Massive two games coming up. Altrincham away, who could go top if they win their games in hand, and won at the daggers today.
Then Woking who have beaten Chesterfield and Notts County in their last two games, scoring seven second half goals in the process.
By 5pm next Saturday we'll have a very good idea of how good these boys are

Even if we aren't top after the next 2 games, this is a decent side.  The consensus on here 2 months ago was that our best hope was to sneak into the play offs and that we were not at the level of Wrexham and Chesterfield.  No-one predicted we'd be top after 9 games.

Quoted from buckstown

Massive two games coming up. Altrincham away, who could go top if they win their games in hand, and won at the daggers today.
Then Woking who have beaten Chesterfield and Notts County in their last two games, scoring seven second half goals in the process.
By 5pm next Saturday we'll have a very good idea of how good these boys are

Enjoy today. If I was a supporter of those teams I'd be worried about a team who just scored 6 goals. 11 scorers, so how do we stop them?

I'd be happy with 6 points from both games. ( 4 really but I'm a positive optimist as you know )

4 points from these games would be a fantastic result.

I'd be happy with 3, but realistically two draws would also be good going given the form these teams are in.

These 2 games are going to be really tough. I wonder if we will set up like we did at Stockport and go for a point or play 433 and take the game to them. I'd be happy with a point on Tuesday. One thing is for sure there will be plenty if mariners there to cheer them on!

Quoted from buckstown

Massive two games coming up. Altrincham away, who could go top if they win their games in hand, and won at the daggers today.
Then Woking who have beaten Chesterfield and Notts County in their last two games, scoring seven second half goals in the process.
By 5pm next Saturday we'll have a very good idea of how good these boys are

Agreed - Altrincham and Woking have shown today they are in the mix for promotion potential.
Looks like being a tight league this season.
As you say - 5pm next Saturday and see if Town have the credentials for a sustained run at the top.

UTM

Take 2 points

2 really tough games - good that Bapaga now offers a new threat. Sears takes his chance with no funny flair attempts.

These will be a true test of how well the squad can be when the pressure is on.

Today, you can only beat what appears in front of you.

The team can beat 11, but not when it goes to 12, with bad reffing decisions.

I am not worried if beaten by a better playing team, but cheating riles me.

Hoping we outplay both teams and win fairly.

Mind you, 4 from 6 points would be good !

Altrincham, Woking and Bromley are good enough (to date) to challenge and maybe emulate what Sutton did last season.  Be champions and finish ahead of all the ex-EFL clubs.

Overall, this probably helps us if the so called bigger clubs are showing some weaknesses.

I’d like to think the these other teams are more worried about us then we are off them.

On form, be happy with a couple of draws, or a win and a draw, from the two.
But we're on fire, our squad is better than pretty much most in this division.  And I say again we're on fire and most wont be able to handle us in this division, so 6 points for me UTFM

We play Alty the same night Daggers play Woking.. Aslong as we're still top by Wednesday morning it's all good 👍 UTM

If we’re serious challengers for the title id be hoping for 4/6 points from these games and I see no reason why we can’t

Two really tough games both opponents are flying, you have to be impressed with they’re away wins yesterday. Just avoid defeat in both games, anything more will be a real bonus.

Yep two very tough matches, let's get behind the team and make a racket at both of them. If we don't get the results we're hoping for, let's not have a meltdown if possible too.

Can see a 1000+ Going Tuesday night wall of noise and 3 points.

Quoted from Humbercod

Can see a 1000+ Going Tuesday night wall of noise and 3 points.

Hope so mate!

My OP said by 5pm tonight we'd have a fair idea of how good these boys are having played Alty and Woking, both in great form.
Well the jury is  back boys and girls and the answer is pretty good. Still early but think this might be for real!!

Quoted from RonMariner

4 points from these games would be a fantastic result.

I'd be happy with 3, but realistically two draws would also be good going given the form these teams are in.

Well, even a foolish optimist such as myself didn't dare to mention getting 6 points!

Fabulous, just fabulous.

Not sure if it’s the highlights edit but certainly the highlights suggest we were very fortunate at Woking - we could easily have lost 4-1.

When I take a glass half empty view of the season, we only just beat Barnet, and couldn’t beat Maidenhead or Stockport, who have generally underwhelmed.  

I fear slightly that we are in a false position and have had a decent share of luck so far, but long may it continue!

Passed with flying colours. Next challenge.....

Quoted from Stew0_0

Passed with flying colours. Next challenge.....

Speaking of which, the next 10 in the league look really interesting - two very distinctive groups of 5 games.

The first 5, on paper and on current form, look quite favourable. Certainly as it stands I’d expect us to go into each of these as comfortable favourites, with only County in the top half and currently not in great form.

Yeovil (h) - 15th
Wealdstone (a) - 16th
Notts County (h) - 9th
Aldershot (a) - 22nd
Southend (h) - 20th

Average position - 16.4. If we’re serious, we want to be taking a minimum 11 points from that run of games. And we need to, considering what the following 5 look like.

Solihull (a) - 7th
Boreham Wood (h) - 2nd
Dagenham (a) - 6th
Chesterfield (h) - 4th
Halifax (a) - 3rd

Average position - 4.4. That’s as difficult a run of games as we’re likely to face all season. Given that, I think the preceding 5 are going to be really important in giving us some room to breathe and to take the pressure off a bit.

That takes us all the way up to Boxing Day, by which our prospects this season should look a whole lot clearer. Interesting, and exciting, few weeks ahead.

Also worth noting that on the day of the Yeovil game the three sides currently within 7 points of us all have tough fixtures, with Halifax away at Solihull and Chesterfield at home to Boreham Wood - some guaranteed points dropped there.

Do our bit against the Glovers and there’s a high probability we have a clear lead at the top of the table.

Fa Cup round 2 day on Date we are pencilled in to travel to Dagenham


With respective form you'd expect at least 1 of us to be in the hat for round 2

Quoted from LondonMariner43

Not sure if it’s the highlights edit but certainly the highlights suggest we were very fortunate at Woking - we could easily have lost 4-1.

When I take a glass half empty view of the season, we only just beat Barnet, and couldn’t beat Maidenhead or Stockport, who have generally underwhelmed.  

I fear slightly that we are in a false position and have had a decent share of luck so far, but long may it continue!

Oh f»ck off.

I dont normally get carried away by one or two results either way. And we have only reached the quarter way mark of the season. A long way to go.

But you can only comment on what you see and hear. This is clearly a good side. Nice mix of youth and experience. Pretty solid at the back. Look like we have a goal threat going forward. Certainly not a negative team. For a team widely acknowledged to probably need another forward we are the top scorers in the division.

A. decent squad. Players who you would have thought would be automatic choices at the start of the season like Coke and Pearson currently out of the team. (and not due to their performances but simply been kept out by those playing)

Players reinjuvinated and confidence restored like Waterfall and Clifton. And one or two we havent really seen yet like Joel Grant.

Town have shown a great response to the setback at Bromley on the artificial pitch.

Altrincham had just beaten the top of. the table side and were in good form. For over an hour we simply played them off the park. Even their manager was gracious enough to call us 'champions elect' . Bit strong maybe but we dug in after the red card to get 3 pts. Previous Town teams would have capitulated.

Woking had just beaten 3 sides in the top 6. On a great run. Not a brilliant performance but we did what good teams do. Find a way to win. Again last years team would have lost that game.

More tests lay ahead and there will be disappointments along the way but already the character is there to see. No reason to think we wont be in the mix at the end of the season.

A good summary.

Those last two wins were exceptional results given the form the opposition were in.

Quoted from LondonMariner43

Not sure if it’s the highlights edit but certainly the highlights suggest we were very fortunate at Woking - we could easily have lost 4-1.

When I take a glass half empty view of the season, we only just beat Barnet, and couldn’t beat Maidenhead or Stockport, who have generally underwhelmed.  

I fear slightly that we are in a false position and have had a decent share of luck so far, but long may it continue!

Seems a reasonable view to me. I don’t necessarily agree but Don’t know why it got so many red crosses.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Seems a reasonable view to me. I don’t necessarily agree but Don’t know why it got so many red crosses.

It’s not an unreasonable view, though it does in my opinion take something away from the players and management who have been magnificent regardless.

It’s a funny notion, luck. In theory, it’s something totally random. Good things and bad things which happen to people, or in this case football teams, that lie outside of your individual control.

There’s a saying that you make your own luck, but I’m not sure that’s true. By definition, ‘luck’ is something that you can’t change or affect, like the bounce of the ball, injuries and refereeing decisions.

Sometimes you get dealt a good hand, and sometimes not so good. On balance, those people, those teams, that fare better than others are those better equipped to deal with both the good and bad things that come their way.

Let’s go back to the Barnet game. We’ve just gone 3-1 down, and immediately we win a penalty and they have a man sent off. If the ref didn’t make that decision, the course of that game (and the season more broadly) may have been very different. Was that lucky, at least that it happened when it did? Perhaps, but we still had to go and win the game ourselves from two goals down, which we duly did.

Was it lucky that we scored a last minute winner that day? You can look back at it that way, but ultimately we’re we’re able to do so because we had recruited Alex Hunt who scored a free kick from distance with a technique way above this level.

Incidentally, we’ve scored a lot of late goals this season - I believe more than anyone else in the last 5 minutes. Is that luck, or the mark of a super-fit team that keeps going and has a ruthless, clinical nature as the opposition tires or searches for a winner / equaliser. It’s something that successful teams tend to do, I know that much.

We’ve not always been on the right side of fortune, either. Think back to last week against Altrincham, when we played a good side off the park for an hour, earned ourselves a 3-0 lead and then duly had a man sent off under ridiculous circumstances. Almost the reverse of what happened against Barnet.

Ultimately, we were able to win that game because we’d already got ourselves into an initially comfortable lead, and then had just about enough ability and desire to see the game out with 10 men. Weaker sides are more catchable, and less resolute.

I’d argue we were unlucky at Stockport to have a perfectly good goal chalked off. Looking at it simplistically, if that counts we’re 4 points clear at the top already.

You could counter-argue me there and say that Stockport missed enough chances to win three games in the first half, while Woking could also have been out of sight. That’s not luck for me, that’s the National League. You get let off far more than you do in League Two; teams are noticeably profligate. There will be games where we don’t get let off, but for the most part that’s the way it is.

In fact, I’d again reiterate that one of the features of this team is its ruthlessness. The fact we are already the league’s top scorers with the highest goal difference backs that up. That’s not luck, it’s entirely of our own making.

There’s not been much made of this, but 26 points from 11 games is a record for a relegated team at this level. It’s a quarter of the season, and extrapolates to 104 points over a 44 game season - it’s incredible form and shouldn’t be sniffed at.

All this, absolutely all of it, has been achieved with fewer resources than at least three clubs in this division, quite possibly more. We’ve won nothing yet, but for me there are too many signs, both quantifiable and subjective, that point to our current position as being no fluke.

I think we’re the real deal. That doesn’t give us a divine right to win the league, but I do think we have the capability to do so. And hands up, that’s not something I thought I’d be saying this season before it began. I didn’t think it was possible to turn a team around this quickly, but it seems I was wrong. And I’m absolutely fúcking delighted about it too.

As per my earlier post in this thread, I think we’ll know a lot more in 10 games’ time. Let’s just enjoy the ride - I don’t know what the future holds but I do know this has not been the norm.

Good points Poojah. Delighted with the start we’ve made but also conscious of the fact that Torquay beat Yeovil 6-1 on Boxing Day last year to go 9pts clear at the top, so I’m sure there will be lots of twists and turns to come. But as long as team continues to give it their all every week, that’s all you can ask.

A very lengthy post with some valid points Poojah. Like I said, I first by necessarily agree with LM. I just think it’s bonkers that so many people pile in with the red crosses. Much better to do what you did and say why you disagree.

Think our superior fitness has been a major factor and will continue to do so .it may become even more of a factor the longer we go into the season
You have to remember that the play off teams in particular had a very short close season,  and like many international players who dont have a proper close season, it takes its toll eventually

Ps another bit of good news - yeovil lead Alty 1.0

Watching the Woking highlights, it did seem that they were well on top first half and perhaps unlucky not to get into the lead, but if you watch them again, you will see McKeown having very little to do, as in a lot of games this season. The defence is protecting him well.

We are also scoring a lot of late goals, which is always a good sign of a decent side.

We've had our fair share of bad decisions against us, but luckily they haven't really cost us too much, except perhaps the disallowed goal against Stockport. We've been good enough to ride the bad decisions by generally being better than the opposition where it matters, in both boxes

Quoted from ginnywings

Watching the Woking highlights, it did seem that they were well on top first half and perhaps unlucky not to get into the lead, but if you watch them again, you will see McKeown having very little to do, as in a lot of games this season. The defence is protecting him well.

We are also scoring a lot of late goals, which is always a good sign of a decent side.

We've had our fair share of bad decisions against us, but luckily they haven't really cost us too much, except perhaps the disallowed goal against Stockport. We've been good enough to ride the bad decisions by generally being better than the opposition where it matters, in both boxes

I was at that Stockport game and although I celebrated mcatees goal I did so mutedly,I expected it to be disallowed. It doesn't show on the highlights as his body hides it buy he clearly placed his hands across the front of the defenders body. From the highlights its difficult to see whether he pushed him much or not but he definitely laid hands on him and maybe you sometimes get away with those, but not that time. It wasn't unlucky it was disallowed,more it would have been lucky to get away with it.

The top teams are ‘lucky’ as they spend more time in the opposition penalty area. Likewise, ‘unlucky’ teams spend little time in the oppositions penalty area. Making your own luck is a reality.

Quoted from blundellpork

The top teams are ‘lucky’ as they spend more time in the opposition penalty area. Likewise, ‘unlucky’ teams spend little time in the oppositions penalty area. Making your own luck is a reality.

Yeah definitely agree the increased time spent in oppo box,increased pressure and often better fitness for late goals means there is something in better teams making their own luck. And vice versa.

When Lee Trevino chipped in on his way to winning the British Open in 1972 a  interviewer said he was lucky. 'Yes', he said, 'and the more I practice, the luckier I get.'

The point is that by having a fitter, more determined, more skillful team, we will score late goals, get more chances, get more shots on target, and so on. In short, we will win  more games.

I don't think our position at the top has much to do with luck. It's to do with quality and commitment.

Quoted from RonMariner

When Lee Trevino chipped in on his way to winning the British Open in 1972 a  interviewer said he was lucky. 'Yes', he said, 'and the more I practice, the luckier I get.'

The point is that by having a fitter, more determined, more skillful team, we will score late goals, get more chances, get more shots on target, and so on. In short, we will win  more games.

I don't think our position at the top has much to do with luck. It's to do with quality and commitment.

I don’t think anyone was suggesting it’s just down to luck. Personally I don’t think it had much to do with luck, but a shade this way or that way makes a lot of difference. If we’d lost Saturday, and that’s not a stretch of the imagination, we wouldn’t be top now. For all intents and purposes it was luck that Effiong didn’t go down in the box. I know things are supposed to even out over time, but at any moment you find yourself in, the scales can be tipped one way or the other.

I’m just enjoying the results and performances and hoping it continues. But I won’t be surprised if things turn out differently.

Quoted from toontown

I was at that Stockport game and although I celebrated mcatees goal I did so mutedly,I expected it to be disallowed. It doesn't show on the highlights as his body hides it buy he clearly placed his hands across the front of the defenders body. From the highlights its difficult to see whether he pushed him much or not but he definitely laid hands on him and maybe you sometimes get away with those, but not that time. It wasn't unlucky it was disallowed,more it would have been lucky to get away with it.

Can’t agree with you, it was right in front of me, and I was much closer than I’d normally be if I was reffing the game. Both players were battling in a classic 9 on 5 situation, Mcatee was smart/quicker/stronger than the defender. One of the best refs I know has a great phrase for situations like this “not enough for me lads, play on” exactly right tone here.
All that said, we are top of the league on merit, not luck. This is one of the hardest working teams I’ve witnessed at Town and they deserve the plaudits they get.