Today we welcome Felixstowe and Walton United to the Mangata Pay UK stadium. May I wish their Directors, players and supporters an enjoyable time with us and a safe journey home.
I believe this season is showing me that any success we might have is more about what we can produce consistently, rather than about the quality of the opposition we face each week in our league. It is the same in the cup and a home tie with Felixstowe and Walton United in the FA Trophy gives us a great chance to go further in the competition.
For our older supporters, you will no doubt remember back in 2005/06, when we were playing our football in the Southern League Eastern Division. Like now, we loved these types of cup days, and like now we were great underdogs and giant killers.
I well remember how we knocked out Crawley Town when they were a non-league club at their place in the FA Trophy. Our support that day was noisy, rowdy and different class. In truth we took our lead from our supporters that day, we played up, we triumphed against the odds and went all the way to the Trophy Semi Final.
So we know what Felixstowe will bring to the table today, we know they are dangerous and we will not underestimate them. We are also well aware of our opponent’s league form and very aware that our opponents battered our old adversaries Bishop’s Stortford in the last round 6-1.
Having said that, if we get beat this afternoon, we will not whinge or make excuses, we’ll congratulate our opponents, wipe our mouths and we will be humble. We will accept we’ve been beaten by a better team from a lower division, then have our inquest and fully concentrate on our promotion ambitions, as that’s all we would have left.
Experience tells me, there will be plenty of cup shocks today, but this game is more about us focusing on ourselves and working hard for a victory. That said, you often need a bit of luck in the cup, because on occasion things just don’t work out for you, at times your players just don’t turn up and when that happens, don’t whine, don’t whinge, wipe your mouth and deal with your performance and defeat.
Defeat doesn’t always mean you are “defeated”, as league programmes nowadays last 46 games, and everybody will get beaten or knocked down at times, as we were at Aveley last Saturday. It’s more about getting back up and dealing with the setback, as we did against Truro on Tuesday, in reality it’s dealing with setbacks that will ultimately define us. Losing and dealing with defeat is a big part of any football club’s DNA and again that is proving to be the case for us this season.
Experience tells me that success in business or football is more about having the right people with the right characters and attitudes wrapped around you. We all need the right people to help us deal with our setbacks and our own failures at times. I like to work with people who understand that football in the main is simple, it’s about playmakers, destroyers and finishers. It’s obvious that you will get injuries and suspensions, you will at times make poor decisions and on occasions sign the wrong players, or even the right players who have wrong attitudes.
That’s all part of the team-building process but you must stay focused and you must overcome, as you still need to win football matches. Setbacks and failure are a huge part of any team-building process if you want to create a successful season – but in football as in business, you must deal with setbacks if you want success to follow – in my experience, nothing worthwhile ever comes easy in this life.
I possibly get more disappointed when people choose to stay down when they’re hardest hit and I get even more disappointed when they quit or wilt under pressure. Those are the actions of the weak, the actions of the entitled and it doesn’t help me or them – these people must understand setbacks are unavoidable and if they throw in the towel every 5 minutes, they will never achieve anything.
Setbacks have been a big part of my family, football and business life, but giving up when I’m most needed would for me be unforgivable. I don’t believe you love or care for your family, staff, players, supporters, club, town or your community only when you’re winning and things are going well. For me, you must love and care for them when things are tough, even more when things are difficult and even furthermore when things are desperate, and though we’re not quite at the desperate stage, we are in a tough spot.
As we look to get ourselves a cup win today, it’s important for me to possibly re-focus on what this season’s realistic ambitions now are. Self-awareness, planning ahead and being pragmatic is an important part of a Chairman’s life and in any rebuilding process you must be pragmatic. As such, I’m expecting evolution not revolution over the coming months and here are some easy-to-read stats, as our mini dressing room rebuild begins.
Our recent league results show me that if we continue our current form, though frustrating at times, it will improve our league position if mirrored until the end of the season. The data and numbers also show me that since Luke’s return our points-per-game ratio is still consistently inconsistent, haha, but still ok. As such we can expect a slightly improved mid and second half of the season points tally and here are my reasons for that statement;
Luke Garrard has now been back for 12 games…..8 in the league and 4 in the cup. Luke remained unbeaten through three rounds of the FA Cup only then losing out on penalties after drawing 2-2 against League One Leyton Orient in the FA Cup 1st Round Proper.
In the National League South, Luke is now eight games deep, he has a record of 4 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats and that at present means we are slowly closing in on our play-off rivals. The dressing room has won 14 points from our last 8 league games, which gives us an average points return of 1.75 points per game.
It means if the dressing room can improve their performance and results just slightly and improve on our recent 1.75 points per game ratio, it means we will comfortably finish in the top 7 and more likely 4th or 5th. However, if we can get our points per game ratio closer to, or above, 2 points per game, then we can still get ourselves into the top three, secure home advantage in the play-offs and even make a late challenge for the title.
At this stage of the season, our performances over the last week show me, we are nothing if not inconsistent. So, unless we improve the squad, unless we improve the mindsets and unless we reverse our away form quickly, then I believe a 5th, 6th or 7th playoff position is perhaps the best we can hope for.
As such I believe a mini rebuild is now needed, as I still want the title and I still want to make my family, staff, dressing room, club, town and community proud – nothing’s over until it’s over.
Finally, whoever you support, let’s hope for an open, attacking game and may the best team win.
Take care,
Danny.
