It's a question of balance....

So here we are, the business end of the season. Four games to go, and over the next couple of weeks it'll either be "Let's smash MK and go to Wembley" or it'll be "Well at least we did better than last time".

Fortunately for us, we don't have to concern ourselves with any "squeaky bums". That kind of thing is for Barrow, Crewe and Crawley to worry about, they're already in there and just need to hold onto what they've got. All three of those teams by the way have been excellently managed to this point. None have huge budgets nor massively impressive individual players,  if they make the playoffs that's a fine effort.

So what of us? Well a quick check with the bookies sees that they have us at 7/1 to make the playoffs. That's probably about right, not only do we have some ground to make up but there are a couple of teams behind us with games in hand also. It's been said that we need to win our last four, I'd say even that probably won't be enough. It's not by any means impossible that we get in there, but I'm afraid we do need a couple of snookers.

It's long felt to me (from my view in the stands) that we haven't quite got the balance right between trying to avoid conceding goals/getting beat, and trying to score goals/win. Funnily enough I had that feeling even stronger earlier in the season. Back then we had the best player in the league playing centre forward for us, a sound defence and generally a very good team. If we don't make the cut, it won't be because we got beat one zip at Stockport, it'll be because we didn't go "let's have it, we'll score more than you" at Grimsby, Forest Green etc.

A quick look at the current form table is illustrative. 

Only one team has conceded less than us in the last ten games (Wrexham) but we have the worst attacking numbers in the league. Even Sutton have scored more than double our goals tally, Mansfield have scored almost four times as many.

Whatever happens over the next couple of weeks, it's this balance which needs addressing. At the moment we have two expensive strikers sitting on the bench, our best striker often operating as a ball winning midfielder and our chief threat is from long throws. We don't get forward in any numbers and we don't in all honesty even look like scoring heavily.

My hunch is that we need to get the ball down and play a bit more. I'm not talking Notts County or MK style, but we've got to look on the first pass to at least try and find the feet of a teammate. We need to go through the thirds a bit more. We have good footballers, we need to play and then give others a chance to get up and support the strikers.

We've made big progress this season. Next time around, it's on this balance that surely the focus must fall.