Cambridge City

[jenko1967]

Well I completely disagree with twitter. I thought man of the match was Nicholson, the only player who looked up for it. Gerrar? I thought his kicking was shocking throughout the match and was at fault for the 2nd goal, and despite making a couple of decent saves late on, it was too little too late. I thought bringing Fulcher on into a game like that was a very poor move, we we needed strength in the middle and, even though I rate Curtis Fulcher very highly, thought he was extremely out of his depth in the physical side of the game. I felt we played well for 15 mins in the first half but other than that we were extremely flat and lacklustre. Should have got Oyinsan on much earlier and should have attacked harder than we did. Rogan and Smith were big losses in the middle, vocally and in terms of experience, as I think it was the wrong sort of game for Fulcher to make an effect and Auger was poor, poor passing accuracy and too many long balls. The same goes for the defence; when are we going to learn that Sam Ives I 5ft8, 9 or so, HE WILL NOT BEAT THE LIKES OF CHAFFEY AND REYNOLDS IN THE AIR. When playing it on the floor we looked effective, but we didn't do it enough today. Real, real shame, I thought we'd give City a tough game today and we didn't. The worst part for me is I don't even think City were that good, we just handed it to them with 3 terrible bits of defending and not keeping the ball properly! Hope Rogan and Smith make a quick return because, after that 2nd half performance, we need them. Hoe we can bounce back, and fast. COYS!

[ewstute]

Well after today I can honestly say I won't be spending anymore money going to watch, I'm beyond fed up. A twenty minute spell in the first half where we dominated the game and City couldn't do anything. What were we doing during those 20 minutes? Passing and dribbling the football!!!! Jordan Nicholson scored a worldy of a goal!! The rest of the first half was even and the second half was mostly City, what were we doing then? Long balls forward and hoofing the ball so Sam Ives could run after them and get nowhere. Waste of time. We got nowhere and spent most of the time defending. I'd rather spend my time with the family then waste my time watching that.

As for the game, 3 poor goals conceded. Defence all over the shop for the 1st, then can't defend two low crosses to the near post from corners, poor. Jordan Nicholson scored a wonder goal, then spent the rest of the game chasing after aimless long balls forward. Evan Key scored a header, great.

Today ended the debate about Danny Rumens for me, could barely even jog quickly.

A wet pitch perfect for passing the ball around on and we don't bother.

Supported the team for decades, but I've had enough. I'll be back to watch games when people aren't playing "Who can kick the ball the highest and furthest".

Agree about Denzel. He cost us the first goal with his poor kick and the second two when he missed the ball. Made some saves at the end to keep the score down, but the damage was done.

[jenko1967]

Completely agree, we play our best stuff when passing it and when we don't have a target man to aim at all it just makes long balls such a waste of time!

[cliveh]

Away on holiday so didn't make it.
Worrying to read the comments, though most I have an affinity with from previous games.
ewstute, don't give up. Too early in the season. Hopefully the management will agree with your sentiments and act upon some obvious problems.
If fans like us can see what's wrong, then surely those of importance will too.
And, yes ewstute, Danny Rumens, it must be said, is struggling at this level. But that's just one problem. There's a few others as we all know.
Brian Page must address these quickly.
COYS.

[histonfan01]

I am not really sure where to start with that performance other than it was poor. How we can go from beating a team 5-0 to playing that badly is beyond me and Brian needs to have serious words with the team in my opinion.
Other than Jordan and possibly Ives the team did not play well. How we can play with 5 in midfield and not have any wide players I don't know.
Personally I feel the criticism of Rumens is slightly unfair as I believe there are far worse players in the team.
What has happened to Auger? So much hype about him signing and he just hasn't produced.
Yes it's still early days but if things don't start improving we will be in the same position as most seasons, scratching round for points at the end!

[robert]

My first match at the Glassworld this season, and I was a bit disappointed with Histon.

Like someone has mentioned you wouldn't think that this was a team who had smashed 5 past Bideford just 2 days earlier.

Maybe a factor in this is that City have a lot of experience in their side. The likes of Barrett, Chaffey, Reynolds and Malcolm isn't a bad spine to a team.

I see all teams locally at non-league level and although Histon looked weak, the reality is that the second half performance especially City bossed it and if they had took their chances they could have won more comfortably.

A word about not coming any more. I would say stick with it. You've just got to look at City. They've been through a hell of a lot in the last decade and their supporters show incredible loyalty and look like they have a half decent side again this year. Not saying they are going to win the league, but you have to stick with it through good and bad.

[ewstute]

Clive, after going to every home game during our relegation 2 seasons ago when we literally did just hoof the ball forward all the time despite having some good footballers (Dowie, Roberts etc), I have had enough of sitting through it. Again we have some decent footballers in the side for the level we're at and we dominated for the 20 mins they passed the ball around (dominated may not be strong enough word), but then resorted to the usual long garbage and deservedly lost. I have no idea what the purpose of it is and am fed up of seeing it.

Histonfan I agree about the wide players, the full backs seemed to be the only ones getting the ball out wide. We seemed to play a 442 today at times I thought, as Nicholson was alongside Ives for long spells, but were very narrow, no width except from the full backs.

Auger not starting was a surprise as he has been built up as one of the best players, but today he didn't do anything when he came on besides give the ball away and have Ives chase hopeless long balls.

The team looks like it is going to concede goals all the time. That's not aimed specifically at the defence, quite a lot of shots from right outside the area from opponents midfielders. 7 conceded against Slough (shocking), then 3 each against Leamington, Dorchester and City. 16 conceded in 7 games. Over 2 per game. The Slough game does make things worse, but then in other games Denzel has had to make a number of saves to keep the scores down. Leamington and City today come to mind. Beating Bideford 5-0 is great, but if we can't get points against teams not down the bottom then it's going to be a struggle, again.

[hfc08stutes]

Well that was a game of two halves. First half was pretty much ours apart from the poor defending for their first goal!Hit the post and bar as well as having a shot cleared off the line. What a goal from Jordan, the best goal I have seen a Histon player score for a long time. Turned their defence inside out. Second half..well.. just very poor. I think losing Rogan was quite pivotal and a turning point in the game as he is so influential at the back. For some reason we decided to revert back to long ball which I simply don't understand. I honestly have no problem with hitting it long but there is a time and a place to do it. With the defence city put out we would have been far better playing the ball on the floor and running at them but anything aerial, forget it, they were far to physical for that to work. There was also way too many wayward balls and when we did try to pass it we weren't very good at that either. I dread to think what our pass completion percentage was but wouldn't be surprised if it was around 50%. What was most disappointing though was that the body language seemed to suggest none of them wanted it! Fair play to city though they were very well organised and worked well as a unit. If they can keep the majority of their squad fit then they'll be up there no doubt about it.

So where does that leave us? Well we certainly need to establish some consistency, we have a better squad than we did this time last season but we're not much better off so it's time for the lads to step up and start putting in their shifts week in week out. It's also time for Brian and co to get them playing it on the deck way more than we do at the moment. I'm no football expert but its plain to see as far as I'm concerned that lumping it long to poor sam to chase against defenders twice his size isn't going to create many openings for us.

Today was disappointing, majorly, but it's still really early days, If we can take points of the league leaders and beat teams 5-0 like we already have done then it shows their is plenty of potential for a successful season. Weymouth will be a stern test this Saturday so the boys will have to be on it and then afterwards I believe we have a home game in the fa cup which may well prove to be a welcome break from the league. So don't despair yet, there's still a lot of football to play so there's no reason to stop going to the GW on game days !

[cliveh]

Keep the faith ewstute.
All comments so far have their merits and must be taken into account by Brian Page.
Just as an aside, I have just been watching a Wogan programme about Weymouth. The Town, not the football club. It indicated to me how well a club like Histon compete on the same level as a town the size of Weymouth. Plus a few others in the SLP. The Club is doing really well to play at this level, though it must be said that some of the teams you see at the GWS do not subscribe to this belief. Once again there will be 4 or 5 poor teams struggling to get points, and it doesn't take much to see who they are, right now.
Don't like pointing fingers at particular players, but as I said last week, Ryan Auger as been disappointing this season. For a player of his undoubted ability, to my mind he tries too many defence splitting marquee long balls, a'la Steven Gerrard. Invariably they become lost possession. In his defence, he seldom has a team mate breaking into an offensive position to take a shorter pass. Denzel needs some confidence instilled and other aspects of the art of keeping from Lance. And a No9 is desperately needed.
Pretty good attendance today bearing in mind both club's most recent home gates, which, to be honest , must be of great concern to both. On a lovely summer Saturday, 209 at St Ives is paltry to say the least. While last weekend, under 200 at the GW.
All is not negative, I need to proclaim. There are some success stories so far in this team, make no mistake. So keep the faith, eh?

[ewstute]

I'm not going anymore to watch the ball hit into the sky over and over, then seeing Sam Ives chase the ball to no avail. Waste of his talent and the rest of the team who can all play good football within reason. Enough is enough. Not asking for Barcelona or anything like that, but aimless punts forward is rubbish. I've no intention of spending 90minutes watching that anymore.

Will always support the team, but whilst that style of play continues I'll be staying away from the Glassworld.

[hfc08stutes]

Bit of a strange way to support the team but if you're not enjoying your visits to the GW then, I guess, who are we to tell you how to spend your hard earned! Hope you return soon though, the only way things can get better is if everyone gets behind the club and team each week! #COYS

[marke]

I sometimes wonder if I'm watching the same match? I Thought we put up a good performance against a strong City side. There were periods when we passed the ball well, mainly in the first half, and I thought we deserved more from the first period. Poor defending has cost us though. But the turning point was the loss of Rogan to injury. We picked up far fewer second balls after his departure, and we gave the ball away more.

[blueman]

Sept 1, 2015 10:20:36 GMT marke said:

I sometimes wonder if I'm watching the same match? I Thought we put up a good performance against a strong City side. There were periods when we passed the ball well, mainly in the first half, and I thought we deserved more from the first period. Poor defending has cost us though. But the turning point was the loss of Rogan to injury. We picked up far fewer second balls after his departure, and we gave the ball away more.