Things are going well but we need cover at centre-back and in midfield
I’ve always said you can judge the start to a season after 10 games. Well, we sit in fourth in Conference South at that stage after Saturday’s win at Farnborough.
I’ve had a lot of phone calls from other managers saying we’re flying, and we obviously mustn’t grumble at where we’re at.
I’m sensing the bond in the group getting tighter with each passing game and everyone is standing up to the challenges they’re facing.
But there’s a long way to go and it’s still such a tight league – a couple of wins can push a team up about 10 places.
We’ve now won five of our last six league games, the latest coming thanks to an injury-time penalty from Jack Mills at the weekend.
The lads didn’t start the game as well as I know they can and we were 1-0 down at half-time.
I asked them for a response and they really took the game to Farnborough in the second half.
It was a match we deserved to win, even though we had to wait for the late penalty, because we created numerous chances.
We continued with three at the back, which had worked well against Basingstoke.
The defence has worked wonders for us all season but that set-up allows us to be a little more creative, with the wing-backs pushing on. It also gives Luke Williams a free role in the centre.
It’s a formation that suits the personnel we have at the moment but we know we can change to four at the back at a moment’s notice, such is the flexibility in the squad.
Speaking of personnel, Luke Medley left us this week. He has fallen down the pecking order of late and his departure frees up some money in the budget.
We’ll lose Anthony Furlonge in a few weeks for international duty, with Cyprus under-21s, and we need to look at cover for centre-back and central midfield.
But if we bring someone in, it has to be the right person. The group is a small one and very tight-knit so a player’s character is as important as their ability.
After a gap of six weeks, we finally return to Woking for a league game on Saturday when we play Bishop’s Stortford.
I’ve spoken to other managers who have played them and they’re a physical side who are tough to beat.
Our away form has been excellent – and even our ‘home’ matches are away! So hopefully there won’t be any mental block there as some teams get when they’re expected to perform on their own patch.
Last season’s champions Welling United went through the whole season unbeaten at home – that’s the standard everyone wants to reach.
We lost our first two, although we were unlucky against Bromley and had chances against Eastbourne we didn’t take. But we beat Chelmsford 4-0 in our last league game at Kingfield, so hopefully we can continue our good form.
The great thing about Woking is it’s a terrific playing surface. Eventually though, we all want to get into the Sharda Glass, make it our own and create an environment where other teams fear going.
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