Not as good as we have been in recent games but still had our chances second half and their keeper made one fantastic save from McClure.

Referee was absolutely useless and I presume we appoint them for friendly fixtures?  If we ever book him again we only have ourselves to blame. The goal was one of the most obvious hand balls you will ever ever see. Unfortunately I don’t think it’ll be the last referee we moan about this season but more painful when you pick them yourself.

Injury to Owen Evans was concerning. Added to the quiet atmosphere in the ground with lots worried about him.

Unfortunate for Owen-Evans but it came from a silly tackle that came out of frustration.

Other than that I was relatively pleased with the run out, yes we didn't win but it was pre-season, it was a good run out and valuable minutes in the tank for the boys.

Lots of rotation options this season which is exactly what we need. A couple/a few players for every position with a few versatile players too, all good.
 

toyboy wrote:

Sorry guys but I was so underwhelmed with our performance last night that I thought I was watching another team. No threat up front, midfield missing, and Basingstoke looked more than comfortable against us. This tippy tappy possession type football is not the CTFC style in my opinion. Sorry to be a grumpy old git, but it really a poor show.

I think you need to find another team to watch then Toyboy as its been passing football for the last 7 months.

toyboy wrote:

With respect Funny old game, from January this year Horgs ditched the ‘tippy tappy’ approach in favour of the more direct/attaching approach, and look where we finished in the league. That change coincided with Joe Parker finding his form. I would like to see that style again.

Not for me. The only things that changed was that we scored goals in the second half of the season as we had better players.  What we were playing was very similar.

It’s only called tippy tappy when we don’t win and I’d say from supporters from a certain era.  That’s football, however away to SSM we played exactly the same way but scored 4. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

I thought we were ok in patches but it’s all about match fitness at this stage.  Injuries are a concern though, no Haines (x-ray today I’m told), Spokes (no idea) and Owen- Evans (can’t see him being fit anytime soon).
McClure looks sharp though - we need at least 30 games out of him - and the new centre half from Hereford (name escapes me) had a very confident 45 minute shift.  Results are immaterial pre-season, no-one remembers them when the real action begins.  When the flag drops, the bull**** stops.