Barney

Whilst I don't agree with most of the abject doom and gloom, I do agree with the above - at times last season we were all over the place, and really lacked cohesion and defensive shape. How much of this was down to the players and, how much was down to the management's system and ability to communicate this effectively is open to debate (although I agree that in either case, the buck stops with the management). I also think that injuries to key players and unavailability at times didn't help us at all (again, arguably up to the management to have built a squad with enough cover - although this clearly costs money). I do think we looked a better site when Wetherstone came in, and would hope that a pre season under his belt, and knowing the rest of the squad a bit better will only help him improve our organisation. The signings (and re-signings) so far all look decent from what I know, and what I've heard/read, and once again we look to have the nucleus of a good side. That said, I was saying the same thing at this time last season and despite some excellent performances and lots of promise, the season tailed off into inconsistency and a pretty disappointing mid table finish (cup win excepted, which was great). For me, the jury is still out on the management - I really want them to do well, especially given how they started from zero 2 seasons ago, put together a squad which kept us in the division and then in my view built on that last year. It's been stated that they're here with a long term plan, and if that means we get to where we want to be slowly and sustainably, then that's fine by me - they're clearly trying to improve us, bring in good players and be in contention at the end of the season. Yes I'd love for us to be playing attractive passing football from 1 to 11, bringing every youth player of promise into the first team, and winning games - but realistically this isn't going to happen all of the time, and certainly not at this level with a club of our budget. I will say that I think the management team (and the board, volunteers etc) get an unnecessarily rough time on here, it's very easy to be critical anonymously on an internet forum when things aren't going as well as we'd like, but I truly believe that everyone involved in the running of the club have our best interests at heart, and want to continue to grow and develop the club organically as a whole (not just the 1st team). I think people need to keep in perspective that we wouldn't have a club at all without the endless hours of their own time given up by volunteers from the board downwards - I know I only just about have enough spare time to get to some matches and post a bit on here, nevermind being able to volunteer to do anything, so I try to temper my frustration at performances and results accordingly.

But surely we have to have a balance between complete transparency and no info at all - if it's in any way detrimental to the club, I'm happy to not hear anything and in this case I'm perfectly willing to bide my time safe in the knowledge that we will get told what's going on when it's the right time to do so in the interests of the club. There is of course the option of speaking directly to the manager / a board member / someone in the know - I'm not sure that you'll get the specific player info that you want, but you might get more of a reassurance than you will on here that we're actually not going to be starting against FCUM with just the 3 players. Taking this one step further, as a fans owned club, you could always volunteer to get involved in the PR side of things - I'm pretty certain that any offer of help from fans will be welcomed with open arms, and would be more constructive than being the above mentioned keyboard warriors (one finger or otherwise) 😉

LS - that pretty much exactly sums up my view on the subject.

A really pleasing performance full of intensity, and at times some decent football played by Town - Parcell a deserved MoM and he really set the tone with the energy and intensity he started the game with (although getting booked so early was probably a bit rash). All players worked really hard for the cause, looked to move the ball quickly and really did the club proud. On another day, with some less wasteful finishing (from Youngs, Davidson and Bricknell), the scoreline could easily have been 5-1. ...the frustrating thing for me is that we can raise our game to play like that for a one off performance, but seemingly can't string together a showing like that for more than 2 or 3 league games at a time. That for me is the biggest problem that needs to be addressed going forwards, we've shown what a good squad Andy has assembled, and what a good side we can be when we have the right approach to the game (and all that with a fair few regulars out cup tied or injured), but we have to do it much more consistently if we want to kick on in the league. All that said, I'm thoroughly proud to be a Towner today, and a big shout to the Ultras who didn't stop signing all night 👍

Just out of interest, do our fans spend as much time on the Cheshunt forum as they do on ours? If we do, I guess we can't really object too much about the trolling 😉

I certainly wasn't struggling to understand MB's view - I was finding it difficult to agree with a couple of posters further back in the thread who were questioning Andy's decision to set an ambitious points target.

I don't think it was an impossible target, and as MbrunoB says, I'd much rather we aimed high and failed than set a much lower target and achieved it - surely that's showing more ambition? Don't get me wrong, I'm not impressed with how things are going of late, but I struggle to agree with this particular line of criticism.

I'm going to have to disagree here, or at least say something to counter what seems to be a very one sided discussion... I like what I've seen so far of Porter, but I'm not sure we can start suggesting he's the best left back in the league until he's at least played a few more games for us (appreciate he's not doing that at the moment). I remember thinking that Sutton looked a class act when he first joined, but his form and performances tailed off over time. A number of people were calling for Greene to be in the side on Saturday, which he was - and he's clearly a decent attack minded left wing back (thought that he started well, but was lacking match sharpness, and got caught on the ball a few times as the second half went on). I guess what I'm saying is that whilst we're all entitled to opinions about who should and shouldn't be playing, I don't think it's as clear a choice as people are making out. It might be that had Porter started in place of Greene we'd have got a better result... or maybe we mightn't have. I can be pretty sure that had he started, there would be people on here deriding Andy for leaving out Greene. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the team performance on Saturday, which I think we can all agree was a long way short of what's required - and the buck clearly stops with the management team for that, but it does strike me that a number of posters on here are very quick to jump on every fault when we lose, but are conversely very slow to praise when we do turn in a decent performance. If I could be bothered, I'd love to pull some stats for the average number of messages per thread for games we've lost vs games we've won... but life's too short, so I'm going to go back to not worrying too much, hoping things work out OK for the club (whoever is in charge of the playing side), and crossing my fingers for some better performances in the games to come. Feel free to tear the above to shreds, only too happy to be of assistance if it helps you vent 😉

I'm starting to come around to the consensus on here - Saturday did not make enjoyable watching, and when we went a goal down (another individual mistake), I think that sadly the writing was on the wall. Yes Leatherhead defended well, but they only did what any side in their position would have done and we didn't do nearly enough to carve out clear cut chances. I don't think it's fair to question the selection of certain players over others, as most people on here don't know what the situation is with players carrying knocks or lacking fitness, but no issue with questioning the overall standard of play. It's not pretty at times, and not filling me with excitement about the side. As others have commented, we have a lot of quality all across this squad and it's not unreasonable to expect to be higher up the table and playing more fluent football. Will of course continue to support the team, regardless of who is in charge and how we're playing - anything else is counterproductive. As a final note, I hope that Ryan makes a speedy recovery and that the injury isn't as bad as it looked at the time.

Something of a latecomer to the party - my first game (I think) was a 2-1 home win over Grays in 1992

What a frustrating afternoon - we can clearly play better than that, and have done on numerous occasions, but I was thinking when the referee got injured that it might actually be in our best interests for it to be abandoned and replayed! We did have the better of the chances before their goals (apart from them hitting the post in the first half), but I agree with much of what's been said above, we didn't look like we either wanted to, or could string 3 passes together. I'm fine with us clearing the ball when under pressure, as we aren't going to concede with the ball in touch, but too many times we just hit aimless long balls down the middle of the pitch which were bread and butter for their center backs. Whilst I'm not totally against playing it long at times if it brings results (obviously we'd all like to see free flowing passing football), we just don't have the personnel to play this way - I lost count of the number of times that Bricknell, Davidson and Youngs were beaten in the air... seriously - if the plan is to go long, then let's sign a proper target man and play off of him! Youngs looks lost on the right, he's clearly a quality player at our level, but needs to be playing an attacking CM role to be effective in my opinion, which would necessitate a change of formation / system. Not a good day at the office 👎

Rian has joined Doncaster's development squad, I very much doubt he's going to be near their first team for some time - clearly a good young prospect, and did well for us when he played, but IMO a little lightweight at the moment for the rigors of our division. I think it was the right decision to play Rumens and Weatherstone and since those two have been together, we've looked a lot more organized and stable defensively. Hope that this move is going to be a good one for him, and that he becomes a regular for Doncaster in time.

Strikes me as an inherently sensible signing - I'm not expecting him to set the world alight based on his recent form, but with Mo injured, if anything happened to Bricknell, we'd be stuffed. At least with Ibe, we have someone in the squad with experience who knows how to play the position. Believe Andy said in his update that it's likely to be a short term arrangement (reading between the lines, I guess that means until Mo is back up and running again).

I can't really comment on recent performances as I'm not able to attend games that regularly due to other commitments - from what I've read and obviously from looking at results, things are not going well at present. It sounds to me like we're a side very low on confidence, and the buck clearly stops with the management team to try to turn that around. I don't think we've become a bad side overnight, and remain hopeful (not using the word confident anymore) that we can turn this around - it just takes one performance, and things may well click into place. There's been talk of new signings, which might also shake things up a bit and provide a catalyst to kick on. I'm still not in what seems to be a growing "change the manager" camp, as I think that Andy has put together what on paper is an excellent set of players - and I think he should be given more time to turn around this recent poor form and get us back up the table. That said, my backing isn't open ended and if we don't see a turnaround relatively soon it will be increasingly difficult to continue to stick up for the management team. So in summary, I'm still hopeful that a lot of people on here are proved wrong - but certainly not confident of it

I can't comment on the match, as family commitments make it difficult to get to every game. Obviously a terrible result against a side in 18th, and we need to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later. I agree completely with Lovely Stuff's last post: for me Andy has the rest of the season to prove himself and I would say anything short of a play off place (or at least being in with a shout until the last few games) would be falling short. Immediately after the Tonbridge game, I'd have backed us to do that comfortably, right now I'm starting to have my doubts, but football is a strange game and it's possible for just one good performance to spark the team and for us to go on a run. I remain hopefully optimistic. As a side point, regarding formations, people were suggesting that we play two up front and that Adams got a start - for me, confidence and attitude is far more important than formations. You get that right, and results will follow regardless of how you line up. Good points by 4WF about the need for a focal point in the team, whilst I like Johnson and Blackman and they both lead by example in midfield, clearly a player of Crooks quality would improve us massively, but would obviously be difficult to find at this point in the season.