Just back

Quoted from ginnywings

Van Veen is a male private but that's pathetic by Charlie Goode. Yellow, if anything.

Hess gets poleaxed and nothing given.

Just listened to Paul Hurst' post match and he is saying that the standard of refereeing is getting worse and you can't disagree with him.

Been saying for years that there ought to be more ex professionals encouraged to become refs.

But they won't, they rather chose media career.  For me it just feels if refs don't get the support they need.  They won't get bolloked by the FA as that will discourage them.

Overall I thought it was a poor game but great result. I did think we played some really good football at times though but just not enough of it.

It did pee me off a bit the way we fannyed around at times especially in the lead up to their goal and I couldn't understand McKeown time wasting we should have gone on to try to score more.

I know some on here dont rate Vernam but I've always thought there was a decent player in him somewhere. Tonight just showed what he can do if you keep giving him the ball in the places he can run at defenders.

Quoted from Meza

But they won't, they rather chose media career.  For me it just feels if refs don't get the support they need.  They won't get bolloked by the FA as that will discourage them.

They can't all have a media career post football and that is usually the domain of high profile ex players anyway. I'm talking about ex players that have played at a lower level but know the game inside out. When i played, the best refs were invariably ex players. The ones who had all the badges but had never played the game never quite got it. Some did, but most didn't.

The problem we have now is that the very few refs in the lower leagues who are half way decent get shunted to a higher level almost immediately. Some of the refs we have now in League 2 are beyond incompetent. They don't seem to understand the game at all and are easily intimidated.

After the last 2 games where we played reasonably ok and got nothing I’m happy with playing poorly but getting the points, especially against that lot, also under Ollie we seem to be getting more men into attacking positions then before where it was just Hanson trying to beat 4 defenders on his own.

Curiously flat performance and crowd, for once we got some luck with a bundled goal, a penalty that probably wasn't (Hess compo from the ref?) and a lovely run from Charlie as the whole of the Stevenage team played statues.

The building out from the back will work better as the players get used to it, the midfield needs to spot the forward pass quicker to prevent endless fannying about and losing the ball. Clarke was excellent again, really looks a good player and reads the game well. Hopefully he can pass some of his experience on to Wright and Vernam.

Benson was ok, but hard to judge against such a crap team, but we need at least one more centre mid and perhaps 2 depending on Hess. I don't think Clifton is playing well enough to be 1st choice at the moment.

All in all it felt like a training match, albeit against a team that was trying, and succeeding) to injure ours

The age old debate about referees has been going on for decades.

Will it change, unlikely. I, along with others on here referees for years and was relatively good, as were/are other lads on here but drives them away or stunts the development is the FA etc. The centre of excellence existed but spent more time worrying about making sure the lads were fit and could run around rather than focusing on decision making and dealing with high stress situations
Being an ex player doesn’t mean you’ll be a good referee, and in the past that’s been proven...a couple of ex players were fast tracked to football league and they were equally as bad as the others.

On to town, thought first half was poor, not a lot happening. Second half picked up, two poor teams but one slightly less poor than the other. We took the chances we had and the third settled us. We played some good stuff at times but then occasionally we were exposed. Not sure it was a penalty but we’ll take it. Vernam had a few good runs,  just needs to do that more consistently now. Still not sure Hanson brings much to the team but time will tell. Hope Hess is ok after getting clobbered.

Quoted from aldi_01

The age old debate about referees has been going on for decades.

Will it change, unlikely. I, along with others on here referees for years and was relatively good, as were/are other lads on here but drives them away or stunts the development is the FA etc. The centre of excellence existed but spent more time worrying about making sure the lads were fit and could run around rather than focusing on decision making and dealing with high stress situations
Being an ex player doesn’t mean you’ll be a good referee, and in the past that’s been proven...a couple of ex players were fast tracked to football league and they were equally as bad as the others.

On to town, thought first half was poor, not a lot happening. Second half picked up, two poor teams but one slightly less poor than the other. We took the chances we had and the third settled us. We played some good stuff at times but then occasionally we were exposed. Not sure it was a penalty but we’ll take it. Vernam had a few good runs,  just needs to do that more consistently now. Still not sure Hanson brings much to the team but time will tell. Hope Hess is ok after getting clobbered.

Think hanson is crucial. We’re toothless up top without him, no fight or hold up play

Quoted from Hagrid

Think hanson is crucial. We’re toothless up top without him, no fight or hold up play

Not necessarily. I thought our chance creation against Exeter was as good as it’s been all season with Clarke up front.

I know Hess got injured but tonight showed our failings and that there is a lot of work to do. We are definitely lacking a right wide player. To me the back 4, the midfield, the attack are 3 separate entities and we need somebody who can take control and be there to link all 3 together .Individually we have a good team on paper but not many prepared to take control - nothing against Macca but we possibly need a more central captain. Vernham tried to do things and Benson switched play once or twice but on the whole we seemed to be content with the easy balls and putting responsibility on someone else. Improvement needed but we still won.

Thought we played well in patches  Whitehouse looked a different player  and  vernam has come on loads this last few matches and looks a different player.  Not bothered in us looking like a team from the prem its the win that counts