Our first proper pre-season test comes tomorrow night when we take on West Ham United at Portman Rud. Unfortunately I can't make the game tomorrow night as I have to referee a local game so I wonder if any of you guys who are going could provide us with your thoughts on the game! Cressy comes back to Town for the first time as an opposition player and I'm sure that he will receive a very warm and generous reception from the Town faithfull. It will be interesting to see who Mick starts with and the changes that he makes throughout the game. I'm just hoping for a decent performance and I'm sure Mick will be up for it from the start. Attendance Prediction 12,000
Absolutely no idea why we're playing this game already. A potentially exciting game with clubs making 3-5 subs, with players playing 75 minutes has become a farsical fitness " don't get injured " routine. Teams will probably field close to two different sides, tempo will be dreadful, not for me at all. £15 a ticket is a disgrace too, that said Leyton Orient are doing the same prices. I couldn't give a toss about this game either, attendance 9000 due to West Ham bringing 1500.
I will be attending JWM, I to think it will be a bit of a damp squid but the guy who I coach Kesgrave Kestrels with is a Hammer, so I will be going to make sure he doesn't exaggerate how lucky we were to win 3-1.!
Nice one mate a brief match report will be much appreciated especially on how well the new boys have performed.
£15 to watch two teams play 45 minutes each half, absolute joke. I cannot see the game having any tempo either. Not for me, enjoy folks I hope it's not too bad a watch.
I thought we played well. Not fantastically, but well. I couldn't tell you who played in the second half, as they brought out players wearing 12-22 without naming the subs! There were the obvious faces -Smith, Taylor, Hyam, etc and Bialkowski came on, but there were players I didn't recognise and weren't named, which I thought was a poor show. As for the game, well it was nil-nil. I thought our 7 and 9 played well in the first half and 20-22 played some good attacking play in the second. Bialkowski looked a little shaky, but made a good fingertip save. Overall, I think there's some potential with some of the younger players, like Marriott, but this wasn't really a match in the true sense if the word, so it's difficult to say how we'll play as a team. For a goalless draw, I quite enjoyed it. If I was a hammer, I'd be worried though, as their finishing was poor and they weren't that great in midfield. A game of two defences.
A very good assessment Hawky cheers for that mate I think we can be genuinely encouraged by the way things are going but we do need a couple of further additions in CM and even an extra striker.
Stewart was no 7 first half he did well as did Jack Marriott no 9. Berra was as solid as ever at the back, Mings did well at LB but Hewitt found it tough going at RB against Jarvis. Henshall had a couple of decent runs down our left and a couple youngsters played at the centre of our defence and CM, Clark and Bishop, Both did well enough. The only real negative from the first half was Nouble.....he was absolute gash, if you performed that badly at work you would get the hook! Second half saw a complete new eleven, Bart looks ok in goal, made a good finger tip save and looks to distribute the ball nice and early. Our back four of Parr, chambers, Smith and young Wyatt did well, especially Parr getting forward and Wyatt defensively looks a real prospect, for me the pick of the second half performances for someone so young he did very well. The other noteworthy performance of the second half was Vaseli playing at CM he did pretty well, looked comfortable on the ball and looked to get forward often, had a couple of pops at goal as well. We need Didsy back for the start of the season, Nouble is playing at least 2 divisions above his level, we still lacked that spark up front, Taylor started brightly but faded and for me ended up trying to hard, Murph did ok as well did Hyam, Tabb worked hard as did Anderson although his performance left me a little frustrated at times. As for Cressy, he had a lovely lob shot the left Gerks stranded only for it to come back off the bar, think the prem will suit him as he will get a bit more time on the ball, I am sure he will have a good season for them. In summary I think MM will be the happier of the two managers, we had a number of youngsters who did very well, as for wet sham, they will need to make a few more additions if they want to avoid a dog fight at the foot of the table, they were for me disappointing.!
" I couldn't tell you who played in the second half, as they brought out players wearing 12-22 without naming the subs! " Pretty much sums up my thoughts. People pay a ridiculous fee and can't even through no fault of their own fathom properly who is playing where, who this player is etc. Not very good. Friendlies are ridiculous!
You did but the other chap didn't ! I can't believe how quickly the summer has come around and playing friendlies already, it's mad!
We've netted 24 times in our first 4 friendly matches so we'll be ready to SMASH you Binners on Wednesday!
Cambridge Utd Drew 2-2 with Espanyol on Saturday! WOW That's an amazing result against a team in La Liga!
