Views from the Sieve

A certain irony that after a great performance on tv and some excellent Home results, we lose to a team who previously were beaten 3-0 then lose again to a team who let in four at the weekend

Richie wrote:Blaming the pitch is an excuse that doesn't wash for me. Didn't notice it behave anything different to grass from behind the goal. As has been said we lost but didn't play that badly, was two solid sides, needed to take a chance or 2.

One thing though, what does Raymond actually offer? Gets better in the eyes of some the more he sits on the bench.

I think you might be imagining this stuff stuff about Raymond. He hardly ever even gets mentioned.
Personally, I've seen him have one very good game, but have hardly seen him at all before or since.
For me it would be nice see enough of him to make any sort of judgement.

Dagdale wrote:Although its bit of a drag to get there and back I'd say great little ground with pride in seeing no hostilities towards one another, and thought a pretty good turn out from us, them and the neutrals, how did they get 14,000 in there when they played Leeds though?

I'm actually really enjoying the unsegregated away games. It's good to be able to roam the ground freely and have a bit of a laugh with the home fans. Only bad point was the dickhead having a go at the ball boy in the corner. Yeah he wasn't in a rush to get the ball but he must've been about 10 and was just doing what their keeper told him. Fair play to the other dagenham fan who told the geezer to leave the kid alone.

TommyD&R wrote:

Dagdale wrote:Although its bit of a drag to get there and back I'd say great little ground with pride in seeing no hostilities towards one another, and thought a pretty good turn out from us, them and the neutrals, how did they get 14,000 in there when they played Leeds though?

I'm actually really enjoying the unsegregated away games. It's good to be able to roam the ground freely and have a bit of a laugh with the home fans. Only bad point was the dickhead having a go at the ball boy in the corner. Yeah he wasn't in a rush to get the ball but he must've been about 10 and was just doing what their keeper told him. Fair play to the other dagenham fan who told the geezer to leave the kid alone.

I had to smile when the Sutton fans started singing behind the goal which started our lot off. Then second half NO Sutton fans behind the goal at all! Talk about shat themselves, had me crying.

Yep they went to behind the goal they was attacking.
Last season lots wanted Raymond starting

Was two pretty poor teams, and I think a draw would have been the fair result. They were very physical (sometimes cynical), but savvy with it - they realised the sort of things they could get away with (thanks to a pretty weak ref) and constantly did it. That tackle that their guy did get sent off for was a shocker though! They had a game plan for the second half too - interrupt the game at every opportunity, be that from timewasting (not sure I've ever seen a player get booked for timewasting at 1-0 up in the 50th minute before) or from conceding a niggly foul in a non-threating position. Final point re the pitch - I don't buy all the excuses that we're not used to it etc...there are 4G pitches all around, and I would have thought that it would have made perfect sense to ensure that we had a couple of training sessions last week on such a surface so that we could be match prepared.

steeevooo wrote:Final point re the pitch - I don't buy all the excuses that we're not used to it etc...there are 4G pitches all around, and I would have thought that it would have made perfect sense to ensure that we had a couple of training sessions last week on such a surface so that we could be match prepared.

Spot on. the 4G over at Robert Clack is excellent.

A couple of practices wont make you suddenly confident on it, especially turning on it and sliding

Its a poor surface unless you are very used to it, ie play on it every week and is a huge home advantage

That said they did their job on us

lupins wrote:A couple of practices wont make you suddenly confident on it, especially turning on it and sliding

Its a poor surface unless you are very used to it, ie play on it every week and is a huge home advantage

That said they did their job on us

It's a great surface for a certain style of football.

A couple of hours in the week before would be better than turning up cold, no?? Fail to prepare etc...

Having said that I agree 100% with 5 out of 7 being an excelent start. We have played all of the current bottom three in that though.

Mike the Dagger wrote:

lupins wrote:A couple of practices wont make you suddenly confident on it, especially turning on it and sliding

Its a poor surface unless you are very used to it, ie play on it every week and is a huge home advantage

That said they did their job on us

It's a great surface for a certain style of football.

A couple of hours in the week before would be better than turning up cold, no?? Fail to prepare etc...

Having said that I agree 100% with 5 out of 7 being an excelent start. We have played all of the current bottom three in that though.

We trained on 4g at purfleet for a few weeks in pre season there should not be any excuses but it is still an advantage to home teams.

I think its a great start given the squad overhaul, just look at York. Keep winning your homes games and nick a few away wins and who knows.

Perhaps that s what we did immediatly after playing on grass Saturday, trained on a 4G for a day.

Trouble is when we turned up they conned us as it was 3G and let me assure you there is a hell of a diffrence.

Conned us Sussex? Do you really think clubs including our's dont know whether it's 3G or 4G. Be a bit worrying if we had to do our homework to find out what it is and got it wrong. Or was your comment tongue in cheek?

Of course we could have had an hour on the pitch the day before under league rule 24.9 had we felt the need.

It has to be "FIFA Two Star" certified, whatever that means. I would presume that "it is a good one" or "have paid the appropriate FIFA bribe".

Get used to it, more clubs are going to have these soon. They make massive sense as the ground can be used more and games get played when they scheduled.

Financial success for sure but its not football as I know it or want to see it

speedy wrote:Conned us Sussex? Do you really think clubs including our's dont know whether it's 3G or 4G. Be a bit worrying if we had to do our homework to find out what it is and got it wrong. Or was your comment tongue in cheek?

Yes it was tongue in cheek but can't emphasis the difference between the two surfaces the latest 4G In My opinion being far superior . The main diffrence is the ball dies not speed up as much when it is wet , notice they turned taps on before and at half time.

The schedule of this game did not help we had to prepare all week for shame on grass and then switch to a tottally diffrent surface hours later. Wonder if the games had been reversed may have helped but I will never accept that that pitch is a level playing field