Khalsa (H)

[zeke]

Losing 3-0 HT. Khalsa are very good passing team. We've played better. I don't think we've been that poor but we've missed a few good chances.

[zeke]

Att 375. Seems less than the Lye game, though?

[zeke]

4-0 we may as well have scored that one for them.

[zeke]

4-3 😁

[zeke]

Losing 5-3. Certainly not dull

[steves]

Absolutely shocking defensive performance. At least the attack woke up in the second half. Their third was a blinder but all the rest should have been preventable. Awesome game from their No.9 and combined with our centre backs manouvering like oil tankers it was never going to end well. We are not good enough to go up this season, despite what Snape will say. There are several better teams us.

[jupu]

I think you mean their 10? Add their 5 and 11 to that list. Truth is everyone in a City shirt today looked either past their best or off their game.

I've been adamant for a while that we have a decent side, but we're not good enough to win this league. Today surely proves the point? Sporting, Coleshill and Khalsa are all better sides than us. Maybe they have more knowhow about this level of football as well.

So, disappointing but not unexpected. Although I'm more disappointed that I didn't hear anything by The Fall over the tannoy.

[steves]

Yes, 10, Jeys. Just noticed Gwynne had been given the 13 shirt. No wonder we lost! Don’t they know anything!

[zeke]

The fourth goal where Smith and Weir escorted him from the halfway line to to the goal line was something special.

[thesecondjack]

Jan 27, 2018 17:54:36 GMT jupu said:

I think you mean their 10? Add their 5 and 11 to that list. Truth is everyone in a City shirt today looked either past their best or off their game.

I've been adamant for a while that we have a decent side, but we're not good enough to win this league. Today surely proves the point? Sporting, Coleshill and Khalsa are all better sides than us. Maybe they have more knowhow about this level of football as well.

So, disappointing but not unexpected. Although I'm more disappointed that I didn't hear anything by The Fall over the tannoy.

It was played after the game!

[The sound and the fury]

Well that was a load of yarbles.

First goal was straight off the bloopers video. You don't let the ball bounce in your own box, simple as that. As soon as you do that you lose control of the situation. Second goal was doubly crap. Should never have been a free kick in the first place, awarded by the less than impressive ref against Reyno, and from that they won a corner which was flicked in against a static defence. Appalling defence. Third one is either a worldie or a fluke, depending on how you look at it. Great assist from the ref in getting in our way, not for the first time, and the ball broke for Jeys to find the top corner from range. Fourth one was just a disaster, Tomkinson's lost the ball on halfway and Jeys has been allowed to wander into the box, then given about a week to pick his spot as Vaughan just stood there and watched. Fifth has come from Birch trying to do it all on his own, can't blame him as most of them have been passengers today. Even then Vaughan didn't do enough. Khalsa wanted it, and in Jeys and the outstanding Mensah Kinch they had the best players on the park.

Could tell it was going to be one of those days when the Khalsa keeper hit our bar after three minutes with his clearance, probably the only one he kept on the pitch all game.

[The sound and the fury]

Jan 27, 2018 19:16:21 GMT thesecondjack said:

Jan 27, 2018 17:54:36 GMT jupu said:

I think you mean their 10? Add their 5 and 11 to that list. Truth is everyone in a City shirt today looked either past their best or off their game.

I've been adamant for a while that we have a decent side, but we're not good enough to win this league. Today surely proves the point? Sporting, Coleshill and Khalsa are all better sides than us. Maybe they have more knowhow about this level of football as well.

So, disappointing but not unexpected. Although I'm more disappointed that I didn't hear anything by The Fall over the tannoy.

It was played after the game!

The Alexander O'Neal remix dedicated to me ?

[Brooksiders Return!!]

Jan 27, 2018 19:26:09 GMT The sound and the fury said:

Well that was a load of yarbles. Either they'd been on the lash last night or they'd been told not to win because it the club can't afford to win the league and you don't have the choice to reject promotion.

First goal was straight off the bloopers video. You don't let the ball bounce in your own box, simple as that. As soon as you do that you lose control of the situation. Second goal was doubly crap. Should never have been a free kick in the first place, awarded by the less than impressive ref against Reyno, and from that they won a corner which was flicked in against a static defence. Appalling defence. Third one is either a worldie or a fluke, depending on how you look at it. Great assist from the ref in getting in our way, not for the first time, and the ball broke for Jeys to find the top corner from range. Fourth one was just a disaster, Tomkinson's lost the ball on halfway and Jeys has been allowed to wander into the box, then given about a week to pick his spot as Vaughan just stood there and watched. Fifth has come from Birch trying to do it all on his own, can't blame him as most of them have been passengers today. Even then Vaughan didn't do enough. Khalsa wanted it, and in Jeys and the outstanding Mensah Kinch they had the best players on the park.

Could tell it was going to be one of those days when the Khalsa keeper hit our bar after three minutes with his clearance, probably the only one he kept on the pitch all game.

Alternative ratings as the WN always too generous:

Vaughan 3 - looked like he'd either been working all week without sleep, or had been on the piss the night before. Shaky at best.
Weir 4 - looked sadly disinterested, even when the chips were down
J.Smith 5 - started sloppily and didn't ever really overcome this, decent strike for the goal
Stoddart 5 - looks to be a confidence player, and when things aren't going well he seems to struggle
Thomas 3 - you'd expect a seasoned professional to have the ability to inspire, but he played like he didn't want to be out there
Hayward 6 - usual combative self but seemed unsettled and never really stamped his authority on the game
Danks 3 - everything he touched went wrong, basically, and that seemed to spread throughout the team
Birch 6 - gave it everything as always, but couldn't galvanise the response from his team
Reynolds 6 - hardly got a look in against Robinson's experience
Forsyth 6 - probably our best player on the day but that's not saying much
Tomkinson 6 - took a while to get into it but we saw some of his ability in the second half. Took goal well.
Baldwin 5 - didn't do a lot when he came on apart from run offside and fall over
M.Smith 5 - every time he's near the ball you fear the worst
Moran - not on pitch long enough
Snape 0 - hasn't actually got a clue what he's doing most of the time, relies on his players to dig him out

Ah yes the good old Worcester News ratings! The topic of many a conversation. In essence a scale of 10 marks, of which 99% of the time only between 5 and 9 are used, so that makes it a scale of really 1-5, so 5 possible marks. However, if it WAS a scale of 1-5, the likelihood of 1 or 5 being used is relatively low, so giving a true scale of 2-3-or 4 out of 5, or in other words, a choice of 3 marks - which is the same as the players being good, average, or bad. As a former friend of mine once said "Why not just use a traffic light system? Green for a good game, amber fo average, and red for a poor game?"  She had a point there!! 

[Tim Munslow]

We were a shambles in the first half and never really recovered - although when it got to 3-4 my hopes rose, but were quickly dashed by the fifth goal. A proper reality check this one.

[The sound and the fury]

Calmed down a bit now and realise I might have been a bit harsh above. Particularly in saying they were all either drunk or under orders to lose. I know better than that, sorry. We expect high standards, this is Worcester City, not any old club. We expect everyone to be world beaters, reality is that a) it's fairly low standard football and always has been b) it's something they do at the weekend after a week at work. That said, it was still crap today, Khalsa weren't great but they were better, miles better. They won all the 50-50s, most of the 40-60s and did everything they needed to, took their chances and were good value for their points. Next Saturday we go again.

[jupu]

Thanks for playing The Fall, I had trooped out by then. Alexander O'Neil and then Mark E. Smith - wow!

[alwaysnextyear]

Khalsa were simply far better. A lot quicker, sharper, more determined, held their positions better, and looked like scoring with most of their attacks. The scoreline flattered us immensely. Hughes and Snape seemed clueless and tactically bereft of ideas, and were out thought by Khalsa's management team.

Our tactics on a heavy pitch were baffling, passing slowly sideways time and again, losing any impetus, and getting caught in possession time after time especially Wayne Thomas who looked slow and off the pace. Sadly Tyler Weir is a shadow of the player he once was, even at this level. A starting 4-1-4-1 formation at home was a shambles, and smacked of trying not to lose. Danks wide on the right of the 4 was a disaster from start to when he was taken off. He had to play as part of a two upfront, not out wide. That's not his position and never has been. A terrible formation.

It was a disaster of a performance, and yet again we played against one of the top 6 sides without winning. That's 6 points out of 21 against such sides. That's why we're 5th and promotion is a pipe dream. Hampson might be " happy where we are ", but I'm not.

[stamoo]

Jan 29, 2018 22:57:27 GMT alwaysnextyear said:

Khalsa were simply far better. A lot quicker, sharper, more determined, held their positions better, and looked like scoring with most of their attacks. The scoreline flattered us immensely. Hughes and Snape seemed clueless and tactically bereft of ideas, and were out thought by Khalsa's management team.

Our tactics on a heavy pitch were baffling, passing slowly sideways time and again, losing any impetus, and getting caught in possession time after time especially Wayne Thomas who looked slow and off the pace. Sadly Tyler Weir is a shadow of the player he once was, even at this level. A starting 4-1-4-1 formation at home was a shambles, and smacked of trying not to lose. Danks wide on the right of the 4 was a disaster from start to when he was taken off. He had to play as part of a two upfront, not out wide. That's not his position and never has been. A terrible formation.

It was a disaster of a performance, and yet again we played against one of the top 6 sides without winning. That's 6 points out of 21 against such sides. That's why we're 5th and promotion is a pipe dream. Hampson might be " happy where we are ", but I'm not.

Aren’t you forgetting we dominated the first 20 minutes and looked just as likely to score as Khalsa? Agreed Danks never had a kick but he wasn’t running around or pressing, he never broke sweat. Ok Tyler had a poor game - a rarity - everyone’s entitled to an off day; how many times has he been one of our best players? And if Khalsa were so good how come we came back from 4-0 to 4-3? Fact of the matter is had Hughes been playing its likely to have been a very different story, Khalsa were good, but they were lucky to catch us on a day when some of our players were not at their best, that doesn’t make us a bad team (it was our first home defeat!) or mean we can’t kick on and challenge hard for a promotion spot.

[cloud]

It may have been different if Hughes had been playing, but Lee probably won't be able to play in all the games between now & the end of the season though, there are just too many - April schedule is already looking tough. If he attempts to play 8 games in 26 days, he'll either get injured, or won't be as effective. We need to have a plan B, & not just rely on him as the outlet, something that didn't happen on Saturday.

On a positive note, the teams around us aren't running away with it...

Prior to beating us, Khalsa had only won 1 in 6 league games.
Coleshill drew on Saturday.
Sphinx drew on Saturday.
Bromsgrove lost week before.

[Fred]

Jan 29, 2018 22:57:27 GMT alwaysnextyear said:

Khalsa were simply far better. A lot quicker, sharper, more determined, held their positions better, and looked like scoring with most of their attacks. The scoreline flattered us immensely. Hughes and Snape seemed clueless and tactically bereft of ideas, and were out thought by Khalsa's management team.

Our tactics on a heavy pitch were baffling, passing slowly sideways time and again, losing any impetus, and getting caught in possession time after time especially Wayne Thomas who looked slow and off the pace. Sadly Tyler Weir is a shadow of the player he once was, even at this level. A starting 4-1-4-1 formation at home was a shambles, and smacked of trying not to lose. Danks wide on the right of the 4 was a disaster from start to when he was taken off. He had to play as part of a two upfront, not out wide. That's not his position and never has been. A terrible formation.

It was a disaster of a performance, and yet again we played against one of the top 6 sides without winning. That's 6 points out of 21 against such sides. That's why we're 5th and promotion is a pipe dream. Hampson might be " happy where we are ", but I'm not.

But that wasn't the formation. They started with 4-3-3 just like they did at Westfields. Only difference looking at it was the lineup. Reynolds went central because of Hughes missing and Tomkinson came in for Birley. And surely Danks played on the wide of the front three because if a cross gets put into the box Reynolds is more likely to get his head on it.

I think the effort put in on Wednesday night just took it out of the players. Fully expect they will be far better on Saturday

[alwaysnextyear]

If that was 4-3-3 then I'm off to Specsavers. Danks and Tomkinson barely got to their penalty area in the first half, and neither had the pace to get past their full backs. The management are running out of excuses and ideas.

[jupu]

The bottom line is we played against one of our rivals and we lost. Indeed at one stage we were 4-0 down. We weren't as good as the opposition. The Rugby game is about making up lost ground now.

[jupu]

Incidentally Sporting beat 4th place Coventry Sphinx 5-1 tonight. They're now 10 points clear of us, in second place, having played 2 more matches.

[althom]

Obviously Sporting are signing quality players, whilst, apart from seeking a new wide player, our management seem to be satisfied with our defensive players who are conceding goals for fun!

[Brooksiders Return!!]

I personally think that City would be better off playing a 4-4-3

[The sound and the fury]

I personally think they'd be better off playing an old beat up violin...

[Down The Pan]

With our budget this season, we should have walked this league. There are teams in this league who pay nothing but expenses, they don't even have a playing budget. If we don't get promoted this season, we'll be stuck in this league until we go out of business. Mind you, if we do get promoted, we'll be stuck in the next league until we go out of business

[The sound and the fury]

Honestly wouldn't be surprised if they've been told not to win the league as the club can't afford promotion.

[Brooksiders Return!!]

Nothing to worry about now anyway - there will be plenty of parking at Parsonage Way in 15 years time. All is good in the world of Worcester City !!