Rage Online

I wasn't going to go along last night but made an 11th hour decision to attend and was glad that I did.

The game was much more of a test and real contest compared to the Man Utd exhibition game, with some real adult tackling which would have seen a string of yellow cards had it been for real.

Jamie Guy was very impressive for me and the star of the night. Of the other newbies I thought Burnell was very solid and impressive without ever doing anything spectacular. It looks like we have a very good central midfield partnership developing. Burnell reminds me a lot of Martin Gray but with less crab-lilke tendancies.

Constable plodded through the game and worked hard but at the moment doesn't have any real end result although having said that it was his determination and running that made Guy's goal.

Curruthers impressed me going forward and had a great curling shot from distance well saved near the end.

On the down side Yemi seemed very much out of it on the wing and added very little - I certainly can't remember him trying to beat defenders and get crosses in which is what you'd expect in that position. Clarke was also disappointing in defence and got caught out of position a lot. As for his throw in's I thought on at least 3 occasions he was going to ask the ref if he could phone a friend or ask the audience, because he looked completely clueless.

Both Husbands and (Levi) Reid looked promising but weren't in the game for very long so it's a bit hard to judge them fairly. Reid particularly impressed me and looked like a real winger, confident on the ball who could also cut inside and have a decent shot.

In goal, Cole had a nervey first half but Hinchcliffe came on for the second and looked much more solid and confident.

All in all though a good game which we could and should have won against a strong side form a higher division even allowing for the fact that Wycombe threw on the Harlem Globe Trotters in the second half which disrupted them somewhat. (5 6ft plus black guys all come on at the same time after doing a synchronised warm up show on the touchline)

A good summary Mally.

Yemi will never cut the mustard out wide because he frequently - as we
saw last season - makes the wrong decision with his final ball and his positioning is not good enough. He does not seem to anticipate very well
either when a colleague has the ball.

Clarke showed last season too that he is poor at throwing the ball into play. I can't remember number of times Justin Richards yelled at him for not throwing the ball to the right place, but it was frequent for me to vividly recall it. It may seem strange to some but I prefer Day at right back.

Guy looks exciting, a strong fast arrogant forward who looks to be the scorer of spectacular goals and Constable is his hard working sidekick.
Burnell breaks the play up and can pass well. Great to see Willmott back and loking far stronger than when we saw him last Autumn.

Our weaknesses will be along our right side - especially defensively but we look a decent outfit and could have a really exciting season if we can avoid injuries.

Day for me as well over Clarke at the moment, he was caught too far forward several times last nightand could be criticised for at least one of the goals against Man U.

Plus which throw ins are key to the game, we have to keep possesion from them and Day is much better in this area, someone said Matty was injured last night which is a shame as I would have liked to have seen him play in what must be close to DP's starting line up.

Jamie Guy looks the business and is overshadowing Constable at the moment, Levi Reid did well when he came on, Motty also was a big positive.

What was particularly pleasing was Foster and Murray didn't have their best games but the others picked up the slack and we matched Wycombe all over the pitch.

Was dissapointed with the attendance and also with Murray when Haldane got himself in trouble with the ref after their goal, as captain he should have tried to diffuse the situation but he just turned his back and left them to it.

Enjoyed the game last night and agree with most of the above, but (how did you know there was a but coming) I was a bit concerned with Carruthers. He looked good going forward but left too much space for the wide players when defending. He seemed to get sucked into a central defender type position and ended up marking the same player as Foster a couple of times. Added to the fact we don't have a natural replacement for him, it contributes to the strength in depth/competition for places question mark in a few positions.

Overall though, we played some nice football at times and didn't look second best to a team that finished in the League 2 playoffs last season.

Once again Jamie Guy looked a different class to everyone else on the pitch, including Wycombe.

Hinchcliffe looked better than Cole in goal.

GREAT GAME

DSSD

I LIKE CLARKE HE PLAYED ALRIGHT LAST NIGHT HE PLAYS FOR THE SHIRT AND THE CLUB HE MADE A COUPLE OF MISTAKES BUT THATS WHAT THE GAMES ARE FOR WHEN HE GOES FORWARD HE CUTS TEAMS OPEN AND WITH THE 2 FRONT MEN THIS WILL HELP US .AS FOR HIS THROWING IF PLAYERS MOVED FOR HIM WOULD HELP . HE HAS A LONG THROW LIKE DAY BUT HAVE WE SCORED FROM THEM. HE NOT CLUELESS HE IS JUST TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT. AS FOR DAY THE MAN WITH THE LIMP THAT CAME AND WHEN AS HE WALK AROUND WAS A JOKE. CLARKE CAME BACK FIT AND STRONG AND HAS GOT HIS PLACE FOR IT. HE IS NOT A STONE OVER WEIGHT LIKS SOME PLAYER PS DO NOT FORGET THAT QUINNY PLAYED H/W ON SIDE FOR THERE GOAL

Wow!

ADD?

Just impressed with the passion in that post and the manner in which it was put across.
I'm still not sure on the Clarke/Day issue and I think it's Patterson's hardest choice to make, but that's a good thing. I don't think there is a lot between them, but they are different types of players giving the option of playing the right player in the right situation.

Neither Day nor Clarke particularly fill me with confidence. I hope there aren't too many good left wingers in the division.

If we do need strengthening, it's down the right side generally.

well, mainly on the back of last season, i'm a little surprised to read some of the doubts about the right back position.

matt day has his obvious limitations as a player, but on the plus side, is much more physical than clarke, and can fill in as a centre back. i think he's more than adequate as cover for two positions, and i expect him to be switched with clarke depending on the sort of game patterson expects.

i really do think clarke will continue to improve, and develop into an excellent player for Us. his positional play hasn't struck me as awful before, and i like his eagerness to go forward. watching him at court place farm, he also seems to have developed a bit more 'niggle' in his game, to the point that he was quite cynical on a couple of occasions - the result of first time experience i would've thought.

i shall prepare to eat my words after saturday...

I don't have major concerns, as I also think Clarke will improve. However, he was given a difficult time by Ishmael Walsh in the first half at FGR last season, and his temperament needs work. More than once he allowed himself to get riled by opposition players, and - cf. Duffy - if this gets known, there will be plenty of small-minded players prepared to use the studs or elbow in the hope of getting a reaction.

Day, by contrast, is more reliable, but I suspect the limitations are there to stay.

I was less concerned about individual performances than the collective right side of the team. Yemi did OK I thought, without lighting up the place (I reckon more passes than previously went to teammates). Equally, whilst Clarke made a few errors he generally did OK - and blaming him for not taking throw-ins quickly when his teammates were just dawdling and strolling is hardly fair.

The problem for me was that when Yemi went forward, a large hole was left for Wycombe to exploit when they won the ball. When, on occasions, Clarke stepped up to fill that gap, another hole was left behind him. It cannot be down to just those two, however - others need to be aware of what is going on and step in to fill any gaps. It should not take a switch to Total Football to get players to step over from the midfield or centre of defence, rather than rely on Clarke alone to cover Yemi.

Moan over - I thought Wycombe (collectively - nothing personal) were ugly and I wonder how long it will take for them to turn on Taylor in the way we saw the Stevenage fans doing here last season. As always, the Summer break has recharged my optimism batteries. Bring on Barrow.

&quotRADMAN&quot wrote:I LIKE CLARKE HE PLAYED ALRIGHT LAST NIGHT HE PLAYS FOR THE SHIRT AND THE CLUB HE MADE A COUPLE OF MISTAKES BUT THATS WHAT THE GAMES ARE FOR WHEN HE GOES FORWARD HE CUTS TEAMS OPEN AND WITH THE 2 FRONT MEN THIS WILL HELP US .AS FOR HIS THROWING IF PLAYERS MOVED FOR HIM WOULD HELP . HE HAS A LONG THROW LIKE DAY BUT HAVE WE SCORED FROM THEM. HE NOT CLUELESS HE IS JUST TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT. AS FOR DAY THE MAN WITH THE LIMP THAT CAME AND WHEN AS HE WALK AROUND WAS A JOKE. CLARKE CAME BACK FIT AND STRONG AND HAS GOT HIS PLACE FOR IT. HE IS NOT A STONE OVER WEIGHT LIKS SOME PLAYER PS DO NOT FORGET THAT QUINNY PLAYED H/W ON SIDE FOR THERE GOAL

does James Clarke's mum live in Tring?

having a punt on Oxford going up this year, its all coming together finally.