Quote Originally Posted by TSANHO View Post
I’m probably on the glass half empty side of pragmatism at the minute. A bit like Anticlough says, I want to see signs that we can go and dominate teams, I don’t think that is unacceptable.

This may be unpopular but I don’t think we played well against Wrexham at all. They dominated us. They forced their style and tempo on us and created far more opportunities than we did. Had we gone in at the break 2-0 down there couldn’t be any complaints…and had their ‘offside’ goal rightly stood and the effort that went narrowly wide actually gone in, that’s exactly what would have happened.

Of course, ifs, buts and maybes don’t mean anything in the league table but I was concerned, still, with our lack of midfield presence and how easy it is for the opposition to bypass it with such little effort. Neither Palmer (as tidy as he is) and especially Francis are going to strike fear into any combative midfield. All this, of course, puts an added strain on the defence.

To be fair to the defence they stood up well to most of the air borne attacks but they still looked very vulnerable trying to play out of their six yard box, it was scary stuff at times. It may be unfair to use the phrase ‘polishing a turd’ but that’s what the score line did to our performance the other night.

At the end of last season we had glimpses of what we thought an IB team was all about, high pressing, winning the ball back early, plying in the opposition’s half, harrying the opposition and moving the ball quickly and purposely…and more often than not, forward.

Against Wrexham we looked more like the team that Ardley left behind than anything resembling what we thought we were going to see this term. Don’t forget, before the sending off, Torquay were also managing to dominate us and put us under pressure…the same Torquay who we’re smashed by both Woking and Altrincham at home. We couldn’t beat them with an extra man for 65 minutes.

Say what you want about gelling, being unbeaten, good signs in defence etc etc. The signs are there for all to see, this isn’t at present a promotion challenging side.
Take on board your points. Without going OTT with my response, I see a lot more positives than negatives. Additionally, the negatives are more areas of development. There’s absolutely nothing I’ve seen so far that suggests we can’t achieve our target… promotion.

Biggest positive for me, Burchnall.