A year of Artell - how are we doing?

It’s a year to the day since we appointed Artell as manager. We’re fresh off the back of a turbulent weekend, quite literally in many ways, but in terms of the bigger picture, what progress, if any, do you think we’re making?

I've gone with steady progress as I think that's the most aligned in the poll options, but if I was to be really picking I'd have gone with something along the lines of "We're making slight progress with the foundations in place to build on quickly".

Much as it isn't to everyones liking, I do think there's more patience required until we reach the point where we're more content with consistency and - more notably - our home form. Preferably home form will come before consistency, but if they can arrive together that would be splendid.

Whether DA is given another year to keep going or they replace him tomorrow, I think the fact we have a structure and a model in place above means that in theory our progression shouldn't be adversely affected but in each scenario it isn't going to change overnight. It's a continuous thing and it won't be straightforward at first, certainly not this season and maybe even a large part if next season.

My own personal opinion, so long as we keep trying to build our way of playing and keep trying to improve on our shortfalls either in the windows or the training pitch then I think 2026/27 will be the year we see something really impressive.

We're clearly making progress, although it doesn't always feel like it until you look at the league table and pinch yourself.

There is progress and I have agreed on the poll - how steady it is can be argued.

I think we're making decent progress but, again, it would be easier to judge if several clearly key players had been available more often.

Vernam has been a big miss at home because his pace carries more of a threat than Barrington and JDS. Thompson would have clearly prevented a lot of the capitulations and, because of his absence, I don't think we've seen the best of George. So, yes, the bits of the jigsaw (apart from a striker) are there but they haven't quite been put together.

It’s all on a knife edge. Lose the next three tricky but winnable games and there will be hell on.  Win them and hopes of playoffs will be the talk of the town.

Steady progress overall:  

We are higher up the league table; not in a relegation fight; have attracted new capital investment; season ticket numbers are holding up despite near-relegation last season; we have survived a very bad run of injuries - mainly to midfield players; our away form recently has been outstanding; and there has been capital money spent on the ground infrastructure.

There are key negatives though, hence only “steady progress overall”:
Our home form is abysmal.  A complete contrast to our recent away form; we have suffered some heavy home defeats - as we did last season; our home defeat in the FA Cup to a struggling NL team was a shock and embarrassing; and our goal-difference is very poor.

The last few weeks have rather muddied the waters. You can't have 6 straight defeats at home and not have some serious doubts, especially the rather timid way we have played. The away wins have been hard earned and full credit for that but from here on in it could go either way so any proper judgement will have to wait till the end of the season.

Goals or even forward momentum are becoming very hard to come by so I don't think we are set up right.

A major weakness in town teams for many a year has been the lack of quality in midfield and I believe that this has been addressed this season although we still need more goals from this area, hopefully, Davies can provide that final piece of the jigsaw.

Defensively, we are not quite there and we still concede too many goals from the left back area of the field and this seems to have been a problem for a couple or more seasons, oh for another Gally or Conor Townsend. The return of Smith would probably make us pretty solid in the centre of the defence.

Up front crying out for a Gary Jones type forward and allowing Rose/Obikwu to play off him. Vernam’s injury has affected our effectiveness out wide but Barrington has real potential unfortunately his best days will be for another club in the coming seasons as that potential is fulfilled. JDS and Luker are still learning their trade and probably provide great squad strength but another direct wide player in the Vernam mould would help our progression.


Thus IMO four new additions of the right quality over the next two windows should put us in a great position and that may have to be five subject to how Wright performs for the remainder of the season.

On the whole we are making steady progress.  Upgrade on a few players , especially in the middle of the park.  The league position is flattering.  Many teams below us have games in hand.  Those points will make us drop a few places. Also, we've had the rub of the green go in our favour a few times. Successful teams get that though, and boy are we due a bit.

There are, however a couple of things lacking:

We play some lovely football at times but then our decision making goes to pot in the final third.  We are always looking for the perfect pass when a good old- fashioned wallop might do the trick. Even a scuffed shot could wrong foot a keeper and trickle in.  Likewise, a lucky deflection.

The other thing we need is more urgency when we go behind.  We are like a 55+ walking side sometimes when 1-0 down with 3 mins to go.  I understand that the other end of the spectrum is the headless chicken long ball approach but surely, that's favourable to play it around at the back.  Any opposition think that Christmas has come early. Hurst was better at galvanizing his team better when we were up against it.

UTM