Now while many fans would have expected us to have nine points from nine, it was a bit of a reality check to some that we only had two points going into the weekends tie. Although it didn't look good on paper, what we saw in the opening two games were promising, here's the three things I have taken out of the opening three games of the season:
1) Mistakes must be acted upon immediately
A first half display at Sincil Bank saw Jack Munns score his first senior goal in his first senior appearance, a bit of luck with how it fell back to him, but it was a well deserved goal from the ex-Spurs prospect, who has seen himself involved in all four goals scored so far. However three out of them four came at the weekend, with Gary Johnson and many of the fans voicing concern over the ability to find that killer instinct.
Without that ability to kill the game off, we were able to invite Lincoln back into the game, who had a good backing behind them with the supporting crowd, as well as the addition of Liam Hearn in the second half earning them the point. A goal from a set-piece again, was the only real stand-out concern around the camp, in that goals had been conceded from corners continuously in pre-season, and to see it occur on the first game of the season was disappointing. It was clear the fault needed to be addressed.
Fortunately it was acted upon straight away, and when Aldershot Town were welcomed to the World of Smile Stadium, there was absolutely no cause for concern, and it was flipped on it's head on Saturday when we turned goals conceded from corners into goals scored, a header from captain Downes, and Amari Morgan-Smith completed an instant reaction to one of the early downfalls of the season. A job well done, we seemed to have a curse of not being able to deal with corners under the Yates reign, something that never seemed to resolve itself under him, hopefully the early improvements under Johnson will continue long into the season.
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| From 'zero to hero' for Amari? - ctfc.com |
2) Teams will come to park the bus
Tuesday night against Aldershot was a brilliant example of some of the competition we will come up against. The travelling team came away with a positive 0-0 draw, and a massively frustrating one for us, the wood-work hit three times and two goals ruled out for offside. Aldershot are a team who will be around mid-table, they've got a fairly competitive team who will be looking back on games like this as a good draw against a promotion favourite. A majority of the teams in this league will play against us and see us as one of the 'big uns' and look to play for the draw and work on the counter. Things could have been a lot different if Rhys Browne hadn't missed the target from six yards.
It's fair to say they had two giants at centre-back and although we were still managing to get through and miss chances, these are going to be some of the toughest players to get past and break through and at times, teams will have eight or nine players behind the ball. In the end it will be down to our ability to play decent football, on the floor and get behind the defence with quick movement orchestrated by the likes of Storer, and speed and trickery of Munnsy and Billy Waters (who has promised he's got a lot more to give. Again it's a case of taking the chances, and killing the game off, something which was seen on Saturday, against a very poor team, hopefully it continues though, consistency along with confidence will see us live up to the expectations of bouncing back.
The team has shown its quality in pre-season, and the fans know what they can do, proving that quality for the full 90 minutes had been the concern going into Saturday, adapting that attacking philosophy throughout the game had been a struggle and frustration at not finding the goal seemed to end up slowing the tempo down.
Fortunately Saturday was a different story, goalless going into the second half Cheltenham should have been well into the lead with some inaccurate headed attempts. The tempo and intent continued to show, and in a game that saw around 13 corner kicks for the Robins, Aaron Downes took it in his stride to convert, and it showed how much it meant that chance after chance payed off. An assist shortly after for the skipper saw Morgan-Smith open his account for the season, a cool chip over the keeper, and a well taken header saw him bag a brace in a 3-0 win.
Overall it was a brilliant all round performance, Billy Waters again didn't shine, but everyone else seemed to pull together well and the click seemed to happen, once a goal came, the others shortly followed as the opposition was worked to the point of giving in. Again it's good to keep in mind the quality of the opposition, who weren't in the game at all, and for the majority it was men against boys, however it's games like this that can hopefully start a run up together. The defence is finally beginning to gain a strong understanding, the attacking movements from midfield to attack are fluent and not desperate, and once we take the game by the scruff of the net we look to be able to kill the game off, long may it continue!
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