Quote Originally Posted by Old_pie View Post
We clearly have a better squad than at the end of last season, especially defence, and some promising youngsters. I'd expect to see further improvements during the close season. A worry being that if we do end up getting promoted some opportunities may have been missed.
There is much to commend the original post and a lot I agree with. I'd take (relatively minor) issue with the part I have left above. It assumes that all our players are at least at the same standard as last year. I'd argue that Jones is a way below last year's level (almost certainly entirely because of injuries but the question remains whether he can recover in a league where the Barney Rubble defenders are assisted by the Fred Flinstone refs), Didz has been outstanding but surely (surely?) he must be in decline. The biggest shame is that injuries (or playing style) have caught up with Matty Palmer who is a shadow of the player he was pre-injury. Additionally we shouldn't let our ire get in the way of evaluating Cowley who was mostly brilliant and was the spark who ignited the serious changes in pace to our attacking play without which we are pretty pedestrian. I know he's young but I'd be inclined to see if Jarvis can play more centrally in the creative role.