MotM: 12-05-22 Boston (H) Hemmings

[koro]

I'm not one for long analysis that others can do better but we need midfielders in the mould of their Shane Byrne who aggressively dominated the midfield to good effect. I still say that we would get a better grade of player if we could offer part-time. In football - there's always next season.

[Tom.10]

I'll keep it short and sweet…

Getting used to it now- we don't win playoffs at home. People have been a bit harsh on Russ and Jimmy, though I do think we are too one dimensional. A result of the thin squad? Perhaps.

Boston knew how to stop us playing how we wanted and we didn’t have a plan B. Foulkes MOTM for me. Thought he was spectacular. No way Hemmings deserved it… That corner!? Why wasn't Simpson up? Sterling… terrible last night and wouldn't be sad to see him go. Had no fight in him.

Communication was our downfall- resulted in both their goals. A word on Duxberry- I had a good view and his lip was hanging off his face. Pretty sure a tooth was gone too. His fault but poor lad.

Looking forward to seeing how our squad evolves now. Can't complain after that season (pre March)- let's just hope we build on it! Look forward to August

[Phil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68lu8frnKV8

[cjh201170]

Huffed and puffed and enjoyed some success in the second half but it was for ten minutes at best and, in truth, we were bossed for the rest of the evening. First time I’ve seen Boston this season and I was impressed, Quicker and stronger by far.
Sadly they seemed to want it more…. We looked drained, edgy and lacked cohesion from the start. It’s amazing what confidence can do to a squad….. we need to be tougher and stronger next season.
As attractive as some of our football has been this year…. It hasn’t cut it against the well drilled physicality of teams in and around us.
Really disappoints with Sterling last night, he clearly didn’t fancy it against their right back and he showed perhaps why his undoubted talent sees him play only at NLN level rather than league one/two….. even Bajrami lacked the composure he has shown all season.
We were bullied out of our game plan, needed a plan B but sadly were found wanting.
I love the attractive football we have played this season but we need to get out of this league, whatever style it takes.

[JBrook123]

Still gutted today. Just didn't turn up, Boston won every 50/50 and second ball. Not a lot that can be added to what everyone has already said really. Thought OSJ was poor, couple of times first half he had the opportunity to play Richards in but chose not too? Not to single him out though, there were a lot of under par performances, as there has been the last few months.

FA Cup, as good as it was, and it has provided memories that will live with me forever, possibly took it's toll in the end?

[HarrierN2]

It's kind of less gutting to go out having been, from what it sounds like, simply outplayed.

It's very disappointing but it's still been a season I'll always remember, with some superb performances and football.

What happens next comes down to Russ. We really need a midfielder or two who can control games from the middle of the park and have been desperate for one since at least February. I feel we also need a bigger Matty Stenson type attacking player so we can adapt to different styles and formations where necessary. Russ' recruitment this summer and how he grows and learns in terms of his tactical nous are going be the big defining factors of our immediate future.

[TWG85]

Range of thoughts after watching that last night. Firstly huge credit to Ashley Hemmings, Joe Foakes and Luke Simpson. All three gave incredible performances, for my money. Played like men possessed. Aside from them I think there’ll be some regrets. Quite a few didn’t deal with the occasion, I felt. Real lack of composure on display. Defensively as fragile and jittery as I’ve seen them this season. And in possession got drawn into a purely direct game of football, both by the opposition and the atmosphere.

Fair play to Boston, they were worthy winners. Could’ve been three up at half time. Couldn’t handle their sharpness, their physicality or their formation. Always the thing with wingbacks, what do you do? Fullbacks can’t go chasing up field leaving gaping holes at the back, wide men stuck between a rock and a hard place, playing one up front, as they’ve gotta devote some attention to the outside centre halves when getting involved, and they track back with the wingback, you get penned in with the striker massively isolated and outnumbered. Which is precisely what happened.

Only other option is ask the three midfielders to shift all the way across and be outnumbered five vs three in the middle of the park, which is an awful lot to ask. Or, just press the hell out of the opposition high up before any of this becomes an issue. Which is a lot easier said then done and a little futile with a team happy to just launch it. Hindsight being twenty-twenty had to match them from the start or go 442.

Big improvement and huge effort second half when they matched them up with the 5-2-1-2 with Sterling in the hole and Ash up front, before moving to 5-2-3, and extremely cruel with the winning goal. But it’s all papering over the cracks, they didn’t perform as a team. Which is a real shame because Boston were vulnerable, especially whenever the outside centre halves were isolated in one form or another. Neither greatly quick.

Bigger picture is though they were clearly flattered by their position for much of the season. We’ve seen that the last few months. You look at the squads and budgets of the likes of York, Spennymoor, Boston, they had no right to finish fourth. And any top team they got a positive result against, most cases there was some good fortune, contributing injuries etc. They’ve been punching above their weight and greatly overachieved.

[harriershane]

Two scenes have replayed round my head all day today

That Marcus Dewhurst save from Hemmings’ header (better than Seaman vs Sheff Utd?)

That pass inside which let them in for the winner.

53 games or thereabouts for that squad though, it’s a monumental effort. Can’t be many apart from Liverpool who are gonna have played that amount, surely?

[muse_harrier]

I believe York City have already played 55 games?and still looking strong?

[SCF1985]

Not posted on here for years, but wanted to vent about everything that's on my mind. Have a lot to write, so will break it down into different topics.

1) The Cup run
I'm sorry, but our season was a failure. Simple as. Our remit was promotion, and we didn't achieve it. I've had arguments with fellow supporters that cup runs like this should wait until we're back at our target footballing level. The argument back has often been we can't 'pick and choose' our cup runs. Maybe so, but it's not the 1950s anymore, and you have to be a truly exceptional team to do both. The fact not only us, but also Boreham Wood and St Albans falling away from well-placed league positions after a good run are a case in point. With our favourable route to the 3rd round, getting that far as a 6th division team was 'Job done' in my view. But then we played an abomination of a half-arsed Reading side who would struggle in League Two with that team against us. Hardly seismic shock, certainly no Peterborough. But then we nearly pulled off the greatest shock of all-time. Good memories, but so was Neil Robertson's 147 at the Crucible a couple of weeks ago, but he also lost that match against a player he would have been expected to beat (like us with Boston), let alone with the World Championship. I'd sure wnning the tournament/getting promoted would come first. But please, no more cup runs now until we're out of this league.

2) Mentality problem
Last night's game is a clear indication this wasn't just a one-off performance, it's a long-term issue.
*People have moaned about the 'loss of momentum' being to blame for our failure this time. But in 2013, we won 25 of our last 29 league games. You can't get better momentum than that. Then we lost to Wrexham. Us and Mansfield were the best two teams in the league by a country mile. Bottled it, then regressed.
*Then Chorley in 2017, again after finishing second, but less surprising as we Halifax finished only a couple of points behind. But the way we imploded in the second leg after Chorley was deplorable, especially losing 2-0 with the second goal coming in injury-time. Classic bottlejob
*BPA the following year. The best one! Played them at home, the last regular game of the season, our reserves losing 2-1 allowing them to sneak into 7th, co-incidentally setting up the exact same fixture for the play-offs. Only to get an even worse result with our first team. We regressed again
*Last night, just like Reading strangely being the worst of our four Cup performances, this was strangely the last embarrassing of our home play-off defeats. Which isn't saying much! But aforementioned factors like cup burn out, a shocking loss of form/monentum and becoming the team for others to beat meant this was the most acceptable of the four.

Our play-off record at home, all of them as the higher-placed team against our opponents reads P4 W0 D0 L4 F2 A9. Even Scunthorpe, as diabolical as they've been in League Two have a better record at home against the top four. It's worse than relegation form! It seems what Man City and PSG are to the Champions League, Spurs are to English football, Jimmy White is to snooker and Michael Smith is to darts, we are to non-league. 22 years without a promotion or a trophy simply isn't good enough!

3) The positives
In fairness, this is a hard league to get out of. I don't agree with some of the comments this is a 'pub league'. Teams like York, Chester, Darlington, Hereford, Gateshead, Fylde and us hardly signify a 'pub league'. Is it simply that the pyramid has evolved? The 5th division will always be stronger than the 6th, but games like Bromsgrove v Runcorn in 1995 and Leigh RMI v Margate in 2003 are hardly comparable to York v Gateshead in 2022. Going back to our Cup exploits, it's easy to play teams who play football against you such as Peterborough, Grimsby, Halifax, Reading and West Ham. We do this as well as anyone. But it's against teams who don't which is the problem. But next season, our Cup run would have been forgotten and we have the money to improve our promising squad. We have to end this 'bottlejob' reputation once and for all. Our target has to be winning the title, and nothing less.

4) Note to Phil
This originally took me 90 mins to write, and even though I was 'logged on', I was logged off again when i tried to send it. Fortunately, I had snapshots of my post so I could re-type it, but it's taken me another 15 mins to write. Please sort this out

Take care, all. Sorry for the ramble

[aberred]

Hope York go up, huge slice of luck for their winner on Wednesday night though.

[Phil]

4) Note to Phil
This originally took me 90 mins to write, and even though I was 'logged on', I was logged off again when i tried to send it. Fortunately, I had snapshots of my post so I could re-type it, but it's taken me another 15 mins to write. Please sort this out

Take care, all. Sorry for the ramble

When you log in tick the box to remember and keep you logged in. If that doesn't work then clear your cache: f12 > right click refresh > click on 'Empty cache and hard reload' > close the box that appeared on the right hand side when you pressed f12.

[garthrockett]

Take care, all. Sorry for the ramble

Not a ramble at all mate, a valid perpective.
Its still a pub league though......

[Harry Aire]

A lot of hurt and disappointment on here, understandably. We didn't play anywhere near our best. We weren't allowed to. I think we should be big enough to say Boston were outstanding on the night- nothing like the team we beat here a couple of months back. By far the best visiting team I've seen in a while. Loads better than that West Ham for example. We deserve credit for coming back at them second half - and we did miss Sammy. Has he played his last game as a Harrier?

Keep the faith. There's always next season, for most of us.

[TWG85]