Hemel Hempstead Town v Torquay United, 23rd September 2023

[jono_Gull209]

Interesting which players you’ve chosen to pick out there. Martin put the cross in for the 2nd goal and Marshall scored it. Martin- poor pass but wasn’t the last man for that misplaced pass, lost the ball in their half with 5 of our players behind him- unfortunately they were all ball watching, with multiple missed tackles that led to the last goal. Would rather see players trying to be creative than gone missing for the entirety of the game.

Poor start to the match, completely inexcusable to go down to 1-0 before the 10 minute mark. We set ourselves up for failure like this too often.
We constantly lose the midfield battle and unfortunately they went missing once again.
Our CBs are caught out too often unfortunately.

To me, this is a systemic problem

Picked them out because it’s two simple errors that lead to two goals. 36 games left, long way to go.

[Gullsandbeyond121]

Another 3 or at the least 1 point absolutely thrown away. Shocking defending. This reminds of last season unable to hold on to a result. Like last year results like this will cost us dearly . Just can't believe Johnson's after match interview. Seems that he wasn't watching the same game as us supporters. Need an experienced Centre Half and more ball winners if we are going to get anywhere this season.

I ask the question is Johnson the right man for the job?

Is Johnson the right man for the job ?
We all know it’s probably a 50/50 split.
This season nothing but promotion is acceptable after the shambles of last season.
We need to strengthen in the areas everybody has identified.
Failure to do this with loanees soon and we will fail miserably and it will be another season wasted.

[eddie6817]

Its obvious this team cannot defend high balls into the area and nothing has changed to address this problem since last season.

[desperado]

You have to ask why Gary Johnson is not addressing this ?
14 goals conceded in ten games , several teams have let in 14 but only 7 teams have conceded more.
This is costing us , I suppose he is thinking they will improve the more they play together , well it's it's not happening yet and how much longer is he going to let it go on ?

[Gullsandbeyond121]

You have to ask why Gary Johnson is not addressing this ?
14 goals conceded in ten games , several teams have let in 14 but only 7 teams have conceded more.
This is costing us , I suppose he is thinking they will improve the more they play together , well it's it's not happening yet and how much longer is he going to let it go on ?

14 goals conceeded if it was not for the Mark Halstead heroics it couls so easily have been 30+ goals conceeded is the reality.

[Cheddargull]

14 goals conceeded if it was not for the Mark Halstead heroics it couls so easily have been 30+ goals conceeded is the reality.

You know a team is crap when their best player is the goalkeeper.

[culmstockgull]

The united inteviewer after each game is never going to ask a difficult question, we know that, they are owned by the club, but dave thomas and devon live have people who can ask a question that will actually put johnson on the spot and make him answer a question that has not been fed to him before the interview. I cannot believe as someone has suggested Johnson thinks the players we have such as marshall, donnellan, tomlinson,mcgavin are going to improve by playing together, they will not, they have been here over a year. if they have not learnt the art of defendong or actually running in mdifeld as opposed to trotting everywhere they never will. Our problem is that there is no competition for positions, ash and jarvis will not lose any sleep, we have a youth forward player to cover injuries but never pressing for a start, back four other than hanson who can play at right back,we have a first year pro defender who often or not doesnt make the starting fifteen, midfield, are we actually placing all our eggs on hall and dawson to turn things around, dawson will need his own close season and numerous sub appearnace to come up to speed, Hall, place your bets and take your chances, I give him 6 games before he is injured again.
We are painfully thin on the ground.

[GULL 67]

Strangely, considering we are full time and they are part time, they looked fitter than us in the latter stages. I thought that we would be out pacing these part timers as the game wore on but it seems like us puffing as the game wears on.

[desperado]

It may not matter in the scheme of things but pretty dismal effort in the Devon Cup last night losing to Ivybridge, with 6 first team squad members playing.
Rhys Lovett, Dan Martin, Ryan Hanson, Luke Pearce, Finlay Craske and Callum Thomas.

[DB57]

It may not matter in the scheme of things but pretty dismal effort in the Devon Cup last night losing to Ivybridge, with 6 first team squad members playing.
Rhys Lovett, Dan Martin, Ryan Hanson, Luke Pearce, Finlay Craske and Callum Thomas.

But it does matter doesn’t it.
It’s indicative of where we are as a club. We have an owner who has no interest in football whatsoever, a management team who are unprofessional, sloppy and have
taken us to the depths of the NLS, and a squad of players who, overall, are a disgrace.
Failing to beat Ivybridge says it all and sums up exactly where we are and where we are heading

[Brixham63]

Devon Cup…poor effort from the club but a perfect place to run out Hall Dawson but nothing..are they that far away from playing they can’t be risked??…some information from the club would make me feel a little more confident. If it’s after Christmas before we can expect them back we could be in real trouble…assuming we can get at least 20 games out of them…and yes I know that’s a dangerous assumption.

[Cheddargull]

Devon Cup…poor effort from the club but a perfect place to run out Hall Dawson but nothing..are they that far away from playing they can’t be risked??…some information from the club would make me feel a little more confident. If it’s after Christmas before we can expect them back we could be in real trouble…assuming we can get at least 20 games out of them…and yes I know that’s a dangerous assumption.

Think I read somewhere that Dawson would be back around December time after recovering from his operation. Hall, haven't heard anything but even I didn't expect him to be out this long. Was it worth re-signing this pair?

[Gullsandbeyond121]

But it does matter doesn’t it.
It’s indicative of where we are as a club. We have an owner who has no interest in football whatsoever, a management team who are unprofessional, sloppy and have
taken us to the depths of the NLS, and a squad of players who, overall, are a disgrace.
Failing to beat Ivybridge says it all and sums up exactly where we are and where we are heading

Shameful result.
Down the road Exeter beat Luton for further monies, Plymouth on a roll after hitting 6 v Norwich it’s tough to swallow. We get turned over by Hemel and 6 first teamers can’t beat Ivybridge in the Insignificant Cup.
Next up the mighty Hungerford, surely it cannot get any worse..can it ?

[jono_Gull209]

Shameful result We played our u18s and don’t usually enter the Bowl. I’d worry more about the league.

[Taelee73]

It's a nothing competition, however without reserve team fixtures it would have been useful to give fringe players/those coming back from injury, some much needed minutes of football.

Yes it was an embarrassing result, we had first team players on the pitch!

Both Dawson and Hall were walking around unimpeded at the last home match. Dawson was meant to be back in October I heard, so don't know why December is being mentioned. I'd hope Hall will play a part on Saturday and hopefully Dawson in the next few weeks.

Who would offer a contract to a player who was known would be missing for the first 3 or 4 months of the season? Not with a limited budget and also the prospect of further potential injuries occurring.