Sutton V Dorchester

[northernmonkey]

Nov 23, 2013 18:11:02 GMT tonyd said:

Nov 23, 2013 17:35:07 GMT northernmonkey said:

Very, very poor.

Jamie Slabber is crap. I'm sorry, I've given the guy 8 games before coming to that assumption, but he is slow, he has the touch of a rapist and the worst 50p head I've seen at this level. The sooner he is gone the better.

The build up play in general was too laboured. McDonald and Riviere kept slowing things down which wasn't helping, but Dorchester 'did a job' and for a side with 'nothing up front', looked a lot better than Sutton.

Sometimes it's best to consider a while before you publish opinions, otherwise you come out with the sort of nonsense we expect from Billy, who rarely can sit through an entire game but can spend a whole day at the Oval watching paint dry. Do you really feel that Dorchester, who got out of their half maybe four times all game, "looked a lot better than Sutton"?

Up front they were better than Sutton. Possession and action areas are irrelevant. The fact is they scored, Sutton didn't. With a squad with decidedly less skill than the home side, what won the game for them was togetherness, determinedness and a little luck.

If you are happy with that, then good luck to you. It was shameful.

[bornatotter]

No wonder the dorch boys "the same old few" are giving it plenty. Here was a team rock bottom in the league who have shipped out there best players, drafted in youth lads to make up the numbers and left GGL with three points.
You didn't need to be a tactical genius to know in advance that they would play one up top with the rest of the ten behind the ball for the bulk of the play. Difficult to break that down but not impossible and in the first half for all our possession and spreading it about we probably tested their keeper twice which was a pretty piss poor return to say the least.
Still. Patience and all that but as the second half started we didn't up it and in fact seemed even even more inclined to chase down blind ally's, over complicate the play and make a total bollox of the final ball in. Tortuous stuff and as it wore on in the same old vein you could feel the tension rising.
Dorch got their break through what looked like one of our traditional defensive cock ups and finished comfortably.
So now it's an all out panic chasing a game we should have been in control of and up steps the ref to rule out a goal that looked from behind the net to have gone over the line straight off the keeper and then to deny a pen shout after consulting the Lino despite the fact he was about five yards from the incident.
Pain in the arse but I am not making any excuses for a performance that lacked the creativity and imagination to break down a defense which did nothing special other than stand its ground. Could have been worse after dorch hit the post on the break. Yes, we hit the woodwork ourselves but the truth is this is a game that was too important to win for us to be left moaning about bad luck.
So that's two shabby home defeats on the bounce and we badly need to kick start the league campaign as we head towards the end of the year. My biggest worry is the lack of cutting edge up top. I don't know if players are carrying knocks but I can see why some real frustrations are now starting to surface on here and around the ground.
I would like to see us banging on the gills door to get Kane back and marv is sorely missed as well as an attacking option. Thoroughly disappointing and frustrating today and without a game next sat Tuesday night is crucial for a bounce back and that's now in the hands of a group of players who we know are better than what they churned out today and it's down to them to pull their fingers out and prove it.

[billy]

Binns is a good player.What's he doing playing for Sutton United ?

[markf2]

As was expected, Dorchester, with limited financial resources, came to GGL and for the second year running, parked the bus effectively enough to walk off with all 3 points (and their first away win of the season).

Their goal came from a clearance that lacked distance and their fella got in behind and they scored. They hit the post later too.

We probably had 85% of the play today but really only tested their 'keeper 3 times. Fair play to the visitors, while they rode their luck at times they defended ok but I suppose it is relatively easy to do when you have all but one of your number behind the ball.

We got down the flanks enough but either failed to get a good cross in or when we did there was no one on hand to profit. The application was lacking today and perhaps we over played at times.

Liked to know whether that ball that come off the 'keepers back crossed the line and I reckon Taylor had more than a case for a late penalty. Unfortunately, we don't seem to get the soft(ish) ones or certainly not as often as they are awarded against us.

However, should we be pointing at such decisions when playing the bottom club at home?

Thought the three officials were not great today but we've had far worse in the past, although it was very frustrating not getting that late penalty decision.

Two other points, is it me or our lights looking a bit dim? And the pitch seems to be a bit puddingy in parts too.

Having had that great run, it is one win in 7, although 4 of those matches were cup ties. More galling was Eastleigh losing at home to Tonbridge, who I believe played much of the game with 10 men.

It is too early to say this defeat will hurt our long term prospects but we need to get back to form quickly, starting with what will no doubt be a tough midweek trip to WSM.

As for Billy, he even moans when he gets in for nothing. Sutton fan? Do me a favour. He should be used to watching what he considers rubbish by now anyway. A summer at The Oval watching a bunch of under performers represent a once great, proud County Cricket Club and now England's cricketers. At least it means he'll stay away now and that's £12 every other week that the club, I am sure, won't miss having.

[Andy K]

Weird game that one. Dorchester looked very weak in the first half, and the amount of possession we had was well into 70%. The fact is that 20 odd attempts on goal and we failed to make one count is more worrying. OK some chances just didn't fall for us, there certainly were a couple where the Dorchester keeper kept their side in it, but there were plenty that with the players of quality we have we should have scored. And yet we failed to.

There seems to be a bit of angst starting about Slabber on this thread. I do agree that so far he's under performed for us, but having seen him play for a number of other teams before, I really do think he's carrying some injury. He was never the fastest player in the world, but his reaction times are slowing down - saying that he nearly did earn us a point near the end.

Does anyone actually know how much injury time there was, because the final whistle was over an hour after the start of the half (according to my timing).

Season after season we struggle against teams that come here and "Park the bus". I know we like playing sides who play football, but we have to have a plan b against those who come here for damage limitation, and then get gifted a win. I said at the start of this thread that we needed to remember Truro last season. We promptly forgot it and did the same thing. Those sorts of games are will what make the difference between challenging for the title and settling for a play off place.

Luckily for us we were in good company today - only 1 side in the top 7 won. And every team goes through a sticky patch in the season - I hope this is ours and we can get out of it. We need a result to go our way and it will, but failure to beat Weston on Tuesday means after going unbeaten for so long, we won't have won a match for over a month.

[os]

Nov 20, 2013 19:27:02 GMT os said:

Absolutely, I think they will just sit back pack the defence and try and hit us on the break, it is a tactic which brings many successes, at all levels. Us v Truro, Arsenal v Dortmond and look at Germany last night. Width will be important, Binns to play a key role if fit, final ball needs to be better and concentration at the back especially from dead ball situations. We need a decent ref as some of the decisions recently have been ridiculous and it is clear players are learning they can con and get away with it.

Is what I said the other day about this match, and all credit to Dorc for getting a result on very limited resources. I am going to wait for the video on the disallowed goal, before making comment on that? We did hit the woodwork twice and dominated play but didn't do the one thing that matters and put the ball in the net. I see Billy's comment on Binns but the fact is his final ball is awful, and he needs to improve it as do the rest. Its true that Slab's has not been at his best but, I can't accept the term crap he is a quality front man who has a proven track record, maybe service is somewhat of an issue?

I couldn't be anymore frustrated today but its not the end of the world we are still handy placed if good enough. Its the first time we haven't scored in a league game at home since 16th March vs Farnborough which followed 4 days after the Truro match.

Agree that Tom's distribution has gone walkies in the last couple of matches after people like me were singing his praises as to how good it had got?

FINAL BALL!

[garethl]

Lack of final ball combined with lack of penalty area presence, end result we hardly tested their keeper. Shockingly poor performance in the final third. You can say we gave away a soft goal but the problems were all at the other end. We were so much in control of the game I probably would have popped Charlie up front to enable us to compete aerially in their box for the whole 2nd half. Work to do but the talent is there to do it. Belief went out of us 2nd half as we grew more frustrated. I hope one or two things are becoming clearer to the manager after today. Long way to go and think where we were last year, play offs still well within range. Well done to Dorchester, on a shoestring budget, came and did a job on us. Sadly for them Im not sure they'll survive their severe cuts this year, but there is always hope that other teams go pop! Sad to see the ground devoid of people again and any semblance of atmosphere, doesn't help matters. Really frustrated tonight as I'm sure are the players and management.

[Del]

I think we are a little too predictable at times.Tending to pass the ball in the net rather than shoot.The performance wasn't bad today and we didn't have any luck.I think Slabber is doing ok and playing the way Dos has asked him to.He may not be the all action man that Dundo is but he is precise in what he does.What does worry me is that i don't believe we have anyone on the bench who can come on & change the game.

[Amber Aleman]

Not the first time we've lost at home to the bottom side! A reminder that there are no easy games at this level. In the first half we must have got eight great crosses into the opposition box but there was no Sutton player on the end of any of them. In the second half we just ran out of ideas. Credit to Dorch who kept most of their players behind the ball but still managed to create a handful of scoring chances, one of which they took.

A victory at Weston on Tuesday would take us back into the top five. If we can't rely on home wins then we need to start winning away.

[billy]

Attendance 646 ? Who supplies this info , Hans Christian Andersen ?

[johnboy]

In answer to Andy K's enquiry, I clocked the added time at 12 minutes 8 seconds.

[billy]

Nov 24, 2013 12:22:44 GMT johnboy said:

In answer to Andy K's enquiry, I clocked the added time at 12 minutes 8 seconds.

Can you be a bit more precise ?

[Stewart]

Dorset Echo report can be found HERE

[Andy K]

One small crumb of comfort from Saturday was we had the 2nd highest crowd of the day ( behind Ebbsfleets 950+ crowd)

There were 3 sub 200 crowds on Saturday, worryingly the worst being Staines v Concord where footballwebpages has it as 51! I'm sure that's a mistake, but looking on their message board, it wasn't much higher!

[bornatotter]

That staines crowd of 51 was also quoted in the Non League Paper. I thought it was a typo but who knows