Daggers

[YF Dan]

First time I've seen us this season, and because of train issues, I missed the first 15 minutes, so I admit I'm not best qualified to pass judgement.

But, for what they're worth, here are my views:

1) Wow. That was heart-attack football. Brilliant to watch, but at no point did I ever think we were going to win. Some really nice football, slick passing, mobility, pace, movement, looked likely to score regularly, but goodness, was that open. Once confidence comes with a few wins, we will hammer some teams, but we will get picked off by lots of others. As somebody who has been desperate for entertaining football for years, I can't really complain...but it will be nervy - and - will we be able to play on the pitch (which looked lovely today) when the egg-chasers do their worst? Positives: The front four.

2) Long doesn't inspire much confidence. But I always feel for keepers who play behind a shaky back 4, which he was today. Positives: I like the way he tries to get our attacks moving.

3) Hylton looks a good player, but I didn't like his body language at all. Strutting around like a cocky git, whinging endlessly when players didn't pass to him, in the ear of the ref and the opposition. Extremely noticable that half the team made no effort to celebrate either goal with him, despite him running very close to them. To be fair, he sounded alright when interviewed on the radio, but his on-field antics irked me. But positives, he was bloody good today, and our top scorer by a distance, so I will leave my misgivings at this.

4) The Jak looks a player too, but again his antics weren't great esp when trying to grab the ball for the penalty. Pleased we've got two players who actually want to score goals, but it's bad form to carry on like that. Hopefully he'll learn. I missed his goal, but looking forward to watching it on the FLS tonight. Positives: pace, pace, pace and a desire to score.

5) Crowd. Uh oh. Panic time. We have to do something to fill the place. Free tickets are better than empty seats, surely? Positives: At least the few that were there were entertained.

I'm incredibly concerned about the new owners and their motives, and I have doubts about Appleton, deep concerns about our results, but bizarrely I like much of what I saw on the pitch. Will be a weird season.

[Dr Bob]

Likewise, my first game of the season, so I would love others to comment on how both our attacking and (non) defensive performances compared with previous league games. I agree with everything YF Dan says. That said, to what extent does the back four appear shaky if the keeper behind them neither sorts them out, nor (perhaps) fills them with confidence? I did wonder at one point how different the four will be once Clarke returns. Morris looks good running with the ball. The strength he showed to hold off the ridiculous attention of the defender in the build-up to our first goal was very impressive, but he looks less good looking for space and moving to receive the ball when others are in possession. Jak was a bit childish, but he only turned 18 this week. Sure he will learn from this. Hylton generally looked very good and I could see exactly what others had been praising Collins for in previous matches.

Hoskins looked very good when he came on. But our midfield does look dodgy in defensive mode (something else that will help make our back four look shaky, if they are not getting much help from those in front of them). If the rumour on another thread is correct, Brian Howard could be a very good signing.

I thought the best bit of the RadOx programme afterwards was the person who commented that, previously, after a 1-0 win, supporters were saying they wanted to be entertained. Now they are being entertained, but some are saying they want a 1-0 win. Either our 'good football' starts to deliver wins; or, if we continue to fail to win, will 'good football' become an empty, meaningless phrase? Still early in the season - and, let's be honest, we are by no means the only football team in the country still adjusting to a new system of play...Having read in the programme about the new owners raising the playing budget, I do wonder where that might leave us with the FFP rules - and what that might mean come January.

[SWA]

Hylton cocky? Completely disagree with that. Didn't notice cockiness at all. A player working his bollocks off for the team yes. At west brom the whole team celebrated his goal joyously with him. Hylton has been immense this season.
Jakubiak was the one who displayed poor discipline today during the run up to the penalty being taken. Was reminiscent of Leven and craddock a few years back. The penalty was then duly blazed over by craddock....

[GodalmingYellow]

Come on lets not be too harsh on Jakubiak. He is very young, and just wanted an opportunity to open his scoring account. That's no bad thing. Jake Wright was quite right to insist on Hylton taking the kick though as it was for the lead in the game. Had we been 3-0 up, I might have taken a different view.

I'm really impressed with both Hylton and Jakubiak. The former I didn't really think much of at Aldershot, but then they were a very poor team around him. the latter looks seriously like a star of the future.

The players obviously went for it much more in this game than previous games, which was great going forward, but we had a couple of weak links.

Newey had a really poor game. I am guessing he was suffering from Tuesday still. His positioning was all over the place. And I felt Ruffels had a weaker game too and never really got into the game. Alfie looked to be well short on confidence and fitness still. If he doesn't buck up soon, he might well be coming towards the end of his time at OUFC.

Collins was quieter as well, but still did a lot of good things, and what he does is always quality.

Up front things are beginning to click. I'm still very 50/50 on Morris. He is strong on the ball and has good close control, but as has been said above, he is never in the right place at the right time.

So we've now gone from a team that plays too safe, to a team that works on the basis that we'll score more than them. I'd like somewhere in between please.

The more I listen to Appleton and see the very clear changes in the side from the work on the training ground, the more I am happy that he is taking us in the right direction.

It is much more difficult to be certain about the motives of Ashton and Eales. I suspect we'll find out if there are longer term issues with the shockingly poor attendance. A budget of 1.5mill losses in season 1 based on budgeted attendances of 6,000 versus yesterdays 4,300, with an increasing playing budget, are not for the feint hearted. We need to get bums on seats pronto. And we need to start getting regular wins even more pronto.

[SWA]

Jakubiak had already opened his scoring account, by notching the opening goal

[GodalmingYellow]

Jakubiak had already opened his scoring account, by notching the opening goal

Picky. That's what I call it....

[YF Dan]

3) Hylton looks a good player, but I didn't like his body language at all. Strutting around like a cocky git, whinging endlessly when players didn't pass to him, in the ear of the ref and the opposition. Extremely noticable that half the team made no effort to celebrate either goal with him, despite him running very close to them. To be fair, he sounded alright when interviewed on the radio, but his on-field antics irked me. But positives, he was bloody good today, and our top scorer by a distance, so I will leave my misgivings at this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVJqPEfjBZA

[Kernow Yellow]

3) Hylton looks a good player, but I didn't like his body language at all. Strutting around like a cocky git, whinging endlessly when players didn't pass to him, in the ear of the ref and the opposition. Extremely noticable that half the team made no effort to celebrate either goal with him, despite him running very close to them. To be fair, he sounded alright when interviewed on the radio, but his on-field antics irked me. But positives, he was bloody good today, and our top scorer by a distance, so I will leave my misgivings at this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVJqPEfjBZA

Interesting. But he's scoring goals. I'm much more worried by the fact that no-one else is doing that for us.

[Kernow Yellow]

3) Hylton looks a good player, but I didn't like his body language at all. Strutting around like a cocky git, whinging endlessly when players didn't pass to him, in the ear of the ref and the opposition. Extremely noticable that half the team made no effort to celebrate either goal with him, despite him running very close to them. To be fair, he sounded alright when interviewed on the radio, but his on-field antics irked me. But positives, he was bloody good today, and our top scorer by a distance, so I will leave my misgivings at this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVJqPEfjBZA

Looking at the YP highlights of last night's game it is obvious that several players celebrated Hylton's goal with him - no-one seems to be ignoring him. From what I've seen of the guy he works his socks off for the team, and is our most prolific striker in years (early days I know). What's not to like?

[OUFC4eva]

Hylton is proving to be a really good striker for us
and he works very hard for the team - long may it continue.

I'm concerned as he limped off last night but didn't see him
pick up the knock.He's exactly what we need on Saturday against
Stevenage.

[A-Ro]

He rolled his ankle according to Appleton after the game.

[OUFC4eva]

He rolled his ankle according to Appleton after the game.

Hopefully he will be fit then if it is iced. The last player
we could do without at the moment against Westley's henchmen.