I still think we can be promoted this season but I'm not as confident as I was before today.
Mansfield have now played all the other teams at the top and haven't lost any of them so it looks like they'll go up.
That's my effort at positivity anyway.
I know this is going to be too soon for some and maybe easier for myself to stomach, as I couldn’t attend so was able to switch the radio off at 4-1 and get on my my day. But, today really only confirmed what we already knew.
Mansfield are a top side this year. I stand by what I said at the start of the season. Finish above then and you will be promoted.
We haven’t yet got the squad depth to compete at this level all year.
We likely will need to adapt our system and the players in it to become a compact side.
You either believe in our owners recruitment strategy and the Luke Williams’ tactical brain or you don’t. I firmly believe in both. Maybe we’ll be lucky with injuries and get promoted without any changes. Maybe we’ll fall away from the top 3 and if so I have no doubt we’ll be active in January to improve the squad.
**** start to the weekend but not the end of the world.
COYP
I still think we can be promoted this season but I'm not as confident as I was before today.
Mansfield have now played all the other teams at the top and haven't lost any of them so it looks like they'll go up.
That's my effort at positivity anyway.
We needed to strengthen following promotion. Only one area hasn’t been, and it shows.
We need to pick up as many points until January when this can be addressed and hope we don’t get a lot more injuries.
That’s as positive as I can get today.
There are plenty of positives to take from the season so far, but not a single one from today's game.
We're still above Mansfield and will be at the end of play today.
No stopping Stockport though.
Take today's result out of the equation and if you had told most of us at the start of the season that we would be in the top three (or thereabouts) in mid-October with 24 points on the board and we would have been delighted. Every team on an upward journey gets reality checks and learning opportunities along the way, and today was an example. It tells us not to get carried way, but also how far we've come.
Losing 1-4 at home to Woking a couple of years ago didn't stop us getting to where we are now.
Fword won't be adding anything to their points tally this weekend.