TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Jimmy Ball’s presser

“IF YOU TAKE YOUR EYE OFF WHAT’S IN FRONT OF YOU, YOU’LL TRIP UP”.

Jimmy Ball’s press conference this afternoon was similar in many ways to his previous appearances: he is consistent in his messaging. He described the squad as being focused and fully motivated for the task ahead. He said that four or five weeks ago the run of form that we’re now in would have been a distant dream, but as ever his eyes are only on the next game.

The BBC sent John Ayres. He brought a Spotlight camera: a sure sign the season has reached crunch time.

Injuries & Availability:

Cody Cooke had a successful shoulder operation this week and United have an otherwise fully fit squad. Looking back to the thoroughly enjoyable win at Slough at the weekend, the Manager said that he’d left Sonny-Blu Lo Everton on the bench because “I’ve got a really good squad”. He reminded us about “load,” pointing out that Sonny-Blu had carried a lot of weight when we had 7 or 8 injuries, as had his colleagues Matt Jay and Dan Hayfield.

Managing player workload is a recurring theme for Ball. He described one of his main tasks as: “Keeping all my riches available”. He went on to talk about leaving players out as being the most difficult part of his job. It’s the thing that he enjoys doing least. He said he understands that footballers aren’t robots. They are just young men with hopes and fears for the future like the rest of us.

Hemel Hempstead:

The Hertfordshire side come to Plainmoor as surprise playoff contenders: certainly nobody who saw United dismantle them on the final day of last season would have predicted this, but they’ve been in and around it all season and Ball was clear that they have lots of weapons and a stubborn defence. The task for United now is to take their minds off everything else and win their last two league games.

The team will train at Plainmoor the day before the match, and the manager is looking forward to vocal home support which he described as having been incredible on the road at Weston and Slough. He said that the players feed off it and he’s pleased to see his team “having a go” and giving the fans plenty to cheer at the moment.

Deon Moore:

Last week, Ball had prophesied that if Deon got off the mark, we might “see the floodgates open”. His brace to help put us 4-0 up in no time might have been the first instalment on that. The first goal of course was a tap in, but Ball was clear that: “With good centre forwards the ball comes to them.”

Looking Further Ahead:

It’s clearly one game at a time at the moment, and one quote from the manager sums this up “if you take your eye off what’s in front of you you’ll trip up”.

The early kick off at Tonbridge isn’t a problem in Ball’s eyes. He said that it’s just a matter of being professional and moving your timings back earlier- e.g. eating your breakfast earlier than you would do on a normal matchday.

Although I’m led to believe Dave Thomas has taken the plunge and had a small investment on United to win the league (odds of 25/1 proved irresistible to the old fox), most fans are anticipating a playoff campaign. Ball was bullish, pointing out that he has only ever lost one post season game in 90 minutes. He said he only ever plans one game at a time, so not knowing who we will play until a week out doesn’t faze him.

Ball memorably referred to his bench as now being filled with “high calibre bullets.” He has certainly got United firing, with four consecutive wins. If they can make it half a dozen, you’d like to think we might take some stopping.

But he’s right: it has to be one game at a time.

Up the Gulls