2017-18 National League South

[Si Robin]

Following Tim Harris leaving Gloucester last week, along with pretty much his whole back room staff, the Finance Director and Chairman have now both stepped down.

This leaves the owner, Eamonn McGurk, with some big decisions. A lot of Gloucester fans believe he only bought them for the land that Meadow Park sits on, and someone on their forum said that a few years ago a friend of McGurk's told them he was more than willing to play the long game. Gloucester have been getting by on volunteers (none of those who have resigned in the past week took a wage, including Tim Harris) and now McGurk will need to get someone in to steer the ship.

Other rumours are that the club could be looking to take voluntary relegation, another City fan I know has told me that the expected budget for the team will make relegation practically academic anyway.

Tough times on the other side of the Golden Valley.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Looks like full blown crisis there. Now I am not suggesting for one second I would like to stay up at the expense of another clubs misfortune. It would not sit well with me at all but the point stands that the FA's decision to transfer Gloucester and not Brackley to the South could yet have big implications for us.

 

[Aberstone]

Concord Rangers 3-1 Wealdstone (Att: 287)

Can't complain with the result, sure we had wasted chances and a stonewall penalty not given by a truly incompetent referee but Concord ran their socks off and missed a couple of sitters on the break in the 2nd half to make the scoreline more resounding.

Dan Fitchett hitting the post from a yard out with an open goal has to be seen to be believed, I'll post footage of it when it's uploaded online. Probably should have known then that we were going home empty handed.

Chippenham have announced that we've signed their striker David Pratt, paying a fee in the process. Good player and performed very well against us earlier in the season but nothing confirmed on our end as of yet.

 

[Harrier94]

Clem Fandango What's Ed Williams like? We're set to sign him apparently.

 

[Clem Fandango]

He's been out of form, the same as the entire team really, all season but on his day he's absolute class. Very direct at running at people, skilful and a good finisher but has a tendency to hold onto the ball for too long. Gone a little quiet that link now.

As for us, we've just appointed Marc Richards as manager. He quit two weeks ago with Tim Harris when he was his assistant. He's never managed anyone before, I doubt they even bothered to interview anyone else. Just another job on the cheap.

Total circus

 

[DarkSithLord]

Truro`s groundshare with Torquay a step closer as Treyew Road is to become a Lidl supermarket.

Truro are to be given 2 million to either build a Stadium for Cornwall on the outskirts of Truro or groundshare with another club, i.e Torquay - http://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/builder-lidl-store-truro-city-961371

 

[Luke Imp]

Didn't realise it was so close between the top 5 and top 8!

 

[Aberstone]

Wealdstone 1-3 St. Albans City (Att: 911)

As poor as we were yesterday, sometimes the opposition deserve some credit. David Noble and Solomon Sambou in the centre of midfield were excellent for the Saints. Rather worryingly we played 4-2-3-1 and our two holding players had absolute shockers allowing St. Albans to pass through us with great effect.

Well scouted and planned from the Allinson's - we absolutely could not deal with their pace on the flanks and them utilising the full width of the pitch caused us problems that we couldn't deal with. Hampton are of the identical ilk so we need to buck up our ideas for Boxing Day.

 

[Aberstone]

Hampton and Richmond Borough 1-1 Wealdstone (Att: 817)

Second league game of the season missed yesterday. Both goals were headers from corners and going by Twitter, Hampton can consider themselves a tad unfortunate not to win having hit the woodwork three times in the second half.

 

[iron4ever]

Didn't realise it was so close between the top 5 and top 8!

Even closer after the Boxing day games. Dartford top on 42pts then just 3pts between 2nd and 8th. No idea who will be up there at the end of the season, just hope we can continue our first half of season form and be involved in the play offs.

 

[Aberstone]

Wealdstone 0-3 Hampton and Richmond Borough (Att: 929)

Pathetic. Hampton were everything that we were not - strong, energetic, organised. Should have been more as they'll be ruing missed chances in the second half. This last month has seen us go backwards at quite an impressive rate of knots.

 

[doveranddover]

Elliott Charles scored a hat-trick
that was incredible

 

[DarkSithLord]

Congrats to Whitehawk on their first win of the season at the 24th attempt!

 

[iron4ever]

Won 4-0 and could and should have won by more, although East Thurrock were probably the better side in the first 20mins.
When we scored our first they seemed to lack concentration and we punished them with 2 goals in 2mins.
2nd half we were all over them and should have scored more. Still not sure if we can stay up there in the play off
positions but this new young team of ours is learning all the time.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Another win for Whitehawk today. Only 1 defeat in their last 4. Probably too late though fortunately.

 

[Aberstone]

Bognor Regis Town 0-3 Wealdstone (Att: 706)

Second away win in the league this season and well deserved. Plenty of application from the Stones players today but they were gifted an enormous helping hand when Bognor's number 11 scored a quite spectacular own goal to put us 1 up before HT. Their keeper didn't claim a corner that he should have in the 2nd half and Ian Gayle was in the right place at the right time since he had no idea where the ball was as it trickled in the goal.

Ricky Wellard then received a 2nd yellow after a shirt pull having bottled out of a tackle which it looked like he would have won. Bognor unsurprisingly had the lion's share of possession and territory but an excellent individual goal from Abo Eisa put the gloss on the scoreline.

Bognor as always play the ball around nicely and attempt to draw in the opposition to expose gaps in the centre of midfield but there's always a mistake in them and that's likely to be the reason why they're in the relegation zone.

 

[Aberstone]

For those who aren't particularly interested in the Conny Sarf, it's worth following our Supporters Twitter account for the things said at the meet the chairman meeting on Wednesday night. Unfortunately I couldn't make it but Stonesnet is well worth a peak from those who were there, it sounds like there is a divide between the fan owned old school and investment new school on the board of directors. Wealdstone for the last 20 years have followed a supporter owned model but crowds of 600-700 meant we were punching well above our weight.

Following on from which, we've invited/brought on board Rory Fitzgerald as our latest director, given he's on the BoD of our shirt sponsors GPFLewis who specialise in construction and turnover several million pounds, this is a fantastic appointment. Hopefully he'll assist us in getting the ground up to scratch and provide external investment on top of what is currently going into the club (which is significant amounts).

The end goal is the Football League (but we've heard that all before), just a season in the National and 50 hardcore at Gateshead on a Tuesday night would do for me.

 

[iron4ever]

We were sh#t today, looks like the wheels are coming off. That is all .

 

[Clem Fandango]

Our game against Chippenham was called off 40 minutes before kick off, a few hours after it was deemed as being on by Evesham. There was no further rain and Malvern Town of the West Midlands League not far away managed to get their game on. Lovely.

We play Poole there on Saturday and if we lose that we are deep in it. We haven't played for weeks now. We also signed some young lad from Bristol Rovers on a month's loan (but lost a week already thanks to that postponement) but no Rovers fans seem to know of him.

Before anyone asks, no nothing has happened with the stadium still either. In my personal opinion the opportunity for a phoenix side away from Eamonn McGurk (our illustrious owner) was there when everyone quit the club and ironically all the fans who said they'd "walk away" if Tim Harris or the chairman did, haven't. Got a bad feeling that will bite us.

 

[Aberstone]

Forgot to post on here after our 2-1 win over Weston on Saturday, talk about making hard work of a game that should have been sealed after the hour. Of course nobody's going to remember that, they'll just remember Abo Eisa's wonder goal - https://twitter.com/fc_video/status/957363499331735553

Utterly ridiculous in real time, absolute cannon of a shot after the individual skill to set it all up.

 

[Super_horns]

Just the 4 for St Albans after 7 last week..

 

[Clem Fandango]

We drew 2-2 with Poole in a game we absolutely dominated but literally handed Poole a point thanks to the on-loan Exeter keeper making another load of gaffes. I have never ever seen a goalkeeper, especially apparently a professional, look so inept. Two games, 5 goals conceded and 4 of them his fault. Beyond belief how bad his mistakes have been.

 

[E10rifle]

We drew 2-2 with Poole in a game we absolutely dominated but literally handed Poole a point thanks to the on-loan Exeter keeper making another load of gaffes. I have never ever seen a goalkeeper, especially apparently a professional, look so inept. Two games, 5 goals conceded and 4 of them his fault. Beyond belief how bad his mistakes have been.

Is he Shwan Jalal’s boy?

 

[Clem Fandango]

No James Hamon

 

[Aberstone]

Truro tomorrow which they are 50/50 of going ahead but won't know until 10am at the earliest. Absolutely wonderful for me who'll be up at 5am, on the road before 6 and getting the coach from Ruislip at 7. Sounds like there are 20-25 already down in Cornwall staying in Newquay so if the game is called off then at least the football can't ruin their weekend.

 

[Aberstone]

Truro City 1-3 Wealdstone (Att: 391)

Enjoyable day out in Truro yesterday. We'd not long pulled into the city when the second pitch inspection passed and it was game on (despite the best efforts of their chairman on Twitter). There was nothing wrong with the pitch, it cut up a little bit but all Conny Sarf pitches do in February.

First half was non-descript, two teams cancelling each other out but a very well taken goal by Dan Harding had the hosts 1 up at HT. Bobby Wilkinson decided to change formation to 4-4-2 at HT putting Dan Fitchett up top with Dave Pratt, a move which paid immediate dividends. Fitchett's header from a Eddie Oshodi cross was only parried by their keeper and Pratt tapped in the rebound for his first goal in a Stones shirt. Less than a minute later he'd have scored his second when Truro's long ball from the kickoff came straight back and Pratt finished 1-on-1.

Dan Fitchett then won a penalty after a clumsy foul from their centre half which Danny Green tucked away. 3 visits to Truro, 3 wins.

 

[Aberstone]

Wealdstone 1-2 Dartford (Att: 1,002)

Not a good day for the officials yesterday. I've yet to see a replay of the red card incident for Iffy Allen but those who had a perfect view on the halfway line are adamant that it wasn't even a foul yet alone a red card.

Give the team their credit, they performed admirably second half and when Dan Fitchett headed in a cross from Dave Pratt I thought we may well hold on for the 3 points. Criticism could be levied at Bobby Wilkinson for keeping 2 up top all through the second half but I'd rather the team be positive than sit deep and invite the pressure on.

Dartford scored from two crosses in the final 10 minutes to take the 3 points back to Kent. They didn't look like much but excusing the cliche, that was a 'championship winning performance'.

As for us, it's Gloucester making the trip to Ruislip tomorrow.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Hungerford have announced a change of club structure. Assistant manager Gary McDonald and joint manager Jon Boardman have left with Ian Herring left with the task of keeping them in the National League South on a reduced budget.

 

[Clem Fandango]

Our usual topsy turvy season starting again. Unbeaten in 5 and 3 wins on the trot now after a cracking result down in Wealdstone. But still a total disconnect between fans and the club owner.

 

[Aberstone]

Our usual topsy turvy season starting again. Unbeaten in 5 and 3 wins on the trot now after a cracking result down in Wealdstone. But still a total disconnect between fans and the club owner.

Wealdstone 1-2 Gloucester City (Att: 788)

Bizarre game last night, we were all over Gloucester in the first 20 minutes but couldn't get past James Hamon and some resolute defending. After that it was all Gloucester, it was almost like the light switch went off and from that point on we were up against a team who seemed to understand each other's play and who were prepared to put the hard yards in. If it hadn't been for Northy in the second half then the scoreline could have been worse as we were getting exposed down the flanks time and time again.

The second half last night was probably (along with Chelmsford) the most irate I've been all season due to our clueless positional awareness and route 1 nature.

Fair play to the 40-50 Gloucester fans who made the trip to London, at least they went home happy.