Chelmsford left Huish Park with a point yesterday after a late couple goals saw it finish 1-1. Ian was in the commentary box and here are his conclusions…
Joe Day had an impressive debut. The signing of another goalkeeper was no surprise following Lewis Williams departure, but an experienced EFL keeper who was on loan in the National League probably was a surprise. Day didn’t put a foot wrong, his distribution was solid and he pulled off three great saves. Firstly in a one on one situation, the second a low firm hand from a close range header and his third was a great reaction save to Josh Staunton’s miscued clearance. Will Buse is a good, young goalkeeper, but adding day makes the goalkeepers union stronger, more experienced and has strengthened the defence.
Is there anything Morgan Williams can’t do? I’m not sure I can conclude with a question, but oh well. Morgan Williams started in defensive midfield yesterday, shielding the centre backs. When I saw the line up it felt like Josh Staunton was the natural fit there but Williams took on the role and had another good game. He left the ball-playing to Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Charlie Cooper and was a good disrupter to Chelmsford’s attacking midfielders who were in perpetual motion. With all the attacking talent on the pitch (more on them in a bit), Williams was probably not the player people expected to pop up with the equaliser. #DFILWF might have a new ambassador…
I’m not sure how we didn’t score more. It was two quite different halves for the attacking end of the team. The first half, I felt we never got in a flow. If I saw one diagonal pumped toward Frank Nouble I must have seen 1000. Everything good came through Jordan Young and Jake Hyde struggled to get any joy from Chelmsford’s lofty defenders. We picked up in the second half as Chelmsford tired with crosses flying into the box. Hyde had a golden 1v1 that he should have buried to open the scoring. Rhys Murphy entered the fray, Jordan Stevens returned and Jordan Maguire-Drew came on when we went 1-0 down. It was one way traffic for most of the second half, but I don’t think we stretched Chelmsford’s goalkeeper enough.
We need to find our best attacking unit. We’ve tried different combinations this season but we’re still yet to really make it click up top. There’s so much talent at the top end, Murphy, Hyde, Nouble, Young, JM-D, Stevens, Lo-Everton that should be able to unlock teams. I’m excited to see Stevens come into this team and I think he and Young in a front line will give us more energy and unpredictability in attack.
I’m not sure why people are grumbling about keeping the ball. Yet again, it’s another game where Yeovil recycle the ball, retain possession and work it down the other side to moans of some supporters. Chelmsford’s defence won everything in the air yesterday, Hyde and Nouble got no joy from the giant Winfield. Credit has to go to Chelmsford – the only unbeaten team in the league – who defended from the front and cut those forward passes out. I understand some of the frustration, but we’re a club that’s been losing for a decade and right now, we’ve got more in the wins column than the lost and that’s a good place to be.
Reckon “more in the wins column than the lost and that’s a good place to be” is setting the bar too low. Extrapolate from that and we finish mid tableish and dont get promoted. Maybe that’s an acceptable outcome and part of the management of expectations. Looks like that has a bit longer to play out before it becomes clearer. If the current manager gets past 10 games with the same balance of results then its starting to feel like a season plus plan to get promoted.
Absolutely with that attitude why not drop down another league, then surely we could win more.
Mr Cooper says “No Excuses”
Lol, winning in Tier 6! There are 4000+ pro footballers in England and our ‘talent’ is at the bottom of that pile. Last time we were in the ICIS/ Isthmian League at least it was entertaining. We were part time, you could laugh when we lumped it out the ground, it didn’t seem quite so serious. The style of football we’re playing isn’t worth the entry fee. Quality football it is not!
Can somebody tell me what DFILWF stands for, please?
It means Don’t Fall In Love With Footballers and was originally coined for Tom Knowles. The main reason being because they will break your heart when they inevitably depart!
I’ve just reread this post and am particularly interested in the ‘talent at the top end’ comment because I feel like I’m watching a different game.
So a quick web search shows Nouble has played for 24 clubs in 14 seasons. His last 107 games have brought 10 goals.
Jake Hyde has played for 18 clubs in 15 years. He’s scored 48 goals in the past 5 years and that includes his most prolific form at Woking in 2018.
They’re both over 30, and neither looks quick or mobile. And they don’t score many goals either.