PSF: Weymouth v Torquay United : 7:45pm. - 29 July 2014

Good luck to Nico. I'm sure he will enjoy those pies.

Keep your powder dry.
One match, a pre-season friendly we don't know yet how good or how bad we are and will only become apparent after a good number of proper competitive matches, Ed may be a decent player but you cannot judge any player on one performance. Is all about consistency of performance, getting players close to their peak potential and doing it week in week out.
If CH can accomplish that one we are half way there and for any side to be consistent must have a settled first eleven.
No sure what that is yet so who do we think CH will start at Gateshead? A very tricky opener against a former league club who have been rejuvenated in recent years and have some very useful players.

Like you point out, results like this happen in pre-season - Aston Villa lost to Chesterfield but it doesn't look very good.Not sure which of the new signings was the one who gave the ball away for Weymouth's 3rd - he appeared to be playing at left-back...might be Ajala but it was a poor effort.

With Benyon/Yeoman forward line, it was one that is weaker than the one Weymouth had on show - these two surely can be no more than back-up strikers.

Me too. But mid-table can be a big place, can't it? A pedant may restrict it to 11th-14th; others would use the "mid-third" gauge of 9th-16th. You could, depending on how the points fall, extend your definition to a broad band between 7th and 18th. Or thereabouts. I'm going for the middle-six - 10th to 15th - and, wherever I visualised us before Walsall and Argyle, I probably moved us up a couple of places afterwards. Now, after hearing about Weymouth, I've moved us down a notch or two from my starting place. Another adjustment, no doubt, after Exeter; a more significant one after Gateshead. Beyond that, who knows? Comings and goings will play a bit part as will, lest we forget, managerial strategy and player performance. It may take a while to realise whether we're talking of things being cast in stone relatively early or of sands which constantly shift.

In the short-term, Exeter on Saturday. I saw them against Swansea. They look like a side which plays good football but will struggle to score goals and will always be prone to defensive lapses. A tale familiar to us: plenty of promise; much to fret about. I'd be anxious if I supported them. Saturday could be fascinating; I also expect it to be undistinguished. Correct me, of course, if it's a cracker with both sets of supporters subsequently predicting promotion.



Somebody, somewhere recently drew a parallel with 2007 and issued the warning that it's all rather different this time around. Then we would sign a player of established pedigree in a manner that declared our intent. Then a similar player would follow. And another. And another. And another. This time Bowman and Young may be the limit as far as this goes, certainly until we can unload. I'd like Briscoe to fall in this category - wouldn't we all? - and then it's a case for hoping that the "second tier" signings prove more successful than unsuccessful. In fact we could do with some of these signings - in that they are relatively unheralded and inexperienced - having a similar impact to Benyon and Stevens all those years ago. Over two or three seasons, each provided better value than we may have hoped at the outset.



A fair point. Downes divides opinion. There are those who adore him; there are those who consider him to be an unspeakably awful player. Each time I saw him have a stormer last season; he had a stinker the next time. And, after I'd seen him torn to shreds, he was commanding on the subsequent occasion. I expect the same next season and, as Jon says, a poor back four will undoubtably make Downes more vulnerable.

Downes' presence in the team is, to me, not unlike that of Rice. Both can probably be accommodated in a team which is set to be "mid table"; each could be costly if we were chasing promotion. This becomes a tautology. These players are good enough if we don't have a particularly strong team or harbour great ambition. If our team is better - and we have aspirations - they're not up to it. I'm not sure if I really wish to think like this. Yet it may be a case of "needs must".

Yes it was Ajala.

I've tried not to get carried away by the exciting pieces of flare and skill we have seen from him so far in pre-season.

The fact is that a flare player is just as likely to influence a game by sloppily giving the ball away as by producing a piece of magic - perhaps more so.

It comes down to discipline and I could easily see Ajala following a Carayol career path or a Macklin career path. We shall have to wait and see.

In fairness to Ajala, surrendering position out on the left wing probably would not have led to our leaking a goal if it hadn't been for Cruise and Downes on the left side of our defence doing an impression of the Chuckle Brothers.