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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2019 6:39:55 GMT
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Aug 17, 2019 12:20:08 GMT
This was another reminder of the massive gulf in quality between this league and the one below.
Maidenhead is not one of the stronger teams in this league but defended robustly and broke effectively.
We could steamroller teams last season because we were so much better than them. We could finish games off in half hour, take our foot of the pedal, relax and still win.
Easy wins will be far rarer this season.
We are a young side playing a fast open attractive style, but the opposition teams will not just lie down and be flattened.
Setting expectation is difficult. It is good to be positive and talk things up. Sometimes self-belief creates a forward momentum that produces results.
But unreasonable expectations can be counter-productive.
I think our fans are fantastic and it still amazes me that over 1400 continued to turn up to support the team when Owers was producing total dross.
We always see the pattern that the bigger the crowd, the less supportive / forgiving the crowd.
There were 2900 TUFC fans there on Tuesday, which is great. That is the kind of crowd level we must have if we are to compete at the top end of the National League.
Half of them were the supportive hardcore that never went away.
A lot of the other half only came back because they expected to see a winning team and so expressed their frustration that they had not received what they thought they were entitled to in return for their entrance money.
Is that much different to what goes on at any other club? I doubt it.
If money were no object, Gary Johnson would have added at least another three or four experienced heads to give a solid spine to add the exciting youngsters into.
As it is, he will attempt to win it with kids (not possible according to Alan Hansen, but Alex Ferguson disagreed).
It would be a major miracle if he could actually win the league. My expectation is to put up a decent attempt to scrape into the top seven.
We would have to be a bit cannier than we were on Tuesday to meet that expectation.
On a positive note, the quality is there and the attitude is there.
We played delightful football for the first 30 minutes and the lads were gutted at the final whistle.
The majority of the crowd appreciated that and clapped the players off.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Aug 17, 2019 12:27:49 GMT
I would add that I was amazed that Hall was subbed off. Don’t think he picked up a knock and he was the glue holding us together. We lost it when he went off.
The only explanation I could think was that GJ wanted Little and Evans in the middle in a 4-4-2, but he actually pushed Evans wide anyway and moved Andrews to the centre until Keating replaced Andrews.
Niate did pick up a knock, hence his replacement by Lewis.
It is a shame that used up a substitution as it would have been good to throw Opi Edwards on too.
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