Horsham v Sutton

[dof]

FinaL SCORE Horsham 1 Sutton 0

[DaveF]

Awful game, made worse by the officials and rarely 20 seconds without the whilstle being blown. Neither side deserved anything out of the game.

[Burtie]

Bit of a come-down from Saturday then. Was it the same starting line up?

[DaveF]

Yes. Phillips, Joseph and Woods-Garness all came on 2nd half.

[Millsy]

Two glorious opportunities in first 10 minutes, neither converted, Horsham take the lead with the one opening they had in the first half and then we just couldn't get back into it. Hindered by some of the most curious refereeing I've seen in a while, most disappointing decision being not allowing an advantage for Gargan to continue on his 1 on 1 with the keeper and preferring to give us a free-kick.

Card count Horsham - 7 cautions and coach dismissed / Sutton - 4 cautions. The referee was arguably far too busy with whistle and pen, Gargan can probably feel most hard done by for some of the decisions given against him. Well, all of them!

[os]

First 20 mins we looked world beaters calving them open 3 times, but then Horsham tucked up tight to us we started rushing our passes and resorted to long punts up field. Its strange we have become less physical and that was probably the most physical Horsham side I have seen. We got dragged into a game which they dictated rather than sticking to what we did first 20mins. Because the game became physical it was a poor spectical lots of stoppages 11 bookings from a complete whistle loving idiot in black who certainly helped their cause.

I see that other results tonight confirm Margate as the whipping boys and Horsham with their new physical look will be there or somewhere about's.

The snacks van blokes thought they were on ready steady cook, 20 mins for 1 portion of chips and the poor guy looked like he cooked for about 800 at 7.30. The parking was excellent though

BTW not maoning about them be physical at all, they got their tactics spot on

[fox]

The most ironic moment of the game went to the ref for booking their keeper for time wasting......

[Amber Aleman]

It didn't take long for Saturday's bubble to be rudely burst. This was a disappointing performance in a really poor game, worse than most we saw last season. We can have few complaints about the result, though both sides can complain about the ref - who seemed to be trying to beat the world record for the number of stoppages and bookings in a single match!

We did look good in the first twenty minutes, but despite some decent balls into the box we barely troubled the home keeper. After that the game became increasingly scrappy and littered with free kicks, one of which led to a rather messy goal for Horsham.

The second half was truly ghastly as a spectacle, and encapsulated all that's bad about standards of play and refereeing in the Ryman League. To be fair to Horsham they made more of it and managed a couple of shots on target. I agree with OS that they looked a more physical side than last season. We just ran out of ideas, despite bringing on three subs.

Dartford's 4-0 win at Margate tonight suggests that we had a deceptively easy start to the season. This match probably gives our players more of an idea of what to expect over the next eight months. It may already be time to re-think our approach.

[johnc]

Don't know if referees are vain (or stupid) enough to go on fan forums to see how their performance was rated. if tonight's ref does look in on this site then could he take this advice. This match was not broadcast live on Sky Sport so there was no camera to record the song and dance made over every decision. Admittedly the players didn't help with a few dodgy tackles and backchat but it did seem the ref wanted to be the centre of attention all night. Even prior to kick off he was lecturing both captains like a pair of prize fighters. He never played advantage when there was ample opportunity to keep the game flowing which made an already poor game worse. Finally the best referees are the ones you don't notice; if you like writing that much try penning a novel. There's one in all of us apparently.

[SpiderBee]

It is particularly difficult to sit down when the buttocks have gone to sleep!

Too much cider for me.........."COAT" !!

[Del]

I don't believe we need to rethink our approach yet.Yes Horsham were a physical team but they were also very quick and played good football at times.I believe we may have witnessed another contender for the title and a draw there would have been a good result.Whatever chance we had of drawing level was spoiled by the ref continually blowing his whistle and making needless bookings interrupted the flow of play.

[frakey]

OK - first point, other than the first 15 mins when we dominated but fatefully didn't score, Horsham were the better side, especially after scoring with their first shot on target.

2d point - looking at the cautions, I think Gargan was unlucky, the ref just didn't like the way he went for the ball and on occasions he was guilty of jumping in, although not as much as the ref thought. I also thought Goodliffe's booking was a joke. However, Horsham had 3 booked for obvious dissent 2,5 &6; the keeper was wasting time from the point that they went one up, so he can have no complaints. Their 9,11 (?) were late and the 4 should have gone for a two footed challenge, studs showing - awful tackle. Cobbs & Joesph were both late too. So I think the vast majority of bookings were just.

3rd point - their bloke sent from the dug out (Hawthorne?) was an idiot. He was having a go at the ref very early on and his loud insistance that JG should go was bang out of order & he got what he deserved.

Horsham have added a physical aspect to their football but still knocked it around well. Our midfield couln't cope with it at times. Last season it was us, although not with so many nasty tackles flying in. We are different this season, no Palmer, McKimm et al putting it about.

As for the ref - he was extremely whistle happy, had no idea how to play the advantage which, this day and age is criminal & as JC stated, even before the game started was giving his wisdom to the 2 skippers. Flipping awful but the players need to take responsibility for their actions too & I'm afraid that was not on show last night.

Another toughy at Hendon on Sat. Hopefully Dos has learnt something more about his new team after ast night.

[doublebarrel]

The only football of any merit played in this game was by Sutton during the first 20 mins. Horsham literally fought their way back into the game, which was what they had to do, but it was disappointing that the referee, who was poor, allowed them leeway to achieve this.
It was apparent at the time that we had to score during our period of pressure and that not making use of the early chances could come back to bite us.
Yesterday was a lesson that passing football has to sustained and of constant high quailty in order to overcome a more robust direct style. It takes longer to develop as a successful passing side than to adopt a "knock it up and get the seconds" type of football unit. Once again we start the season with many new players and I think we must have some patience to allow them to understand and work with each other. The problem is that sides who have retained most of their squad will be ahead of us in organisation and that will have consequences for on our league position.
If we can replicate the best of our play on a more consistent basis and add some more clinical finishing then we will have a good season. I am sure we will come against plenty of sides who are more robust in their approach to football but I for one would like to see us try to play 90 mins as we did during the first part of yesterday's game.
As a final point I just dont undertsand the ground grading system. I thought the FA were on a constant mission to upgrade the standard of grounds across the board. I have nothing against the YMCA ground (apart from the fact that they don't seem to have a lawn mower) but it did look a bit like one from a lower league.

[pault]

Hendon wont be a walk over on Sat either !!I see they one again last night.

I really hoped we would start with a good run of wins, Frakey might able to answer this in what season did we put our biggest set of unbeaten games together??

[Del]

To be honest Horsham YMCA are from a lower league.Just come again from Sussex County league so hence the ground being not quite what we are use to.