Billericay

[LB]

In the end a job well done. I seem to recall there were quite a few games last season when we started slowly but grew into it. I did think for the first 20 minutes we were in danger of being overrun, but for all their pressure I don't think Billericay really forced a save out of Ryan Clarke.  

As others have said, great to see Jack Batten back and really impressed by Callum Evans so far and Conway could be the new Graham Withey! Thought we made good use of the space Billericay left in the second half when they were pushing for the equaliser and could probably have scored a couple more although that would have flattered us.

On to the cup game at Slough - no reason why we can't get a result there.

[Steve Whites Missus]

Clean sheet and a win... couldn’t be better

[comrade powell]

I’ll send a summary to the Club of people’s experiences with the streaming today. Reading some of the comments on social media it does sound like the browser used may be a factor as some had no problems while others missed huge chunks of the match.

I watched using Edge. Apart from a bit of buffering the first half was mostly ok but I experienced problems more often after ht and lost the last view minutes of the match.

Anything to share?

[kermit]

First 20 minutes or so worked well.
Lost picture just before we scored first goal.
Spent rest of the game watching a blue wheel going around in circles on the screen.
Not impressed.
I'm using Chrome, but the Oxford streaming was faultless for me....apart from the score!
Any suggestions as to how I can improve my coverage?

[City 'til we're relegated]

I had stuttering picture at times in the first half (buffering). Foolishly rebooted computer at half time and could not get connected so missed the whole second half.

[tovid]

The Billeracay players were the most moany whiney bunch I have ever seen. The whole team were in the refs face all game. He did very well to blank them. I feel sorry for their wives and girlfriends if they nag like that all the time.
As LB says above we were really under the cosh for twenty minutes but scored with a classic breakaway and from then on made the bulk of the chances. Some terrific performances. Dan Ball and Tom Richards especially and Freddie looks a terrific talent.

[Peter Newman]

Bit intermitten for me. Some stuttering around 15min point and then  on and off for the last 15 minutes of first half. Same until a few minutes into 2nd half but ok from then on.
The problem is the stream then becomes well behind  real time. Checking live scores showed us 2-0 uo well before we scored.
I think football at our level really needs a crowd atmosphere because it does not look that great otherwise.  Thought Freedie Hinds had  a quiet game except for laying on 2 goals.

Hope he continues to be quiet!

[daven]

First 15minutes was perfect, then had the buffering a lot! Worse 2nd half, lost long periods, only had picture for 2 minutes when it did come back. Shame really because what we did have was good picture. Missed the first goal, but saw the 2nd one!

[Midsomer-chris]

I was using Microsoft Edge. I didn't get to see any of the first half. Perhaps it was because I tried to join late. I spent the whole time watching the purple circle going round while it was buffering. I listened to the commentary on the internet radio. I left the streaming switched on and it worked perfectly for the whole of the second half. The only problem was that it wasn't live. . . it was a few minutes behind the commentary. Still a good experience being able to see the action, especially the new players.

By the way. . . . is it becoming compulsory that you cannot play for City unless your name is Tom ? It's a bit like the Monty Python sketch where they were all called Bruce

[stillmanjunior]

I can barely comment on the game as it just feels like a side distraction to tweeting updates and witnessing a string of angry messages (this time largely from the opposition) about how the stream isn't working.

It's at the point where I'm praying we get an away draw in the cup if we get through and the opposition can have some flack. Or Dulwich win and we have a weekend off. I'm close to the point where I dread home games already and we've won both ours!

[stillmanjunior]

The only problem was that it wasn't live. . .

Even matches on the telly aren't live live, they're behind by a few seconds because of things like betting in play. I think our commentary goes out about 15 seconds behind.

Roll on when these behind closed doors games are all over. I get I'm in a very fortunate position to be at them and the football itself hasn't suffered, but the matchday experience is about 1000 times worse now.

[pete mac]

My feed was fine.

We are lucky to be able to see our team.

Not all Clubs have feeds - Chippenham e.g

Expectations are so high - we’re not Sky Sports or the BBC. People are paying £6.99 but in the pandemic we should be happy we’ve got something. A shame there is so much grief over this.

A lot also depends on how good your technology is at home.

[LB]

I was using Chrome. Buffered a bit around the 30 minute mark in the first half, and the feed for the second half started about a minute after it did on the BCIR commentary but soon caught up and was okay from that point onwards. Agree with what pete mac says above, and do feel sorry for the club which is doing its best for us in these unprecedented times without a great deal of gratitude.

[stillmanjunior]

There is gratitude but it's definitely outnumbered by little digs. I understand frustration but some feel it's perfectly acceptable to be spiteful. Such is life sadly, on Matchchat someone had a go about Freddie Hinds for some reason. Maybe he expected more assists.

[LB]

There is gratitude but it's definitely outnumbered by little digs. I understand frustration but some feel it's perfectly acceptable to be spiteful. Such is life sadly, on Matchchat someone had a go about Freddie Hinds for some reason. Maybe he expected more assists.

Presumably a lot of the same people who would be 'having a go' if they were standing on the Popular Side...

[daven]

I don't think people on here "are having a go", we are just reporting what is happening as it helps those who are trying to get it right. We appreciate very much what the club are doing to get this right!! As someone else said it could be at our end where some problems lie, with our connections.
Well done City, I am proud to be part of you!!

[Steve Whites Missus]

I agree with best endeavour, biggest frustration for me is the expectation it nearly works... you get sucked in... then it fails. I’d actually prefer not to watch in current state (but temptation too much) and just listen to BCIR.

However, applying a charge for the service the club is entering into a contract with the payee so is required to deliver.

[yuffie]

As I said in the Oxford thread, even their live stream which (for me) ran without a hitch all game was around 90 seconds behind real time.

As for the game itself, Billericay certainly dominated possession but, apart from the early shot that Clarke saved and the overhead kick at the start of the 2nd half that hit the top of the bar, never really troubled us. By contrast when we did get into attacking areas we looked much more dangerous and could have had a few more goals.

As others have said I think Callum Evans looks an excellent find and Tom Richards was very good playing in Frankie's usual role. Obviously Tommy Conway stood out with another two goals, but his all round play is great, and considering Freddie Hinds hasn't played all season I thought he did well. I don't think we've seen the best of Freddie Grant, particularly going forward, but he is a proven talent at this level so I'm sure that will come.

The defence was excellent as a unit but my man of the match was definitely Jack Batten. When you consider he has played just over 90 minutes of football in 14 months I though he was superb, winning virtually everything that came near him and carrying and passing the ball out of defence with confidence. Once he is 100% fit I think he could be our best 'new' player this season.

As for the empty ground, I understand I am very lucky to be one of the few people allowed in but it is not a particularly enjoyable experience (though yesterday was better as at least I didn't get soaked) and there does feel a slight 'going through the motions' about turning up to take photos. Assuming I am allowed to travel across the country next weekend it will be interesting to see how an away game feels. And, yes I realise that there are a lot of people who would love to swap places with me so I shouldn't be so ungrateful!

[tovid]

The government has spent billions on IT systems and then abandoned them because they cannot get them to work yet we expect our broadcasts to work first time across every platform. My company employs an IT consultancy to deal with problems but we can still wait hours for things to get resolved. So it is unreasonable to expect the lads providing the service to also manage the many diverse problems during the game.
If we had known that fans would not be allowed at games then presumably we could have used the friendlies to experiment. Unfortunately we were not afforded that luxury.

[tovid]

And yes Jack Batten was terrific putting in some super block tackles.

[kermit]

I’ll send a summary to the Club of people’s experiences with the streaming today. Reading some of the comments on social media it does sound like the browser used may be a factor as some had no problems while others missed huge chunks of the match.

I watched using Edge. Apart from a bit of buffering the first half was mostly ok but I experienced problems more often after ht and lost the last view minutes of the match.

Anything to share?

I think some people need to get off their 'holier than thou' perch!
Our SLO asked for our experiences.
People are giving them.
Get over it.

[Beau Nash]

Has the distribution of the "£20 / 30 million bailout" been decided yet?

Is the club allowed to keep any revenue from live streaming without affecting income from the bailout?

It would help to know what systems the people who had faultless streams were using, similarly with the people who had problems.

I need help with this: Some of the technical bits - ISP, browser, operating system, RAM, graphics card etc.  What else?

When I watch the highlights / interviews on You Tube I have to use quality 720p50 as 1080p50 sometimes causes buffering...I have a 4 year old Dell Latitude E6430 laptop with 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4000 running Windows 10.  I haven't tried different browsers but depending on the app it can make a difference.

Some FB comments:
"I was streaming off my android phone while walking around peasedown so even in the sticks I had no issues."
"I thought the stream was really good yesterday had few buffering bits but nothing to much was just on my ipad."
"new PC plugged into Virgin superfibre - no luck on Google Chrome but was OK bar some stilted pictures (picture refreshed every 2 seconds whilst commentary was seamless) in the first half on M/soft Edge"

[OliverH]

It's concerning to hear that volunteers are finding their matchday duties at best joyless and at worst distressing. Hopefully a change in streaming provider will mean that the tech falls into place, but if it doesn't, let's not keep asking volunteers to do the impossible during such stressful times.

[comrade powell]

Good to see that the Club is carrying out a survey of those who watched the streaming on Saturday to help sort out any problems.

Please do complete it if you have received the email this morning.

[Steve Whites Missus]

Tonight’s Slough match will be an interesting test. As they are using the same streaming service I should get the same dodgy experience.
I do hope not, and if that is the case either the streaming company has improved something, or issue in supply side.
Guess I may know by 8pm.

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