Chelmsford City (H)

[HamptonLifer5]

Really optimistic about today. Despite being unbeaten Chelmsford have less league wins than us! Think it's a good opportunity going into the cup next week to make things look a lot brighter.

[Thelittleowl1]

Would be happy enough with a draw today. Chelmsford's only win is against a very out of form Maidenhead.

[TW3 Beaver]

Awful first half.
0-0.

[Big Rich]

1-1. Pretty poor game.

[Josh2002]

FT: 1-1. After a terrible first half we were more than worthy of a point in the second. Mather took his goal really well and is looking like a top player. Chelmsford were pretty poor and didn’t really create much outside of their goal.

[Sparky]

Not the most exciting game, but we were very disciplined. Most of the first half was Chelmsford defenders holding onto the ball, waiting for somebody to move, and us waiting for the counter attack. Felt sorry for Max M and Tobi, who kept getting no-chance balls to make something out of.

Second half after their goal (caused by a Chelmsford player actually making a run) we got it down and started running at them, looking a lot more threatening.

Thought Ben and Will looked good at the back. Ash is turning out to be a fine player. New signing Angel looked busy. Having Max K to marshal the press is always great. Zanda and Harrison work well together.

Solid performance really.

[Thelittleowl1]

Fairly meh game. Thought 1-1 was a fair result. Looked organised. Happy enough.

[Lord Elpus]

Couldn't get there today and won't be around for the next couple of weeks either, so I'll be relying on these kind of proper reports...we do need to start picking up a few wins though, especially with Walton now seemingly showing signs of life and Slough picking up their first win.

[BevereeMaster]

Awful first half.
0-0.

Completely disagree. We nullified them for the most part, limiting them to the odd pot shot from outside the area.
We also had two or three dangerous moments ourselves where, with better finishing, we probably score.
I was really impressed with our defensive solidity. Cut out some of the long balls, show a bit more patience in the build-up, and there’s definitely something to work with here.

Second half a little more open but far better going forward and again bar the goal not sure we were really troubled

[Thelittleowl1]

Awful first half.
0-0.

We definitely weren't bad. It was an incredibly uninteresting half from both sides.

[BeaverWatcher]

Anyone who didn't, prior to the game, thought that a point against a full time, aiming for the National League and further Chelmsford that isn't a good result needs their head examining. Regardless of the flow of the game I would have bitten your hand off for a point.

Bearing in mind our defensive record to conceed just the one is a result and there are definite improvements week on week at the moment.

We need to get to 50+ points or 5th from bottom after 46 games, how we get there doesn't matter. As long as we do.

[Tony]

Tactically this was quite a different performance. First half, we were very disciplined with a 4-4-2 line up that prevented Chelmsford breaking between the lines and limited them to just one long range effort.Looked like we had worked very hard in training to make it hard for the opposition to break us down. In effect our best defensive performance of the season so far. Attack-wise we tried to hit Chelmsford on the break but managed only one shot from Sho-Silva just over the bar. Second half started quite differently. Chelmsford no doubt had a bit of a talking to at half time, brought on the dangerous Lyle Taylor and started to open us up down our right hand side. We seemed to lose our shape and it was back to the more chaotic defending we have seen too much of so far this season. Within seven minutes Chelmsford scored from an unmarked header. It didn't look good for us at this point but bringing on Mather for Mullins and Fonguck had a positive effect. Mather took his goal superbly when played through and we looked OK for the point from then on. I suggested we give Mather a chance at CF and he showed that he can finish if given the service. I would start him in the FA Cup next week. I thought Atkinson was the stand out player today and the new lad did very well considering lack of time with the squad. Defence much better apart from the first 15 minutes of the second half. Max K needs to do much better if he is going to take all the dead balls, very few made it beyond the first defender when we had good position. He's nowhere near his best at the moment. Some green shoots that we can be much more difficult to score against. Mullins found it harder against better defenders than Farnborough but he is always willing. Not sure how may goals we have in the forward line though. Mather could be the answer. Two in two games.