Barney

I'm hoping to get along to the game on Friday, which will be my first of the season, so I'm looking forward to seeing the new players and forming opinions on how we're playing (the views of all the forum contributors have been very helpful and welcome so far). I was pleasantly surprised on Saturday as the goal notifications came in - Margate isn't an easy place for us to go, and I suspect they're better than their league position suggests.

A point gained after the 5-1 cup defeat?

Very disappointing result, albeit against a side flying high in the league... but we can't keep using the excuse that we're playing opponents higher up the table than we are, as most sides are at the moment Yet another late goal, and even though it sounds like we competed well and were unlucky, it still seems to keep happening. That said, I'm very much sticking to my view that we should judge things after 10 games, and no sooner - and although from what I've read we've not been setting the world alight with our performances, we also aren't being completely outplayed, and things could have turned out differently with a little more luck. Look forward to getting along to a game soon so I can share my views.

Thanks all for taking the time to share your views, sounds like 1 point from 6 is more a case of us playing pretty well, but having 2 tough games than anything major to worry about. I guess we will know more once we've played a few more games.

Agree 4WF, we don't finish games well - don't know whether this is a fitness thing, a mentality thing, a lack of substitutes or something else, but it's frustrating that we get ourselves into winning positions and come away with nothing. Think it's too early to worry - clearly 2 very tough games to start the season, and we've been competitive in both (although I've not seen either), will see how the next 8 or so games pan out before I make too many judgements. Edit to add: would be good to hear from anyone that's attended the games on how we've played.

Mo to Havant and Waterlooville it would seem

Fair enough - I stand very much corrected. Thanks for the update, and well done to the board.

Without having all the info, I can't comment on what's happened (although it does seem a little bit off on the face of it), but I doubt there's any restriction on a player playing non-competitive matches for another club having signed league forms with us (every chance I'm wrong to be fair).

Appreciate the input Theo (less so the second post - personally, I rarely check the forum at weekends), it's good to hear what's happening in games as I don't often get a chance to go to pre-season friendlies. I can only comment on the retained players really: I'm not sure Thomas is quite the player he was in his first couple of seasons with us, and I hope that injuries haven't taken their toll, if he can get back to his previous levels, then he's a very important player. Likewise Taaffe, who I think is a really intelligent player when fit, can unlock a defence and has a footballing brain. Shulton was decent under Quinton, but again another one who may not be able to reach previous levels. Good to see us retain Kirwan, who I think was in the running for player of the year last season and will hopefully continue to improve, and Cass is a proven striker at this level, and I think will do well. Any views on Wyllie or Dayton?

Just an observation, but apart from Worthing, the rest of the top 5 play a fairly direct style themselves having watched them all play. Maybe when budgets are limited, and pitches are of inconsistent quality throughout the season, this is the correct way to approach the league. Certainly the best footballing side I saw was Lewes, who taught us a passing lesson at home when they won 4-1, but subsequently didn't make the play offs. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to play great possession football, but I'd also like to give us the best chance of getting promoted. As a side point, did anyone have a better view than me of the Maja sending off? I know it didn't affect the outcome at all, but the challenge looked pretty innocuous - was the red for something that came after?

Good summary TCC: a very difficult result to take in a game that we could easily have shaded - thought we were better first half, and might have had a pen as well as hitting the post, but I definitely can't begrudge Hornchurch the win who are clearly a decent side, who kept knocking on the door and finally got their goals. Some frustrating goals to concede though (not winning a key header, or having anyone close to a second ball - and how long did Higgins have to control and pick his spot for their 2nd?!). I think 2-2 over 90 would have been fair, and then who knows what would have happened from there? Would have liked to have seen us make substitutes earlier, just to get some fresh legs on (either in midfield, or another centre back) and also to break up the flow of the game a bit. With the pitch as it was, I have no complaints about the way we played, I think any side trying to knock it around would have struggled, but I too would like us to recruit a couple more ball players for next season to add to the already decent squad so that we can retain the ball better, rather than looking to feed off of direct balls to Cass / Cunnington. Would like a couple more natural leaders in the team as well, I do worry about how well we communicate across the pitch too. All we can do is go again next season, we've showed with the attendance that we have a lot of potential to increase crowds, and hopefully another season of growing and improving will see us in a stronger position for when we do get promotion (it will come at some point). Obviously retaining key players, and adding to the squad will be key.

We could spend a lot of time going through "what if?" scenarios, but ultimately over the course of a season you can't argue that we haven't finished where we deserved to on merit. Yes our style of play isn't the most attractive, but with Cunnington and Cass, at least we have the personnel to play direct football, and finishing 4th (or 3rd) is a fair reflection on the management and the players, and they deserve a lot of credit. As for the play offs, who knows what will happen over 1 or 2 games - as we've seen, anyone can beat anyone else on their day, so I think I'll sit on the fence as usual and give us a 1 in 4 chance of promotion 😀

Congratulations Andy, very much deserved! Let's just hope it's not another case of the curse of the manager of the month award 😐

Great result Saturday, and from reading the reports and watching the highlights, it sounds like we defended well, were very competitive, and deserved at least a point. Need to kick on from these last two wins and keep racking up the points, as it's still going to go down to the wire, I feel. Maybe I need to write off games more often as we seem to do well when I least expect us to.

Tend to agree, with DJW and TCC, he's high and a little reckless, but it's not the most dangerous thing I've seen. Don't think we'd be able to appeal it, as there's not a clear error. I wasn't there, but sounds like it was quite a physical game, and that red might have been the culmination.