TALKING POINTS

Chris Wade

@tufcchris

CONSISTENCY

After a rather sporadic set of early results, Gary Johnson will be hoping for the performances and importantly results to continue to settle. Two successive wins have seen the belief starting to grow that we could indeed be in for a season to be excited about. All good sides are built on solid foundations, and clean sheets are important. The first one of the season at St Albans last week is the start of that. Ollie Tomlinson and Ross Marshall looked strong, solid and to be forming a promising partnership. Bank Holiday weekends are always big in the National Leagues, with six points available across three days. Two wins can really see your league position change quickly, and we’ll be hoping to continue the unbeaten, and winning run.

THE LINE-UP

The squad assembled in the summer isn’t that big yet, with the potential for loans to be added when the EFL transfer window closes at the end of August. The absence of Asa Hall, Dean Moxey, Kevin Dawson, Finlay Craske and Aaron Jarvis last week left a real challenge to the squad. Players came in and made an important contribution, with the substitutes doing their job when they were introduced. There is hope that Moxey, Craske and Jarvis could return this weekend, with the addition of Jarvis to the starting eleven being a particularly exciting prospect. There has been enough in pre-season and the early games to suggest that he and Brad Ash can form a potent and successful couple in attack.

PLAYER RATING STATS LEADERS (AVERAGE)

ARTIFICIAL SURFACES

Saturday sees the first of eight visits to stadiums that have artificial surfaces. These have not been happy surfaces for the Gulls, and there is no doubt that there is a mental battle to overcome before the game to enable us to play our best game. Will Jenkins-Davis even admitting in a club interview on Wednesday that the players would prefer to play on grass. Whilst that maybe true, everybody has to play on these and we have to be switched on and ready for the fixture. The players have been training on these surfaces all week, so there really can’t be any excuses.

MARTIN’S RETURN

One of the most noticeable features of the past two wins has been the resettling of Dan Martin to the team. After a non event of 2022-23 due to injury and illness, he has come back to fitness and health and has looked very solid. He is very positionally aware, reads the game well and has won some strong tackles. I have always felt that he looks more comfortable in a four at the back than five, and this has certainly been the case in the last two games. Long may it continue.

YELLOW ARMY

The supporters have yet again started strongly. Two solid home crowds have been added too away from home. The crowd can’t have been far from half and half at St Albans, and the unstinting support of the club’s supporters in another season, in a lower league is as strong as ever. You can have your opinion on how the club is run and what went wrong last season, but the ability of fans to pay their hard earned money in difficult times and travel the country is incredible. Long may it continue and push us to another three points at Slough.