Lessons learnt from 13/14

[Andy K]

Now our season is officially over, maybe it's time to reflect a little on what we did right and wrong...and forgetting yesterday's 90mins, as others said and quite rightly, we looked fantastic at times this season and some of the performances we had were breathtaking. But I thought I'd start with learning from a few things this season..

1) Win the league - We've played 6 play off games, and we've not won one of them. Infact we have a 100% record of losing at home. We can't rely on the lottery of the play offs. On the positives we usually follow a play off disappointment with a stronger season the following year however.

2) Don't be afraid to change personnel. To be fair we certainly did this. Not too sure how much of this was forced or a management team decision, but the Margate exodus was one of the best things that happened in the course of the season. We got an opportunity to strengthen across the board, especially in the left/right back positions. Certainly we all had our opinions at the time about players going, but overall I think the newer players ended up showing their superior ability in the 2nd half of the season.

3) Take a pill to cure an FA Cup hangover. Even though we had the odd win in that 7 weeks after our defeat at Aggborough, we were pretty unconvincing. We lost 4 in 9 then and got dumped out of both the remaining cups too. Infact it took us nearly a month to win another game, and got into the habit of throwing away winning positions (Bath away springs to mind).

4) Do much much better against bottom clubs. Our record against the 3 relegated clubs was awful, with 1 win out of 6 and failing to score against the bottom side that let in close to 100 goals in 42 games. Without going into if's and but's but a better record against these clubs would have given us the title this season. I would say that this wasn't just a problem this season. I remember the last season where we were playing at home to rock bottom side Truro on a Tuesday night and they still came away with the points.

There's a few lesson I think we can learn from, and although football can be a cruel mistress and there will be things beyond our control that could affect next season, I think we will come back stronger, and won't be surprised if at the start of the season the bookies put us as favourites....

[Chalmers]

I very nearly started a thread along the same lines earlier but felt someone would be able to put it better than me so thought better of it.

Breaking down sides that cone to defend for their lives has got to be the number one thing to work on with the team next season certainly. Reading between the lines from the interviews it sounds like, despite being told to play wide we didn't listen and kept trying to go thru the middle also. Something else that needs addressing.

[Andy K]

May 4, 2014 22:57:25 GMT Chalmers said:

I very nearly started a thread along the same lines earlier but felt someone would be able to put it better than me so thought better of it.

Breaking down sides that cone to defend for their lives has got to be the number one thing to work on with the team next season certainly. Reading between the lines from the interviews it sounds like, despite being told to play wide we didn't listen and kept trying to go thru the middle also. Something else that needs addressing.

I dunno...I think you could have put it better than me

You've reminded me of another one - work on set pieces better - in the last few weeks they've dropped in standard, and free kicks and corners just don't have any effect. If so it may well be we get a set piece specialist in.

[amberchoc]

Ah, I remember one or two Darren Ebsworth free-kicks. Beautiful, just beautiful. A great pity he didn't stay with us for longer.   

[os]

In reality not a lot went wrong and we were very close to winning the title. The matches which stick out are the 2 against Eastleigh which saw them take 4pts from us and our performances against the bottom sides. The theme sticks out like a sore thumb, inability to break down defences who stay at home, and to some extent we can add Dover to that list.

I think that is simple reason as to why we don't have the trophy in our cabinet. It is something Dos's sides have suffered from and is one area where he needs to work on.

[simmi]

Perhaps alot less chopping and changing of the squad, agree with some of the changes made in January however, most of these could of been forseen at the start of the season. Bringing in a fresh new batch of players in January where it would take time to settle and gel together is not always a good move. Also loan signings for the whole season rather than a month or two would be prudent. Certainly more stability throughout the entire season on the playing side may of seen us pick up a few extra points here and there.

Also more convincing performances are needed against struggling clubs at the foot of the league. We should of easily rolled over some teams at GGL this season but we tended to make such hard work of grinding out 1-0 or 2-0 results.

[markf]

May 5, 2014 14:32:28 GMT simmi said:

Perhaps alot less chopping and changing of the squad, agree with some of the changes made in January however, most of these could of been forseen at the start of the season. Bringing in a fresh new batch of players in January where it would take time to settle and gel together is not always a good move. Also loan signings for the whole season rather than a month or two would be prudent. Certainly more stability throughout the entire season on the playing side may of seen us pick up a few extra points here and there.

Also more convincing performances are needed against struggling clubs at the foot of the league. We should of easily rolled over some teams at GGL this season but we tended to make such hard work of grinding out 1-0 or 2-0 results.

You are joking? The "chopping and changing" of the squad resulted in us losing just one match in half a league season. Dos can do all the CH & CH he likes if we get a return like that.

And how can that be foreseen? We had good players at the start of the season unfortunately our two strikers were both injured pre-season. You'd need more than a crystal ball to foresee that.

[bornatotter]

Set pieces? Don't get me started on set pieces. I hope that one or two of the lads we are bringing in are dead ball specialists. As teams begin the process of releasing players , Crawley dumping half their squad has got the merry go round spinning nicely already, no doubt there will be some quality looking for an opportunity to rebuild the career. We don't need a lot of extra bodies assuming we hold the bulk of the squad together but as we've seen this season Sutton is an attractive proposition with the training set up and the ambition and I would expect us to continue to exploit that. As an aside I also hope Ebbsfleet sort out Dover so we can extract another six points from them.