened with Roy's open goal!!!!! lol

I thought we should have taken our chances in the 1st half, all in all most looked promising. Also well done Jacko!!!

 

On a last note i think that the programme was of a lot better quality!

 

Up Da Fleet!!!

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[Richard C]

Thoroughly shocking atmosphere! Why when 30 of us stayed behind the goal to support the lads did 300 go up the other end to purely stand there!!!!!!!!!!!! Not ONE chant from behinthe goal second half - therefore why not stay with us and get behind your team.

 

Surey - good

Jacko - class

Manny - class

Rouse - class

Essendoh - who??

Wilko - good

Gledhill - good

moore - class

porter - ok (first viewing of him - shearer better)

Drury - class

Mckimm - class

moussa - good

 

yet why no Pinnokc when struggling and why did so many important players seem asleep!!!!!!!????????

 

Thoroughly peeved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EUFC FAN]

I the first ten minutes I was thinking blimey we are good! May be the playoffs aren't just a pipe dream! Then we scored. The old GNFC then appeared as the players seemed to switch off. There were a few chances, which should have been taken.

 

Once they equalised we seemed to wake up a bit, not to the degree of the first half (may be it was too hot). The second goal should have finished it, but they seemed to sit back again. Their second was not unsurprising.

 

There was some very pleasing and promising performances today and the future does look good. Now if we could just cure the sleeplyness after scoring!

 

 

[Gordon T]

Quote:

gnfc_boy said:
Ref looked familliar any one think they recognised him?? If so what game was he involved in??

Firstly due to him being short I thought it was someone like stroud. However i looked in the programme as soon as i thought that and discovered it was ref called Ray Lee. Now at the time I thought nothing of this, but now you mention it could it have been the same bloke from farnboro 2 seasons ago?? Not that it matters too much, we had enough chances to win the game before this incident which we should have taken!

Agree that the first twenty was good, and when moussa came on was good. The defending was poor for their goals, especially the second where we could have been a lot tighter. Was at the plough end so can't comment really but it did look as if he went down under the challenge so should have at least stayedo n the pitch.

Can't wait for canvey, who got what seems a decent draw at Carlisle. It will be tough but we can do it.

[Matt (GNFC)]

I actually have a slightly different opinion Richard. I may be wrong but i think the our two most senior players were our least effective, Mckimm and Jackson. Jacko scored the goal but from what ive seen of him he doesnt seem to have the same amount of energy from his pre Dagenham days. To me he seems about two shirt sizes bigger from two years ago and i dont at the moment see him having the energy to make those surging left wing roles that he used to be famous for and was struggling to keep up with play today. Its early days and ill reserve judgement as he's been a legend. Rouse was man of the match today followed closely by Surey who i thought for most of the match was excellent. I agree with u in that i think Shearer is better than Porter. Two points dropped today for sure, we should've had it wrapped up after 25 minutes.

[EUFC FAN]

Quote:

Richard C said:
Thoroughly shocking atmosphere! Why when 30 of us stayed behind the goal to support the lads did 300 go up the other end to purely stand there!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cos the sun was out! And we weren't just standing there. We were giving there goalkeeper and defenders the appropriate stick!

[Gordon T]

Yeah, while we where struggling to outsing there fans who were in fine voice, and credit to them.

[Bernard]

Sorry, Mr C, but some of us prefer a good view of the game to making some anti-Canvey-based noise. I take it no one at that end had a good view of Moussa's red card, nor a good view of our goal. These may well be the same people moaning at the quality of the ref's decision...funny that.

Also, I think it's fair to say that Jacko was largely anonymous, the goal excepted, and McKimm has been far from good for a while and should perhaps give up on attempting crosses or long balls...

[Wobbly Wayne rides again]

Quote:

Also, I think it's fair to say that Jacko was largely anonymous,

 

Can see Jacko playing left midfield in an away game, as it may tighten up the game . But at home against what will be a fellow struggler, it gave us no width and we were no threat down the left hand side, despite the rodent Rat Mouse's gallant efforts at Left Back. Jacko got drawn inside too often.

Thought he was lucky to stay on , and would personally have switched Drury across when the Moose came on.

 

Totally disappointed as the next 2 games are difficult ones, and 3 points today would have given us a lift.

 

 

The ref was obviously told to look out for the moose's antics after last season but this time he got it wrong. Poor decision..

 

 

 

[Alan W (GNFC)]

Agree with your opinion, Matt - Mckimm especially had an off dayt - Surey has a good footballing brain and for the most part was excellent, as was Matt Rouse.

 

Lets just allow Roy to forget today - everyone has those days once in a while and everyone has a glaring miss now and again even the best professionals - everyone remembers Ronnie Rosenthal, I'm sure!!

 

As for the penalty incident, Andy was clear in his thoughts after the game. He felt it was a clear penalty.

 

In any event, iyt seems the refs these days either award penalties or take the view that players have dived. There never seems to be any in between. Even if it wasnt a penalty, I certainly felt he was off balance and took a slight nudge, and certainly didnt dive.

 

The other thing was, should 2 of their players not have received yellowcards for fouls on Moussa before the penalty incident? The first run he had, one of their guys just barged into the back of him with clearly no intewntion of playing the ball - then there was the obstruction on the edge of the box which was even more blatant - and in that case, I think the player involved had already been booked and should therefore have been sent off.

[Gordon T]

The thing is due to the nature of a penalty refs haev to be so sure to give it, which is often why lighter fouls that may be given outside of the box aren't given inside of the box. there is no consistency, but then we all know that.

[Bernard]

Well said Alan. There are three possibilities in a situation like the penalty appeal today: dive, foul and the player losing balance. The referee made a few mystifying decisions, no less the booking for their player in the first half, whose challenge clearly won the ball.

 

I wasn't entirely convinced by Rouse's performance, however. Sometimes I feel we have enough runners with the ball in our team (Drury and Manny, for example) who lose the ball too often, and Rouse is one of those, I fear. Sometimes defensive stability is more important than over-inventive attacking play, as was shown by us being caught short for their two goals.

 

The bottom line is, we need to put in far better performances in the difficult three games coming up, or we could find ourselves bottom soon, rather than stamping our authority on a potential play-off chase.

[Alan W (GNFC)]

There were also 2 occasions today where the ref allowed NV to take quick free kicks, many yards from their correct positions, and with moving balls - had either of those resulted in agoal the ref really would have found hiself facing even more flack.

[Blinkjim]

Can anyone explain, why manny was sent off, because i don't know. Was it a clear cut penalty or was the ref being blind???

[Red Neck]

Quote:

Brian A said:
It's now 6.25 and I can't believe no one has posted anything about today's game.

It's now 10:40pm and I still haven't calmed down. For the first twenty minutes we were on fire. Well done Jacko, what irony that you should open our account for this season. After that we didn't so much as fall asleep, as die. We did exactly the same as we did ever game last season. We fell back, gave them room and didn't capitalise on the multitude of attempts we did get, 3-0 at half-time would of been a fair score.

Second half same thing. No width, no vision, no Manny and most importantly, no defence. Drury was kept pinned down on the wing. Long balls 'hoofed' forward into empty space or the midfield trying to take on 3,4 or 5 players. Manny vanished until Moussa came on. Both Northwich goals looked inevitable, the defence were caught out both times. Where was our defence? Certainly not at Stonebridge Road.

Pluses, Matt Rouse, Ben Surey and Moussa Sidebe. And, some of the time Manny Omoyinmi, Roy Essandoh, Jimmy Jackson, Paul Wilkerson, Andy Drury. Improvement needed, Lee Gledhill, Steve McKimm, Graham Porter and Chris Moore, despite his flukey goal.


Note to Roy:- Please make sure your boots are on the correct feet.
Roy scuffed the toe of his boot on the ground when facing an open goal.

Note to Moussa (Romauld please translate):- Please do not try to handle the ball whilst jumping. The refs don't like it.
You may not of touched it this time, but why do it at all.

Note to Officials:- Are you all slow/lazy/blind/inept/corrupt:- Moussa got passed three opposition players, got into the penalty area, stopped, looked up, lifted his leg ready to play the ball across the goal mouth, thereby meaning he was poised on one foot and off balance, then got tackled from behind by the third of said opposition players, who was lying on the ground where he had been left. And according to Mr. Ray Lee, 'theatrically dived'. He was clear of everyone, so he couldn't of known who was behind him. Mr. Ray Lee your name is burnt into the memories of Fleet fans, do us all favour don't come back, cause your not welcome.

Sorry for such a long rant, this will probably be the first of many, but I'm so pissed off. Northwich looked what they were last season, relegation fodder. Do I feel better? No I bloody well don't. So lets annihilate Canvey, better still let's annihilate Essex.

[FleetFanatic]

We didn't play well after the first 20 minutes but we were robbed by poor officials (not for the first time this season, I suspect).

 

Twice the lino produced late offside flags when our players had quite clearly been onside (the worst example being when Jacko took the ball from Sidibe, ran through the Northwich defence then got called back for offside?????)

 

No doubt at the end - Moussa was harshly treated by the muppet in black. Having got past 2 defenders and a clear path towards goal / to cross the ball, he was then fouled. He was clipped and knock off balance. If contact is made then it's a foul. We were robbed!!!

 

All in all there is one positive that instantly springs to mind - WE HAVE ONE MORE POINT THAN THIS TIME LAST SEASON!!!!!

[JimGNFC]

All too similar to last seasons home form . . . cracking start followed by a mediocre performance only then to concede that 90th minute goal . . . Again! For those first 20 minutes we looked a play-off side but its late goals like this that will probably see us finish mid-table.

 

Pluses for me - a) Ben Surey - wasn't too certain about him at first but he knows how to tackle and is a quality passer of the ball Matt Rouse looks an excellent find who seems to be improving with every game at Skinner's expense today presumably?

 

Radio Kent described our attendance of 1064 as disappointing today and rightly so - regardless of the "holiday season" and Gillingham at Home.

 

Its now our third season in the Conference. The footballing side has improved vastly but our fanbase remains around the thousand mark when similar sized clubs such as Dagenham and Tamworth attracted 1706 and 1325 respectively through the gate today. Lets hope the Club have some firm ideas how this can be improved for the new seaon or are they receptive to ideas?

 

Listening to a match report of Wimbledone AFC vs Ashford Town, the atmosphere sounded electric - over 3000 for a Ryman Division 1 match!Another 500 or so added to our gate would really add to the atmoshpere and the players would I'm sure respond in kind. When we lose a lead, the atmosphere does tend to go very flat especially when there is no drum - this probably makes it harder for the players to raise their game.

 

As for the programme . . . Excellent, Quality, more of the same - see I don't just whinge! Gold star for the new programme editor!