Good first half, and how we never got a penalty in first half was a mystery.  Referee let a lot go and how he only added 1 min on at half time when Slough took at least 3 minutes to make their first sub, and officials let Slough take the mickey out of them.  All three goals came from poor mistakes.  As previously mentioned, strange team selections and substitutions.  Last three games nil goals scored, and yesterday, not one shot tested the keeper, and Dave Pratt, although he came on as a sub, must get a start.  Front three disappointing yesterday.  Lowest goals for in the league, yet one of the best defences, that tells you we need reinforcements.  Why Whelan was subbed was a mystery. Did not look injured.

Oh dear, oh dear. Can’t you just tell we lost a game of football yesterday. Well where to even start dissecting some of these comments.

Firstly I just want to thank everyone who contributed and helped towards the Supporters Coach, it’s been a hard endeavour to try and run a coach without the aid of the FA Cup but I’m positive and I believe in Chippenham. It wasn’t the best response yesterday, very tricky with the short notice between draw and game but these are the gambles we want to take as a club, getting more supporters to games, building as a club and investing time and resource into growing our attendance and following. We are a little short but an incredible gesture that for now will remain anon has allowed us to run the coach and spend this next week engaging more supporters, so if you are available and want to come and lend the team your support then I can tell you now it will be very much appreciated.

Yesterday needs addressing.. the comments above are outrageous and unfortunately they smack of desperation. No one has been able to criticise for some damn near 12 fixtures now and it kinda feels like we’ve been sat waiting for a chance to do so, why I’ll never know. 11 games without defeat and then a beating by Northampton, which nobody could really say much about but reality check people. Slough are 2nd in the league! We outplayed them for 44 minutes and then a momentary lapse in concentration at the end of the half and a moment of brilliance at the start of the second cost us the game.

We somehow have this expectation that sides shouldn’t be allowed moments of quality against us. If they do it’s someone's fault. They score goals, they scored 5 against us over the 2 games in the cup, the difference being yesterday we didn’t score goals in response. A stonewall penalty in the first half would maybe have changed the game, we will never know now but aside from which the only team creating chances in that first half was the men in blue. A thoroughly solid first half against arguably the best side in this league bar Havant. How this warrants “woeful” “disgraceful” is beyond me. Get a grip!

Team selection, Parselle plays for me, but we don’t know the reasons why he hasn’t started, out of the team for two games, Richards and McDonald have deputised well in his absence so maybe there is your reason. Say Parselle hadn’t been suspended and Curtis was dropped for Will’s return there would have been complaints. Say Pars and Curtis retained there spots there would be people jawing that Richards isn’t in the team. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. But, the fact is it’s the managers job to select the team, ours to support those decisions. Jarvis was clearly carrying a knock, evident from his absence yesterday however, Pratty or Hopper is a debate many will have and the comments are fairly suspect. Anyone who has seen Pratty in recent games wouldn’t be calling for a start. Hopper whilst being the preferred option it would seem, appears to be struggling a little to get into games and maybe, all these kind of comments don’t help, maybe they don’t affect the players and the reasons lie elsewhere but for me. I didn’t see much to grumble about with team selection.

The substitutions, Karnell has played so much football this season and is going to be important on Saturday against the slower, more aerial threatening Dulwich defenders, was he bought off too early? Not for me, Slough had his number yesterday and was getting bullied off the ball a fair whack and it wasn’t his game. Whelan picked up a little niggle and was withdrawn as a precaution for the coming games away from home, not all injuries are visible, same as disabilities, you wouldn’t go screaming at someone in a disabled parking space before enquiring why they are there, so why are we slaughtering the manager and his team for making a change that was clearly needed as Whelan himself requested the substitution? Parselle in late, probably just to get minutes and a run out ahead of his return but my god, it was mere weeks ago we were moaning, for NOT making substitutions. It’s a thankless task isn’t it.

I really hope that people realise sometimes with the comments they make the detriment that it can cause, it might just be a throwaway opinion on a forum to some but to others this kind of unjustified and unfounded critical attitude can be quite tiring and frankly unwanted. The club has distanced itself from this forum and its users because of such negative and silly comments such as the ones above about looking like Southern League contenders! Slough are 2nd! 2ND!! In the league, a 3-0 result against a mid table side, with a penalty waved away in the first half. Goals change games and would we have changed the outcome by going in front? Who’s to know, wouldn’t have hindered us though.

Come on people, last week these lot were heroes, 2,650 supporters that were proud and Chippenham til I die! Yesterday we looked defeated in those terraces. Like a kangaroo court all day around waiting for full time so we could run back on here and describe how “woeful” we are and back to the doom and gloom. Teams lose games, teams like us at this level, will lose more. This won’t be the last defeat you witness if you follow Chippenham. If you don’t have the stomach for it and can’t see sense and rational thoughts when it comes to those defeats it’s going to be a long season for you.

Very disappointing read and actually quite upsetting to think that some people who I am sure I see most weeks feel the need to come here and slate what we should be supporting. The literal definition of supporter is to provide support. Roll on Dulwich Hamlet. Fingers crossed for a few more on the coach although I won’t hold my breath based on these comments. It would seem we are only good enough to come and put down when the evidence is in our back garden. To those who are coming to support the team correctly, my thanks and the coach will hopefully be our chariot to another big Cup victory. Tell your friends, grab anyone you can, the more the merrier. We are some 20 seats away from a full coach but realistically 10 sees us comfortably breakeven in the endeavour. Support it people, as I tell you now, when it’s not there next time, it’ll only be another complaint for the vultures.

I agree with much of your comments there mate. Save for the if we can beat Slough and draw with Slough why can’t we be second. We don’t have their support, budget, backing or players.. they will defeat many, many teams at home in their 4g pitch, they play good competitive football and arguably for me are the best side in the league.

I just hope we take the positivity into the game against Dulwich in Saturday. We’ve lost a game in the league at long last, I wonder if this negativity will be the catalyst for a negative run or whether the manager and players use it as fuel..

Really Frank, that’s very interesting.

Agreed Wellard, could of course been worse and also the run for the next month or so is going to be very tricky but as results continue to prove, there is nothing given freely in this league, no easy games and no gimmes. Saturday every non league betting slip could be heard being ripped in unison with some of those results. Football is unpredictable and sadly for everyone outside of an SN post code, Chippenham had no chance of beating Slough on the form table and league placement alone. We had seen Chippenham draw and beat Slough in the cup but I think people have chosen to go down the wrong route here and instead of seeing how phenomenal those performances were in the FA Cup, they have chosen to accept that as the norm and Saturday as severe under performance which sadly is not the case. Slough are one of the best teams in this league and they will take many more people to task this year, it's about how we respond now. As Supporters, we should have seen that result and been signing up to the coach, booking trains and doing everything we can to get to Dulwich to offer support because it's very simple to support Chippenham in the easy times when we are winning but in times like this when we can get behind the team in adversity, that's when the 12th man becomes relevant. We came in our numbers to Whyteleafe, we came in thousands to Northampton but against Slough at the weekend we limped in with a small crowd and most of it sat there bloody moaning because we were getting beaten by the team 2nd in the League.. I hope that the team responds well on Saturday but I also remain confident in my fellow supporters and hope that they respond also, we are going into a war zone Saturday. Big atmosphere, big physical team and we are going to need every available member of the Blue Army