Fitness

Last night's postponement I think,  whilst a shame for the crowd, could be really beneficial for us come the Sutton and Forest games. We are going to be a lot fresher for both, after what was an energy-sapping game against Rochdale and, what would have been 4 games in quick succession had last night's game gone ahead.

Quoted from wuffing

Last night's postponement I think,  whilst a shame for the crowd, could be really beneficial for us come the Sutton and Forest games. We are going to be a lot fresher for both, after what was an energy-sapping game against Rochdale and, what would have been 4 games in quick succession had last night's game gone ahead.

good point - gives us a bit more breathing space in achieving 100% fitness level, coz I'm sure there's still a bit of catching up to be done, given our truncated pre season

Quoted from Civvy at last

I genuinely wonder how much of our fitness and desire is helped by the atmosphere created by our fans.  It must be a buzz late on when your flagging to have our lot roaring you on.
Of course the fitness level has to be there to.begin with, but nevertheless I do believe we play a part.
UTM

Agree. I remember thinking about this during extra time against Solihull. Our numbers gave us an edge and there was nonstop singing in the sections around us up to JMD'S winner. It must be a lift to hear that when energy levels are dropping. It's corny to say it but there are definitely times when the 12th man makes a difference.

Solihull we’re dead on their feet, much like when we played Braintree in the playoffs, they too, were dead on their feet.

Rochdale the same, they started hundred miles an hour but in truth didn’t threaten Crocombe, it was sweltering so their reserves were gone too. I thought we played it sensible and it paid off.

Being fit is one thing, using your fitness sensibly is another and I believe that’s what we do. That said, desire and a will to win is something Hurst as built in. Those playoff games weren’t a fluke in so much that we kept going and still believed. We believed we could score from that free kick at County, that we could match up and go one better than Wrexham and that we didn’t need to see extra time out, we had enough about us to go and win.

Desire and that will to win will only get you so far though before physically you cannot do anymore.  Certainly over the course of an extended period of games, your body will just put the brakes on.

I think there's multiple factors at play here.  On the psychological level there's a natural belief that's installed in the players, no doubt that will have come from Hurst and his staff but also from characters in the dressing room.  The likes of Pearson, Waterfall, from this season the newbies like Green who you can see are natural winners.  The types who will kick their grannies over the line.   That's contagious.  Be it dragging you or you following them, people will go with leaders into war and they'll run through brick walls with them.  It wouldn't surprise me if Hurst has got access to sports psychologist now too.

No doubt the crowd has an impact too.  I think the impact of a vocal home crowd can be overstated at times but the positivity that comes from either a large home crowd or a boxed in away following can have an impact, even if it's that siege mentality when outnumbered that spills into the players on the pitch.  

But it's the sheer conditioning of the players that has the biggest impact on our ability to go the last gasps of games and come up on top.  Once or twice a season it's to be expected.  But it's continual.  The longer games go on, the more dangerous we look.  Rochdale was the exception in the heat and we clearly played the smart game with them.  But you can almost see the tactic is to exhaust teams with our high press, take them to the brink and then kick on another level when they're staggering.

Absolute credit to S&C guys at the club, I think it's Greg Howard isn't it?  Its the work of him and his team that are giving the players the physical ability to push deeper but also the confidence to do so, knowing they've got it in them.

I don't think I've seen a fitter set of GTFC players in the 30+ years I've been following them.