TALKING POINTS

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

Dom looks ahead to the game in London

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

In researching for this blog I notice that Hornchurch is a similar distance from Torbay than Manchester, this league may be regional but mileage-wise, it isn’t working out much better for the team or the local supporters! Thankfully United travel there in good heart this weekend. The game against Worthing could have gone either way, no doubt about that. The away team fried our defence at times, and had they been more clinical then we’d have been licking our wounds. But that’s the fine lines of Football, it’s not the amount of possession and shots you have, it’s whether you take your chances, and United did, in what was a terrific advert for National League South Football. This game presents a different challenge for United, and despite Hornchurch being new to the NLS and 20th in the league, I doubt much will come easy. Time to roll our sleeves up and earn back to back victories.

THE OPPOSITION

Hornchurch are managed by ex-Daggers man Daryl McMahon, and form-wise they have been struggling in recent times, but did grab a very creditable draw at Boreham Wood in mid-week, a result that will be a confidence booster for them. Our opposition supporter Q&A highlighted Tom Wraight as the main man in midfield for the Urchins and ex-Crystal Palace winger Sean Scannell as someone who is capable of causing us trouble, whilst McMahon has experienced success against us before. All in all an interesting test for the Gulls against a team we have never faced before. Like pretty much every game this season we’ll have to fight hard to get the upper hand and if we do that in this one our professional quality should do the rest.

TEAM SELECTION

3-5-2 be or not to be, that is the question! Paul Wotton clearly loves the formation, and built a squad accordingly last summer…but during the last two games he’s switched to something resembling a 4-3-3 and the results have been positive. Integral to that is Omar Mussa playing just behind the attack, a position where he can turn on the style and also get off a decent shot! The negatives, well defensively there is less protection for the back four and one of our better players this season Matt Carson is suddenly banished to the bench, but overall maybe this change is worth sticking with at Hornchurch. A little more risk for attacking reward could lift this team even further, over to you Paul!

THE STRIKE CONUNDRUM

Another game with little impact from the strikers on Tuesday night, and this is an ongoing concern. Many wanted Brad Ash inserted back into the line-up and they got their wish, but it didn’t go particularly well for the frontman. A moment that summed this up occurred in the 1st half when Brad did well to win possession, and approaching the penalty area a pass to one of his team mates looked his best bet, instead he tamely shot at the keeper. If the strikers are going to combine then that pass needs to be made. Otherwise Cody Cooke won headers and scrapped manfully as usual, but the combination failed to click again – a lot of work rate but no end results. The failure to sign Sam Pearson is one that Paul Wotton was notably annoyed about, and you can see why.

YELLOW ARMY

Over 3700 on a Tuesday night in October! That speaks volumes on how the Yellow Army feel about their football club and how much they believe in what the Bryn Consortium are doing at our football club. Our fabulous support will no doubt be on show again this Saturday – safe travels to those heading to Hornchurch!