Just Back

Well well well…

9 games into the season and we’re shaping up to be a bloody good side.

Denver Hume & Harvey Rodgers having great games again, Artells tactics absolutely spot on and Kieran Green having an outstanding season as an attacking midfielder. Some serious words to be eaten all round you’d have to say.

I always wanted to give it 10 games to judge this side but I’ll go early with this one, they’ll absolutely do for me. Onwards & upwards.

What an incredible performance. Composed, won most headers, passed well.
More please, and well done the Lads

They were excellent tonight. Played with a real belief and determination.

I worry for Thompson that he may not be able to get back in the team. I thought he would be a huge miss but Khouri is showing some real quality, he pops up all over the place nicking the ball and clattering people, then when he gets the ball he tends to keep it and use it well. Green and Mceachran have been great as well.

The boo boys in Rodgers and Hume both had another excellent game. Hopefully people will be off their case now.

Shout out to the subs who helped us see it out. Seen somebody mention Pyke's introduction being important and have to agree, he cleverly caused problems that took a lot of pressure off us.

Great work.

If anyone thinks Artell isn’t improving us they need to watch that over again, great performance, the players & staff need unconditional praise for that game. We made a really strong side look second best tonight.

Town did more things right in a game than I’ve seen them do in ages, I’m not a big one for playing out but the way we passed the ball out of our own half was really good.

Safe home to all who travelled.

UTM!

What a performance, absolutely immense that - from each and everyone of them. Full marks to Artell and the coaching staff to, we did a number on them. With our injury problems and two tough, long distance, away games in a couple of days that was a fantastic effort.

Limited them to lumping it into the box time after time and we stood up and dealt with it very well. Disrupted them and they couldn’t impose themselves like they have so often so far this season. Shape, decision making, work rate all fantastic.

It seems harsh to single anyone out as I think everyone had a good game tonight. However special mention to Khouri who really is coming of age the more he plays. A touch of the Max Crocombe’s about Smith aswell!

We aren’t the finished article, of course we aren’t. However one thing I’m extremely confident about this season is we can compete with absolutely anybody, home and away, in this division.

We’ll lose our fair share, sure, but for the first time in a long time - in the league, I genuinely don’t think we should be fearing anyone in this division. To often of late as fans during a season we’ve had to write a number of games of as ‘free hits’ hopefully not anymore - go at them all.

Might be a minor point, but we turned them round at the toss. Very sensible, I know generally teams like to attack the home end second half but you don’t always see them getting turned around. That home stand can be a noisey one and if they were chucking bombs in trying to get back level late on, that could have been the extra pressure they needed.

Artell safe for another week then, eh? 😉

Quoted from HertsGTFC

If anyone thinks Artell isn’t improving us they need to watch that over again, great performance, the players & staff need unconditional praise for that game. We made a really strong side look second best tonight.

Town did more things right in a game than I’ve seen them do in ages, I’m not a big one for playing out but the way we passed the ball out of our own half was really good.

Safe home to all who travelled.

UTM!

Which probably helped us only face 2 shots on target tonight. A lot is made when passing out results in a goal, but those folks go quite which it takes the edge off the opponent.

Gillingham’s first home league defeat since Boxing Day according to the [slightly ropey] Sky commentary. Even more impressive if true.

I think it's fair to say any "concerns" over our fitness have been addressed this week. A proper 90 minute performance tonight, after a hell of a lot of travelling in just a few days. Get in there town!

For me Gillingham looked the much more assured side. Not surprising, they're top and have some good players and a good manager but they played a bit like how I would like for a lot of the game, moved the ball swiftly, round the corner and such.

Despite that, and showing how football doesn't have rules in terms of performance, we gave them nothing! It was strangely nervy, yet without worry as they had two tame efforts for Smith to deal with all night. Our defensive shape from the front line through to the back was impeccable and on the occasions we needed to make brave blocks and challenges we did.

I made note of the goals we've conceded so far being considered as cheap in 9 cases out of 12 and once we cut mistakes and not subject to poor refereeing then we should be ok. The last three games have demonstrated this and we've got deserved rewards for it. We may not have dominated the games but we've shown everything that a winning team needs to at key moments in the games.

I'm still not convinced we've turned a corner that see's us full steam ahead towards the play-offs but I'm more sure than I have been in the last few years that everything is aligned and pointing the right direction for us to turn the needle from relegation candidates.

Everyone in the club needs a huge pat on the back and accept the praise they deserve, even if only for the short term succcess of the last few weeks. We hope they'll still be accepting praise throughout the season but living in the moment I'm just buzzing to be a Town fan right now.

How many town fans there?