Post by tufc01 on Sept 10, 2010 20:15:54 GMT
I know it’s a bit late but a couple things about this game from my perspective.
I never really appreciated how nice Exeter’s ground/stadium is. In recent years I have only seen it from the away end and being stuck in there it gives a false impression of the rest of the ground. Everyone was sat in the main grandstand and I thought it was really nice, but best of all it is elevated and gives a great view of the pitch. It was a sunny evening and there was a lovely backdrop of the city with the sun setting behind. A perfect night for watching a game of football?
The pitch was in excellent condition, which I wasn’t really expecting. On TV, from highlights of their first game it looked awful, however it looks in great nick now.
The beauty of watching a reserve game, where the score is completely irrelevant, is that you can watch individual players without having to keep up fully with the play. You can see their movement and special awareness even when they do not have the ball.
POSITIVES
The biggest positive for me was Saul Halpin. I thought he was outstanding, until he tired midway through the second half. His posture is remarkably similar to Chris Waddle, and when he runs with the ball he shows no fear or hesitation. He went on several runs and beat players at will, his final ball did let him down occasionally but his goal was exquisite and he is a very skilful. I have seen him play a few times now, I like him and I think he will go far. He must be on the fringe of at least getting a few substitute appearances this season.
Watching him when he didn’t have the ball and you could see why he tired in the second half. He is another of those players who with a casual glance CAN/MAY look slightly lazy, but this is DEFINATELY not the case as he put a good shift in. Lots of running off the ball, lots of chasing back, he made a couple of good tackles way back in our half and he beats people with ease. He seems to have an eye for where to be at the right time as well and he looks like he could develop into a player that could be capable of playing his football higher up the league. Danny must be looking over his shoulder right now and I would not be surprised to see Halpin as a regular starter this time next year.
O’Kane was another positive, as you would expect against a rather weak Exeter side, but you can only beat what is put in front of you. Some players can still stand out when they play against weaker opposition, whilst others can have games where their standards drop to that of the opposition. In this case O’Kane did the former whilst, imo, Kee did the latter.
O’Kane seems to have an eye for the game, he was always aware of who and what was going on around him. Stroked the ball around as if it were a practice match, which basically it was. He was our playmaker. A very intelligent player and another who could well go on to bigger things and will be a regular in our side before long.
I thought Ashley Yeoman started off brightly, another who could well develop into a regular first team player. Not the finished article by any means, as you would expect for his age, but showed enough for me to think that he can play a part over the next few years. I felt that his performance did drop off in the second half, right about the time when Billy Kee upped the amount of ‘encouragement’ he was giving to Yeoman. His confidence disappeared after that and it was no surprise to see him go off later in the game.
Palmer is another young lad who I thought had a good game. Developing into a no-nonsense Centre Half not to dissimilar to Branston.
NOT SO POSITIVE
I was going to say that I wasn’t too impressed with Sender, who gave the ball away far too often, appeared to be off the pace a bit and that I didn’t expect to see him signing on anytime soon, but I don’t want to get involved in any arguments so all I will say is that during the game, and not having the benefit of knowing who he was beforehand, I didn’t think he was one of the better players and he most certainly did not impose himself on the game at all.
Kee really disappointed me, probably because I had raised expectations of him taking the game by the scruff of the neck and bagging a few goals as well. First of all he did take his goal well. A strong header from about 8 yards that easily beat their keeper. Other than that he didn’t really do an awful lot and I thought he was poor in the second half. He often chose the wrong option, passing when he had the space, but more often than not running into trouble when there were spare men in acres of space. He spent a lot of time ’encouraging’ Ashley Yeoman when Yeoman made a mistake, then spent an equal amount of time ’encouraging’ Ashley Yeoman when Kee himself made a mistake, of which there were a quite few in the second half. Reminded me of a certain Centre Half from a few years back, but we won’t go down that route. Based on that performance and from his various substitute performances that I have seen, I don’t think he should replace Benyon in the starting line up on Saturday, like some have suggested. I think I would rather see Zebs up front and Halpin on the wing before I see Kee up front. Don’t get me wrong, I think he will be a good asset to have on the bench to change it around in the last 20 minutes or so, but a starter?? Not yet.
I thought I would save the worst until last. I am half way through writing a response on the Southend thread on the subject of calling these idiots names and when I get time I will finish it, because these Morons and imbeciles and clowns ARE ruining games for other supporters and are an embarrassment to themselves, let alone the club. I would have/should have moved, but I was so embarrassed I didn’t want to move at all, just cringe back into my seat. As for saying something, not a chance. There were half a dozen of them and you can’t just blame the youngsters, a couple were old enough to be their dads.
Yes Thomson is an ex-player, but Judas is NOT the terminology I would have used to describe his departure. Yes he did have a poor game, but that did not warrant calling him a C*nt, on several occasions. In fact for me that word has no place in our language at all but perhaps I am just being a Prude.
Yes Thomson’s performance did get worse as the game went on and yes he did look uninterested (I make no apologies for using that to describe him) and yes he did let the abuse get to him and finally yes I agree that he would be lucky to make the bench in our squad at the moment, but having said all that NO player deserves the amount of abuse that you Cretins gave to him throughout the game, I say you because you know who you are, which ever site you chose to frequent, you are still reading this. Your behaviour (at this game and the Port vale & Southend games) is appalling and has no place in society, let alone at a football match, a reserve game at that, where I was expecting a nice quiet, enjoyable evening, and even chatting with some Exeter fans. They can be scum, or whatever you guys want to call them, during a league/cup match, but surely during a reserve game or a friendly they are just having a quiet evening enjoying a no pressure game, just like us. I would say grow up, but some of them are my age so that’s not going to happen. I don’t care if you pay your money to go and watch, I’d rather you didn’t, but that doesn’t entitle you to throw abuse around like you do. Rant over.
I never really appreciated how nice Exeter’s ground/stadium is. In recent years I have only seen it from the away end and being stuck in there it gives a false impression of the rest of the ground. Everyone was sat in the main grandstand and I thought it was really nice, but best of all it is elevated and gives a great view of the pitch. It was a sunny evening and there was a lovely backdrop of the city with the sun setting behind. A perfect night for watching a game of football?
The pitch was in excellent condition, which I wasn’t really expecting. On TV, from highlights of their first game it looked awful, however it looks in great nick now.
The beauty of watching a reserve game, where the score is completely irrelevant, is that you can watch individual players without having to keep up fully with the play. You can see their movement and special awareness even when they do not have the ball.
POSITIVES
The biggest positive for me was Saul Halpin. I thought he was outstanding, until he tired midway through the second half. His posture is remarkably similar to Chris Waddle, and when he runs with the ball he shows no fear or hesitation. He went on several runs and beat players at will, his final ball did let him down occasionally but his goal was exquisite and he is a very skilful. I have seen him play a few times now, I like him and I think he will go far. He must be on the fringe of at least getting a few substitute appearances this season.
Watching him when he didn’t have the ball and you could see why he tired in the second half. He is another of those players who with a casual glance CAN/MAY look slightly lazy, but this is DEFINATELY not the case as he put a good shift in. Lots of running off the ball, lots of chasing back, he made a couple of good tackles way back in our half and he beats people with ease. He seems to have an eye for where to be at the right time as well and he looks like he could develop into a player that could be capable of playing his football higher up the league. Danny must be looking over his shoulder right now and I would not be surprised to see Halpin as a regular starter this time next year.
O’Kane was another positive, as you would expect against a rather weak Exeter side, but you can only beat what is put in front of you. Some players can still stand out when they play against weaker opposition, whilst others can have games where their standards drop to that of the opposition. In this case O’Kane did the former whilst, imo, Kee did the latter.
O’Kane seems to have an eye for the game, he was always aware of who and what was going on around him. Stroked the ball around as if it were a practice match, which basically it was. He was our playmaker. A very intelligent player and another who could well go on to bigger things and will be a regular in our side before long.
I thought Ashley Yeoman started off brightly, another who could well develop into a regular first team player. Not the finished article by any means, as you would expect for his age, but showed enough for me to think that he can play a part over the next few years. I felt that his performance did drop off in the second half, right about the time when Billy Kee upped the amount of ‘encouragement’ he was giving to Yeoman. His confidence disappeared after that and it was no surprise to see him go off later in the game.
Palmer is another young lad who I thought had a good game. Developing into a no-nonsense Centre Half not to dissimilar to Branston.
NOT SO POSITIVE
I was going to say that I wasn’t too impressed with Sender, who gave the ball away far too often, appeared to be off the pace a bit and that I didn’t expect to see him signing on anytime soon, but I don’t want to get involved in any arguments so all I will say is that during the game, and not having the benefit of knowing who he was beforehand, I didn’t think he was one of the better players and he most certainly did not impose himself on the game at all.
Kee really disappointed me, probably because I had raised expectations of him taking the game by the scruff of the neck and bagging a few goals as well. First of all he did take his goal well. A strong header from about 8 yards that easily beat their keeper. Other than that he didn’t really do an awful lot and I thought he was poor in the second half. He often chose the wrong option, passing when he had the space, but more often than not running into trouble when there were spare men in acres of space. He spent a lot of time ’encouraging’ Ashley Yeoman when Yeoman made a mistake, then spent an equal amount of time ’encouraging’ Ashley Yeoman when Kee himself made a mistake, of which there were a quite few in the second half. Reminded me of a certain Centre Half from a few years back, but we won’t go down that route. Based on that performance and from his various substitute performances that I have seen, I don’t think he should replace Benyon in the starting line up on Saturday, like some have suggested. I think I would rather see Zebs up front and Halpin on the wing before I see Kee up front. Don’t get me wrong, I think he will be a good asset to have on the bench to change it around in the last 20 minutes or so, but a starter?? Not yet.
I thought I would save the worst until last. I am half way through writing a response on the Southend thread on the subject of calling these idiots names and when I get time I will finish it, because these Morons and imbeciles and clowns ARE ruining games for other supporters and are an embarrassment to themselves, let alone the club. I would have/should have moved, but I was so embarrassed I didn’t want to move at all, just cringe back into my seat. As for saying something, not a chance. There were half a dozen of them and you can’t just blame the youngsters, a couple were old enough to be their dads.
Yes Thomson is an ex-player, but Judas is NOT the terminology I would have used to describe his departure. Yes he did have a poor game, but that did not warrant calling him a C*nt, on several occasions. In fact for me that word has no place in our language at all but perhaps I am just being a Prude.
Yes Thomson’s performance did get worse as the game went on and yes he did look uninterested (I make no apologies for using that to describe him) and yes he did let the abuse get to him and finally yes I agree that he would be lucky to make the bench in our squad at the moment, but having said all that NO player deserves the amount of abuse that you Cretins gave to him throughout the game, I say you because you know who you are, which ever site you chose to frequent, you are still reading this. Your behaviour (at this game and the Port vale & Southend games) is appalling and has no place in society, let alone at a football match, a reserve game at that, where I was expecting a nice quiet, enjoyable evening, and even chatting with some Exeter fans. They can be scum, or whatever you guys want to call them, during a league/cup match, but surely during a reserve game or a friendly they are just having a quiet evening enjoying a no pressure game, just like us. I would say grow up, but some of them are my age so that’s not going to happen. I don’t care if you pay your money to go and watch, I’d rather you didn’t, but that doesn’t entitle you to throw abuse around like you do. Rant over.
