One point off the Drop Zone

OK, that was an improved performance Saturday (no posts yet?), and we should have won it to be honest, lack of goals may yet cost us dear. Thought the new guys did well,Youhill looked quite impressive, and Cook didn't really have a serious save to make. brayson should really have scored at the end.

However, lets not kid ourselves, we are in a real relegation battle now. Look at the facts:
1) one point above 20th place
2) three teams below us have games in hand: two of them Bishops and Hinckley are revitalised, Bishops with a new manager (if only, if only!), and all three of them score goals.
3) We have already played 13 home games (and scored 14 goals ) and have three very tough away games to come and then Hinckley at home. By that stage we could easily be in the bottom three.
4) To state the obvious you have to score goals to win games: we don't score goals, even Eastwood and Blyth have scored more than us.

The new players seem to have improved the team, but lack of goals is gonna kill us unless we remedy it soon. Interesting that Jamie Walshaw chose to go back to Guiseley after leaving Darlington, how valuable would he have been to us?

Anyway, just some thoughts. I enjoyed Saturday's game, but we are potentially in real trouble.

Paul, I think the reason there's no thread yet is summed up by the rest of your posting. And maybe by the forum night...

I too enjoyed the match, but at the end of it, I was left with an "unsatisfied" feeling. We were slightly the better team but still didn't get the ball in the net (they did but I'm not sure if it was or wasn't offside as I'd been distracted at the wrong moment and wasn't anywhere near in line anyway).

If we were riding reasonably high in the league, we'd look on that match as "one of THOSE days". However, in our position we can't afford any like that anymore. On reflection, I reckon we wouldn't have scored even if we were still playing now. They on the other hand seemed to be getting a bit stronger.

Interesting times eh?

EDIT - changed tonight to "night". Well, it's just after Christmas and I'm still not sure what day of the week - or even what week - it is

Gonna be some big crowds in this league in a couple of years time!!!!!
Chester look a good bet to be in it next season, FC United, Chorley, and Northwich won’t be far behind!
We need to be in it to cash in!!!!
Not scoring goals could cost us BIG TIME!!!
As each chance is missed you can see heads strarting to drop through the side!!!!
We need confident players if we are going to win matches!!!!
Full time, pitch levelling, new stand in the Evo-stic League?
Still time to sort it out, but it’s going to be tough without strikers who can hit the back of the net!!!

I was amazed to hear Simon Weaver saying in the post match interview he had just the left the dressing room telling the players how proud he was of them! Yes, we played OK but we got a 0-0 draw at home against a team in the lower half of the league...what the... If we ever win a game 5-0 he'll probably want an open bus tour of Harrogate and a Civic reception
If our manager is starting to regard 0-0 draws against average opposition as causes for celebration then we are in more trouble than I thought.
Hope you are getting all your questions/comments lined up for the forum coming up shortly...could be lively if we speak our minds

Didn't hear that Paul but it's quite ridiculous for him to mention it. As I said above, in my opinion,they were getting stronger towards the end AND they got a precious point away from home.

We didn't get the ball in the net. Had we done so just once, we'd be above Histon.

Not looking good at all, this Saturdays game is MASSIVE!
If we don't win we are in serious trouble!! ;(
In my opinion we need to play Elam as every time he comes off the bench he provides the strikers with chances which doesn't seem to happen when we play without wingers !

The signings made like Bolland and Brough are good but they are still not helping us with our main problem!!! THE NEED TO SCORE GOALS!

In the last three games we've played we haven't scored once, and have conceded 6 times. That is just poor, concidering 2 of the matches were at home!!

News from the relegation battle zone: Hinckley lost 4-1 to Altrincham on Monday, so that was positive for us, but Bishops Stortford (new manager and all!) beat Boston away 2-0. Great result for them. J2021 is dead right, Saturday is massive, if they win (and they must be favourites), puts them 5 points ahead of us. In fact I can see Bishops climbing to mid table fairly soon. With Guiseley and Altrincham away to come this is looking a bit grim. It will be interesting to see what our manager has to say in the Advertiser on Friday: probably in denial as usual!