Same Old Story

[Thomas Bathurst]

Well after witnessing another toothless display by Brentford strikers this evening, with one pre season game to go before the new season starts I am starting to get very woried.

It would seem that no matter what combination of strikers, who all in their own right are decent enough, we just don't ever look like we are going to score enough goals. How many times have we dominated the first 20-30 minutes of a game and come away with nothing. Again, tonight against Woking we dominated early on, but never really created many clear cut chances. If we could turn our early dominace into goals, we would be flying. On too many occasions we had the ball out wide, with no more than one player in the box, that's just pathetic. Even the own goal "we" scored - who was the player furthest forward putting pressure on their defender . . . Paul Evans it should be our f*cking front players breaking their necks to get into the box!

This brings me on to the next point, no matter what combination of strikers we play the result is always the same. I never thought I would say this about a Brentford side, but I think we are playing too much football (a criticsm that has been levelled at Lewington before) and need to mix it up a bit more - we need players to be more direct. The Woking forwards caused us more grief than we caused them!

My last moan has to be directed at Scottie P. As much as I admire his effort and his first touch, it must be time for him to be dropped as a forward (by all means play him out wide on the right), but we can't afford to have a forward who doesn't shoot - he always tries to go past that extra man . . . did he have a shot tonight?

 

[TOMOGP]

At long last someone else is beginning to see that Partridge promises much but delivers little a very good 3rd div striker but not 2nd how many times must he either run back or across with the ball trying to beat all the defence and lose it.
To be fair to him there is not often anyone else up to pass to but even when there is he seldom does

 

[Edmundo]

Final score: Woking 1 Brentford 1

Our goal was a cleverly headed own goal, wrong footing their keeper who had no chance. Their goal came right at the very end, after Quinn was caught on the ball and Smith pulled off a good save but was helpless with the rebound.

Team

Ole
Lovett Quinn Marshall Gibbs
Mahon Evans Ingimarsson
O'Connor Scotty P Scott

Subs: Paul Smith for Ole at half time, Rowlands (who seems to have acquired a new nickname of Rosie) for Ivar at HT. Theobalds for Lovett, Folan for Scott, Lorenzo for Partridge after about 60 minutes. Kennedy for Evans after about 75. Ginger Graham came on late on for O'Connor.

Lots of possession to little effect. Our great striking hope (McCammon) was sitting in the stands just along from me, with Jason Pearcey. No sign of Lloydy - at the moment he looks like our best hope for Northampton.

Woking have a very impressive stand behind one goal, but otherwise a fairly nothing ground. None of their players really impresseed me, it was more a case of lethargy from certain Bees players - especially Marshall and Andy Scott. Oh well - no points were lost, so it doesn't really matter. On the positive side it was great to see Gavin Mahon in action again. On the negative side, Ray Lew was wearing that awful checked shirt that he wore at Hampton last year!!

PS - I'm moving this thread to the Big Match.

 

[Thomas Bathurst]

It was indeed GREAT to see Mahon back who does make a big difference to our midfield . . . what was even better was that he looked match fit, and as though he hadn't been out with an injury all summer. Other positives for me were that Evans looked good first half . . . he looked a couple of yards off the pace at Fulham. The good thing about Mahon playing again, is that it gives Evo the opportunity to push forward more and get into the box, and I think he is at his best when he can do that.

Jay Lovett started off shaky again, but grew in confidence as the game wore on, and indeed looked very good at going past players, his final ball at the moment though is toilet (but I am sure he will be working hard on that).

I thought we looked better with Lorenzo up front, I know a load of you don't seem to rate him, but he has got a nice first touch, and becuase of his size, he has a good presence in and around the box, and does well to make space for himself . . . certainly a better bet for me than Scottie P.

What frustrates me the most, is that friendly or not, a team with Rowlands, Mahon, Evans, Marshall etc should be beating the likes of Woking with ease, and up to a point we do dominate these type of games, but if you can't score goals you are going to struggle as we did tonight, against Fulham and QPR, and also against many others at the tail end of last season.

[This message has been edited by Thomas Bathurst (edited 01 August 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Thomas Bathurst (edited 01 August 2000).]

 

[Jam Jar]

I don;t see why people are getting so
worried, pre-season means jack, I've seen
some other clubs results, Northampton
lost 4-0 last night to a team I've never
heard of. In fact I can;t even remember
the name of the team that beat them.

 

[Thomas Bathurst]

It is not the result of last night (or any other pre season friendly) that worries me. It was the fact that,

1. Yet again we failed to create any clear cut chances despite dominating from early on.

2. We weren't being particularly experimental with personnel or formation

3. Woking, a non league side were playing the first of their pre season friendlies, yet is was us who looked ring rusty (up front)

4. Scott Partridge still doesn't want to shoot, and insists on beating another defender before losing possession

5. We are persisting with the same tactics that obviously don't work. We need to start getting bodies into the box and be much more direct.

All in all I would have preffered it if we had been beaten 4-3, because I could have put that down to an off day for the defence, but at least it would have meant we created some chances and scored goals.

[This message has been edited by Thomas Bathurst (edited 02 August 2000).]

 

[Chrisbee]

Originally posted by Jam Jar:

I don;t see why people are getting so
worried, pre-season means jack, I've seen
some other clubs results, Northampton
lost 4-0 last night to a team I've never
heard of. In fact I can;t even remember
the name of the team that beat them.

I think it was Hinckley.The Cobblers haven't had a very good pre-season LOSING to several non-league clubs.The talk/speculation ends on Saturday week.DON'T MISS IT!!!!

 

[Chrisbee]

Originally posted by Jam Jar:

I don;t see why people are getting so
worried, pre-season means jack, I've seen
some other clubs results, Northampton
lost 4-0 last night to a team I've never
heard of. In fact I can;t even remember
the name of the team that beat them.

I think it was Hinckley.The Cobblers haven't had a very good pre-season LOSING to several non-league clubs.The talk/speculation ends on Saturday week.DON'T MISS IT!!!!

 

[Ox Bee]

The facts are that in the last 17 matches we have managed 6 goals and 1 own goal.

We've managed to draw a blank in 11 of those games.

Fairly uninspiring stuff.

 

[mhead bee]

agree with most of whats being said.

Mahon had some exquisite touches but looked like he hadn't played for a few months.
Gibbs had a good game and jay lovett started to the the half decent player I know he is.
Scott p deserves more for his endevour, he gets the ball and twists ant turns and runs a bit like beardley used to . but unlike beardley who would score or cross, partridge seems to end up on his arse nine times out of ten.he is struggling at this level even against non league, his effort deserves more.
I was impressed with oconnor as he ran and used the channels well all night and showed intelligence.
Andy scott put 4-5 decent crosses in but again there was nobody near to getting on the end of them.
Rowlands again our best player when he came on, evans passing was good again, why does folan only ever get 10 minutes if at all, let him go to ireland if we aren't even going to give him a go in a friendly (he has lost weight too).
Can't emphasize enough how desperate we are in front of goal, only 1 clear cut chance all game fell to oconnor who squandered early on.
We are in desperate trouble as we have played 5 friendlies and only scored 2 (not including OG) against 3 non league teams.(also excluding our first team versus an u21 team)

People may say friendlies count for nothing, but in my opinion we didn't score for months last season and with the same personell we can't score against non league teams this season.We don't look dangerous at all.

 

[Ox Bee]

I was in favour of playing Scott Partridge wide right last season, and maybe we ought to give him a try on the wing.

 

[Pauly Paul]

I'd like to see McCammon and Lorenzo play up front. Two big physical lads, McCammon with the pace and power & Lorenzo with the touch and vision.

All the ingredients of a top strikeforce!

 

[nick logan]

Agree with sentiments about strikers but maybe now people will get off owusus back,afterall he has got 40 odd goals in 100 odd appearances.What chance that partridge o'connor and pinamonte don't get 10 league goals between them.We would have gone down if we didn't have owusu last season.We need him and mark mac to strike up a 35 goal partnership otherwise our good defence and midfield will be wasted.How many better defenders than powell,gibbs,boxall,marshall and ijah will there be and how many better midfields than evo mahon and rowlands.i'd bet that owusu gets at least 15 goals this season,its up to someone else to do the same.
my brizzel city mate said scotty p would start well then fade as he has at bristol and cardiff and sadly it seems as if he may be right.hopefully not though.!he has the talent.

 

[Edmundo]

Don't forget that their goalie had to pull off a great save near the end to deny us a second own goal!