Apologies for recent period of inertia on the blogging front (my last blog 7 September following Saints 0-0 home draw with Yaxley) ... combination of work and family commitments (plus inherent lazy streak).
So I make it 7 games since Yaxley and a big bag of mixed results which leaves Saints the wrong side of mid-table with 14pts. Not our best start to a season but clearly no need to panic (yet). Simply put we dramatically improve on our 11 goals from 13 UCL games and we start to move up the league. Simple!
Our lack of goal scoring has undoubtedly cost us a shed load of points this season in games where we've dominated but lost the points to the odd goal. For me perfectly summed up at Raunds where we battered their goal for 50 mins but still went 2 down and finally lost 2-1. That night Saints (and Cobby, Danny P in particular) played their hearts out but just couldn't score. I know having spoken with other fans that this mirrored games at Rothwell and Sleaford (although believe Sleaford deserved the win on the day - I wasn't there so stand corrected if not the case).
All a bit frustrating as we've undoubtedly got the players up front to cause any defence a problem. Dan M, Scott and the new lad from Rushden are all proven goal scorers so fingers crossed things will pick up and we'll start banging some in. Every confidence this will happen and sure it's only a matter of time (luck and patience).
Lets remember that we've just come off the back of 2 really hard away games against Kings L and Newport. In both games the lads put in really spirited displays and were heavily hit by injuries to key 1st team players. Even at full stregth we'd struggle against these sides so no shame in either scoreline. We now need to put these behind us and crack on together.
The next few games will shape our season in the league and no more important than this Saturday's home game with Deeping. We need to get back to winning ways and put some space between us and the bottom pack as soon as possible. We certainly don't want to be below mid-table come turn of the year if we can help it.
Off the field the club's Forum has made interesting reading lately. Dave's thread about travelling support certainly generating mixed opinion! For my money I guess people need to call it as they see fit. If you make a game then great but if not it's not the end of the world (well unless you miss Saints scoring 13 away from home). If you've not posted on the forum yet then why not give it a go ... it's all about opinion.
Finally, I'm in London so will miss the Deeping game at WWR (party not City playing in the capital ... blues are in Blackpool for a weekend knees-up). So good luck to the lads and heads up - it will get better and if not ... well we're still the best club in the UCL anyway!
Cheers for now - Tim H
