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Monday 24 August 2015

Two halves of heaving headless chickens...

The train from London was heaving. Brighton was heaving. The Dirty Diggler was in town for his first match of the season and it seemed his fan club's membership had heard the news. Pert young things, keen to see a demonstration of his fencing skills no doubt, everywhere we went.

Anyway, we decided to leave the Railway Bell eventually and made it to Peacehaven just in time to hear the first whistle as we approached the turnstiles.

You may have read elsewhere that we dominated the first half. We didn't really dominate but the performance was fine, given we were away from home.

Ross Allen's penalty was a surprise as we expected it to go about 20 feet over the bar.

Kyle Smith (one of the few bright spots of the day) was making some really intelligent runs, sadly though he seemed light years ahead of most of his team mates in his understanding of 'movement'.

Still, 1 up away at half time is not to be complained about, and there was a good feeling all round.

The weather was fantastic or, to put it another way, hot enough for the pampered elite in the Premier League to be rested and watered every few minutes. None of that here however and it was somewhat surprising to learn that some genius had come up with the idea of keeping the team out on the pitch at half time, thereby offering not a lot in the way of respite from the sweltering heat.

Then the 2nd half began and, being polite, it was rubbish. Being honest though it was absolute shite.

What seemed to be a reasonably well executed 4-1-4-1 formation in the first half morphed into a pre-teen headless chicken run-around and hoof it display. After the game the players held up their hands and said they didn't follow instructions in the 2nd half. There was little or nothing to suggest that anyone was seeing that the plan wasn't being followed and, in turn, doing anything about it.

Against a team having a poor start to the season with new management and lots of player movements this performance can, at best, be looked on as a wake up call.

On to tomorrow night and a trip to Hythe Town, who have had a pretty dismal start to the season. They will presumably be looking forward to a first win tomorrow, this will be our 3rd midweek visit to Hythe so they know the score squad-wise. A number of changes, with at least 7 'regulars' not available to travel. Here is the squad:

Machlowski, Isabelle, Geall, le Prevost, Strawbridge, Winch (J), Mackay, Steel, de la Mare, Mahon, Fernandez, Winch (L) Young, McGrath.

There is enough there there to bring back 3 points but we might need to put formations that appeal to some purists to one side and just play a straightforward 4-4-2. Just a thought.

Keep it Green.

Allez les Verts!!


A sausage, a wrap and a mild mannered janitor.

With the trials and tribulations of last season fast receding and o the back of three impressive displays, unbeaten against teams expected ...