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The treatment of Jamie Reid is absolutely disgusting and those who are abusing need to have a long look at themselves. Clearly he is short on confidence so perhaps try supporting him when he needs it most.

It is ludicrous hounding him for not applauding the fans - to be honest I respect him for not reacting to them with all the sh1t that is thrown his way.

Why would anyone in their right mind applaud someone who is abusing them?

Blaming individual players is not the answer(Reid or Williams). We are not creating chances. We do not get enough players in the final 3rd. If we were creating chances and not hitting the target then fair enough you could look at the forwards. Punting useless balls at Williams or Reid is not the answer unless you provide them with support.
I completely blame Owers for his ineffective formation and tactics. His man management from what I can see is totally non existent. You can plainly see that some of the players are just not responding to him.
You can get as many strikers as you want but if they don't get the right service how are they effective.

Richinns wrote: ↑19 Aug 2018, 11:40 The treatment of Jamie Reid is absolutely disgusting and those who are abusing need to have a long look at themselves. Clearly he is short on confidence so perhaps try supporting him when he needs it most.

It is ludicrous hounding him for not applauding the fans - to be honest I respect him for not reacting to them with all the sh1t that is thrown his way.

Why would anyone in their right mind applaud someone who is abusing them?

brucie wrote: ↑19 Aug 2018, 10:17 Unfortunately turning up and stuffing poor teams week in week out isn't thay easy. Take Tuesdays match - it was played on some ludicrous football pitch that had been doctored to make the game a complete lottery as it appeared you couldn't kick the ball more than 5 inches. That isn't an excuse its a fact.

No it isn't. It's another of your silly opinions that you try to pass off as fact.

Owers is shit, that's a FACT

I don’t agree with abusing the bloke, but anybody who thinks somebody who has played 124 games in his career and scored 18 goals is the answer to our goal scoring woes, is somewhat deluded.

I’m not sure if Williams is the answer either (89 in 347), but possibly with the right partner he will come good.

What is certain is that not scoring any goals makes for a frustrating football match, and means that our chances of promotion are fairly remote.

Williams always scores goals when you play to his strengths. Unfortunately Owers has got his defenders hoofing the ball upfield and when we do go through the midfield the final ball has been found wanting.

He'll sulk all day long so it's no surprise to me he's looking disinterested. Why sign him give him the captain's armband and then expect him to play like a target man?

'Mr' Owers is the problem,not Reid, Williams or Keating.


If 'brucie' went to as many games as Scott he'd know that!!

Richinns wrote: ↑19 Aug 2018, 11:40 The treatment of Jamie Reid is absolutely disgusting and those who are abusing need to have a long look at themselves. Clearly he is short on confidence so perhaps try supporting him when he needs it most.

It is ludicrous hounding him for not applauding the fans - to be honest I respect him for not reacting to them with all the sh1t that is thrown his way.

Why would anyone in their right mind applaud someone who is abusing them?

Truely a very good post Rich.

Personally never got why some of our fans think paying their £13 gives them the right, to level such dogs abuse at certain players, then level further criticism at that same player for not acknowledging after the game, priceless really.


Can't remember the game, but saw one lad who I didn't know, spend the entire game throwing a torrent of abuse at Reid, was even on his case before he (Reid) had received the ball, yet when substituted, watch the self same fan applaud Reid all the way off, sometimes I think is it me, or have I landed in some parallel universe, where bananas logic is the norm.

brucie wrote: ↑19 Aug 2018, 10:17 Unfortunately turning up and stuffing poor teams week in week out isn't thay easy. Take Tuesdays match - it was played on some ludicrous football pitch that had been doctored to make the game a complete lottery as it appeared you couldn't kick the ball more than 5 inches. That isn't an excuse its a fact.

Everyone blames Jamie Reid for everything but to my mind Williams has been absolutely fecking useless this season. This endless witchunt against Reid is diabolical - I just wish everyone would get off his back and at least give the bloke a fair crack. How the **** can the bloke be expected to produce anything with constant barrage of criticism. Maybe he isn't the answer but as in the Bath game people shouting at him after 20 minutes (when in fact he had set up nicely for the completely useless Williams to miss the target) whats that going to do for his confidence.

Perhaps he isn't the problem? - perhaps replacing Williams is the answer.

We are short of two strikers not just one. On current form Williams isn't the answer and looks poor. Two decent strikers and I honestly believe we would be top of the league.

We have two wingers who don't get utilized - and I guess that's a problem. Calls for sacking the bloke are just daft. The situation as regards Nicholson and Owers are completely different.

Owers has made some decent signings for a start. I don't think we are so far off as some people think.

That's a more reasoned posting, Brucie, but I'm not sure about the pitch at Oxford being doctored. I don't think even Gary Owers thought of using that excuse. We are one striker, or a winger, short because of Owers obsession of playing three centre backs to do the job of two. Read SPB's excellent post and Soton Dave's post. Thereby lies the problem.

When we had proper attacking full backs - Gibbs and Gurney - Kevin Hodges didn't play three centre backs. I'm sure you will soon get fed up with driving down from North Devon to watch 1 - 0 wins or defeats, or 0 - 0 draws because that's where we're at unless Owers changes tack.

tomogull wrote: ↑19 Aug 2018, 13:20
When we had proper attacking full backs - Gibbs and Gurney - Kevin Hodges didn't play three centre backs.

I think your memory is playing tricks on you here Tomo. We most definitely did play 3 centre halves under Hodges, Jon Gittens, Alex Watson and Jamie Robinson.

York's manager has gone after 5 games and they are lying 8th.....just saying!

I am no apologist for Owers, was led to believe back in the close season, that number of last season players had an issue with his man-management style, maybe that's true.


However, I do wonder whether some, are letting their dislike, dis-trust of Owers get in the way of their own football knowledge.

We're 5 games in, no division at nay level settles down after 5 games, look at Arsenal, could be the relegation places by tonight, will they finish bottom 3, of course not, there seems to be some who thought we'd win 42 out of 42, was never going to happen, and there's no where near enough respect by shown by us fans for the level we play at, after all we are now a NLS South club.


There are players playing at this level who have and still could play higher, there are young players who could make the jump up 1 or 2 levels playing in the NLS, neither set do, because they choose to prioritise there away from football careers, or it's financially beneficial to them, the difference in fitness is there but not massive, just because a player only trains twice a week with his club doesn't mean, that player doesn't do additional training, many have to responsibly for strength and conditioning put on the individual, as there isn't time to do it in 2 training sessions a week , so we'll many part timers will do gym sessions over and above their club training. So please lets stop thinking we have the right smash this division up, we have earn that right.


To pick on point made above about defending the 1 goal conceded in 5 games, this is the most important stat of them all, the team who starts solid the back will more likely remain so through out the season, and will go on to do better across the whole seaon, than the team who score 12 and conceeds 9 in their opening games, so that's the thing Owers has got right.


Now it's about finding the balance between attack and defence, personally, 4-3-3 is to narrow for the players we have, I'd be tempted to try the Martin Ling way, with 4 at the back, two in front, perfect for Hall, and maybe one of the current centre back, they can all play with the ball, that would also be a way of getting Bawling and Banton into the team, and it makes Williams the focul point of the attack, rather than chasing his tail, which we all know he wont do for every log,then watch him score goals

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑19 Aug 2018, 12:29
'Mr' Owers is the problem,not Reid, Williams or Keating.

That is the hub of the matter, Ower's is the problem.

We can easily blame the players, if we want, after all even a neutral called GTR who posted a match report made critical reference about Reid i.e. "with the goal at his mercy and Turner off-balance, Reid managed to slice his shot with all the finesse of a drunk toddler wearing snow shoes, and the ball flew wildly off target.". But has Williams been able to produce any better? The short answer is No. But the probing question should be why? What service are our two strikers getting. Certainly hardly anything from out wide and very little played into the channels. In the main our game plan for our two man attack appears to be 'chase the hoof-ball'. An observation I made at the Slough game was a traditional hoof-ball down the touch-line to Reid which spun off the 3G pitch like a bullet. Reid rightly turned and said in a disgruntled voice 'What am I suppose to do with that'. And he was right - but what can he do if that is the way Ower's has set the team up in which our two man strike force, whoever they may be; are always going to struggle. There is more than one way to peel an orange and Ower's had better quickly start to recognise this. Although he may have a few supporters in his fan club there are many more who are starting to get a little frustrated with the same old..same old!

Good point about the fitness levels in this league dave, Ben gerring was part time at truro, but I'd see him in winners quite often. Did a hell of a job with his fitness, can't attest to his footballing skills and won't know until we play billericay, I guess.

I agree with Brucie on this occasion re Reid.
However if after 10 games we do need to have won 7 to stay in touch.
All to play for, but i am very doubtful at mo.
If we score 6 against Hampton on Sat we might feel a bit better. We live in hope!!!

You think Reid is going to clap the fans after you call him a wanker all game? You think he’s more likely to put away chances after calling him a wanker all game?

Also, why were some calling Brett a wanker when he got subbed off? He clapped back on his way to the bench (and he came and clapped after the full time whistle).

I completely understand the frustration. We are poor. But that is down to Owers and the way he is setting them up to play. I joined in with the Owers bashing, he deserves it. But let’s be careful when hammering players clearly low on confidence.