Stafford Rangers home

Thought we looked pretty good tonight given the number of new faces on show, and we're good value for the win.
First goal a real freak, second a bit sloppy but Matt Dodd took his two really well, especially the first, and looked sharp. Jamie ran and ran, what a big heart that lad has got and could just hit it off with Dodd up front.
Defence looked pretty solid against a fast and aggressive Stafford side. Lots of good steady performances all round.

Reasons for optimism I thought, enjoyed the game.

Was a good performance but we still need a new striker,Jamie ran his heart out again but them long balls to him are no good when got a massive defender on his back!

A pre season win isn't normally much to shout about but being the first win I've witnessed since January i'll take it!

A lot of new faces and some encouraging displays, admittedly Stafford weren't great (all 18 who played!). Green and Pierpoint looked good and was very impressed with Insall but agree against the defences in the Northern Premier we will need some more firepower up front, but it's not easy to find, at the recent supporters meeting the chairman mentioned trying to contact a striker for 4 days who didn't even bother to return his calls. It was good to see Harris again, i'd almost forgotten he didn't feature again either after Matlock, Billingham on the comeback trail as well is a major boost.

It's far too early to tell anything yet of course but I hope we will have more to shout about this season and more importantly see the players give and leave everything on the pitch which wasn't always the case last year. It was good to be back after a needed 3 months off, having had enough a while before the end of last season (not alone in that i'm sure).

Roll on next Tuesday, that should be competitive.

Certainly played some better football than we have done in other pre season games.

The condition of the pitch deserved football to be play the correct way on it though. To those that have worked/looked after the pitch over the summer deserve a lot of credit for the condition of it.

I would agree with a point on the Alvechurch thread that I also wouldn't play Tonks for the same reasons given. Much prefer Hayward as the holding player.

However we still had our normal lapse of concentration at the start of the second half where all we did was give Stafford the ball back.

We still lack two strikers that with Insall will score enough goals to give us a chance of a decent season. We also lack in our areas certainly if we are going to play three at the back we need to give the left sided player of the three more protection than what we do.

Perhaps the performances going forward will improve on Tuesday night as it was certainly better than previous pre season games.

stoursi wrote:The condition of the pitch deserved football to be play the correct way on it though. To those that have worked/looked after the pitch over the summer deserve a lot of credit for the condition of it

I meant to mention the pitch in my opening thread, a number of people around me in the stand were also saying how good it looked so full marks to all involved in the preparations, it looked great and is a good reflection on the club.
Come to that, looking around the ground at all the other improvements you can certainly see positive signs, especially the tall fence by the tea kiosk. I have lost count of the number of times I have come close to loosing my cuppa-soup !!