Hammered

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Team selection for this Saturday will be interesting! Last week's team was very nearly our best .

Another humping this weekend is on the cards....

Whoever is selected for the team in Saturday’s game let’s all cheer the team on........only two games left in this worthless cup competition...........real rugby restarts on Boxing Day.

I agree with you, Compo, that tomorrow's match is worthless, however, our performance matters much more than the result. Losing, rather like winning, becomes a habit and this season Bedford have woefully under-performed. Against Newcastle there was spirit and fight despite losing the match but the same cannot be said for any other game this season as far as I can see.
This squad, small as it is, is not short of talent but is short of experience (and, currently, short of match-fit players). The new No 8 might make a difference but will take time to bed in but, as has been said on another thread, our centres are not firing in offence or defence and our half backs are not pulling the strings in the same way as in previous seasons.
A win tomorrow is much more important than securing some points - it is about setting the scene for Boxing Day and beyond.

Yaffle as ever from you an astute appraisal of the current situation

Lets hope it’s ‘not beyond’ into ND1....

Well I’ll be there, cheering them on. First match of the season.......once I’ve caught three trains from North Yorkshire, not to mention four back tomorrow whilst nursing a hideous hangover.
Just be glad you get the chance to watch the Blues as and when you please. I’ve already lost Rotherham and soon to be Leeds as local games I can watch.
Hopefully, Strachan and Worley can solidify the midfield, and Worley find his form from last season. It’s also another chance for Hart and Hooley to work on their partnership. Let’s also see what our new Samoan is like. If he’s fit and finds some form it could be a season changer.
I like the look of the back five - three bruisers and two proper loosies. I’m also looking forward to seeing Robbie Smith. He looked top class against Newcastle.

Oh dear, humped yet again

Ouch.

Looks like the losing habit is now entrenched. Blue tinge fading.

It'll come. I'd put money on it.
Great crowd figure again, all things considered.
Keep the faith.

Lucky new blue strip strikes again!

Our new no-8 was let go by wuss because of his bad knees so not holding out too much hope there

The players were just not in the game, nothing they tried worked and they looked resigned to fail.

We have too many injuries and no quality replacements

Not sure what team Ealing put out but ampthill were close - we can’t afford another heavy loss!

Losing looks like a habit we’ve inherited

How can we go from 3rd to this?

Another disappointing result. Two poor ‘Own Goals’ in the first half cost us dear.

Positives (aka clutching at straws)
- 2nd half defence was much better until the referee inexplicably added on something like 10 minutes at the end...
- The new guy made a big impression in his cameo, despite being worryingly heavily strapped.

Negatives.
- The two intercept tries obviously, and nearly a third in 2nd half.
- Grayson Hart & Will Hooley are too pedestrian. James Lennon is easily better than Hart. Sam Leeming has been hampered by injury but must be a better 10 than Hooley on current form. And surely his defence can’t be as bad.
- Why was Ryan Hutler still on the pitch for the last 10 minutes? He could barely walk. Why no Oskar Rimsky-Korsakov? Or did he come on but was anonymous?
- Like many, we have a little game of ‘guess the crowd’ and normally get within 150.
2,200 or so announced today? You’re having a laugh. Our guesses were all in the 1500 -1700 range. No way was there over 2,000 people there today - or do they count all Season Ticket Holders as present whether they turn up or not?

At the end of the day, we’ve had a pretty poor record in the Cup the last few seasons, even when we’ve been at the top end of the table. The real test will be Boxing Day, when if they use the same method of counting the crowd, we should be hitting six thousand...

I think the policy of keeping prices frozen for 4 years now, is coming back to haunt us. A modest increase of £2 over the last two seasons would have brought in significant extra revenue to increase player budget.

If only the price freeze had applied to bar prices... must be one of the most expensive pints in town now outside of nightclubs, and the admirable but fatally flawed glass recycling scheme, has only driven consumption down further. I’ve had I think maybe 2 pints the last 2 seasons (excluding the World Cup Final), when I, and my colleague would normally have 2 per game. And you don’t see as many people wandering around with Pints. Bar takings must be down £1000 or more per match.

Quote:

Luton_Blue

Our new no-8 was let go by wuss because of his bad knees so not holding out too much hope there

Thought your no.8 was probably your best player today

All views expressed in this post, are my own

The starter @ no 8 - Atkinson, did have a pretty decent game but the new no8 referred to above was Alafoti Faosiliva who came on in the raft of 2nd half substitutions wearing no 20.
I thought he had a big impact when he came on. Added grunt and penetration.
Looks promising, if his heavily strapped knees hold out. But hey ho, Paul Tupai was regarded by many as a spent force when he first came and we all know how wrong that turned out to be...

I have visited the forum this morning on several occasions and noted that there seem to be an average of five people viewing at any one time.......but I note no extra postings....... surely some of you must have something to add considering the current situation ........

What can anyone say that’s positive about the dire state we find ourselves in....... You can’t put it all down to the rain and injuries.

It’s time that those in the senior ranks did the right thing, time for The Board to take the appropriate action, whatever that might be.....?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:12:09:17:40:18 by Jonathan Wilcox.

This has been happening now for a while, We're happy with third? But in my mind we under-achieve with our potential (supporter numbers, ground etc) and now when there's been little investment we can see a slide.

Not sure what the answer is if I'm honest.

I'd be sorry to lose Mike Rayer - it'd be devastating for the club, but has to happen sometime?

Let's see what happens next maybe? Saturday - a win? or at least competitive, boxing day? Win!!!

At least it didn't rain.

Fingers crossed it doesn’t this weekend for the Boxing Day dress rehearsal...

It was good to see your pitch in good condition for the Coventry game.
I can understand it, but a shame to see so many home supporters leaving before the match ended.

As to the length of stoppage time, quite a lot of it was while Alex Woolford was down injured at the Goldington Road gate end/side. I noticed that having eventually got up, and play had been restarted he only lasted a couple of minutes before limping off. I suspect a good part of the test was while James Gibbons was checked out before going off for an HIA.

Apologies for late post. Log in problems. Bluebuthappy - Thought a bit unfair comment re Will Hooley. Probably needed that game as previously only played less than a half. Agree James Lennon should be first pick. Bit disappointed with attitude of one of the centres. Looked like he did not want to be on the field after h.t. Atkinson m.o.m. for me