TALKING POINTS

Mark Hirst – @MarkAHirst

Mark discusses the game at Bath

SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE

We’ve come away with 3 points against a team that were in the play-offs last season. That’s really all that matters in our transition from being a shambles to a competitive force again. We started well, the wing backs were pushing up – Carson instrumental in the opening goal and Craske doing well to create an opportunity that Seymour should have made more of. At other times we were sloppy in the final third, wasting decent positions to create more chances. Bath had a poor half, but hinted at improvement just before the interval and a couple of changes at the break also had an impact.

That’s when we had to show the character that was lacking all too often last season. We played very little football and became increasingly direct. Palmer’s goal was totally against the run of play, yet after Bath pulled one back, I never really felt we were going to capitulate. Wotton described it as ‘gritty’ and it certainly wasn’t pretty.

There was an incident in added time that I really enjoyed and possibly summed up the spirit and game management ability the side possesses. Scott Wilson fouled to stop our counter attack from a Bath corner and even though it wasn’t a particularly dirty challenge, yellow shirts swarmed around the offender without ever doing enough to incur the wrath of the officials. More importantly they managed to waste at least a minute whilst the ref was sorting it all out, completely killing Bath’s momentum – time wasn’t added to the 5 minutes that had been signalled and shortly afterwards it was game over. Wonderful!

BRIGHTER AWAY DAYS

LLLLLLL

Those were away results against the top 7 last season. We were shocking away from home – the highest placed team where we left with all 3 points was Slough, and that was daylight robbery. So let’s bask in the fact that we’ve shown that we’ll be competitive on our travels against the division’s better sides.

Overall our away record was P23 W6 D4 L13, with a goal difference of -13. That was a woeful effort, the 18th best record overall. I think we’ll need to win 10 away games to be a play-off side – the next 3 are at Chesham, Welling and Hampton & Richmond, teams that have opened with a combined 6 points. So maybe there’s a chance to put last season’s away misfortunes behind us.

A MAN WITH A PLAN

When I looked at team sheets last season, I often didn’t have a clue who might be playing where. What was more worrying is that the players gave the impression that they didn’t seem to know either on many occasions.

With Paul Wotton on the other hand, the structure is clear. Three central defenders, wing backs, a three man midfield, two forwards. Dyer drops out, Palmer comes in. Hasani or Mussa, Ash or Seymour, we know what the balance is. It just needs the players to be good enough on the day. But if they aren’t, that’s where there’s a potential challenge.

If we’re struggling to break a team down, do we have an alternative plan? A pacy wide man is an obvious absentee in the squad, but it’s difficult to approach a club to ask for a player on loan when it’s clear that their usual position isn’t one that fits our system. ‘Sit on the bench, we might need you later on’ isn’t a big selling point. It’ll be interesting to see how Paul deals with a Plan B scenario.

POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES

I predicted a 4th position finish on the basis that it was delusional to expect a club with a new manager and 15 new signings to gel together quickly enough to become an all-conquering force. Two wins from three is an encouraging start and Dorking will provide the biggest test yet. Here’s a few random positives and negatives

+Dreyer has caught everyone’s eye this season. I loved his pass to Carson that set up the first goal last night and his raking passes (rather than hoofs) will become a real feature. Both aforementioned players look like they’ll become proper assets.

+The central defensive unit will score 10 league goals between them this season.

+Hamon is such a reassuring presence. Every keeper makes great saves, but the better ones are those that don’t make stupid mistakes. I don’t think we’ll be questioning him too often this season.

– I’d like the central midfielders to be a bit braver on the ball. We lacked a bit of composure in the second half yesterday, eventually the ball was bypassing them completely. Someone who can carry the ball upfield from that position would be good too, but I guess they’re hard to find at this level

+/- Cody Cooke looks like the automatic choice amongst the forwards and deserved his goal. He works hard and copes with the physicality – he did well to manage his game after the early yellow card. But if we continue to be as direct as we were last night, is that really his game?

TT MATCH VERDICT – BATH CITY 1-2 TUFC by Matty Hayward

NATIONAL LEAGUE TV

I paid the £9.99 for the stream and it was one of the better services, even allowing for the result. The camera quality was good, there were no glitches and the Bath radio commentary was very balanced. I noticed that only our game and Dorking v Boreham Wood were listed for streaming from NLS, continuing the policy from last season where they cut down on the number of games available. Hopefully all of our midweek fixtures will continue to be shown on that platform

It’ll be interesting to see what happens later in the season when NLTV migrates into the DAZN ecosystem. At present the headline game of the week (previously on TNT) is also only available on the website, with enhanced camera coverage. It’s strange that the League have chosen to enter into an agreement which means the main game isn’t (at present) shown on a linear channel, which surely can’t help the visibility of the competition?