Eastleigh FC v Torquay United

[Neal]

I didn't see the throw in that hit the post in that video either. And you can see Eastleigh had very few chances.

I watched their 3rd goal a few times, mmmmm cant make my mind up actually, it was a well taken shot.

Look we all know (well I bloody well hopes so anyway) we are nowhere near promotion material. But given from what he had 2 months ago they are better than I thought they would be.

For a young side, away from home to a club that does have expectations this season they did ok. Before anyone buts in, I didn't say they did great or anything like that. Well worn cliché but its "work in progress" and thats what it is, and always was going to be.

[brucie]

80 mph? - are you watching the same video - he hasn't actually hit it that hard to be fair - Dave Thomas forecast before he took the kick exactly where the player was going to put it. Speiss is too far over the other side of the goal and doesn't get back quick enough.
Saying this is "over analysis" is just poppycock. Granted its not a blazing howler but a competent keeper saves that.
On the subject of keepers as you were at the game you wouldn't have seen the Cheltenham keeper almost single handedly win them three points against Wrexham.
Soft goals conceded every game just isn't helping our cause. It was just the same last year and hasn't been remedied.

[Dave]

80 mph? - are you watching the same video - he hasn't actually hit it that hard to be fair - Dave Thomas forecast before he took the kick exactly where the player was going to put it. Speiss is too far over the other side of the goal and doesn't get back quick enough.
Saying this is "over analysis" is just poppycock. Granted its not a blazing howler but a competent keeper saves that.
On the subject of keepers as you were at the game you wouldn't have seen the Cheltenham keeper almost single handedly win them three points against Wrexham.
Soft goals conceded every game just isn't helping our cause. It was just the same last year and hasn't been remedied.

By the nature of your own posting style, and determination to act as a wind up merchant, your view point has long become null and void, even when your actually right, but in this case I trust my judgement above yours and that prize clown Dave Thomas, who to add I have nothing but contempt for now, due to his failure to come in public and support the new ownership above the old, and actually use his position in the local media to help the club move forward.

Added in 10 minutes 41 seconds:

On the subject of keepers as you were at the game you wouldn't have seen the Cheltenham keeper almost single handedly win them three points against Wrexham.
Soft goals conceded every game just isn't helping our cause. It was just the same last year and hasn't been remedied.

Missed this part of your post, yes, I've been to every home match and Eastleigh away, no ones denying Spiess had a bad game against Cheltenham, however so did another 9 out of the 11 players on the park.

Subject of yesterdays game, goals 1 and 2 , as already pointed out, if the midfield had done it's job in the first place, and then second to that an attacking situation defended properly, Spiess does not have a shot to save, however both were well taken of which Spiess has no chance to stop, the free kick as you've rightly pointed out was as soft as I've seen, however to be fair if Spiess lines 4 up in his wall, Payne wouldn't have had so easy would he.

This unending attack on Spiess has to stop. What you need to do along with some other TUFC fans is to learn the simple lesson of actually how to support your team, your players, just like I, and the 349 or so did yesterday, our whole club would be so much better off, only unity will get us through this.

[arcadia]

80 mph? - are you watching the same video - he hasn't actually hit it that hard to be fair - Dave Thomas forecast before he took the kick exactly where the player was going to put it. Speiss is too far over the other side of the goal and doesn't get back quick enough.
Saying this is "over analysis" is just poppycock. Granted its not a blazing howler but a competent keeper saves that.
On the subject of keepers as you were at the game you wouldn't have seen the Cheltenham keeper almost single handedly win them three points against Wrexham.
Soft goals conceded every game just isn't helping our cause. It was just the same last year and hasn't been remedied.

Brucie I have watched all pre-season games and all bar two league games and on 18 August I made a post about the keeper position and my opinion has not changed that Lavercombe is the best keeper. It seems supporters cannot put their view without a backlash.

Young keepers will always be prone to the odd mistake Speiss has had a run in the side but now is the time to give him a rest that does not mean I'm blaming him for mistakes but Lavercombe is calmer under pressure. I know that a few people commenting on the keeper position were not at the games at the end of last season when Lavercombe played and was outstanding, Hargreaves did get that right.
It would have been an easy job picking the keeper this season it's a shame Paul Cox was not here last season but it looks like he could not get a keeper unless it was as number 1+++++++++++++++++++++++

[Colorado Gull]

Give Speiss a rest? We've played seven games for goodness sake! One of the toughest starts to the season and fans are already calling for Speiss to be dropped. Unbelievable. I'm not denying that Speiss could have done better with a few of the goals that we have conceded, but he's also made some very good saves. So Jose's of the forum, what happens when Lavercombe makes a few mistakes and could have done better with goals concede? Drop him too? Then bring in Seabright. Then bring Speiss back in, oh, no, you can't do that because he hasn't been able to improve himself because he was dropped in the first place! I don't understand why this is so hard for some people to understand. Exodus was at fault for the second goal yesterday afternoon, in fact, the entire defence was all over the place, do we drop all of them? No, of course not. Get your heads out of the sand, wake up and smell the coffee. We will be in the Conference for at least another couple of seasons because we have a very new young side on a very, very small budget. If the players continue on this bad spell for another few weeks, this does not mean we are doomed! Give this new breed of TUFC time and when I say time, I don't mean the Sunday-Friday in between games, I mean months, months and months again.

[Neal]

Another thing I forgot to mention. The 300+ fans who were there applauded the team at the end. There wont be many teams that lose who will get that. Im sure the team will respond as best they can to that kind of support. If we start having a go, slagging individuals off then there is only one way that will go, and that's down.

[arcadia]

Give Speiss a rest? We've played seven games for goodness sake! One of the toughest starts to the season and fans are already calling for Speiss to be dropped. Unbelievable. I'm not denying that Speiss could have done better with a few of the goals that we have conceded, but he's also made some very good saves. So Jose's of the forum, what happens when Lavercombe makes a few mistakes and could have done better with goals concede? Drop him too? Then bring in Seabright. Then bring Speiss back in, oh, no, you can't do that because he hasn't been able to improve himself because he was dropped in the first place! I don't understand why this is so hard for some people to understand. Exodus was at fault for the second goal yesterday afternoon, in fact, the entire defence was all over the place, do we drop all of them? No, of course not. Get your heads out of the sand, wake up and smell the coffee. We will be in the Conference for at least another couple of seasons because we have a very new young side on a very, very small budget. If the players continue on this bad spell for another few weeks, this does not mean we are doomed! Give this new breed of TUFC time and when I say time, I don't mean the Sunday-Friday in between games, I mean months, months and months again.

Danny I've just found a post of yours that thought Lavercombe should start but won't. So you have your doubts.

[Colorado Gull]

Danny I've just found a post of yours that thought Lavercombe should start but won't. So you have your doubts.

I whole heartedly admit that I thought Dan should have started over Speiss at the first game of the season, but I didn't think this would be Cox's decision. This didn't mean I didn't rate Speiss, I just thought Lavercombe should have been given this opportunity. As I was correct in my presumption, I could only support Cox's decision and support Speiss in the best way possible. Now we're seven games in and he's performed rather well, despite some mistakes, I think it'd be a stupid move to drop him. Why? Experience costs money unless you give players the chance to gain experience. Speiss can only improve himself if he's kept in the side, bad games or not.

[arcadia]

Do you give a player the experience when there is a better one on the sidelines. An out field player would have been rested. I rest my case.

[tomogull]

I whole heartedly admit that I thought Dan should have started over Speiss at the first game of the season, but I didn't think this would be Cox's decision. This didn't mean I didn't rate Speiss, I just thought Lavercombe should have been given this opportunity. As I was correct in my presumption, I could only support Cox's decision and support Speiss in the best way possible. Now we're seven games in and he's performed rather well, despite some mistakes, I think it'd be a stupid move to drop him. Why? Experience costs money unless you give players the chance to gain experience. Speiss can only improve himself if he's kept in the side, bad games or not.

I also thought Dan Lavercombe should have started the season on the strength of his preformances at the end of last season but after the first few games, I couldn't argue with Paul Cox's decision to go with Speiss. Goalkeepers are a special breed. They have to be super-confident in their own ability, almost to the point of arrogance. Lavercombe seems to have that confidence. I'm not convinced Speiss has. You post - 'Experience costs money unless you give players the chance to gain experience'. Absolutely true. So why not give Lavercombe that experience? We're a month into the season now and the only match experience that Lavercombe has had is a kick around with Argyle behind closed doors. Cox may well persevere with Speiss but if so, Lavercombe should be allowed to go out on loan, with an immediate recall clause, to at least a National South side so that he can gain experience at a decent level.

[Dave]

This is where you keep running into to trouble arcadia, you say no one can post their opinion with a backlash, in correct, all opinions are welcome and in my view the more differing opinions we get, the better forum we get, it is when we decide to post our opinions as fact with out base we get a backlash.

It is your opinion that Lavercombe is better than Spiess it is not fact. I can not and will not post on here who of Lavercombe or Spiess is the better goalkeeper, because like you and most of us fans, we do not really know, we don't see them every day in training for a start. The only opinion that counts here is that of Paul Cox and his coaching staff, they do see both in training everyday, and in the opinion of our manager Spiess is currently the no1 keeper.

This is where Dannyrv has it spot on, and I agree with him entirely, like most, I saw Lavercombe play at the back of last season, Lavercombe acquitted himself very well, and I agree with your assessment he was very calm how he went about things, but Cox has made his decision and PC has my full support as a fan.

Spiess has had only 1 poor game in the 7 he's played, that surely can not be grounds to drop him from the side, if it was, then 9 of the 11 that played against Cheltenham should have lost their places as well and we would not have been able to field a team Monday, whilst Spiess has possession of the no1 shirt it's our job as fans to support our own player, not destroy him because we've made the younger understudy our new peoples champion.

[Colorado Gull]

I respect your views tomo, but what do you think will happen to Speiss' confidence if he's dropped after just seven games? This will have no positive effect whatsoever on the young keeper. My point is, Cox has chosen Speiss in front of Lavercombe and therefore we must get behind Fabian and support him the best we can. He's going to make mistakes, but we must support him. The differed opinion of whether Dan or Speiss is a better keeper is another debate entirely, but I go back to my previous point; what happens if Lavercombe has a few poor games and fans are calling for him to be dropped? We'll be back to square one again. From different positions on the pitch to different positions on the TUFC board, everything will take time and we must stick at it so those individuals can improve.

[brucie]

So what happens when we played Rice all season? - he kept repeating the same mistakes time and time again and costing us points. Whoever is the best goalkeeper is irrelevant. This team is not good enough to give cheap goals away, hence its even more important that we don't give up goals to goalkeeping howlers week in week out, otherwise the outcome will be most probably relegation.

[wivelgull]

Brucie is right; he always talks sense. The more he gets slagged off the more I stand up for him.

[arcadia]

This is where you keep running into to trouble arcadia, you say no one can post their opinion with a backlash, in correct, all opinions are welcome and in my view the more differing opinions we get, the better forum we get, it is when we decide to post our opinions as fact with out base we get a backlash.

It is your opinion that Lavercombe is better than Spiess it is not fact. I can not and will not post on here who of Lavercombe or Spiess is the better goalkeeper, because like you and most of us fans, we do not really know, we don't see them every day in training for a start. The only opinion that counts here is that of Paul Cox and his coaching staff, they do see both in training everyday, and in the opinion of our manager Spiess is currently the no1 keeper.

This is where Dannyrv has it spot on, and I agree with him entirely, like most, I saw Lavercombe play at the back of last season, Lavercombe acquitted himself very well, and I agree with your assessment he was very calm how he went about things, but Cox has made his decision and PC has my full support as a fan.

Spiess has had only 1 poor game in the 7 he's played, that surely can not be grounds to drop him from the side, if it was, then 9 of the 11 that played against Cheltenham should have lost their places as well and we would not have been able to field a team Monday, whilst Spiess has possession of the no1 shirt it's our job as fans to support our own player, not destroy him because we've made the younger understudy our new peoples champion.

.
As I've said before goalkeepers have been a big part of my life and Lavercombe shapes up and uses his feet to crosses which a lot of keepers don't. Spiess is a good keeper as well but if I had a choice of picking one to play for me it would be Lavercombe. Thommo said keepers are a different breed and are confident of their ability I have been through all that and I am confident in spotting talent in the same way.
Spiess has been at fault for several goals this season but yes has made saves and surprised me but I'm confident that Lavercombe would have done the same he's not peoples champion he's the better keeper.
You say 1 poor game in 7 you can't have watched all the games. I don't want to knock any ones opinion but now you know mine but I think a few supporters have blinkers on. When a keeper makes a mistake he can't put it right no matter how many saves he makes.
It's over now said and done.
Yes it is my opinion and to me it counts.