Bath here on Tuesday

[HamptonMad]

1.0 Bath. Start the Club car Mr Barbel lets get out of here.

[TW10]

Spirited last 20 mins after they scored and maybe deserved a draw. Up to that point it was pretty awful to watch. Endless long straight hoofs upfield. We have two good strikers but we have to be more thoughtful in our play to get the best out of them. Donaldson is not a wide player that carries a threat. Gibson - Hammond does and i’m surprised he hasn’t had a run on the team particularly when we are creating very little. Play offs still in reach but realistically we are neither good enough nor deserve to get promoted.

[Tony]

Marginally better second half but now just two goals in last six games. Looks as if we have blown our play off chances unless other teams slip up. Manager and team have run out of ideas and steam at the business end of the season. We stayed with pretty much the same team as Saturday apart from Fernandez and got pretty much the same performance lumping the ball aimlessly at Seymour with no end product. Seymour’s one chancel came from a fortunate clearance rebound which gave him a one on one but their keeper smothered his effort. Bloomfield hit the bar shortly after with a good bit of individual play but was otherwise quiet most of the game. If we can beat relegated Dover we still have a chance. Not sure I see this happening at the moment though.

[tones]

From comments by fans tonight on this blog their must be some thought now about whether Mel is the right person for us to reach the next level!

[Josh2002]

Mel prefers Pitblado to Inman at CH.. astonishing

Prefers to play Thomas at left back and Revan at right back instead of in their natural positions, absolutely baffling. Out of the defensive players that played tonight it should’ve been Pitblado left back, Revan and Fernandez the centre halves and Thomas right back. Seems so simple and others were calling for it too.

On the game, poor once more, but it’s the same as it has been for the last month or so. We don’t look like scoring and struggle to get any foothold of games. Worrying times hitting bad form at exactly the wrong moment.

[Shepperton Supporter]

A very poor game, Bath were the better side, they pressed us well and all our faults which have been so evident in recent games were exposed.
Long hopeful balls to Seymour were inevitably returned by the opposition or went harmless though to the keeper or a goal kick. Agree about Donaldson whose form has been poor and so yet again was taken off.
Will we make the playoffs, might do but can’t see much progress based on this.
Mel said he would have taken a possible playoff place at the start of the season. So perhaps this is a good point, what happens in terms of next season will be the interesting topic.

[Tony]

Mel still putting a positive spin on the performance publicly but he must know that current tactics and set up is just not working. Will he make changes for Saturday? Players like Inman, Wishart, Kurran- Browne and Fadahunsi not even in the match day squad and we only used two subs tonight. More sense in playing Dreyer at centre back, Pitblado at left back and Thomas wide right midfield.

Add to this, no Whittingham either in the squad.

[EastTerracer]

Didn't understand several of the team selections or tactics today. We do things ad nauseam that don't work and barely use some of the more threatening options we do have.

[Tony]

Football webpages final predicted table now has us finishing 8th losing out to Farnborough on one goal difference on 72 points.

And we are now 23rd in the form guide and have to play Dover (17th), St Albans (22nd) and Maidstone (1st).

[Whoryer]

Got home at 1.15 to Cheshire from my annual visit.For the 3rd season in a row I didn't see us score a goal.As others have said why play 3 defenders out of position.Mel seems to keep changing the centre backs,but keeps playing Donaldson,Gray and Deadfield when we have hardly any goals all season that weren't from set pieces.I definitely didn't get the straight long balls all game aimed at Seymour.They were either headed clear,went out for a goal kick or to the goalie.If you are playing the long ball surely you should aim them at Bloomfield.I think Farnborough will finish above as they are on a great run at the moment.Didn't see either brother walking around.Have they disappeared since the results have gone poor?Anyone know if we are meant to be getting a plastic pitch or not in the summer?Finally didn't see Robbie Brownett there last night either

[TW10]

Both the brothers were there in the box at the top with Paul Tisdale and a couple of the investors.

[EastTerracer]

Anyone know if we are meant to be getting a plastic pitch or not in the summer?

I suspect this may have gone on the back burner due to the brothers Champions League ambitions. However, it is interesting to note in a cover letter from the club dated 24-Nov-23 in support of the retrospective planning application (23/3163/FUL) for the restructured media tower that:

At present the club is involved in developing designs for more substantial improvements and considerable investment to the club. This process has begun with planning permission being granted for the replacement of the existing grass pitch with 3G synthetic pitch and new floodlighting (applications 22/0876/FUL and 22/0030/FUL respectively) to allow the pitch to have increased playable hours. It is proposed that in the near future the club will make application for upgrade works to the existing buildings and stands to vastly improve the visitor experience for players, academy members and supporters. As part of these proposals it is intended to install a high quality, more permanent filming gantry.