Hamlet AWAY to Horsham (Isthmian Premier Division) Saturday 26th August 2023

[Pink Panther]

According to National Rail Enquiries journey planner there are no direct trains from London to Horsham, you'll need to change at Three Bridges. Last train back from Horsham leaves at 18:21. There's a half hourly service from Three Bridges to London Bridge via East Croydon until 20:27, but all these trains will have come from Brighton and may be very busy with the reduced service.

The new Horsham ground is on the Worthing Road a couple of miles south of the train station. It's walkable but not especially pleasant with the busy road and narrow footpaths. There are fairly frequent buses from the station and town centre to the park and ride facility opposite the ground.

 

[Pink Panther]

Today's team.

 

[editor]

2-3 defeat

 

[AveryDave]

Just hope there's time to get a couple more defenders in before Monday.

 

[peckhamasbestos]

moody

 

[MrFouldsy]

What happened there then?

 

[Pink Panther]

I didn't make it to this one. I'm surprised how many goals we're conceding, given that Hak tightened up the worst defence in National South within a month, and we only conceded 3 in the final 6 matches last season. That's 8 conceded in the first 4 at a lower level with his own squad. Obviously it's a completely new group of players, pulled together in a short space of time, so there are bound to be a few teething troubles. We'd have 7 points instead of 4 right now, without two crucial goals conceded well into stoppage time, so I can't believe there's too much wrong.

 

[KPMG]

We were dire from the start. They were organised, compact, and found lots of space to pass into and play. We looked like a team who hadn't been introduced. Rubbish first half, reasonable fo 15 in the second half, then back to rubbish. It's no better this season than before.

 

[liamdhfc]

Experienced players failing to defend properly. Some must be on borrowed time.

 

[Paula_G]

Was going to ask whether we were going for the win and got caught out or just didn’t have the steam to close out a game. Think the above two responses seem to be answering my questions.

 

[Paula_G]

We were dire from the start. They were organised, compact, and found lots of space to pass into and play. We looked like a team who hadn't been introduced. Rubbish first half, reasonable fo 15 in the second half, then back to rubbish. It's no better this season than before.

Followed the game on Twitter as I was playing this morning & would not have made kickoff. That assessment seems totally at odds with how the game was being described on there.

 

[Al Cunningham]

We are really slow through the middle of the team and the teams have definitely improved since our last time at this level. Lots of quick tricky players who cause us problems. To be honest the goals against should be more . Hashtag could have had 4 or 5 and so could have Hastings. I think our first 4 games are worse tha the start of last season

 

[PartisanDulwich]

still keeping the faith - just unfortunate today - we can turn this around - may need to strengthen defence

 

[liamdhfc]

Followed the game on Twitter as I was playing this morning & would not have made kickoff. That assessment seems totally at odds with how the game was being described on there.

Once we were in front we should have closed it out comfortably. Horsham forced one save from Jack and had a total of 3 shots all game, other than the penalty.
However, we are ponderous in attack other than Wanadio.
At the back, we again seem to have no vocal dominant centre back who organises those around them.
For the equaliser, Wanadio just let his man run without tracking and we were caught way too high on the winner.
Having said that, we had another referee who failed to send off their captain for a horror tackle on Ricketts just as the one at Hashtag missed the stamp on Jeffrey.

 

[AveryDave]

 

[bkbk]

Fairly strong words from Mills

 

[AveryDave]

Fairly strong words from Mills

Who had ‘players publicly criticising each other after four games’ on their bingo card?

 

[Al Cunningham]

I see Hakan calls out Chambers and Parry in his interview. To be fair they have been poor.

 

[Roger D]

A Billericay fan I know felt Chambers started to decline last season and wasn't at all surprised he (was?) moved on.

 

[liamdhfc]

A Billericay fan I know felt Chambers started to decline last season and wasn't at all surprised he (was?) moved on.

Despite what Billericay say, he refused a new contract

 

[Pink Panther]

A Billericay fan I know felt Chambers started to decline last season and wasn't at all surprised he (was?) moved on.

I'll be surprised if anyone really shone for Billericay last season. They should never have been relegated from the National League with a big budget, but cocked up even more spectacularly than we did in finishing rock bottom. Then they failed to make any sort of challenge for the top 5 back in the Isthmian last season, and now they're on at least their 5th manager in 2 years.

Michael is only 29 and to the best of my knowledge has never had any major injuries, so I see no reason why he can't regain his form of 5 years ago when he was one of the strongest defenders in National South, before his unsuccessful spells at Wrexham and Bromley.

Ten days ago everyone was pretty optimistic after beating Canvey 4-1, now we've had two odd goal defeats it's all doom and gloom. Before a ball was kicked I reckoned we needed a minimum 15 points from the first 10 games to give us any sort of platform for a serious promotion challenge, and I stand by that. I'd hoped we'd be closer to that benchmark by now, and better placed to go beyond it, but for goodness sake I'm not writing off this team or any of the players in it after 4 matches.

 

[scousedom]

Chambers is a lovely bloke. But imo he’s never been able to play in a 4, which if you ask me is a red flag for a centre half.

 

[Roger D]

It's a personal opinion, and I haven't seen Chambers this season so make no comment, but the comment from a long standing. Billericay fan (30.years plus) was he seemed to lose a yard. He did wonder whether he may have been carrying an injury. Make of it what you will.

To be fair his judgement calls on the people signed from them have been pretty good. He said we'd got an off the radar gem in Felix before he played for Hamlet.