Views from the Sieve

A game tomorrow against a team bottom of the league who have not won away all season. So what could go wrong for us?
I just hope we score an early goal to settle everyone’s nerves and one or two more and don’t sit back.

What could go wrong???
It’s Daggers Diversity Day.

Just noticed ticket sales a poor given the prices, another failed Thompson project. Need to stop this silly day, hopefully the new owners have some brains.

Hopefully the game isn't as bad as last years diversity day disaster...

A number of games already cancelled in our division due to the wet weather.
It seems therefore, what a brilliant idea it was to let West Ham Women play at our ground a few years ago and subsequently qualify for a grant to spend a fortune on our pitch to bring it up to today's standard.
If you think prior to this, by November there would have been no grass on the pitch and it was a complete mud heap and therefore would probably have been called off like many others today.
I'm not a fan of West Ham but really thankful for this.

We got a grant/loan for this and are still paying for it, one of the biggest outgoing costs currently.

Awful first half. Game changed when they went down to 10. Good to see us score a few

A big worry at half time with us having many chances to score but going in one goal down. Made changes in the second half bringing on Scott and our two new forwards that gave us far more energy and along with Chipoenham having a player sent off the game changed entirely.
We totally dominated from then on and scored four goals in the second half. With Leech back after today we seem to have some competition for places up front now.

Fortunate result today, although we looked the better side in the first half they created as many chances as us and could have ended the half 2 up, the sending off was a tad harsh, I thought if that red was against us the crowd would be fuming! although if I saw it again I could change my opinion,
After that we played some nice football and the introduction of Aramide was positive and he looks a good signing, Connolly also looked good when he came on, but typically we went from looking comfortable at 3-1 to looking nervous, we sat back and nearly paid the price as they never gave up, the score of 4-2 flattered us considering we were playing against 10 for 45+. Have to get a positive result against Horsham now. COYD

Haigh and young were sublime. The signings were solid as well.

Thought we were by far the better team.

Were dominant early and should have been at least one up by the time Chippenham scored.

Red card obviously allowed us to dominate possession but for once we were clinical and took the chances we had second half.

Two strikers who came on both looked lively.

Lawless played well but not sure how he got man of the match over Haigh

I also thought Haigh should have been given man of the match as he was outstanding.

Quite fortunate their fella tried to take Dieng's head off otherwise I'm not sure we'd be in possession of a comfortable 3 points. Before that we were limping against the worst side in the division.

They looked totally lost with ten men and think we should've rammed home our advantage more.

Started the game far too defensive, one striker, two holding midfielders, and a defensive minded right wing back.

Lawless, Young, Haigh all very good. Dieng had a good game too I thought. Back 3 struggled to contain the one big striker which is a concern. The new lads looked promising.

I thought Chippenham started well and pretty much deserved their lead and were also denied what looked a pen right in front of me. As said the signings looked decent and we might well have won the game without the sending off but it obviously helped. I don't think 4-2 was flattering at all and in fact we should have won by more, but as ever we conspired to give ourselves an uncomfortable couple of minutes at the end.

Think the first half summed up the season, players freighted to shoot and when they did they fluffed their lines. As said above how they didn’t get a penalty I’ll never know specially with a lino 10 yards away. Game swung on the red card which was dangerous play and rightly a red, why their manager is crying about it I’ll never know.

First 30 minutes of the second half shows what we’re capable off when we have legs on the pitch, N’Guessan is not the answer and when he starts we’re slow in the middle, he can’t start games if we want to be on the front foot. Haigh was superb as were a few others but we again switch off last 15 mins instead of going for the jugular, almost let them back in the game which is again typical of our season, play for short periods but never a full 90 convincing win.

Bradbury still needs to go if we’re ever to get out of this division, if we get new owners their ambition will not be matched by this manager.