Roving reporter is back!

[The Great Cornholio]

Jarrett subbed. Either him or Beck as MOM for me. Jake went close - looks livelt but needs muscle.

 

[Albion Dan]

Really want Nicolas to be good, we need midfielders!!!!

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Time for me to work my way round to the exits. Almost Lewes reserves now. No more posts means 2-1 FT. Night all!

 

[The Great Cornholio]

2-2 Newman. offside? no says lino. parried by May again

 

[dougdeep]

Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Fine save from May to stop 2-3. All Lewes for last 5 mins. still 2-2

 

[DannyBhoy]

i thought u said it was 2-1 FT??

 

[The Great Cornholio]

2-2 ft

 

[dougdeep]

Great coverage.

 

[graz126]

Who is this Cleo that Dick has turned up inside ?

who's dick was it?

 

[dougdeep]

Is it over yet?

 

[graz126]

yeah 2.2 ft

 

[chez]

Just got back from the game & here are my observations. Firstly the ref was a dick, lets get that out of the way.

Right as far as the team goes :

May - Looked solid, no chance with the goals and made a couple of fine saves.

Budd - Looked a good prospect, good 1st half faded in the second though.

Robinson - Always looking for the ball, could have had a couple more than he actually did.

Jarrett - Hard to say, made a few good runs & passes but spent a lot of time on his arse.

Reid - He's a very good player IMO, proved it tonight at times, does need to up his fitness levels though. Excellent communication with Currie. Top notch goal.

Alexis Nikolas - Looks a class player, always looks to have time on the ball and very rarely wasted possesion.

Darren Currie - Looked good to me, great crosser, good talker and was very enthueastic (sp?) - remember this was his last chance to impress the boss. I would love to see him line up at Reading. As already stated he had a great understanding with Reidy.

If I was McGhee then I would sign Nikolas & Currie and both would play at Reading but whether finances will allow that is anyones guess.

 

[Yorkie]

I think Nicholas may be a loan rather than a signing due to the fact he is still a Chelsea player.

Good summing up Chez. I'd agree with that.

Ned slipped on the steps coming out and ended up in the physio's room being treated by the Lewes physio.

Verdict sprained ankle and treated with iced water in a compression thingy and all bandaged up

 

[dunno]

I thought it was Sam Rents (Number 3) that set up jakes goal - although the website seems to think it was Beck. I thought rents looked quite good - close control and happy to attack from left back.

Jarrett looked lively - but he is clearly a winger not a centre forward. Good finish by Jake - but he needs to work on his upper body strength and his control. Currie has the ability tpo put in some excellent crosses without too much effort - trouble is we had no big men up front to convert them.

I thought Dean Hammond looked good at centre back rather than his customary centre midfield position. Adam El-Abd was very solid. Budd was lively. Reid scored a beauty although I would have prefered to seem him in centre midfield rather than right back. Nicolas had loads of energy and didn't put a foot wrong - but it wasn't really his type of game as previously posted.

I thought one or two of the Lewes players (Barrington & Cornwall ?? and maybe the first goalkeeper - despite his weight!!) looked as though they could play at a higher level than the Ryman league.

 

[Another Berkshire Seagull]

I thought we looked like argentina

 

[The Great Cornholio]

On the evidence so far - and there is quite a lot of it now - Nicolas and Currie don't look significantly better than what we've already got, which is really saying something in those positions. I'm sure we can do better than them.

Jarrett played well but to read some of the posts on here you might be forgiven for thinking he's about to get an international call-up.

I did qualify my remarks by saying Lewes weren't very good at the back. He must have had 4 or 5 efforts, the pass through to Beck in the first half was outstanding vision (the oohs and ahhs from the crowd showed that I wasn't the only one who thought that) and his run in the second half was both skillful and powerful. You would expect that against a much lower quality opposition but how many of our "first teamers" have had games like that in other friendlies?

I'm surprised by your comments about Nicolas and Currie - are you seriously suggesting that Oatway is better than Nicolas and that Hart's crossing and Chippy's set pieces are better than Currie's? The game sort of passed Nicolas by as Lewes never really went through central midfield. But his time on the ball and vision for passes impressed me.

I can't agree that Hammond, El Abd and Rents had good games. Rent's was almost embarrasingly beaten for pace in the first half and was OK after that. A bit like Mayo for me - good going forward but so-so defending. And the Centre Half's were in no man's land for both Lewes goals - it was like the parting of the waves. They shouldn't get sucked that far apart. They all look like they could become good players but you could really sense they were missing an old head to marshall them.

Reid had a good game out of position at Right Back and scored a scorcher. Beck looked good again and got in good positions. Jakey really needs to beef up - you can see the obvious talent but he is muscled off the ball far too often. Should have had a hatrick with the free header and the other chances.

Overall a very entertaining game with quite a few positives to take from it. I for one hope we sign at least one of the 2 triallists. Currie would offer a good contrast to Jarrett as we could have pace and power on the left wing and guile and crossing on the right wing. He doesn't look the quickest and looks like he could be Brooker like in frustration terms but also looks like he could provide some good ammo for the strikers. Nicolas really needed a friendly against higher league opposition to show what he can do - nice cameo's last night and I think we would be mad to ignore someone who got a couple of games for Chelsea last year. It is difficult to judge the talent of our new players but you can only play the teams you are up against.

 

[The Orange Seagull]

Anyone know what the attendance was?

 

[Gazwag]

I was a bit surprised Leon Knight wasn't there for the game, being that he is absent from the first three I would have thought a game when have kept his match fitness up.

Attendance was probably about 1,000 - 1,200 at a guess, apparently someone I was talking to said it seemed about double a usual good crowd of 500 - 600.

Reid looked good and scored a scorcher, I said at the end of last season, all he needed was a goal so hopefully this will start him off. He linked up well with Currie, who made a few good crosses in the first half, but this was against a poor defence at times and he had plenty of time, not sure how he will fair against better teams. Robinson's finish was superb and Jarrart's shot after beating tow defenders was unlucky when it hit the post.


TGC, I think you were standing behind me in the first half, on the road side almost at the half way line?

 

[The Great Cornholio]

I was a bit surprised Leon Knight wasn't there for the game, being that he is absent from the first three I would have thought a game when have kept his match fitness up.

Attendance was probably about 1,000 - 1,200 at a guess, apparently someone I was talking to said it seemed about double a usual good crowd of 500 - 600.

Reid looked good and scored a scorcher, I said at the end of last season, all he needed was a goal so hopefully this will start him off. He linked up well with Currie, who made a few good crosses in the first half, but this was against a poor defence at times and he had plenty of time, not sure how he will fair against better teams. Robinson's finish was superb and Jarrart's shot after beating tow defenders was unlucky when it hit the post.


TGC, I think you were standing behind me in the first half, on the road side almost at the half way line?

If I was swearing and punching at a little PDA then it sounds like me! I don't bite, honest!