Halfway

someone beat me t it saying about the run of games bignot came in to... Even the best manager in the wold wouldn't have got this team picking up many points in those games. He can only work with what he's been given.. I'm content and if I had a choice I'd prefer Bignot over Hurst as our manager. I feel he has that bit more to give and he gives us a good vibe and talks well. I just hope he walks the walk once he has a squad he has chosen, which I'm sure he will.

Quoted from MarinerDevil

So we have now completed 23 of our 46 league games this season, with every team to play once again.  

The quality of the team's performances will be well debated on other threads, so how about a discussion on how we think this league has changed since our exile in 2010?

Also, of the new grounds we have visited so far, which has been your favourite?

And happy new year to everyone!

one of the things that has suprised me though is the opposition strikers and a lack of real quality, now whether you can put that down to our own qualities in defence or the standard of striker but so far i havnt really seen anyone i have been massively impressed with.....Green at Mansfield gave us problems with his style but hardly threatend the goal and Podge scored when almost doing absolutely nothing else but other than that no one stands out for me. Obviously Akinde continues to be a menace but we have seen him previously.
I thought we have had bigger threats from the opposition strikers and wingers in non league than so far in this division.

We are where I hoped we would be this time last year, sat comfortably mid table with a small cushion above the bottom 2 and a run of form away from a play off place.

Unlike many I think PH did what he could to pull a squad together as did the board with a sensible budget, sorry to lose Podge, Arnold and Tait but they where all offered deals but chose not to stay with GTFC.

Missed a few games this year due to work commitments but from what I have seen we have often lost due to player error/poor defending or odd selection by both managers. So I am optimistic that we have learned from our mistakes. The recent defensive improvements have been encouraging. Worth noting though that some performances where abject before and after PH left.  

Looking at the first 23 games are we a play off side? No, why? because Omar apart we lack quality in the final 3rd of the pitch which isn't helped by a lack of cohesion & creativity in mid field.

Wishes for the next 23?

- We retain the ability to grind out results away, without wins at Cambridge, Plymouth, Mansfield & Luton we may have been in trouble.
- The home form improves, 3,000 season ticket holders deserve better than what we have seen..
-  The manager does his best with the players he has and we get behind them rather than making excuses about what we don't have.

UTM!

I've been lucky and not seen us lose yet in the flesh (Morecambe, Luton, Notts Co, Cambridge, Accrington) but highlights and footage of other games show the form, like the season, to be a bit unpredictable, much like the rest of the league.

The quality of the play is much better, and much faster than the conference and it's been nice to add three new away grounds to the list!

We seem to be like a lot of teams in the league, in that we're capable of beating the top sides one week, then losing to Cheltenham or Crawley the next.

This does give some hope though, as if we're able to keep the tight defence and improve the home form, we've every chance of getting to March in the top ten.  I think four or five the top seven are pretty nailed on now (Plymouth, Pompey, Donneh, Luton, Carlisle) so we're in with the likes of Wycombe, Cambridge, Blackpool, Colchester, Exeter for the remaining two or three slots.  As long as we can keep in touch, it'll come down to which clubs out of the chasing peloton is able to put together a run to get in the playoffs.

Quoted from ginnywings

Think you may be right Mr Pie. I suppose it depends what you are comparing it to but it's a bigger step up than a lot of us were imagining and i think we were right to have a big cull of the playing squad- Cheltenham's league position is showing that. I keep reading about all the players we should have kept from last season and then i look at them. On the other hand B.Rovers went straight through without changing personnel, so it's hard to say. We seem to be somewhere between those two, at least for the moment.

From what I have seen there is less reliance on the big lad up front than in previous years and some teams have mastered "playing football" and other have not. The standard of tactics looks better as well and coaches seem to know how to avoid losing and nullify sides from playing with a pressing game or shape change.  

The first touch of the players is better than the NL and the better sides keep their shape better in defence and mid field. Overall I think its a bigger jump than I expected in that in L2 you will come up against more decent/savvy sides than you do in non league.

Defense is mostly sound, midfield needs strengthening and at least one more out and out winger.

Yussuf looks good on one appearance, but both Jackson and Tuton looked the same in their first games.