January - Pivotal month?

I know that we have lots of the season left and all games are going to be important but feel that January is going to be a pivotal month for more than 1 reason.

Firstly our biggest transfer window since we returned to the league but if we look at the fixtures for the rest of January:

Port Vale (A)
Southend (H)
Scunthorpe (A)
Barrow (A)
Stevenage (H)

We really need to be picking up plenty of points in these fixtures or we could get set adrift of those above us by February.

Really hopeful that Hurst can get us drilled, bring in some quality and finally get this season started for us.

Quoted from Stew0_0

I know that we have lots of the season left and all games are going to be important but feel that January is going to be a pivotal month for more than 1 reason.

Firstly our biggest transfer window since we returned to the league but if we look at the fixtures for the rest of January:

Port Vale (A)
Southend (H)
Scunthorpe (A)
Barrow (A)
Stevenage (H)

We really need to be picking up plenty of points in these fixtures or we could get set adrift of those above us by February.

Really hopeful that Hurst can get us drilled, bring in some quality and finally get this season started for us.

Its not going to be easy though. He will have to get the men in that he wants, who are match fit and raring to go. They have got to gel with other new players and so on.

He needs two new strikers who are able to score goals, they are hard to come by at any level, so that is a tough ask.

One thing in our favour is that things are very tight at the bottom of league 2, and any number of clubs are in real danger. Our second half of the season cannot be worse than the first, so that is a plus.

Scunthorpe was even worse than we were when we played them, so that is a plus and they haven't got the impetus of a new manager/takeover so that could work in our favour.

We all wish him the best of luck, and he has done rescue acts before so that is also a good thing that he has that experience under his belt. If we can just survive this season and then the consortium outline their plans it could be very rosy indeed.

I don't think we need the hard to come by level of striker you are referring to, although that would be ideal. A striker who could get 12-15 or so a season would be an absolutely huge improvement on our current lot, who would all be on half that at best even if played consistently, I dare say green would be lucky to get 3 or 4.

We need 2 reasonable strikers at league 2 level. At the moment we have none.

Well December was pivotal too when we played Mansfield, Scunts, Southend and Bradford ion succession.  Sadly we only won one of those six pointers.

If Hollow Words was still in charge I wouldn't back us to win any of the nest five games. Thankfully he has gone.

If we get Hanson and Wright back, and start to bring in new players in the next fortnight, we have a great opportunity to pick up valuable points. All of these teams are beatable if we get our act together.

But I do not think it will happen without new signings.  

I always find myself nodding in agreement when you post Ron, I agree if we can get Hanson and Wright back along with 2-3 quality additions we could pull away from the bottom, I must admit I’m starting to feel a bit nervous now though (especially after dropping into the bottom 2 yesterday)

A further optimistic note - the next 3 games are all on Saturdays with no midweek games. Plenty of time on the training ground for Hurst and Doig to work with the players. I think they'll look very different when we play the Scunts. It also gives time for injuries to heal.

I don't share some of the optimism about 'if we get Hanson fit......' We have never had Hanson fit, I doubt he will ever be fit. Time to go.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

A further optimistic note - the next 3 games are all on Saturdays with no midweek games. Plenty of time on the training ground for Hurst and Doig to work with the players. I think they'll look very different when we play the Scunts. It also gives time for injuries to heal.

I don't share some of the optimism about 'if we get Hanson fit......' We have never had Hanson fit, I doubt he will ever be fit. Time to go.

Yeah, I must say that struck me in terms of the fixtures. It’s obviously been a weird season with seemingly relentless Saturday / Tuesday combinations.

A couple of full weeks between games will hopefully enable Hurst to impose his ideas on the team and get some much needed inbound and outbound business done.

Stevenage also have quite a tough run in a short space of time once they start back in the league on 16th.

I think we need to win at least 3 of those 5 or I fear we’ll be cut adrift. Thankfully I think Hurst can do it with several key incomings, but we really are taking it for granted that he can do that. I think getting Scannell back would be a huge boost.

Port Vale are currently bottom of the form table. We have a week to prepare, and some players coming back from injury (hopefully Wright and Hanson).   So it's an opportunity to get some points.

I am guessing its too soon to expect new signings, so we will have to go with what we have at the moment.