Ebbsfleet Away

[clive]

I am presuming we will be missing Andre Burley and Josh Parker for the Ebbsfleet and York matches due to their international committments ?

[clive]

Josh scored for Antigua in their 2-2 draw with Bahamas, and Andre was part of the St Kitts defence that drew 0-0 with St Lucia

[clive]

Ross has described Ebbsfleet as "a hard place to go to".

Presumably the roads are poor, the traffic congestion is awful, there are too many traffic lights and parking is difficult ?

[Graeme]

Nov 18, 2023 9:18:07 GMT clive said:

Ross has described Ebbsfleet as "a hard place to go to".

Presumably the roads are poor, the traffic congestion is awful, there are too many traffic lights and parking is difficult ?

Throw in LTNs and bus gates and it sounds like they are playing at home.

Good for Josh and Andre but I do fear they will be missed today.

[Graeme]

Looks like they might not be missed today after all.

[Graeme]

First away win of the season and first at this level. Picking up away wins will be vital if we are to prosper in this league, as will positive results against teams in the bottom half, so in both respects this was undoubtedly significant. The result is arguably only surpassed by the Hartlepool result. It was a genuinely impressive performance even before the sending off. Beforehand it was hard to conceive of beating Ebbsfleet away, let alone so comprehensively. They have been such an impressive opponent in the last few years. We really do need to savour the victory. Like the Woking game, from the off we played in the confident manner we have become accustomed to over the last three years. Zac's return to fitness is probably key to that but Canice Lattrell, Oli and Renny, to name a few, all played very well today, as they did last week, and Bycroft once again looked assured. Two positive debuts today both with a goal, that must be a statistical rarity. Perhaps most importantly Reece, Nya and Aaron on the way back.

Huge game now at York City on Tuesday evening.

[Rijs]

Thanks for your comments, Graeme, and for travelling to support the boys today. Yes, Tuesday is a big match. I wonder whether anyone who played today will be rested, as we've seen before that when players put in a big shift and have a good game on Saturday, they are probably in the team again a few days later but may be leggy and jaded, and just don't reproduce the form they would otherwise be capable of. It's a good opportunity to rest a few and maybe bring back Reece, Nya, Aaron, Lewis Miccio, Claudio Ofosu, etc.

[Graeme]

Nov 18, 2023 21:43:32 GMT Rijs said:

Thanks for your comments, Graeme, and for travelling to support the boys today. Yes, Tuesday is a big match. I wonder whether anyone who played today will be rested, as we've seen before that when players put in a big shift and have a good game on
Saturday, they are probably in the team again a few days later but may be leggy and jaded, and just don't reproduce the form they would otherwise be capable of. It's a good opportunity to rest a few and maybe bring back Reece, Nya, Aaron, Lewis Miccio, Claudio Ofosu, etc.

Hi Rijs, I watched the live stream so must leave the credit to those valiant souls that actually supported us on the terraces today. I watched the Scarborough game the same way and it does give you a different perspective on events. It brought back memories of the covid season too.

I suspect Ross brought off Oli and Zac with Tuesday in mind. From 60 mins onwards the game was played at the pace of a testimonial, City just kept the ball and cleverly minimised the expenditure of energy. I suspect though Tuesday will be too much for McQueen, after so long without a competitive match. So perhaps Aaron might start and Nya might be an option and as you say Claudio. Would be surprised if Reece started after the post match comments from Ross though.

I was surprised Radio Oxford had Cole as MotM even if he had a good game. The Ebbsfleet commentary team picked out Canice as driving everything and purred about his performance throughout, and although you miss things watching on screen his performance really stood out for me. Would be interesting to see how those on the terraces saw it. Anyway a strong team performance either way.

[ChrisB]

Well done to all on that result: can't say I'd seen that one coming. Those returning from injury/illness/international duty will need to fight to get back into the squad/team: there'll be some tricky selection choices.

A win at York on Tuesday night would be great: COYHs!

[P.S. Graeme, two dubutants scoring is certainly unusual. Paterson & Pearce in August 2017 was the last time I could spot...and that was the first game of the season, so perhaps a bit more likely anyway!!]

[Graeme]

Nov 19, 2023 11:01:00 GMT ChrisB said:

Well done to all on that result: can't say I'd seen that one coming. Those returning from injury/illness/international duty will need to fight to get back into the squad/team: there'll be some tricky selection choices.

A
win at York on Tuesday night would be great: COYHs!

[P.S. Graeme, two dubutants scoring is certainly unusual. Paterson & Pearce in August 2017 was the last time I could spot...and that was the first game of the season, so perhaps a bit more likely anyway!!]

Thanks Chris. I thought you would know. As well as it being the opening day of the season, they were both forwards. I guess a defender and defender/midfielder is also more of an oddity.

[clive]

I watched Dorking Wanderers vs Boreham Wood yesterday. It was a poor game and I came away thinking City ought to finish above both sides.

Dorking had a goal gifted to them by the Wood keeper and then scored the winner near the end when a giant defender was left unmarked for a diving header. They worked hard but created very little

Wood were awful in the first half but improved in the second half but wasted a few good chances. A draw would have been a fair result

[Padz]

Well what can we say, it seems silly to say, but we came away almost disappointed it was ‘only 4-nil’ as we just had total control.

Let’s not forget we’ve just done that without Parker, Ashby, Fleet, Kirby, Burley, Potter, Harrison & Fonkeu, for me 5 of those at least would probably start in our strongest team, but good to see cameos from Fleet & Kirby from the bench returning to fitness.

Ruthless from City and we had control of the game before Clifford’s bizarre red card (makes up for one he should’ve had against us a few years back for Havant), difficult to pick out a star man, the easy option is to go with Zac who was again excellent, thought Coyley was excellent and Smith had easily his best game. Latrell deserves a mention as well, I honestly believe he is a star in the making.

One thing we discussed on the terraces was the poor form from the home fans behind the goal, ok so they witnessed a piss poor performance from their team, but the sarcastic cheering “we’ve got the ball, we’ve lost the ball “ etc is just dreadful imo, Get behind your team through the good times and the bad, they were more than happy to cheer them to league title glory last season.

Tuesday at York will be interesting, a run of games where points will really be vital York, Kiddy, Boreham Wood, Maidenhead.

[Logistics]

It's amazing to think back 9 months when we went there late in the season and they won the title after a totally dominant season with about 5 games to go, and then compare that to what we saw on Saturday.

Complete testament to the job that Ross is doing with us that there's been that much of a swing between the two clubs, and as Padz has said above with a side that probably doesn't resemble our strongest.

I think we've only ever got a point at Ebbsfleet in the past when we've gone there - we've been due to get a result there as we've always seemed to play well there but come out on the wrong end, so to not only get a result, but to get it in spectacular style was superb.

Huge test on Tuesday night at York - obviously they are below us, but we haven't seemed to play well on our long journeys so far this season, so hopefully we can change that and getting anything there will be a big result.

[clive]

Nov 19, 2023 22:05:43 GMT Padz said:

Tuesday at York will be interesting, a run of games where points will really be vital York, Kiddy, Boreham Wood, Maidenhead.

Win those 4 games and we will be eyeing a play-off spot !

Ross will have some selection dilemmas when everyone is available. I can see some unhappy players with the lack of game time.