Today we welcome Torquay United to the Mangata Pay UK stadium. May I wish their Directors, Manager, players and supporters an enjoyable time with us and a safe journey home later.
Well, it’s been a win-one, lose-one, win- one run in our last three league games and there, perhaps, lies our early season problem in a nutshell and it’s a problem we are determined to solve.
Since Luke Garrard returned to the club, we have beaten 3rd place Eastbourne United 1-0 at their place, knocking them out of the FA Cup. We have drawn 0-0 away at current leaders Weston Super Mare, after dominating large parts of the game. We then beat Farnborough here 3-1 who at present sit 5th, whilst also beating Truro 1-0 here, who currently sit 2nd.
Amongst that lot, we inexplicably go and lose 1-0 to bottom of the table Aveley and any momentum built was lost and in truth we’re left scratching our heads. From there we went and knocked out Felixstowe and Walton United very comfortably last Saturday in the FA Trophy, haha – in all seriousness we were pretty poor once again – though if you take the emotion out of it, we still deservedly levelled late on to take it to penalties – once again our goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore stepped forward and came to our rescue, so again take a bow Mr. Ashmore.
My belief as we complete the first third of the season quite simply is…. if we can all look at ourselves with a bit more honesty, we can quietly re-set, re-focus and start to impose ourselves on this division and if we can use this pre-Christmas window to improve ourselves by small margins, then collectively our season can get back on track and optimism can slowly return.
This afternoon we welcome our old adversaries and very good friends from Devon, Torquay United, and as always, whenever we play them we know we’re in for a very tough game. I’m sure today will be no different and so I expect another tight and cagey affair.
In my recent notes, I’ve touched on the need for our club and dressing room to show togetherness, character, attitude, discipline and desire. As such, after some very constructive discussions with our Gaffer Luke Garrard and Sporting Director Charlie Hunter, we feel a slight re-boot and mini squad rebuild is needed – but to be very clear, it is a mini squad rebuild, built on evolution rather than revolution.
That said, a positive result today against an ex-football league club, who I consider to be the biggest in our division, can re-set the dressing room bar and re-set the tone for the rest of our season. A positive mindset, positive performance and a positive result today will bring renewed confidence to us in our run-up to Christmas and hopefully set us up for an improved second half of the season.
Off the park, John Goddard has been allowed to depart for pastures new and we genuinely wish John well, Cameron Coxe has been allowed to go out on loan to Salisbury City for three months to get more game time. However, our squad is still slightly oversized as we begin our mini-rebuild in earnest.
As such, you can expect one or two others to be allowed to leave or go out on loan, especially if their game time decreases substantially or dries up. Any departures though will not be knee-jerk reactions – but necessary after the Aveley defeat, after the FA Trophy game and if we don’t want to continue to sit on the fringes of the play-offs.
Our search for the right players, characters and winning formula, has already brought us Jayden Richardson and Jon Benton to assist in the rebuild process and we hope that strengthening our ranks, even by small margins, will improve our quality and options in key areas and those small margins are sometimes all it takes.
We know our season has yet to hit the highs, we know our player search is still not finished and our player recruitment and character checks are still ongoing – but recent performances and results still show us that we do need to bring in one or two more quality players into the club should the chance present itself.
That said they will have to be the right type of player, one who shows they have the ability, attitude, discipline, desire, work rate, leadership and character to improve what is already a very good squad. My job here for more than 25 years has been to care for, invest in, plan, scheme, build and improve our football club from top to bottom and bottom to top.
I’m still doing that no matter how small the margins may seem. Yes, the lines at times do get blurred – but I must continue to lead, continue to invest, build and continue to trust in the process – nothing’s over until it’s over and small margins do matter.
Anyway, back to today, let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
