After a bit of an enforced layoff (I'm talking me not any of the players) I'm back at it again, ready to do the home games and only a few weeks from going on the road again. Fortunately due to the wonders of technology I've seen all the games, but obviously you can't beat being there.
So anyways it won't surprise anyone to hear that I think this is by a distance the best team I've seen during my brief time as a Womble. Right now we look incredibly solid and well drilled, we're probably only a "find a bit of fluency away from home" pill away from launching a top three challenge.
It equally goes without saying that I haven't agreed with every selection and tactical nuance. I'd love to see young Morgan Williams being given more minutes, I prefer Furlong at left back to Tilley, and I'd love to see us commit more men forward away from home. That said, the midfield is working perfectly well without young Morgan and James Tilly has been a revelation at left back, so what do I know?
The goals and threat thing away from home is probably just about the only aspect of our play which has been slightly lacking. Even then, for the most part we've managed to cobble together a chance or two, and in both of the games we've lost we could conceivably have won them. Fortunately our defence is so good that if we score we normally win, so it's only the slightest of adjustments that is needed.
Quick note on the defence. Riley Harbottle has been magnificent since he came in, Joe Lewis a colossus. Joe in paricular must surely be attracting interest from clubs with money, but it wouldn't surprise me if Harbottle is too. And it says it all about young Isaac Ogundere that he every inch looks like he belongs alongside them. What a cracking footballer he is turning out to be. Down the sides Tills or Furlong are doing great, and at right back Josh and Huss have definitely "got this".
Quick mention for the goalie too. I'll confess to having had doubts at first, but he is the latest in a long line of stoppers that Bayzo seems to have improved out of all recognition.
In midfield young Maycock looks to me like he's got it, I'm over the moon that James Ball is finally getting the opportunity to show what a good player he is. Jake Reeves continues to be the Gary Kasparov of league two, while Myles Hippolite has confirmed with bells on the early suspicion that he's a central midfielder these days. The most exciting of all though could be Ali Smith. I'd bemoaned the fact that he was "just" playing decent as he looks like a lad who is too good for the level to me. Well apparently he rammed it down my throat on Saturday where everyone who went said he was magnificent. He had a tough afternoon against Danny Meyer (who must be close to being the best midfielder in the league) but by the next time he runs into the Fleetwood schemer, our man has it in him to have improved beyond the ex Plymouth man.
Up top Omar continues to shine (and Jeez how good was he at Newcastle?). So does everyone else though, Matty Stevens cementing his spot as first choicer with a hat trick on Saturday. Pigs continues to have that poachers instinct, and while Josh Kelly has arguably found it a frustrating start, his movement is too good and too clever to fail if we start to play slightly more progressive football.
And Johnnie Jackson? Well he and his coaches will be well and truly coming up on the radar of bigger clubs. Our man has improved vastly from when he first started and is now in my view ready to go up the ladder. Hopefully before that, he goes he gets promotion with Wimbledon.
COYD
