Post by Amber Aleman on Nov 22, 2009 21:43:28 GMT
We're now a third of the way through our league programme. Time for a check on progress? I think so.
The weekend win at Bognor lifted us to eighth in the table, just two points off a play-off position. The team have been playing some lovely football this season, but we're still bedevilled by two wearyingly familiar weaknesses - inconsistency and a shortage of goals.
We've won seven, but lost six. Five of those wins have been away, but we haven't won at home in the league since August. We've scored 21 league goals, but 11 of those came in the first five games. We've got the fourth best defensive record in our division, but have only kept three clean sheets.
In the FA Cup we had another great run to the first round proper, but went out at the first hurdle in both the Trophy and the League Cup. At least that should allow us (as the old cliche goes) to concentrate on the league.
I said in September that I was going to benchmark our progress against last season. The good news is that we've got two points more than at this stage last year. We hadn't lost as many games then, but we'd won fewer and drawn a lot more. And our current goal difference of +5 is much better than the -3 we had a year ago. Then we'd suffered one heavy defeat (4-0 at Wealdstone) and struggled to win games by more than one goal. This season those emphatic home wins against Margate and Hornchurch (4-0 and 4-1) gave us a nice early cushion.
The departure of Stefan Payne has seen the goals dry up a little, but there are signs that the recent arrival of Charlie Taylor and James Norwood will start them flowing again.
There's an interesting challenge ahead. A year ago we were just embarking on our best run of the season. To maintain the two point advantage over that season, as at the half way mark in late December, we'd need to take 15 points from the next 21.
I've said before that to stay on course for the play-offs we should aim to take a minimum of 11 points from every seven games. We only managed 9 from the first seven, but gained 13 from the last seven - so have just made up the deficit. (That was why the win at Bognor was important!) With five of our next seven league games at home, can we push on and match the 15 points we got from the equivalent stretch last season? I certainly think that rediscovering our home form is the key to success. If we do that and keep our decent away form going, a place in the top five should be there for the taking.
The weekend win at Bognor lifted us to eighth in the table, just two points off a play-off position. The team have been playing some lovely football this season, but we're still bedevilled by two wearyingly familiar weaknesses - inconsistency and a shortage of goals.
We've won seven, but lost six. Five of those wins have been away, but we haven't won at home in the league since August. We've scored 21 league goals, but 11 of those came in the first five games. We've got the fourth best defensive record in our division, but have only kept three clean sheets.
In the FA Cup we had another great run to the first round proper, but went out at the first hurdle in both the Trophy and the League Cup. At least that should allow us (as the old cliche goes) to concentrate on the league.
I said in September that I was going to benchmark our progress against last season. The good news is that we've got two points more than at this stage last year. We hadn't lost as many games then, but we'd won fewer and drawn a lot more. And our current goal difference of +5 is much better than the -3 we had a year ago. Then we'd suffered one heavy defeat (4-0 at Wealdstone) and struggled to win games by more than one goal. This season those emphatic home wins against Margate and Hornchurch (4-0 and 4-1) gave us a nice early cushion.
The departure of Stefan Payne has seen the goals dry up a little, but there are signs that the recent arrival of Charlie Taylor and James Norwood will start them flowing again.
There's an interesting challenge ahead. A year ago we were just embarking on our best run of the season. To maintain the two point advantage over that season, as at the half way mark in late December, we'd need to take 15 points from the next 21.
I've said before that to stay on course for the play-offs we should aim to take a minimum of 11 points from every seven games. We only managed 9 from the first seven, but gained 13 from the last seven - so have just made up the deficit. (That was why the win at Bognor was important!) With five of our next seven league games at home, can we push on and match the 15 points we got from the equivalent stretch last season? I certainly think that rediscovering our home form is the key to success. If we do that and keep our decent away form going, a place in the top five should be there for the taking.