13 league games before the end of September

Are we ready?

I am ready, are you ?

.....to be disappointed once again.............

I haven't seen, read or heard anything that gives reason to suppose that we are ready and able to challenege for the title. Yet.

Obviously, everyone can see that we're well short of strikers, particularly the scoring type, and Hurst's apparent satisfaction with our two suspect-looking full backs is a glaring oversight for me. No real clues to how we'll really play, both in terms of style or formation, or even starting eleven.

I would say, as of today, we are: keeper - check, centre midfielders - good, wingers - very promising, centre backs - look sound enough, but strikers and full backs - not good enough. In short, and taken on  the balance of pre-season friendlies so far, we don't look like we will score enough goals, or, be particularly good at preventing them going in against. That's not a great basis for promotion for me. Still time for more signings, so fingers crossed, but its not just about the players we sign....it's also about what we do with them. How we ask them to play.

I wanted to see us really set our stall out after yet another flop. To effectively say...'you know what? 5 seasons is more than enough. No more of this play-off torture and falling short on quality and application. This year will be different. We will address every shortcoming and become a formidable, title-challenging team'. I just haven't seen, heard or sensed that.

Bignot and Thomas both played pretty well against Mansfield the other night. Obviously struggled against a couple of much better wingers against Donny, but they are both perfectly capable at this level.

Goalscoring is the problem at the moment, not the defence.

On the flip side I can be a bit more positive. We came fourth last year and the 2 best teams by far got promoted, on top of that we have improved with the quality of our signings compared to those that have left. Yes we need a striker, maybe 2 but tonight my glass is half full. Other teams are splashing the cash maybe, but in all honesty who has got a better team on paper than us right now. Any new signings our rivals have made need to fit into their new surroundings and as we can all agree these players are not guaranteed to be a hit with their new teams. We are not far away at all in my opinion and this could be a great season for us. So yes we will be ready!!!!!!!!!

Well, we'll see won't we.

Bignot and Thomas are defensively average for me and the good teams in our division will expose and exploit that aspect. If you want to be the best you can't have that. Both Thomas and Bignot are compromises IMO.

Quoted from Maringer

Bignot and Thomas both played pretty well against Mansfield the other night. Obviously struggled against a couple of much better wingers against Donny, but they are both perfectly capable at this level.

Goalscoring is the problem at the moment, not the defence.

Our defence has been solid with Macca, Pearson, Aswad in the previous two seasons and I think it will be the same next season. Bignot from what I have seen is average but we have had 2 average right backs the previous 2 seasons (Hatton and Wood) and still managed to have one of the best defences in the league both times. I think Brown will help defensively as well as we wont get outrun in the centre mid as much as last season.

Our problem has been evident over the previous 2 seasons in that we don't score enough. This in my opinion is down to two reasons. First of all we haven't had a consistent goal scoring partnership upfront and also our attacking approach is predictable as we have not had the creativity in the centre mid and therefore have only been left with one option in which is to play it to the wingers. I can't remember which team it was but they decided to double up on Rodman last season as they knew that if they stopped him from playing then we wouldn't create a lot (and it worked). I think this problem has been addressed with the addition of Brown as he will be prepared to attack from the centre mid. Paul knows that we need a striker and he could have easily been rushed into buying someone who isn't good enough.

Who are these good teams? They get mentioned a lot yet they never do to our so called average players what some think they will. Bignot had a championship winger in his pocket during a game last year and as pointed out, we've hardly had much better in previous years.

The one thing we all know is that it is nigh on impossible to predict this bonkers league.

Strap yourselves in, wear a helmet if you feel it's needed and enjoy the ride...

Quoted from chaos33

.....to be disappointed once again.............

I haven't seen, read or heard anything that gives reason to suppose that we are ready and able to challenege for the title. Yet.

Obviously, everyone can see that we're well short of strikers, particularly the scoring type, and Hurst's apparent satisfaction with our two suspect-looking full backs is a glaring oversight for me. No real clues to how we'll really play, both in terms of style or formation, or even starting eleven.

I would say, as of today, we are: keeper - check, centre midfielders - good, wingers - very promising, centre backs - look sound enough, but strikers and full backs - not good enough. In short, and taken on  the balance of pre-season friendlies so far, we don't look like we will score enough goals, or, be particularly good at preventing them going in against. That's not a great basis for promotion for me. Still time for more signings, so fingers crossed, but its not just about the players we sign....it's also about what we do with them. How we ask them to play.

I wanted to see us really set our stall out after yet another flop. To effectively say...'you know what? 5 seasons is more than enough. No more of this play-off torture and falling short on quality and application. This year will be different. We will address every shortcoming and become a formidable, title-challenging team'. I just haven't seen, heard or sensed that.

Got to say you sum it up the way our little group sees it too . Nothing that we have seen to get us enthused . Unfortunately when Disley came on in the second half against Mansfield we looked exactly as we did last season . Hope I'm wrong , I really do . There will be far better organised teams , not better players , but organised as we saw last season . Two weeks , three more friendlys not much time to get it sorted .

Quoted from chaos33

.....to be disappointed Happy once again.............

I haven't seen, read or heard anything that gives reason to suppose that we are ready and able to challenege for the title. Yet.

Obviously, everyone can see that we're well short of strikers, particularly the scoring type, and Hurst's apparent satisfaction with our two suspect-looking full backs is a glaring oversight for me. No real clues to how we'll really play, both in terms of style or formation, or even starting eleven.

I would say, as of today, we are: keeper - check, centre midfielders - good, wingers - very promising, centre backs - look sound enough, but strikers and full backs - not good enough. In short, and taken on  the balance of pre-season friendlies so far, we don't look like we will score enough goals, or, be particularly good at preventing them going in against. That's not a great basis for promotion for me. Still time for more signings, so fingers crossed, but its not just about the players we sign....it's also about what we do with them. How we ask them to play.

I wanted to see us really set our stall out after yet another flop. To effectively say...'you know what? 5 seasons is more than enough. No more of this play-off torture and falling short on quality and application. This year will be different. We will address every shortcoming and become a formidable, title-challenging team'. I just haven't seen, heard or sensed that.

Sorry I have edited it for you as you see to have got what you meant wrong,
Call this a fans site, Some on here cant wait for us to loose a game