[Congy Red]

Fantastic start to the season. Keep playing at this level and the playoffs look highly likely. What follows are comments relating to why I can't predict a top three finish yet.

The defence is doing great, but all teams are creating very dangerous chances against us. Its most likely down to weaker support to the fullbacks than last year. The compromise looks worth making, but Roberts/Carrington/Jennings would have to be Championship level defenders to guarantee we keep up the level of clean sheets we've been lucky to get so far.

You can't be confident of success with a luxury player in the starting line up. JMD has fantastic ability, but it looks like we won't get a fantastic achievement every game (He's not Ronaldo). You got the same dilemma with Cheesy and with Vose.

Ricketts is favouring partial squad rotation over a settled side. I'm reserving judgement on whether this is working for us, It might do as we get to the end of the season. You can see our opposition being knackered if they lost their stars (Rowe at Fylde, Rooney at Salford) whereas we are better covered. Its possible we've already lost points due to the rotation plan.


I feel guilty saying it, but my view of making us a better team means cutting back on the attractive football. I'd play Pyke, Beavon and Holroyd ahead of Maquire-Drew and my only squad rotation would be swopping Ruthers and Summerfield (as they've got the most knackering role). I think those changes would nudge us towards top three material.