TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Paul Wotton’s latest presser

Yellows Weather Warning

By the time you read this, it may have been confirmed that the Dorking game has had to be called off. Shortly after Thursday afternoon’s presser, the club announced a Friday morning pitch inspection.

I haven’t got any inside information, but club staff were pessimistic about the prospects and coming out of Reception afterwards at “home time”, with the grass verges saturated and rain again bouncing off the tarmac as Spires Academy students either got into cars or became soaking wet within seconds, it was very hard to shake the conviction that a blank Saturday looms.

If you live in South Devon, you won’t need me to tell you that it has rained almost every day this year and that there is no immediate prospect of a dry spell.

So, having done a couple of away trips this week and written and nattered about them extensively, I’m going to keep this write-up short.

You can see the full video here:

· The boss was understandably really pleased about the 6-point haul from Hornchurch and Dover. He described it as a productive week

· He revealed that Jordan Dyer is having a scan on his injured hamstring. There was speculation on Tuesday night that we might be without him for 6 weeks, and Wotton said nothing to discourage that: the early prognosis isn’t good.

· He said that we don’t have enough defensive cover and that this will need to be reviewed when the scan results are known

· Addressing the punishing travel schedule which is a constant for teams in the South West, he said that spending 7 hours on a bus before going

out to play on a heavy pitch would “100% have been a factor” in Jordan getting injured

· It was 5:45am when Paul finally got to bed on Wednesday morning, and he and the players are still tired. Training today reflected this with several players “banged up” after Tuesday’s slog in East Kent.

· Cody Cooke’s goals at Dover were absolutely crucial. He is still, however, in the process of getting fully fit again after his hip injury and it hadn’t been the plan for him to pay the full 99 minutes at Crabble. Wotton paid tribute to the front man’s attitude, saying that he was only able to get back as soon as he has because of how well he had knuckled down and focused on his recovery.

· He isn’t happy that we continue to concede the first goal so often. He thinks the goals have been too soft but was emphatic that this will change. He cautioned us that it needs to, because we are currently bucking the stat identified by Tony Pulis when he managed Paul at Plymouth: If you score the first goal you have a 72% chance of not losing the game. What a relief that Enfield, Hornchurch and Dover never got that memo! He pointed out that his team’s away record has increased beyond all recognition since the Autumn and that he had correctly predicted that.