TALKING POINTS

Matty Orton – @MattyOrton1

Matty discusses the loss at Welling

OFFICIATING

There is a myth in football, that the higher up the leagues you get, the better the officiating. The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t, and, to think it does is only naive. The best thing to do is to accept, that bad officials and officiating exist everywhere across all divisions all the time. Whether the game is won or lost on bad officiating, it is something that can, does and will happen in most games, it just depends where you are on the receiving end. There won’t be a Welling fan yesterday who’s walked away and given the referee a second thought. Yet, he’s potentially lost us the game. We know the name, but ask any Hartlepool fan who refereed our play-off final with them, none of them would be able to tell you. If you asked them who was the lino that day, again, nobody would know, but, it turns out it was yesterday’s referee. I used to get more hung up on it, not that there should ever be a constant move forward to try and improve officiating, but it really is something that I now accept as a cycle of the game.

JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS

It would be very easy to feel more disappointed than necessary after yesterday’s result. It’s never been a particularly favourable ground for us, I’ve been there a few times myself and its not exactly desirable. Sloping pitch, uncomfortable surroundings and a bit rough round the edges. I can’t even remember us scoring there. But, as obvious as it sounds, as was the reminder at the start of the season, we are going to have lows, we aren’t going to win every game. However, if we were to carry on with the trajectory of the first 8 games we’re finishing on or around 92 points – that will do for now. It was a crap day all round, get in, get out, and forget it as quickly as you can.

SAVE THE CRITICISMS – FOR NOW

Wotton is refreshingly transparent. His description of the game was an honest one, as he cut a disappointed figure in his post match. And he was right, we were ponderous, we were slow, sluggish, we played without intent, we had no plan B, we were very one dimensional in our approach. We were everything we weren’t against Chippenham in the week. I think we’ve done enough there to win the game, we’ve been undone somewhat not only by our own doing but factors also out of our control, and we would have won that on a different day. But it has, and again something Wotton pointed out, been a very intense start to the season. Players are still working things out and I think at this stage it would be unfair to single out individuals or individual performances that aren’t up to expectation. This is a very solid squad in the very early days of its initiation.

TRUST THE PROCESS

I’m not sure he was there yesterday, but he was certainly at Chesham and Farnborough and he has certainly been present at all home games so far this season at Plainmoor. It is safe to say Neil Warnock is 100% in! He couldn’t keep still in his seat against Dorking come the end of the game, heading, kicking and clapping every ball. There’s no doubt, this squad will have a sprinkle of Warnock magic in it. All the more reason to remain optimistic about where we are going this season. We have some fantastic people guiding this club now, and when the Gaffer’s Gaffer is Neil Warnock, then you really should trust the process. If this squad needs re-enforcements, we’ve got the right person and people to ask. Let’s get him giving us a wave when he’s next at Plainmoor!