Ratings

[Nad2008]

Thought the strikers had plenty of service today. We missed 3 or 4 very good chances. Just need one to go in to get the ball rolling. We could still be playing now and still wouldn't have scored.

[RedDwarf 1881]

not too bad a performance...just can't find that final touch... created a lot ...which is encouraging.... to be fair they did play the majority of the game against a 17 year old defender making his league debut ...so maybe should have made more of that situation.

The fact they didn't should be a cause for concern .

[Mistadobalina]

Thought the strikers had plenty of service today. We missed 3 or 4 very good chances. Just need one to go in to get the ball rolling. We could still be playing now and still wouldn't have scored.

Agreed. Wilkinson and Angol fluffed at least 2 very good chances each. I thought our build up play was generally very good, Wright and Clay dictated the game from the middle and Ling was excellent (the hate for the guy is absolutely toxic, we had some dickhead in the south stand screaming take him off throughout the entire game and the biggest cheer of the afternoon in our area was when Ling was announced motm).

Willing to give the forwards more time to settle but we need better alternatives to them if they aren't firing as they struggled to do today. For a big lad Wilkinson looked thoroughly unconvincing with every headed opportunity.

[gshaw]

Thought the strikers had plenty of service today. We missed 3 or 4 very good chances. Just need one to go in to get the ball rolling. We could still be playing now and still wouldn't have scored.

I'd say some rather than plenty of service. Number of times they were waiting in the box for a cross only to see it fly over their heads for a throw or goal kick was notable.

[cdbarker]

I think Ling Was the best player today

[Disoriented]

Long was probably our second best player behind brophy who faded out in the last 1/4 of the game.

Could be a long season.

[E3Orient]

Thought there were encouraging signs and many positives from the game. Final ball let us down at times. Stevenage finished a solid mid table 10th last season. Although they had injuries to senior players to manage we dominated, on another day would have put a couple of the chances away.

[jamespevans]

I've seen all league games this season and we have dominated each of them. Just need for Wilkinson/Angol to get on the score sheet and everything will be fine.

[Fellowo]

Thought the strikers had plenty of service today. We missed 3 or 4 very good chances. Just need one to go in to get the ball rolling. We could still be playing now and still wouldn't have scored.

Agreed. Wilkinson and Angol fluffed at least 2 very good chances each. I thought our build up play was generally very good, Wright and Clay dictated the game from the middle and Ling was excellent (the hate for the guy is absolutely toxic, we had some dickhead in the south stand screaming take him off throughout the entire game and the biggest cheer of the afternoon in our area was when Ling was announced motm).

Willing to give the forwards more time to settle but we need better alternatives to them if they aren't firing as they struggled to do today. For a big lad Wilkinson looked thoroughly unconvincing with every headed opportunity.

Wilkinson reminds me of Colin West, because he's tall he's never been taught how to jump.

[RicketyCricket]

Stevenage were poor and we were far too pedestrian at times, but we were unlucky not to win. Brophy and Happe were excellent first half I thought, but Brophy faded.

Coulson and Clay poor today and after a quiet first half Wright came into it a bit more and played some nice passes.

Wilkinson and Angol good with the ball at their feet but both missed good chances to score. Angol with a header in the first half Bonne would've scored and then in the 2nd half his rebound to Wilkinson's effort after he cut in.

Brill - 6
Ling - 6
Ekpiteta - 6
Coulson - 5
Happe - 7
Widdowson - 7
Clay - 4
Wright - 6
Brophy - 8
Wilkinson - 6
Angol - 6

Subs were also very disappointing as others have said. They were also made far too late, Harrold would have been a good option to come on earlier - but we lack quality on the bench anyway which needs adressing.

What on earth did Widdowson do to deserve a 7. Everytime he's involved in an attack you just know nothing will come of it.
At least Ling took it on his chest a couple of times and went forwards with it.

We all know he isn't great going forward but he rarely gave the ball away and was assured down the left-flank, which began to be exposed once Brophy was there.

As for Happe, he made some brilliant passes and is the only one of our five defenders who is able to pick out our strikers. He is brilliant at playing it into the channels too which is what we need to do more of.

If we can get Angol running onto the ball I feel he will be a lot more effective, and we would be able to stretch teams rather than a predictable pass into the middle where our forwards get crowded out.

[Forty-Niner]

Brill 6
Ling 7
Ekpiteta 6
Coulson 6
Happe 6
Widdowson 6
Clay 5
Wright 6
Brophy 7
Wilkinson 5
Angol 6
Subs;
Dennis 3
Gorman 4
Harrold n/a

[BrendO]

You can read my ratings here: https://therealefl.co.uk/2019/08/18/ley ... stevenage/

[Redcard]

Can’t believe we didn’t win that game comfortably. We had 23 shots, 9 on target and only some excellent defending and blocks , and brilliant goalkeeping ,along with woeful finishing prevented a cricket score. For me the standout players were josh wright and Sam ling , but I’ve yet to see anything from Wilkinson to suggest he offers more than Harold.

[Chief crazy horse]

I thought it was a decent showing. Good performance from Brophy, and playing behind the front two worked well, at least for the first half, anyway. Ling deserved his 7 rating. We were the much better side and should have won the game, but we didn't get any breaks. Still no clear cut chances being created though.

[Bergen]

I like Angol, and I think he will be a good player for us, but he seems to pull out of a lot of aerial duals. I thought he would be stronger in the air.
Is it just me or does anyone else have the same impression?

[Red_Army]

I like Angol, and I think he will be a good player for us, but he seems to pull out of a lot of aerial duals. I thought he would be stronger in the air.
Is it just me or does anyone else have the same impression?

Not sure about this. He won the header, really well, for Wright's goal against Cheltenham and won a lot of ball against Macc. Wilkinson is the target man of the two, though.

[LittleMate]

I thought we tried a different way of playing today; ball rolled out from the back with both full backs glued to each line. I liked it. Ling did much better and having Widdowson back clearly makes a difference. Wright is pleasing on the eye without being effective. I thought Ross got the sub's wrong - or at least in the wrong order. Gorman killed the growing effect Wright had on the game and I'd have stuck Harrold on first.

Brophy showed us the best and worst of himself. He must have beat 15 men on the day and did not produce any end product. He needs to improve on that last part (I doubt he can) because without end product he's of no value to the team. He pleases the crowd with his runs and then frustrates us with the end result.

There is no cutting edge to the front 2 atm. We need to find a way of playing that brings goals to the game.

[eagwgw]

Brophy's been pretty much the same ever since he has been here, although been played in a variety of positions. He can glide past people much like Koroma did, but is much less likely to do something at the end of it.

Last season he had 37 appearances, scored 3 goals and had just one assist, the season before he was better, 24 appearances, 2 goals and 5 assists. Overall he needs a better season than both of these to warrant a new deal, at this time I'd rather a less flashy player who actually has quality. Think Dean Cox v Jason Demetriou.

It makes me laugh at how a lack of objectiveness is only called out to one way. Plenty of people are saying 4 points from 3 games is good, better than what we had last season (not that a comparison means anything). But we've had two games at home against weaker sides, one with big injury problems, and the other with 9 men for the last 30 mins, the away game was at a side much worse than us in terms of players.

We have three tougher games coming up now, and if we took 0 points from them, and a pants-shitter started fearing the drop, people would be pointing out that two of them were away and they were against tougher opposition than average. I still think it might be 10-12 games before a better opinion on where we are can be had.

Yesterday is gone now, I think Ross would have learned we need a higher tempo and a bit more quality, and if we can't get that out of the current squad we will have to buy them in. Two points dropped, let's hope they aren't significant ones come the end of the season.