Harrow (H)

[Red army]

I’m sorry to say but this side is heading only one way at present, whether it’s poor player recruitment or tactical ineptitude. Things need to change drastically because these performances are reminiscent of the relegation season few years back.

We only look a threat from set pieces and conceding the same type of goal every week, the manager either can’t see it or too stubborn to change the formation/tactic.

First half was pretty decent, kept Harrow at arms length had numerous long throws that caused plenty of concern for their rearguard. Ball on the floor popped around without causing to many openings from open play. HT 1-0

2nd half from the very first whistle could have conceded 2 in the opening 5 minutes. Players walking about when lost possession, looked clueless in wat ever the game plan was. Harrow several changes and formation tweak must have been the reason because they on the front foot all of the half, overloads constantly out wide with several crosses nervously dealt with. One pass takes the entire back four of United out of contention strikers rounds the keeper and scores. We came to life sparingly Sami shot turned over the bar from the keeper, Hashii cross stood up to back post, headed back across goal by Hinds but cleared. United lost control of the game and became end to end affair, Hayles shot blocked, then weak attempt from Borough save by Watkins. United once again loose possession on half way, switch of play United left back isolated (think I may have wrote this before somewhere) beating on the outside low cross to far post.
FT 1-2.

MOM Aaron Watkins only one with credit after that performance.

Whitehawk in the cup Saturday let’s hope they forget to bring their wingers!!!

COYH

[Mr Heinstein]

That defensive high-line just looks too brittle. It can be beaten with a ball through the middle or a ball out wide with an overload, take your choice. Should we expect more from our wide midfielders to get back and support if our left or right back is being outnumbered? If we push up then don't we need defenders with pace to deal with the through-balls? I'm not sure our defence is blessed with that speed.

That said, if Hinds had taken his good chance in the first half things could have been different.

I felt sorry for Hashii, it's never great being brought on then taken off on your debut, even if he did play 72 minutes. I thought he looked good against Uxbridge, but maybe he could have gone up front to leave Hinds and a bit more bite in midfield. Although we'd have two forwards without much height between them then, so maybe not.

I'm not sure how much money Keano wanted, and hindsight is a great thing, but maybe Dev should have dug deep on that one.

[PSG55]

Sounds like a pretty awful performance 2nd half on Monday. 1pt from 6 over the bank holiday tells its own story - 6 goals conceded too.

On the plus side, I watched the post-match interview with Simon Lane and he didn't look happy. That's a good thing. And he alluded to some ins and outs taking place in the next week or two. Said Whitehawk might be a bit too early for the changes but at least we should see some new personnel.

My worry is that (and I'm not meaning to be a prophet of doom here) if we are beaten by Whitehawk and Met Police in the next two weekends, that's both meaningful cup competitions done already. Hopefully the forthcoming changes will make the difference.

[Mr Heinstein]

I hadn't seen the interview with Simon, it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRa4C7oIUwE

Credit to him for it, it gives me hope.

[Halfway Old Geezer]

Totally agree with all of these comments. Once again it’s back to the drawing board. Again agree with the comment about recruitment it’s just not good enough. The defence is almost non existent and once again we have small forwards who struggle to compete when Hayes start playing the long ball. There are some positives as I don’t know the names No’s 2,15,7 stand out where was Amos.
It’s still early days but the warning signs are already there for those of us who have been watching Hayes for years. It’s a real shame after watching the Q and A session where everything sounded so positive

[KevWatts]

Amos went off injured at Moneyfields on Saturday.

Kev