The Future’s Bright

Certainly not myself. How thing’s can change in the matter of a few months. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from over yet and we have a hell of a long way to go if we want to achieve our aim this season, which is obviously promotion. Whichever way that is achieved depends on how much the players want it – they’re certainly capable of finishing top of the table , that’s for sure.

The most important thing needed from us now is Consistency, if we can do this, then i honestly can’t see who will stop us. We have the best defence in our league for starters, and that is undoubtedly a BIG factor in our current and future success. The thing we MUST not do though is let complacency kick in and get carried away this early and to be perfectly honest, after what happened last season i think the players (and fans) have learned a harsh lesson and i can’t see it being repeated this time around.

Onto the guy who has made this potential “dream” happen – Kenny Jackett. If he hasn’t done enough to win his critics over yet then what else has he got to do to prove that he IS the right man to take this club forward? I admit that i was one of the people who had slight doubts about him at the start of the season and I’m delighted that he is proving me wrong. Everyone (even himself) will admit that he has made mistakes which have been costly (Take his style of play at the start of the season for instance) but one of the things that you need to do if you want a team to be successful is to take chances and experiment – Jackett has done just that and it looks to be paying off. He admits when he’s wrong and is man enough to change them, he also isn’t scared to make decisions (Dropping Martinez and releasing Rog are perfect examples) and that’s what i love to see in a manager.

Our players are realising that “Team” success is far more important that “Personal” pride and the competition for places is healthy. I’m starting to worry about our incapability to score goals because, even though we are keeping clean sheets, we can’t rely on our defensive players too much to ensure that we get something from games (Look at the Southend game!). I’m pretty sure that we will start hitting the net regularly while also keeping them out at the other end. 15 Goals For and 10 Goals Against in 14 games, backs me up. We certainly have the players there to score goals, just look at our attacking options and see who are capable of scoring goals for us:

Lee Trundle

Paul Connor

Adrian Forbes

Scott Fitzgerald

Brad Maylett

Leon Britton

James Thomas

Kevin Nugent

Even players like Martinez, O’leary, Fisken and our big boys in defence are capable of hitting the net, so i really cant explain how we’re struggling in front of goal!

Having witnessed 13 of our 14 games this season i haven’t really seen who have jumped out at me and made me think “Now, they will walk away with the league this season”. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very decent teams here (Southend, Mansfield and even Orient ) but whether they can keep up with the pace through the cold wintery part of the season, when injured and suspensions take their toll is anyone guess. We may even start slipping, who knows?

Our fitness levels have really impressed me this season, at least now we can actually last the WHOLE game and not look shattered after 75/80 minutes of the game gone.

That’s another thing that Kenny promised us and delivered it.

Teamwork

Commitment

Pride

Effort

All four above is a MUST if we want to be playing League One football in our brand new stadium next season. At the moment all 4 are evident in the players so hopefully it will remain there.

All our summer signings have been superb (Fisken the exception as he hasn’t been playing) so far, so come on boys show the fans how much you really do want Promotion and keep it up until the season finale. You’re certainly capable of it – believe in your own abilities and believe in each other as a team and you wont go wrong.

The Future is Bright, The Future is BLACK AND WHITE.

Oh yeah and in case you all didn’t know:…………………

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!