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00:00Gavin, opening day of the season, a new group, obviously a 5-1 defeat against a strong Farnham team, but thoughts on the performance in the day?
00:08From our point of view, we're disappointed. I thought we started well for 15 minutes and at the minute, the typical thing is start well, gift them a goal.
00:19I mean, they've still got to finish it, but it's not a gift. But what we're asking them to do, they're doing something different,
00:25something that they feel is better at the time and we're telling them not to, and what's happening is the other team's just punishing us.
00:32But then two or three of the goals were just weak, looked weak, they didn't have to work for them.
00:38And then we're 3-0 down, 4-0 down at half-time without them really having to break a sweat, if I'm honest.
00:49Yes, but we've got to take the positives out of it. It was a similar start to the whole pre-season, the start of the season, very similar to last year,
00:57where we were out of the game against South Park within 20 minutes because we gifted them two goals.
01:03It's easy to then show the signs that you can play when you're losing.
01:09Although I did fear at one point we'd get absolutely smashed, if I'm honest.
01:12I don't know whether that's they took their foot off the gas, whether we played a little bit better, we looked a little bit more positive.
01:18The changes made a difference, I thought we got two or three balls in from the left-hand side, which we hadn't had all first half.
01:24So people took on the instruction a little bit better second half.
01:28I thought they looked a little bit tired, if I'm honest.
01:30I didn't think they looked particularly fit.
01:35But then the game had been won, they might have just been sitting in there.
01:38But it looked a lot easier from our point of view to do what we want to do.
01:41But they'd won the game.
01:43They won the game really from our mistakes and their good quality in finishing.
01:48That's what the better sides do.
01:50Did you take the positives from the second half?
01:53Yes, we got to take some positives.
01:55I mean, Kai puts his penalty away, we could have won the second half 2-1, although they could have scored at the end.
02:01I didn't think they showed their changes, it didn't help them, I don't think.
02:05They put on, possibly, you know, they freshened things up, but did the players go on and make an impact?
02:13You know, they had hoped, I felt, yeah, we were more pleased with the second half, but the game had been gone.
02:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:20Obviously, Kai won the penalty early on and obviously, yeah, sticks that away, maybe.
02:26Yeah, he was confident to take it.
02:27It was a poor penalty, if I'm honest, they all know that.
02:29And, you know, we had a little bit of impetus there where I thought, you know what, we get one.
02:33You never know, you're never going to win the game, I didn't feel.
02:36But it would have been good to get that, go one up in the second half.
02:41Get the second one, which was a really good goal from our point of view, I was pleased with the play.
02:46Yeah, but then we just got at the end, a little bit sloppy, we gifted them another couple of opportunities to score.
02:53Yeah, we've got to look at that.
02:55And the thing is, the lads are doing sometimes the opposite to what we're telling them.
03:00And that's the frustrating thing, that we're trying to get them to do something.
03:02We don't even think it's that hard, to be honest.
03:04No, no.
03:05You know, we showed first half, especially first 15 minutes, anything down the sides was a problem.
03:11And we didn't quite have the quality to beat the full back or get the ball in the box.
03:15But the process was there.
03:17And then we chose to do a ball inside where it's congested, gets room to go home.
03:21But yeah, you know, we've got to keep working, keep believing in what we're doing.
03:27And hope, like last year, that it will change at some point, a result or a performance for a group that's new and young can, you know, can help us along the way.
03:36I say obviously having to build a new group, I mean, it's kind of inevitable that it obviously does take a bit of time with a new group, doesn't it?
03:41You just have to keep drilling your message into them of what you want, you know.
03:46Yeah, there's a little bit of naivety in there, if I'm honest, the group's young, but technically they're all good.
03:54It's having that know-how of how to win games and do the right things at the right times, you know, and that comes down to their decision making.
04:04Experience as well, I guess, I'm assuming.
04:06Yeah, of course it is, but we're not in the luxury of being able to get players who are experienced to come in and just manage themselves.
04:13Do you know what I mean? Because they're not going to come and play for us because we ain't got the money to pay those players.
04:19So we'll believe in the group.
04:22Fitness-wise, they should be above most teams because they're young and it will just take a little bit more concentration, doing the right things and not getting punished.
04:33I mean, that's another big thing.
04:35Sometimes teams can miss chances and you can get let off the hook, but the better teams usually take full advantage of it.
04:42You know, like the penalty, he's not missing that.
04:45Am I confident if we have a penalty?
04:47We haven't really got a penalty taken yet, you know, they're the things that you need.
04:51Yeah, yeah.
04:53Obviously, it was a nicely worked goal and a good finish from Harvey to get up and running.
04:57Yeah, good for him because the first half was difficult.
05:01The lads were really affected by the couple of goals that went in, started just sinking back and back, letting them have the ball, forgetting what we were doing, didn't do the right things.
05:13So he was probably running side to side and didn't touch the ball.
05:18So for him to get a goal off the mark is good for him.
05:21Yeah, so for the first 15 minutes, you had your chances, sort of, really in the game.
05:27I mean, that's how quick football changes, isn't it?
05:30Like you say, with a young group, when it goes against you, it feels like the same thing over and over again.
05:36And then within the space of 10 minutes, you're out the game.
05:40So that's the things they need to learn.
05:43Once you've gone behind, you've got to be so careful with what you do.
05:47You've got to stay in the game for as long as possible.
05:50Because I do feel, similar to last year, that when second halves come, teams get tired.
05:56Can we take advantage of that by putting fresher people on?
05:58Yeah, yeah.
06:00Like we robbed him, I think Luke and Nat robbed him a few times in the second half and towards the end with fresh legs, younger legs, maybe a point to prove.
06:10Yeah, it's not the ideal start, we're not going to give up, we've just got to keep trying to do better.
06:17Yeah, as you say, it's kind of like knowing if you do go one behind, you keep it at one and then you're sort of staying in the game, really, don't you?
06:25Yeah, and that's the experience of the other teams, really.
06:29Like you look at them, when they go one up, they're like, come on, get another, get another, get another.
06:32And in your head, as a young player, you're going, oh God, we can't concede again, and then you concede again, what are we going to do?
06:37And then that mindset, sometimes you need some more experience around the group to maybe help out in those situations.
06:47But it's about them learning and coping up with themselves, to be honest.
06:50Yeah. Thoughts now on Balham and the FA Cup?
06:54Yeah.
06:55Three weeks, obviously, to prepare for that now.
06:57Yeah, Balham's always difficult.
06:59I've said the other day to Luke that they're always a good side, good, well-coped side.
07:03They'll have their way of playing and it'll be up to us to improve on the starts and try and win the game.
07:12Try and go out straight away and assert ourselves, get on the ball and make things happen and make them count when we get the opportunities.
07:19Good week of training now, a couple of sessions this week, sort of building up.
07:22Yeah, got to find a venue for Tuesday.
07:25Yeah, Tuesday, Thursday we'll be training, although again, we haven't, unfortunately, the venues are like gold dusted here.
07:33So I'm not even sure we've got a place for Thursday.
07:35So we're going to have to, we'll probably train here again, to be fair, the pitch is holding up really well because of the weather.
07:41Just enough rain, just enough sunshine, so we'll be able to train on here without ruining it.
07:47Yeah. Just a word on, you know, nice big crowd today, which I guess is good for the club.
07:50Yeah, real, real positive, fair play to Farnham because they've created something that people want to be part of and follow.
07:57Like a couple of years ago when we had this fixture, there was people, I don't know what the tendencies were, but it was good.
08:03It's a good atmosphere. It's helped us financially.
08:06So, you know, positive.
08:08Yeah.