redditch 0 cirencester 2

todays game i'm afraid was has bad as anything i watched at reds last season,do the players train at all as they seem like strangers on the pitch and always just booting it down field in hope.does anyone know what the manager and his assitant are doing as they seem to lack the ability to say anything to the players during the game,they just shand by the dugout like a couple of shop dummies.

That for 90% of the game was worse than anything last season. Absolute and utter shambles. No idea at all until Joe Adams came on and started to pass the ball about. Has Deano been told to ignore his full backs who are wide open and hoof the ball directly onto their centre half's head? Both of our full backs were terrible today, and why does Alex hoof the ball out of defence all game long? Where's Tesfa? How the hell can they be so bad for 45 minutes...then come out with the same team in the second half?
I gather we were as bad for 75% of the game last week at Bashley. I've been on here saying we are a new team and we need time to gel. Well that today was indefencible.
Hydey wrote in the paper this week ' We have got to make a conscious effort to get the ball down and play it'.
So who is instructing the players to hoof it? The lack of communication on the bench between the Manager and Hydey is embarrassing. Last season Hydey had to work with different players every week , yet the sessions were structured and concise, and you saw the players doing on the pitch on a Saturday what they had worked on with Hydey in the week. Recently in training he was throwing balls at the keeper.. I suggest this isn't a useful utilisation of a brilliant coach.
One consolation is I know we have the man at the top who will sort this out. I just hope it's soon.
That today my friends, was utter tripe.

think you will find that tesfa as been injured and he is just coming back(had stiches above his eye).think that mr swan will need to have a closer look at the manager and his assistant or we will be facing a tough season.

Agree. He won't be afraid of making a decision.

Despite the many players that we had last year, there was a hell of a lot more fight and desire in that team. Today there was none. It was awful. I think we only had one shot on goal from Blenkinsopp? And that went 5 yards over the crossbar!

I can’t think of anything positive to say. I really can’t. It’s a shame for the club as the crowds have been quite promising so far. People have been giving the club a chance again, but they aren’t going to keep coming down to watch dross like that. The performance against Leamington was bad but this was worse; against a supposedly weaker team.

Individual players are now starting to get stick from the crowd. There were sarcastic cheers from the fans when the team managed to string a couple of passes together. Many walked out well before the end and many of those who stayed, booed off the team.

I think the honeymoon period is now over!!!

Very disappointing.....but that is football for you!

We said the honeymoon period will come to and end sooner or later...

The most disappointing thing for me is the story of Graham Hyde....from the moment he came to the club last season, you could see a dramatic improvement...and to be throwing the ball into the goalies hands!?! WTF!?!

Not good.....not time to panic, but a few words need to be said..

We have been woeful all season so far to be honest (even when we have got something), and seem to be getting worse.

Could we honestly peice together a 'good' 90 minutes from all the games so far? I dont think I have seen us rise above being mediocre so far.

Despite the results I genuinley enjoyed watching the team(s) that finished last season; they gave 100%, worked hard, had a bit of fight about them. There is none of that in this one.

Without doubt, the worst performance that I have endured since coming down to watch the Reds. No drive, determination. Why oh why do we persist in a long ball tactic, when we have a striker who is 5ft 10 who tries his best to compete with the huge centre backs?. Today was awful, we played like strangers, no-one wanted the ball, prefering to kick wild and aimlessy all over the park. You have to look to the bench for guidance, but when you hear "the centre back is coming up for the corner" as their only imput towards the game, what can you do? At least the ref tried his best by blowing up early by 9 minutes . Only Elliot Nash and Adams who came on as sub can hold their head up through this debacle. BUT I'll be there again as usual cheering on the reds.

Given that he has been our saviour, made HUGE improvements to the club and is an all round nice guy, I hate to say anything negative about Mr.Swan. But, I do think he has been a little naïve with regards to a couple of issues.

Firstly, publicly stating that a playoff challenge is the aim with a playing budget of £1000 a week. I thought at the time that this was impossible! Now I’m convinced. Our current crop of players will have us in a relegation battle come April. There is nothing wrong with that budget. If that is what is sustainable for the club, then so be it. But the clubs ambition needs to be realistic. If we have such a small budget, then simply maintaining this standard of football should be the realistic aim for this season.

Secondly, hoping for regular crowds of 750 so we can have a double promotion push. Sadly, I think he underestimates the apathy here in Redditch. It’s obvious that we need bigger crowds for a bigger budget, better players, more success etc. Unfortunately, casual fans crave success upfront before they will make an effort. It’s a vicious circle.

I think we all appreciate that there is lots of evidence of progress and improvements within the club. There is plenty of hard work going on behind the scenes. But ultimately, what happens on the pitch is where it really matters. So it’s shame that most of the players we have are starting to look well and truly out of their depth at this level. That kind of performance will not get the fans in!

Chris knows his football. ( apart from being a Derby fan). He also knows people won't watch that every week. Christ on a bike we were getting dicked 4 and 5 last season each week but we stayed, and we sung ,and we cheered our team because they tried and tried and they tried to pass it. At the end we cheered our appreciation for our team because they battled...and they looked to play. 3,4,5 nil down and they looked to play.
One nil down and we take our leading striker off. As usual we take two front players off and put two on. Greeny had to yell at Dempster to go up front because the first 5 mintues he was on we only had Joe Harris up there....we were 1 down at home FFS....even the old guys in the corner were having a go....now that is SERIOUS!

I agree with all of the above.

I spoke to Westy of Evesham in a pub last season, and was PROUDLY explaning to him that, although losng everyweek....we had a bunch of lads willing to do whatever the task to put on a Redditch shirt - for free!
He said that if you offer someone nothing, and they still want to play, then it's someone who will do whatever in order to prove their worth (our free players last season), but if you pay a player X amount p/week, then he knows he's still going to receive his X amount come the FT whistle and attitude comes with the money.

Another thing I found out today, was that Brad Bullimoore is on loan at F*CK*NG ALVECHURCH!!!??.......What is going on? Pay Brad or not he will still give 100% on the pitch, same as Mark Hands. Thing is I think these pair are CRITICAL to our side. Handsy is a well seasoned midfielder and gas a huge influence on the team, as does Brad.

We also seen Sloppett sat crossed legged all through the first half (which angered Justin purely for sitting that way), and Graham doing all the vocal work as usual. Until Second half when he tried to get involved a bit more.

Cirencester were not the best team we have seen us play against this season (not suprising considering they WERE 3rd from bottom before today), but played some decent football on the deck, and were made to look like brazil compared to us.

Embarrassing today, but without tarnishing the whole squad with the same brush I will say Eliot Nash battled his heart out and although not a sparkling performance - showed that he cared when passing astray or a bad touch, and also caused a few problems down the right wing. Deserved his place today. Especially after making his way to Bashley (Bournemouth way?), to find he wasn't even in the squad! What a dent in confidence that must have been.

Greeny - Had a very poor first half (as did everyone), but woke up second half, realised how sh*t we were playing and tried to get the team 'up for it' and going by chasing everything!

Only two players I can compliment today.

Needs to be sorted and quick!

Sockett - If you read this forum, pull your finger out and sort this team's f*cking attitude out!!
Who on earth will come back to watch that again? Bar the die hards.....

And if you feel angry, then you should have seen Chris in the clubhouse. Not a happy man, and personally apologised to every reds' fan, individually after the game.


















........See you all next game.

Oh sorry a slight correction, I think Brad has been dropped, and Cameron Jones is on loan at Alvechurch.....if I'm wrong then please correct me.

But either way.... what the fffff??

I only hope there were no first timers there today because we'll never see them again after that! That was embarrasing to say the least, no fight, no drive, nothing from the dugouts apart from hydey as usual!

It seems like an uncomfortable atmosphere in the dugouts, the most experienced man in the whole of Redditch is being ignored by 2 men that have played what... 750 games at this level and lower? Something doesn't add up.

We have a manager, and assistant manager, a coach and a director of football in there and we play bollocks like that?! It should be Manager, Coach, Goalkeeping coach. That's all you need! 4 experienced men for these players to look to in desperate times, one shouting, doing his best, one sat crosslegged and not saying anything, one leaning against the dugout, and one.. is fenners.

People will not pay 9 quid to watch that, i've honestly seen better sunday/pub side football. We'll slip back to the days of last season, even though i may get shot down for saying this as the club is wanting to move forward, but the only people that stuck around last season was the die hard fans, many more results like that and i fear we could be seeing gates of 100 or so when the lesser followed teams visit us.

Rate him or not, we missed Tommy Warmer today, anyone that said he was crap or a liability before should know by now that he'll put 100% week in, week out and thats all i ask of a player.

Personally, if Chris is going to sack the management duo, i think it should be soon, nip it in the bud early so we have the rest of the season to recover, how many chances can you give a manager that has had 17 games in charge and not once played well or won convincingly?

Onwards and upwards and all that, but something HAS to happen or it'll be back to square one for us!

Agree with Andy about Greeny, he worked his socks off to try and get the team going. Bit of an enigma is Greeny, one great thing followed by 3 poor things.I get the impression he's the type of player who when he's happy he's brilliant, when he's not...etc etc.
One thing he must take credit for is telling the sub to get up front as he was as deep as the midfield for the first 5 minutes he came on.
What a great point Westy made...it's my reason I don't watch Premier League football. If a player knows he's going to get xxx a week, regardless of how he plays, then he needs to be an honest guy who earns it week in week out. Too many just turn up. We saw with Howard Forinton there are players at this level who just turn up and take the money. I think yesterday only a couple of players deserved to get paid, the rest should have handed it back.
It's time to get Roger Moore in.

I left at half time yesterday as the football was absolutely shite and we were made to look like a MFA team against a side down at the bottom.

What the hell is the manager doing? You never see him off the bench trying to get players doing the correct things out on the pitch, look at the Leamongton & Cirencester managers yesterday pacing up and down the techncial area. We really are a bag of shite I am sorry to say, what the hell he plays Robinson up front to lump long balls to him baffles me, he is not a target man but a player who needs to be running behind defences.

One thing I will point out with Coleman not giving the full backs the ball is that they have nothing in front of them in terms of options I am afraid, this means that they then launch it forward Solihoof stylee!

I read that Bullimore, Adam Wood and Lee Osbourne are on loan at Alvechurch and I assume that Paul Dowsett and Mark Hands are at Studley? The manager needs to look at what some players are doing and ship them out pretty damn quick with some of the performances I have seen.

To be fair having watched how bad they were 1st half I won't be paying £9 to watch that, I have seem more quality watching Studley v Stratford and Stratford v Atherstone this season.......

We were absolutely desperate yesterday. I don't think anyone came out of the game with any credit at all, especially the management team. Everything was wrong with the team selection, formation, tactics and substitutions. Not much else to say really.....................

Oh dear, oh dear, at least I predicted the scoreline but not of course the right way round. The only positive to take out of yesterday (apart from Fat Ron's appreciation of the chips) is that it can't go on for much longer, because frankly we have reached the stage where either a big improvement is due or a change of management.

I personally felt that getting rid of Simon Redhead was hasty. He did a great job under difficult circumstances. To be honest, many of the performances towards the end of last season were better than the last few games of this season. I think most of us forgave the lack of points picked up because of the spirited, hard working and committed nature of the team we were fielding who were playing for nothing. This season we have to a certain extent forgiven the somewhat uneven performances due to the fact we have at least been picking up points (and it could be argued we have more than we deserve). However, that is now water under the bridge.

I do not say these things because I have an axe to grind against, or in favour of, anyone but the current climate of opinion amongst supporters seems to be that things need to change.

My impression last season was that those in charge were unable to fundamentally change anything due to lack of money, committment, interest, investment, or whatever.

It seems to me that the situation is now different. We have a much more vigorous, pro active and committed board and I cannot for the life of me see Chris and Sallie allowing this to go on much longer. I am in no way against Martin Sockett and I firmly believe that the most successful clubs are those with a history of continuity, in other words, they don't keep sacking managers. However, this is the ultimate results business and if it were me that had made the kind of investment that the Swanns have made I would be giving the manager an ultimatim that things need to be better than this by the end of the month or else.

We have to be realistic and understand that with the budget available we are not going to set the Southern Prem alight but yesterday you could have picked a bunch of Sunday League players, put Roger Moore in charge, and frankly not come out of it worse.