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brucie wrote:Its strange that the first shot that Rice saved was similar to the shot he let in through his legs for Southends first goal (albeit it was on the other side of the goal).
The save certainly seemed to give him confidence.
I am not so sure I buy in to the excuse about the number of new players in the team being justification for our poor peformance.
Other teams in our division fielded as many as seven new players in their team and managed to win easily - if they could do it, why couldn't we.

Did I hear correctly that AFC had 8 new players?

usagullmichigan wrote:Did I hear correctly that AFC had 8 new players?

Indeed, and that is why I agree with Brucie on this one. Wimbledon (you can argue whether they have better footballers than us or no) looked better prepared and more of a team for this game, which is worrying given that they have added even more than us this season.

Do we know when these new players joined?
Perhaps this is the issue. Ball, Hawley and Pearce only joined this past week and maybe need a game or two to see how TUFC click (I don't know). Maybe the Dons players have been training for longer together?

Is all this dissection of Saturday really necessary? It's the first league game and even if we'd have been tonked 7-0 I wouldn't have been concerned about anything. Didn't Norwich get thumped 7-0 by Colchester on opening day a few years back and they went up that season! All that matters is how we progress into the season and not 90 minutes of disjointed football against a team similar to ourselves on opening day. Let's see where we are 10 games in and see if there is any pattern, structure or form for us to work with so that then we can look at where we are going wrong (if at all). Nothing is worrying, nothing is wrong and nothing need be mulled over, we should be happy we got the late goal and that bigger and better things should yet be still to come. It's one game that performances should be forgiven, we've a lot of new lads and they are bound to be nervous, especially the younger ones and we need to encourage them regardless for these next few months to help them bed in and feel that they are settled. They we might reap the rewards as fans. In the meantime, patience is needed and we don't need to be going on about why the other team looked prepared and we didn't, why we did such and such and they didn't or whatever, it doesn't matter at the minute. There's a sh*tload of games still to be played.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but there is a decent podcast preview of the new signings by David Thomas and Guy Henderson of the Herald.

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/AUDIO ... z2b1uXxx2D

SEgull wrote:I don't know if this has been mentioned before but there is a decent podcast preview of the new signings by David Thomas and Guy Henderson of the Herald.

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/AUDIO ... z2b1uXxx2D

I couldn't find any audio on that link.

Gullscorer wrote: I couldn't find any audio on that link.

If you scroll down there should be six separate podcasts. If not, go to thisissouthdevon and it is quite high on the TUFC section.

First game of the season with three players signed in the days preceding the match and I for one, was not expecting a fluid display. Defence looked ok and that is about it. Ball has the height and pedigree to be an effective performer in this league so it may well be that he beds in. Hawley showed some nice touches but lacked fitness at this stage. I didn't really notice Harding, whilst Tonge and Pearce looked useful acquisitions.

Neither team looked anything special and a draw was probably the fairest result.

Lots of people have looked daft by overanalysing the first game of a season.

Alan "you can't win anything with kids" Hansen being one example.

It was a cagey match with both teams having many players with numerous debuts. Our new defence made a couple of errors allowing Wimbledon a couple of chances, while we also showed attacking promise without creating quite so many clear cut chances.

I expet Wimbledon will do a lot better than last year and the signs are that when the team settles in so will we.

Certainly hope that the first game does not give an indication of how the season will go or we are in trouble!! Beaten by the worst Exeter side I have seen for years. I also think that Wimbledon will have a much better season and therefore the point might be a reasonable result. With yesterdays results there were quite a few that I don't think will reflect how teams perform over the season.
You certainly did well with Aaron Downes.I thought when he played for us he was outstanding until his injury but when he came back (too early) he was awful which was a shame. He obviously wanted to join us and knew he had to play to prove himself but in doing so made Mark McGhee change his mind. It was a deal that could have gone either way injury wise as Aaron was very injury prone. Our lost was your gain!!!

It certainly was FG, Downes is absolute quality. He poses a threat at the offensive end and totally solid at the defensive end. He and Pearce will be the best centre back pairing in the division before long.
Thank God your Board full of morons had appointed some muppet or another to make the decisions when his negotiations came round

Were you shit yesterday?

Matt.

Think you will find every single person who posted on this thread, myself included, was perfectly well aware Saturday was the first game of the season, and not going to be a true reflection on how our season is likely to pan out.

However it does not matter whether it's game one, game ten or forty six, we are allowed an opinion on the team and player performances, surely. I mean, after all, Saturday might be as good as it gets..

friendlygas wrote:Certainly hope that the first game does not give an indication of how the season will go or we are in trouble!! Beaten by the worst Exeter side I have seen for years. I also think that Wimbledon will have a much better season and therefore the point might be a reasonable result. With yesterdays results there were quite a few that I don't think will reflect how teams perform over the season.
You certainly did well with Aaron Downes.I thought when he played for us he was outstanding until his injury but when he came back (too early) he was awful which was a shame. He obviously wanted to join us and knew he had to play to prove himself but in doing so made Mark McGhee change his mind. It was a deal that could have gone either way injury wise as Aaron was very injury prone. Our lost was your gain!!!

Yes, I was a bit worried until the Aussies improved in the third test, I had visions of him being drafted in at short notice.

forevertufc wrote:Think you will find every single person who posted on this thread, myself included, was perfectly well aware Saturday was the first game of the season, and not going to be a true reflection on how our season is likely to pan out.

However it does not matter whether it's game one, game ten or forty six, we are allowed an opinion on the team and player performances, surely. I mean, after all, Saturday might be as good as it gets..

Fair enough Dave, I didn't mean it was every poster just the odd ones and I am fully behind you when you say we are all entitled to an opinion on games whether positive or negative but it was just the over critical nature of some posts or people looking for excuses or trying to look for something that isn't there. By all means after a few games have passed we can look at individual issues like perceived lack of preparation or fitness or whatever and discuss them but I just feel that in the very first game it doesn't really matter as it is just a case of getting all the tension, expectation and frustration of a long summer out of the way for the players as well as the fans and I think we must take it with a pinch of salt.

Hey, if someone wants to say that Harding for example had a poor game or was quiet then fine, I've no problems with that but it's when they begin looking for reasons behind it when it's only the first game! There is no need. Sure if he knocks out 4 or 5 similar performances on then spin then obviously there is a problem there to discuss but after 90 minutes of football it's ridiculous. Why don't they just say that Harding had a quiet / poor game and that he'll improve for the run out and leave it at that? I'm trying to be positive here and give everyone ( even Billy ) the benefit of the doubt and wait a while to see how things develop.

I'm probably not explaining myself very well as usual Dave and I back everyone's right to have an opinion but I just felt that some were trying too hard to look for reasons behind things. For me, we came from a hammer blow goal down with minutes to go and rescued a point and i'd like to look on things as a positive in the character we showed to get back into the game and knowing that we can do a lot, lot better.

Knill has given an interview on the game on BBC Sport.....http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23578700#asset
Bloody rude of him to call Rice a number 2 .