Today we welcome Eastbourne Borough to the Mangata Pay UK stadium. May I wish their Directors, players and supporters an enjoyable time with us and a safe journey home.
Although our league position has stayed pretty static since Luke’s re- appointment, it doesn’t truly reflect the small margins of improvement that we are now making. I feel we are all quietly starting to see those small margins that I’ve spoken about in my programme notes in recent months – but in any football season, you must first deal with the lows and the setbacks if you want to reach the highs, and I feel we are now doing that.
My notes have recently addressed the start of our mini squad rebuild, plus the need for further investment, addressing the playing budget, re-focusing on our new academy structure, trying to be more resolute mentally and addressing better game management and trying to improve our full-time fitness levels.
Once the above is achieved, it is still about having the leaders, characters, attitude, discipline, desire and most importantly it is also about consistent performances and improved results. It was very clear to me before Ross Jenkins’ departure that we needed a re- set to be more solid defensively, be more workmanlike but creative in midfield, and address the lack of goals.
Importantly, we needed to show more character, togetherness, resolve and create a winning mentality. Of course, there is still a long, long way to go but thankfully the small margins of improvement that we speak about have started to become more apparent.
With a heavier focus nowadays on match stats which is so prevalent at our level of football I personally feel that my manager, his staff and you supporters have to be very careful not to become too heavily reliant on them, as some of the stats are in truth more about football fashion, and I’ve discussed that with Luke.
Put simply, stats and data don’t tell you about intelligent game management, intelligent use of substitutes and intelligent man management. Stats don’t necessarily mean you are working smart, as they don’t tell you when to kick someone up the backside when they need it, when to put an arm around a player who is perhaps struggling a bit or teach you when to listen and not just talk.
Data doesn’t tell you the true importance of a modern gaffer, as it doesn’t define his man management, the importance of communication, relationships, the reading of situations or how he chooses to lead, unite and focus his promotion-chasing dressing room into title winners.
That’s the barometer an experienced Chairman like myself would judge football people on. I, of course, have to differentiate between ‘new’ and ‘old school’ values and take into consideration social media etc, but fundamentally values like honesty, integrity and genuinely caring are how I have always judged the good, the bad and the ugly about managers and staff. I can tell you though that once again we have a good manager and a more committed group of staff.
What my eyes tell me at present are that week by week we are becoming slightly more focused, well drilled and becoming a difficult side to beat – that said, we are still not quite looking like the free flowing team that we’re trying to be, but with hard work I hope that will come.
However, after our mixed start to this season, we are thankfully not playing horseshoe football anymore, yes, we do have lapses – but we are not playing suicide football at the back and it’s one of the reasons we have one of the best defensive records in the league. That in truth is what I expected with Luke Garrard in charge, and it’s all to do with good communication, good coaching, good management and good players.
At the moment Luke and the dressing room are still trying to find the right blend between defence, midfield and attack – but as I said, I genuinely feel that progress, albeit slowly, is being made. For me, one of the reasons why we are not looking quite so balanced and free flowing down the left in recent weeks is not having the creativity of Erico Sousa.
Charles Clayden suffering a hamstring injury was also a blow, because Charles and Erico’s absence does take away some of our pace, and also takes away two of our game-changers and match-winners. That said, with Kwesi Appiah, Tyrone Marsh, Junior Dixon, Lee Ndlovu and Abdul Abdulmalik now all fit, the squad is looking much stronger offensively.
In terms of our mini squad rebuild, the recent arrival of two ball carriers in Jayden Richardson and Jon Benton, has improved us and the small margins we felt were needed regarding our squad improvement are starting to show.
We are still quietly looking to add one or two to the squad – but as I said in my last notes, this is evolution, not revolution and any new signings must have the character, personality, work ethic and hunger to want promotion, and want to work hard at fitting into our squad and they cannot just expect to be a starter unless their performances dictate.
Our squad is evolving, it is improving, our character and ability is also now slowly starting to show itself and the attitude, discipline and desire I constantly talk about is beginning to permeate through the squad, the staff and the club. That has shown itself with recent victories over two of our promotion rivals in Farnborough and Truro City – it also showed itself in two well-earned 0-0 draws, against two other promotion rivals, down at Weston Super Mare and at home to Torquay United. In truth, we were the better side in all four of those games and we then followed those results up last Saturday and on Monday, with two important on-the-road victories at Bath City and Chelmsford City.
The stats that really interest me at present, are the ones in the WIN column, in the goals FOR column and in the goals AGAINST column…. it is also great to see our match winners and game changers now making such a difference off the bench, as that meant we have slowly climbed back and are now averaging around 1.75 points per game. Under Luke, we are now averaging around 1.9 points per game, and we feel if we can become just slightly more consistent, and add a few more goals, we could even get that up close to 2 points per game.
We also feel if we can slightly improve our squad strength in the coming months, that we can get to around 86 to 92 points this season and feel that would give us a minimum top three position and might even mean we could win the title, as everyone appears to beat everyone else in this league.
To do that though, we must focus on maintaining the best defensive record in this league and try and keep things down to under a goal a game conceded, whilst also hitting upwards of 70 goals……..if we can do that it will ensure plenty of W’s in the Win column and from there who knows where Luke and this squad might take us?
Tuesday is another very big test for us, as it brings local rivals St Albans City to our humble abode – we have not played the Saints in the league for almost a decade and so it promises to be a pre-Christmas cracker and one both supporters will enjoy.
I know things are tight with Christmas coming up – but please do your very best to get yourselves down here on Tuesday night and if you get your tickets early, there are several community initiatives to make this game more affordable for all of our fans pre-Christmas. At present the St Albans City fans are outbuying our supporters by around 4 to 1 but, as always, history tells me you’ll buy your tickets late, but you’ll be there in your numbers on the night.
Anyway, back to today, it’s all about the FA Trophy and our task in hand is beating a very good Eastbourne Borough side. We have already played them twice, both at Eastbourne, once in the FA Cup and once in the league and we each have a win apiece.
I again expect things to be very tight this afternoon – but hopefully with home advantage we can nick a positive result and progress into the next round.
Lastly, whoever you support, let’s hope for an open attacking game and may the best team win.
Take Care,
Danny.
