I like to open up with a bit of a statement, so here goes. If we continue to play in exactly the same fashion as we have in the first four games, we will win the league. Now before you all start putting together a Just giving page to fund me getting carted off by the men in white coats, just think about it for a second. We are currently picking up exactly two points a game (title winning form), we're unbeaten, we've only conceded one goal and we're now scoring freely (all ditto). When you add in that we've missed two crucial penalties and that our one concession was a deflected fluke, it becomes even more apparent that right now, we are a proper football team.
Easy start? Not a bit of it. We've played the supposed title favourites and shaded it in our only home game, gone to Grimsby and deserved our point (could have won it), then battered Colchester away and then smashed Sutton in the away game everyone dreads. Easy? You're having a laugh.
That's why I so vehemently disagreed when someone told me last night that we are "looking like a top ten team". Nowhere near, the league doesn't lie and right now, we are one of the best three teams in the league.
And what's it all down to? Well it's clear and obvious to everyone who's seen us play that we've recruited some bloody good players. Jake Reeves is a magician at the level, young Tilley another standout, while the two Stockport lads and the goalkeeper have made us a completely different proposition. So the recruitment has been very good (and we assume that's on Craig Cope) but there's something else going on here too.
Speaking as someone who was solidly in the "Jackson out" camp and made no secret of it, it would be churlish, childish and another "ch" word of which I cannot think of right now to not give credit where it's due. Building a good team of new players in a few weeks isn't easy, the manager, Skivvers, Rob & Bayzo deserve massive credit. Because not only have we recruited well, but there is something else going on here. It is an undeniable and immediately obvious fact that we are well drilled, well organized and supremely well motivated. That stuff doesn't happen by accident, nor does the obvious togetherness and spirit which saw the players rallying round Ali after he hit the bar yesterday.
So our management team (and then by definition Johnnie Jackson) have done a superb job. It is looking increasingly likely that the decision to NOT listen to people like me is going to prove the correct one. When you have as many opinions as I do it is a certainty that you'll get it wrong sometimes, hopefully that continues to be the case here. I'm never happier than when someone sticks it up their critics then gets up off the canvas to win when all looked lost. It's even sweeter when it's me on the receiving end.
So will we win the league? Well the obvious and boring answer is that I don't know. My suspicion is that some of the deeper squads and pockets below us will utilize their power to reel us in. There'll be teams which have changed lots of players and started slowly that will gradually get the hang of things (that's the normal way, why we have been so impressive). It's not my suspicion but a statement of fact that we won't always play as well as we are right now. We'll lose games, get injuries, be unlucky, maybe lose players in the transfer market, there'll be choppier waters ahead.
So no I'm NOT saying we will win the league. I'm not even saying we will make the play-offs (although that looks more likely to me than my pre season prediction of 14th being correct).
I AM saying though that we are a good team. Don't rub your eyes, believe them. We are a bloody good side.
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