Pre Season Friendlies

[artvandelay]

Of course, although I like Gibbons.

[danielcufc]

Finished 1-0

[simon]

Presumably Gardner and Loft will play tomorrow.
Loft would’ve been training at Vale before he joined us, surely he can’t be that far behind the others.

[szechuan]

Loft played one of last week’s friendlies so I’d expect to see him again tomorrow. Gardner hasn’t been a part of any squad so far, he might be quite far behind.

[barry]

Aug 2, 2024 21:12:28 GMT szechuan said:

Loft played one of last week’s friendlies so I’d expect to see him again tomorrow.

Did he? Which one?

[tommytights]

Aug 2, 2024 20:54:08 GMT simon said:

Presumably Gardner and Loft will play tomorrow.
Loft would’ve been training at Vale before he joined us, surely he can’t be that far behind the others.

Unfortunately Monk mentioned in post match that both are injured along with Cousins - a couple of weeks for each which is a shame. Need another striker this week it seems

[jamescufc7]

Gardner, Loft and Cousins all out for tomorrow’s game as per Monk on BBC Cambridgeshire. He didn’t provide any specific information on them.

[B Block]

Healthy crowd and a decent turn out from West Brom, although I wonder how many of their fans were expecting it to be a first team game because it wasn’t advertised as being their youth team or whatever

[danielcufc]

[simon]

Aug 2, 2024 21:28:16 GMT barry said:

Aug 2, 2024 21:12:28 GMT szechuan said:

Loft played one of last week’s friendlies so I’d expect to see him again tomorrow.

Did he? Which one?

I don’t think he did

[The Abbey Stalker]

Changes off the pitch:

Habbin going to have to up its noise level considerably to compete with away section which will likely have a high occupancy level for most games this season. As visiting fans are closer to the pitch too expect the overall atmosphere might ramp up a bit.

Steward was advising those exiting on foot through the car park at the back of the main stand that the far gate will not be immediately available after games this season so everyone walking will be funnelled through the gate closest to the tea bar. Assume this is to prevent potential issues as despite warnings every game there are always a few cars keen to start forming an exit queue as soon as the game is over.

The family stand attendance was very sparse tonight. Too early to judge but think it might be proving a harder sell than the club anticipated, especially given the season tickets numbers don’t reflect the additional capacity allocated. Might be an opportunity to introduce giveaways at games like you see in American stadiums. The kids would soon be asking to be in there if there was some free merchandise to the first xxx amount entering the stand on game day. Easy to organise as now a dedicated area with its own entrance. Could be sponsored so little/no cost to the club even if it was just once a month or something. Maybe an autograph zone would work too.

The queues to get through the main stand turnstiles tonight were primarily caused by people who are not regulars queuing for just one of the two turnstiles open. Could have done with an Abbey Helper directing people to queue for both turnstiles.

Much to like on the pitch, more pressing, more tackling in key areas, not letting teams have 60% of the pitch to play in before we try to get the ball back. Lavery will be a real nuisance and Smith has a touch of class. Reyes kicking needs work but otherwise looked solid, Okedina clearly benefitting from improved coaching and Brophy will be most improved player if tonight was anything to go by. Not sure Rossi is quite ready to be a mainstay in the defence but has definitely progressed.

All in all a great workout for what was likely to be 7/8 of our starting 11 at Stockport.

[danboyb]

Decent enough workout and a few promising individual performances. Reyes didn’t have much to do but looked comfortable with short passes to the defenders, his long range passing needs a lot of work. Over all we were solid at the back and restricted WBA to very few efforts on goal.

Smith looked very good in his 45 mins. Calm and composed on the ball and not afraid to do the dirty side of the game either. Brophy was poor first half but made a few useful runs forward in the second, which drew fouls.

KaiKai had a few moments but wasn’t involved as much as I’d have liked, Kachunga likewise, although in fairness the second half was a bit of a non event in terms of attacking play.

Lavery is a proper pain for defenders, his work rate is excellent and he took his penalty really well. He is very lightweight though and I’m slightly concerned he’ll be bullied out of games by certain teams/defenders.

Overall a lot to be optimistic about. Do still feel we are light in certain positions and hope we have added a couple by this time next week. Can see what we’re trying to do though, I think it’ll catch us out a few times but it’s new and in the long term it will hopefully pay off.

[cuoutside]

I was about to say something on the match but watched Monks interview first and he pretty much says it all, so I’m not sure there’s much point. But first half I liked how we pressed high with the wingbacks going really high pretty much all the time which pens back the opposition. Some of our link up play down both sides was really good. Lavery looks a handful. But without another striker alongside him I wonder if we’ll struggle for goals. Hopefully we can get someone else in with Loft being injured. I was one of the few in the south stand tonight and that save from Andrew was outstanding. Smith looks class in the middle. I also thought Brophy did well too. Second half was obviously more defensive, which is to be expected in games anyway. We can’t be on the front foot all the time.

[groundsman]

So we are without loft Gardner and cousins for two weeks ,unbelievable

[danielcufc]