Salisbury

[Tony]

So the real test starts away to Salisbury tomorrow, the mirror to last season's opening fixture when we ground out a 0-0 draw much against the balance of play. Salisbury and Hampton both had similar seasons, struggling towards the wrong end of the table but managing to pull clear of the drop with a couple of games to spare. Most NLS pundits are predicting similarly difficult seasons for both sides but that might just reflect the large turnover in players at both clubs. We are definitely stronger if first choices are available but so is the league over all. Not losing the opening game always feels a bit of a psychological booster for any club and with three successive away games there will be pressure on us to make a solid start, spectacular can come later. I hope we have a fit compliment of players for the game, particularly RGC who is our main goal threat. Any fitness issues aside, I suspect we will see a similar starting line up to Basingstoke. Keeper and back three look nailed-on certain, main questions will be whether Hassan starts or is held back for second half impact and whether RGC partners with Sho-Silva or Max K. No announcement so far that Sodje has been signed and if not then I would expect Hassan left to start with Mullins on the right. Atkinson, Widddrington and Fonguck filling the central midfield roles.

[Josh2002]

Well that was absolutely pathetic, no positives whatsoever, they completely tore us apart.

[Big Rich]

Ouch. Bottom of the league.

[Lord Elpus]

Couldn't be there today but wow that's a bit of a shock! I thought Salisbury might struggle this season too. We await more news with interest...

[TW10]

I had a feeling we were undercooked pre season, with loads of trialists, many of whom looked way short. So the squad needs to gel..that said they will no doubt get the riot act from Dowse and a few poor results normally leads to a turnover of players by the manager..lets hope it doesn't come to that as the squad on paper looks decent.

[BeaverWatcher]

It was not good.

A back 3 with no pace in midfield is never going to work and we looked absolutely awful.

Offered nowt going forward, overrun in midfield and got what we deserved.

On the basis of today it will be a long season and Dowse needs to get the players up a couple of levels.

[HamptonMad]

Just go .

[RogerB]

I had a feeling we were undercooked pre season

Agreed. I think this is the third year in a row that we've sailed through pre-season without having any challenging games and then been found wanting when the league games start.

[Lord Elpus]

I had a feeling we were undercooked pre season

Agreed. I think this is the third year in a row that we've sailed through pre-season without having any challenging games and then been found wanting when the league games start.

There seems to be this obsession amongst pretty much all managers nowadays that pre-season is just about "getting minutes" etc, and that actual results are irrelevant, but I'm never really sure what the point of that is if the vital competitive edge isn't there. You're hardly going to hit the season running.

[BevereeMaster]

I’ll always be anti 3/5 at the back. To win at this level, you need to win the midfield battle. Max is a great player, but at this age he’s more of a luxury player and can’t get stuck in like he used to.

We need a midfielder who can eat up ground and carry the ball. Add some quick wingers, a tall striker, energetic full-backs and a big keeper

I think we’ll fix a lot of these issues in the loan market, like we did with Shannon Baptiste, Dan Sweeney etc. The ideal midfielder for me would be a Christian Jolley x Dan Sweeney hybrid.

Big few weeks ahead.

[Josh2002]

What makes today worse is that Salisbury easily could’ve had more, they were wasteful at times. 3/5 at the back needs to be binned off, doesn’t work at all with the players we have.

[Tony]

Not sure I am going to make supporters any happier with this report. Apart from the opening 10 minutes, it was a horror show largely of our own making. Midfield was the initial problem as Salisbury went long with every ball and whilst we won most headers we failed to win second balls time and time again. Widdrington looked completely isolated as Salisbury 's midfield ran through unopposed but it took until the 32nd minute for them to score. The goal came after Mullins gave the ball away in midfield and Salisbury took full advantage.Our passing game consisted mostly of long aimless balls; we barely strung two passes together before giving it away. RGC saw very little of the ball and certainly no chances. It seemed obvious we needed to bring in more support in centre mid but we didn't make any changes at half time. The second half became a rout as we were outcompeted all over the pitch. The back three all had terrible games and most of the Salisbury goals came from our individual errors. I think we picked up three or four yellow cards from fouls arising out of frustration at our own mistakes. Salisbury could and should have had a couple more at least. All game we managed one shot on target and one off. Passing was non-existent, heads went down in the first half and never really came back up. Hassan did show a bit of endeavour after coming on as sub but the game was already over once the second goal went in. Max K went off with what looked like a hamstring problem so suspect we won't see him back for a while. Salisbury just looked sharper, stronger and fitter than us. We have little pace in the side and that was cruelly exposed today.The worrying thing is that our experienced players looked second best so I am currently at a loss to say what changes might work to improve matters. Dowse probably needs to find some new recruits pretty soon.Switching to a back four would get my vote. Les will no doubt tells us when we last had a such a heavy first day defeat. I think we lost 5-0 at Aldershot around 1998.