TALKING POINTS

Chris Wade – @tufcchris

Chris looks ahead to the away game

LOW SCORING GAMES

An interesting statistic that I have come up with myself is that we haven’t scored from open play or conceded from open play in the last four matches. All of the goals have either come from set corners, free kicks or penalties. That must mean that we are solid defensively and tough to break down, but haven’t had the required edge in the front third. The basis of any successful team is to keep the back door shut, so that is certainly a positive, but we need to add ways to be more dynamic in the front third and to get some more quality into our passes and final touches. Saturday would be a good time for that.

DOMINANT DYER

Last week saw Jordan Dyer play as the centre of the three defenders. And he excelled both in that role and back four in the second half. Dominant in the air, firm in the tackle and not afraid to play football, Jordan led the line brilliantly in the absence of the rested Sam Dreyer. Expect to see Sam return to the back line on Saturday, but with Dyer and Palmer now fully fit, there is both competition for places and reliability in whichever way manager Paul Wotton chooses to go as we head towards the pre-Christmas period of matches.

JORDAN DYER 24/25 STATS – APPEARANCES 10, GOALS 0, ASSISTS 1, YELLOW CARDS 2, RED CARDS 0

STRONG DEBUT

After his debut last weekend, I am excited to see what the rest of the season brings for Jordan Thomas in a yellow shirt. He was really good, both getting forward to supplement the attacks and being disciplined in his defensive duties. He was a player that struck you as experienced at this level and immediately comfortable in his surroundings, and that will have been helped by knowing some of the squad from previous clubs. He looks to be a real quality addition.

AWAY RECORD

Whilst our away form hasn’t been terrible or brilliant this season, a run of wins on our travels right now would be really helpful. A win at Salisbury was very welcome, but we need to be more dominant in our away performances, and there is no doubt that Saturday is a stern test of our credentials. The solidity at the back has given us the platform in games, but the quality that we undoubtedly have in attacking areas needs to shine through more. It will be a interesting to see if Paul Wotton sticks with his more favoured three at the back or the 4-3-3 that he switched to at half time last weekend in the Trophy.

THE OPPOSITION

In what could be a cut and paste from a lot of these articles this season, we face Boreham Wood off the back of an inconsistent run. 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in their last 6 matches shows the inconsistent nature of the league. It will be one of the hardest tests away from home this season, so a strong start and getting into the game will be key. There is no reason why we can’t get a positive result there, but offer me a point now, and I’d say let’s go home and get three on Tuesday.