CHIPPENHAM TOWN BLUEBIRDS FANS FORUM

Well this afternoon pretty well summed up what we have in the main watched this season. Negative defensive rubbish. Why bother shooting or crossing into the opponents penalty area when you can more easily pass sideways or better still backwards. But then again what's the point of crossing the ball when at most you might get 2 Chippenham players in the box. Compare that with Hornchurch who had in most attacks 4 players in the area.
If the management team aren't changed the tactics have to as another season of this boring negative defensive and unsuccessful football in my opinion will result in the same end result as this season


Will be interesting to see who goes and who stays and what new players are recruited. We will of course lose the players who are good enough to play in the NLS which in any case may be determined by the budget. Hopefully communication has improved from last season when it was not unusual to find a player had left the club from other club's websites. I appreciate the makeup of the squad will be dependant  on the playing budget and therefore will the team mainly comprise next season of a mixture of retained players, new signings or the core ex academy players?

Very disappointed but on paper beforehand a game we wouldn't win, with them finishing the season with a good chance of promotion and us already relegated. That said I thought we started very strongly on the front foot which hasn't been very typical this season and we were in control for most of the first half, with some good chances to score even hitting the post

What happened immediately after the break shows I'm afraid the lack of tactical intelligence from management, coaches and players. They make two subs and we don't adapt. First goal is the result of a pass that hits the ref resulting in a mix up with the drop ball that somehow allows them to steal the ball and score a great goal. The second I think comes from a foul on Sol on the halfway line as he was dispossessed which the ref missed (I had a better view than he did as it was right in front of me) and another good goal. Game was already over then before the third went in. Our substitutions only put our two most creative players, Caine and Tom Mehew, into defensive roles and we spent too much time in our own half, with our opponents happy to let us sit back like that. At 0-3 down you need to get the ball forward if you want to score goals, a bit of energy injected by Billy late on but too late. To add salt to the wound, Bath win away and are now above us in the table by one point. It should have been a target to at least finish above them if we can

I like Gary but I'm sorry to say he doesn't have what it takes to get us back up next season. Full rebuild of the management and the coaching staff is needed and we will see who we can still attract as players - undoubtedly we will lose some key players who will get offers to play at a higher level. Also sorry to hear Freddie damaged his ACL again in the last home game and we definitely missed him today.

Last edited by newfan (19/4/2026 9:01 AM)

Bath City's post-match interviews from their Dorking win at the weekend both allude to the potential of being the highest placed team incase of ground grading issues for other sides... what do they know that we don't?

"chippy wrote:

Well said! No way should the Chairman take responsibility for our relegation, our first in 40 years!!
Last summers player recruitment was indeed poor and our style of play was totally negative. Too much reliance on stats which I guess came from the “Academy” side of the coaching team!!

Agree with every word. One thing I would add - unless I missed it - no academy players came through this year?

As for playoffs I think Charlie Bird is correct about the ground requirements, teams are not allowed to enter them if their ground doesn't meet the requirements of the higher league, but this is rare.