“Why we may be the dark horses” or..

” How to be an optimist in 1 pre- season”

There is always one club that exceeds expectations in this League -last season it was Oxford and lets not forget Lincoln who also did far better than expected with low key signings – or at least it seemed that way to me .

This season I have a feeling – or it may just be blind optimism –  that if we find the right goalscorer that we so desperately need  we might do quite well and that the odds of 28:1 on getting promotion through the play-offs might be worth a punt.

The thing is that the quality of teams in this League has gone up a level and its going to be far tougher this year than last. Having said that I feel that maybe just maybe our change of strategy in the way that we play may suit the fact that more teams will be attacking in strength.

For years we have struggled with teams who adopt the low block – it started with Chesham at home in the FA cup all those years ago and we have not got it right since. This team however might just be the answer.

The signings to date – particularly defensively – have been fairly impressive and almost reassuringly we have strength in depth and they are youngish and less injury prone. We could cope with certain “ key” defenders being unavailable .

I am reminded of Leicester – you know what I am talking about – when they soak up pressure and hit on the counter attack. The kiddie that we are trying to sign from Fleetwood seems to be a flier . Is it coincidence that Vardy also came from Fleetwood ?

It will not be the open attacking football promised last year but fast counter attacking play is exciting if it is done right with the high press etc that the pundits like to talk about.

So maybe I am jumping the gun a little as we haven’t really seen the defensive capabilities of these very promising wing backs. We don’t have the goalscorer that I mention earlier in the article – but that is just one player and we still have the loan market to explore further.

I feel that this year we have the promise of a better team – rather than individuals- and yeah my optimism has resurfaced as I suspected that it would. It happens almost every summer.

So I am off to the bookies for my annual one off flutter and this time its play-off winners. I am still using that £170 that I got from promotion from League 2 – so I can afford to be overly optimistic .

Thanks for reading and once again…

All opinions are my own . CC