Simon Church

[Big Ern]

Not a good day at the office Church. I had to check the BBC to see if he was actually playing at HT. Still, has shown vast improvement this season and today just wasn't his day. This is a big season for him and i will judge him at the end of it, not after one off game

[Basingstoke Royal]

Played well tonight and we won.

Can I just check - you thought church played well?

If that's what you thought you don't have a clue.

[sandman]

Worked hard tonight yet again. He just needs to stay a bit more central, choose his moments to run and when not to and he'll score more.

[Handsome Man]

Played well tonight and we won.

Can I just check - you thought church played well?

If that's what you thought you don't have a clue.

What did he do wrong. He was strong, and did lots of running. A striker can't score every game: if they don't then they have to make sure they worry the defence a bit. Church does that.

[Basingstoke Royal]

No he is shit and that's he truth. Take the RTGs off.

[Royals-lad14]

Played well tonight and we won.

Can I just check - you thought church played well?

If that's what you thought you don't have a clue.

What did he do wrong. He was strong, and did lots of running. A striker can't score every game: if they don't then they have to make sure they worry the defence a bit. Church does that.

+1 completely, always runs his socks off and dont get the praise he sometimes deserves even if he aint hitting the back of the net every week.

[Handsome Man]

No he is shit and that's he truth. Take the RTGs off.

He has been shit at times in his career, but at the moment he is doing OK, and part of a winning side.

[Ian Royal]

Church got no service tonight and was clearly asked to be playing as the more advanced striker. Hunt would have done little better had their positions been switched and I doubt Le Fondre would have done as well. Equally I don't think Church would have dropped deep to link up nearly as well as Hunt.

His lack of impact tonight wasn't through any lack of quality on his part. Made a couple of good runs to get space from his defender and get in place to score from a cross, but the cross was always a foot too high for him.

Church's lack of threat tonight was a product of Watford's defence and Reading's creativity. Not his ability.

[Basingstoke Royal]

Church got no service tonight and was clearly asked to be playing as the more advanced striker. Hunt would have done little better had their positions been switched and I doubt Le Fondre would have done as well. Equally I don't think Church would have dropped deep to link up nearly as well as Hunt.

His lack of impact tonight wasn't through any lack of quality on his part. Made a couple of good runs to get space from his defender and get in place to score from a cross, but the cross was always a foot too high for him.

Church's lack of threat tonight was a product of Watford's defence and Reading's creativity. Not his ability.

Would church have scored that goal? Not in a million years.

He can run all he likes. Offers nothing.

[Ian Royal]

Church got no service tonight and was clearly asked to be playing as the more advanced striker. Hunt would have done little better had their positions been switched and I doubt Le Fondre would have done as well. Equally I don't think Church would have dropped deep to link up nearly as well as Hunt.

His lack of impact tonight wasn't through any lack of quality on his part. Made a couple of good runs to get space from his defender and get in place to score from a cross, but the cross was always a foot too high for him.

Church's lack of threat tonight was a product of Watford's defence and Reading's creativity. Not his ability.

Would church have scored that goal? Not in a million years.

He can run all he likes. Offers nothing.

Probably he wouldn't have scored it. But he offered a hell of a lot with no service tonight. Forcing Watford to give us the ball straight back numerous times by closing them down and forcing errors. And he took the defender away from HRK to give him time and space to pick his ball for Kebe to equilise.

He offers plenty. Is he particularly good? Probably not. But then care to do a goal comparison between him and any of the rest of our strikers this season? How many goals has ALF (Who I really like) scored in the last 8 games?

[Woodcote Royal]

His lack of impact tonight wasn't through any lack of quality on his part

Feel free to itemise ANY examples of quality Church produced.

Just in case you're getting confused, Church was the blonde one who ran around like a headless chicken treating the ball as if it was a grenade that had already had it's pin removed whilst Le Fondre replaced him with 10mins to go and almost immediately produced a rare moment of quality to win the game.

[Basingstoke Royal]

Church scored three to alf one. How many minutes did they play?

Anyone that understands the game can see that ALF is different class to Church.

[Basingstoke Royal]

His lack of impact tonight wasn't through any lack of quality on his part

Feel free to itemise ANY examples of quality Church produced.

Just in case you're getting confused, Church was the blonde one who ran around like a headless chicken treating the ball as if it was a grenade that had already had it's pin removed whilst Le Fondre replaced him with 10mins to go and almost immediately produced a rare moment of quality to win the game.

Loving that. That's the truth.

[Simon's Church]

It's tough for him, he was effectively playing as a targetman today and he's just not suited to it. He was poor first half admittedly but I think he made a good fist of it after the break, battled quite well, made space and chased everything down. It was far from his worst game for us.

[Handsome Man]

Church scored three to alf one. How many minutes did they play?

Anyone that understands the game can see that ALF is different class to Church.

Neither players are having great seasons but we are doing OK. LeFondre has looked good at times but got into a bad spell of form; hopefully the goal will give him confidence and mean he kicks on. Church is currently the man in possession, ran around all game and did OK, unsettled the Watford defence, created room for other players, and made his contribution. We won. Why start choosing a scapegoat and start laying in to Church? Where you saying the same sort of things about Cummings, Pearce, etc recently?

[Snowball]

How many goals has ALF (Who I really like) scored in the last 8 games?

Based on the season ALF is MILES better than Church
in terms of goals and assists per minute played

Over Last 8 League Games

2 Goals in 467 Minutes Alf
4 Goals in 574 Minutes Church



10 1 80 0
29 0 61 0
62 0 90 0
75 0 88 0
90 0 90 1
90 0 26 2
90 0 70 0
21 1 69 1


467 Minutes 2 Goals ALF
574 Minutes 4 Goals Church


Of course Churchy gets a massive boost for his 26 minute Cameo where he got two goals

Without that one game it would be

377 Minutes 2 Goals 1 every 188 Minutes ALF
548 Minutes 2 Goals 1 every 274 Minutes Church

That's why we need to assess over the maximum number of games,
and ALF is way better than anyone else when so measured

[Handsome Man]

Football isn't played with an abacus though. You make it seem the most boring game in the world with your stat-lite approach. It is one team pitted against another not one spreadsheet playing a database.

[Snowball]

Stats clarify as far as I'm concerned

and ALF is the best goal-scorer we have


If Hunt goes and we get a genuine target man in ALF will be nearly a 1 in 2 man again

[sandman]

Church scored three to alf one. How many minutes did they play?

Anyone that understands the game can see that ALF is different class to Church.

He's so different class he has decided to score the same amount of goals so far this season as Church. He could have more goals but he missed those sitters at Blackpool and Palace to make Churchy feel better about himself.

Church isn't anywhere near as bad as people make him out to be and Le Fondre isn't as good as people make him out to be either.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

Having just got back I thought Church had a decent game. He harried and put their defenders under pressure. He ran chasing aimless long balls forcing their defence into mistakes.
Their defenders were ran ragged leaving ALF with a fresh pair of legs to come on and take the glory.
Kinda feel sorry for Church today because he and Hunt had fairly good games and Hunt I think got Man of the match and ALF will take the plaudits for the winning goal.

Church needs a goal to come of his backside or a lucky deflection or something and I really feel he could push on from there.