DangerousSausage

Can only agree with the above. After a positive start we increasingly struggled to cope with Hartlepool's high pressing in the first half, leaving Wootton isolated and the attacking midfielders too far apart. We looked a lot better in the second half, aided by Hartlepool sitting back and allowing us to control the game. Then we played some very nice football and battered them, but the finishing touch was missing. I didn't feel we'd strengthened up front in the summer and it seems I was right - while we've tightened at the back in recent weeks (yesterday's calamities notwithstanding), the goals have also dried up. Sam looks like a decent option, but is not a goalscorer and never has been. And some of our players lack that bit of hard-nosed thuggery you need to score a goal - a case in point being Enzio in the second half, when he had a sight of goal in a wide position. If he'd taken a good hard shot, he could've forced the keeper to parry it or won a corner. Instead he cut inside and suddenly had three or four yellow shirts in front of him. Knowles was never, ever offside, I didn't need the replay to see that. The lino was daydreaming and it's cost us a point (and handed two to a rival). Knowles seems to have the knack of being in the right place at the right time, but relying on him and Wootton to get the goals we need isn't enough. We need reinforcements, and we definitely need to look again at the loanees - the jury is still out on Walker, but having one impact sub and two bench warmers out of Knowles, Wolfe and Graham really isn't enough for us or for them.

PPG looks highly likely when you put it like that. If that happens, all the unnecessary points we've dropped so far will hurt us even more. The probability of a second wave doesn't seem to have been factored in at all when scheduling the leagues. I suppose it does at least give us a brief rest ahead of Hartlepool. Every cloud and all that.

Aaaand both matches against King's Lynn have been called off due to an outbreak of The Sickness in their camp. We'll end up finishing the season using points per game at this rate.

Here in Hesse, they aren't even opening the vaccination centres until the end of January as there won't be enough doses available until then. Most of the vaccine is being manufactured in Marburg, Hesse. According to the health minister, they're aiming to get around 6 million people vaccinated in the first quarter, so it could take a while to vaccinate the 60-odd million we need for herd immunity... The European (I'm including the UK in this) response to the pandemic has been a joke. Instead of learning from countries like South Korea and China, which have already dealt with numerous such outbreaks before, our governments have sat on their hands because they thought Western folk wouldn't want to surrender their freedom. And now we're absolutely riddled with it and have passed it on to the rest of the world too. Bravo.

The only thing I know about King's Lynn is that it's a phoenix club - King's Lynn FC withdrew from the Northern Premier League ten years ago and the new club, with added "Town", has obviously gone from strength to strength. They have one of the older grounds in football - King's Lynn FC/Town have played at the same ground since 1881. KL are near the bottom of the table and are one of those clubs whose main aim is to stay in this league. As our away form has been lacklustre so far (8 points in 6 games), I'd like us to take a more aggressive approach to this game and take control from an early stage. These matches often pose a problem as the condition and size of the pitch often means we can't play our normal game, but if we're to challenge for promotion we have to adapt to this. If that means we have to be a bit more direct on occasion, so be it.

I wasn't sure where else to put it, so I'll put it here. The worse The Situation becomes, the more I switch off from football. In theory it should do me good having football to watch as it gives me something else to think about, but the worse the pandemic gets, the more futile and pointless football feels (obviously this doesn't apply to the prediction league, which is the really serious business). Here in Germany, our politicians have spent the summer congratulating themselves how well they handled it, and when the second wave came the state premiers ignored the advice of the experts and kept everything apart from pubs and restaurants open. And now, more than a month later, with 30,000 daily cases (6,000 more than a week ago), hospitals filling up and the track and trace system completely overwhelmed, the shops are closing but schools will remain open for the last three days before the holidays. So they've failed to check the pandemic AND have torpedoed the economy at the same time. The worst of both worlds. I can't wait to vote the fools out of office.

If we're going to challenge, we need to make winning a habit even when we're not on it. We did that and got a third clean sheet in a row. On a personal note, I only listened on the radio yesterday and would prefer the team to put in their most exciting performances when I'm watching I'm encouraged that Enzio has hit form and that JOB has shown an improvement. As for Chicksen, I haven't been impressed so far but I wouldn't write him off yet, he might just need more time to get used to the team and division. It's good to be in the top three, even if it's close below us. Torquay have only dropped five points all season, which is incredible, but there's no way they can keep that up. We just have to keep on winning. All the same, there are seasons in this league when one team has an amazing season and you can end up getting 90+ points and still missing out. Let's hope this isn't one of them.

I'm delighted that we got out of jail and grabbed the points after what sounded like a very poor display. It could just prove a false dawn, with us carrying on in the same vein next week and getting beaten. But sometimes, a really jammy win like that can provide a welcome injection of confidence and prove a catalyst for the kind of run that would transform our season. I really hope it's the latter. In his interview, NA was also critical of the team despite us winning. Now he needs to take the lessons from yesterday, change a couple of things around (not least our ponderous midfield) and try to take some momentum into the next match.

Dropping two points at the death is galling, but it sounds like we had been inviting the equaliser for a long time before that. We've got multiple players who are out of form, yet there's no-one who can step into the breach. Now we need a reaction. In mitigation, it's been impossible to build up any kind of momentum this season and, if we'd seen this one out and held on to our lead against Maidenhead, we'd be looking at 5 wins out of 7 despite some underwhelming performances.

I listened on the radio. They often spoke about the players slipping over - Mark Stallard mentioned that the players would have been out on the pitch before kick-off and would have had the chance to get a feel for it. So why were they slipping about as if they were on an ice rink? Lack of preparation (born of complacency) perhaps? Not very professional at all. Being The Best Team In The Division won't help if you let your standards drop. @Chris despite all the adversity, last season we finished third and came within 90 minutes of going straight back up. Despite our much better circumstances, our summer transfer business seems to have actually weakened the squad. It's still early days and 9 points from 6 games isn't a disaster, but if we end up going backwards I can fully understand the frustration. We don't have a divine right to success, but we have good (and rich) owners, an established management team and a dressing room that fully buys into its ideas, and financially we can blow everyone in this division out of the water with the sole, possible, exception of Stockport. Everything is in place for success. The bar was always going to be set high, and justifiably so.

A week ago Germany had 10,000 daily infections for the first time. Now we've got 19,000 and are on course to overtake the UK next week thanks to our complacent politicians. During "lockdown" next month, schools will still be open and non-essential workers (myself included) will still be forced to take public transport to their offices every day. It's a joke.

That was just my reaction too @TheSkipper. Excellent result - let's carry it on on Saturday! It's not necessarily the teams that play the opposition to death that end up right at the top of the league. It's the ones that develop a winning habit and regularly grab jammy last-minute goals.

Happy with the win. Barnet didn't show up for the first half an hour nd we put them to the sword. Ultimately, that's why we won. Annoyed that we then relaxed let them back into the game, and we had an almighty wobble after their second, but we eventually started to dominate possession again and finished it off at the death. That puts us fifth. Time to put Sutton in their place.

Good piece of persistance from their centre forward to score for Barnet just before half time, but it's frustrating for us. For most of the match we've been so comfortable it's embarrasing - our front three have been able to do whatever they like, they couldn't live with us, and we've been able to turn it on with our passing game with very little pressure at all. But for the last ten minutes of the second half we relaxed and started coasting. Now they've got a little bit of hope. We need to focus again and finish the job.

Excellent, three points on the board and sounds like a job well done. Looking forward to seeing the highlights.

Yes, but they're a classic Conference team - they won the division in its first two seasons (1980 and 1981), but automatic promotion to the League was only introduced a few years later so they missed out. Part-timers. They'll probably be happy to stay up. I wouldn't mind seeing Rodders to give us a creative spark, but a midfield with him and two wingers is very attacking. Alternatively we could try a 3-5-2, a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-2-3-1 (I know you lose a striker with the latter two, but what's the point in having two strikers if they never get the ball? And with 4-2-3-1 we have the possibility of having Enzio, Rodders and Roberts playing just behind Wootton, who would be quite a handful).

Well that was galling. I'd convinced myself that this was a free shot at promotion - I never expected the play-offs to take place, and I didn't really think we'd reach them after last summer. In a way we've been underdogs all season, with extremely low expectations for a club our size. But that doesn't make it hurt any less. In the first half we froze like a rabbit in the headlights just like in 1996 and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. Only NA knows what he was thinking changing our regular defensive pairing, but it's not as if Turner was the only one to struggle.

By now we all know that Neal Ardley doesn't automatically pick an unchanged team just because we won the last game. That could work to our advantage this time - we'll keep Harrogate guessing until an hour before kick-off. I think he'll pick JOB ahead of Enzio, I've always had a feeling that he'd be our man at Wembley. Enzio has been given the nod a lot this season as our unpredictable creative firecracker, but now Roberts offers that too. It's a great problem to have though. You're so right Mr Fox, it's weird. I wasn't there for the Warnock promotions, but I was there for Bradford in 1996 - and I remember it vividly (and it's curious that Mark Stallard will be our co-commentator this time after scoring Bradford's second that year - hopefully he'll be on the winning side again). I've been desperate to return to Wembley since then and put it right. At this stage we'd be talking about tickets, where we were all sitting, travel arrangements, and we'd all have a sleepless night knowing we'd be getting up early to head down the M1. Then there'd be Wembley Way, old men selling giant rosettes (at least they did in the 90s) and outrageous drinks prices to moan about. But it is what it is, and frankly I never thought we'd even get the chance. So tomorrow my in-laws are coming over to celebrate Eid (which mostly seems to entail eating lots) and I'll have my earphones in, listening to it all unfolding on the radio. It just feels a bit unreal.

Well that was nerve-wracking. It sounded like we put in a professional and assured performance, which is superb after such a long break. Now the attention will switch to Harrogate, who will probably be a different calibre altogether. It's sod's law that when we finally return to Wembley after 24 years, none of us can actually go. But winning promotion is the most important thing. Thoughts and prayers go out to the Mansfield fans who were supporting Barnet yesterday.

As I mentioned in the other thread (before I found this "official" one), we need to get a foothold in the game quickly. The first few minutes will be our first competitive game time in months, and Barnet will be looking to take advantage of that and take an early lead. If we get through that, I think we'll win. I'm going on holiday tomorrow to a place called Cochem in Germany, and will be tuning in through the PiesPlayer app and my earphones. Could be awkward. The nerves are rising already...

@hissingdwarf Just to clarify, my comment wasn't meant as criticism of the NEU's line, they're exactly right (I know a number of people involved in that union myself). The countries where schools are reopening are far ahead of the UK in lowering the number of infections. Safety should be the only consideration here, and not getting the parents back to work ASAP, as seems to be the case.

@Chris It must be a difficult one for parents. Kids do seem to be at lower risk themselves, but there's still a risk of them spreading it to teachers and older relatives. The schools will have to reopen at some stage, when that will be depends on the level of risk you're willing to accept. Schools are open in Germany and Denmerk, but the number of infections in those countries is far, far lower than in Britain (in my state there were 30 new infections yesterday, out of a population of 6.5 million). The NEU's line is "only when it's safe" - obviously nothing in this life is 100% safe, but when the government's own advisers have gone on record as saying it's too early, then it's too early. The school my sister teaches at has been open for children of key workers and vulnerable families throughout, but the handful of kids that have been going in is manageable compared to what would happen if whole year groups went in. They haven't reopened fully yet and she's relieved about it.

So the restrictions are being eased in Germany. Shops have been open for weeks, and I think I'll be heading back to my (sparse) office in a week or two. Masks are compulsory in shops and on public transport, and cases at least aren't rising again. Holidays are officially allowed again, but I'm not sure what people in touristy regions will make of it when visitors come from more heavily affected areas.

The "lockdown" was much less strict in Germany, but has had a big effect - daily new infections nationwide are now about 600, down from about 6000 at the peak. Among other things, the difference is that other countries acted sooner. Scandalous really, especially when you consider that the UK had longer to prepare and act. You can't live in lockdown forever though - the question is, when is it safe enough to open up again? Here, too, the UK has the luxury of observing other countries to see what effects their measures have. Hopefully the powers that be won't mess it up this time. In Germany, masks are now compulsory in shops and on public transport. The reasoning for this is that, while a non-medical mask doesn't protect you from COVID-19, it does help protect others if you happen to have it. Therefore, if EVERYONE wears a mask, there's a certain degree of protection. So I spent a good part of last weekend sewing face masks, with a modest degree of success. If you fancy sewing your own mask, make sure you've got enough sewing thread at home as it's sure to sell out! @Piethagoram That report is bad news to those of us who are susceptible to forming blood clots