Salisbury
Frankly it is pretty poor when you have a full pre-season to assemble a squad and end up putting out a team in the first game which is deficient in so many ways and is utterly humiliated by a supposedly average team. You wouldn't necessarily expect the team to immediately gel and a certain amount of tweaking with the odd player change might be necessary but to look like a team in need of a total rebuild is more than disappointing.
Yes things might be fixed to a certain extent by bringing in a number of loan players as we have seen in the past but if that the case what is the point of a pre-season?
Yes things might be fixed to a certain extent by bringing in a number of loan players as we have seen in the past but if that the case what is the point of a pre-season?
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Lord Elpus
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- Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:09 pm
Quirky results can happen in the very early part of the season...teams take time to get etc and pre-season alone can't fully prepare players for the fully competitive league games. I'd argue however that our pre-season games weren't that demanding and we still didn't exactly slaughter anyone in the friendlies!
Yes, according to press reports at the time, Hampton were 'battered'. The team were without several first team players; Ian Mason, Perry Tunesi and John Hales and were 3-0 down by half time. Very much a surprise result as Hampton had beaten Egham in the Southern Combination Cup Final just four days earlier.Josh2002 wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2026 7:55 pm Having looked at hrbfc.org, it appears the 84/85 season was the last time on the opening day, a 5-0 loss at Farnborough Town.
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Lord Elpus
- Posts: 1210
- Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:09 pm
I vaguely remember that game. Mason was a really good keeper plus the very long serving Tunesi, and John Hales, were proper established Isthmian League players who usually produced the goods. Beating Egham wouldn't have been that much of a surprise at the time...I'm almost certain they would have been in a lower division and I don't recall the Southern Combination Cup ever being that much of a priority.Les1949 wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 1:53 pmYes, according to press reports at the time, Hampton were 'battered'. The team were without several first team players; Ian Mason, Perry Tunesi and John Hales and were 3-0 down by half time. Very much a surprise result as Hampton had beaten Egham in the Southern Combination Cup Final just four days earlier.Josh2002 wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2026 7:55 pm Having looked at hrbfc.org, it appears the 84/85 season was the last time on the opening day, a 5-0 loss at Farnborough Town.
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EastTerracer
- Posts: 576
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:40 am
Nothing we did in the game was deemed worthy of a mention in the Non League Paper's report.
In fairness there was very little, if anything we did.EastTerracer wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 6:03 pm Nothing we did in the game was deemed worthy of a mention in the Non League Paper's report.
The lads hat trick is up on Salisbury twitter, all three goals look terrible for different reasons. I feel for those supporters who made the trip. Will be interesting to hear from Dowse and his thoughts on how he will improve things going forward.
At least they didn't bother mentioning our four yellows so that's a postive!EastTerracer wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2026 6:03 pm Nothing we did in the game was deemed worthy of a mention in the Non League Paper's report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1fC54fyzwA&t=28s
Fair comments - Puts his hand up for wrong tactics/formation. Also addresses challenges in getting appropriate pre-season matches. May be adding a couple of new players this week.
Quite postive all things considered