Five Conclusions

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Huish Park was a special place yesterday as Billy Rowley’s Yeovil Town side blistered through Boston United scoring six goals. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…

That was emphatic. Once Ryan Jones put Yeovil ahead, the Glovers tore through Boston United like they weren’t even there. Brett McGavin’s goal was sensational, expertly assisted by Slavi Spasov. It took just three passes for the third with McGavin to Jones to Daly who rifled home. Johl Powell beat the haphazard offside trap to make it four goals in 13 first half minutes and game over before the break. Mason Obeng bust a gut to get the Glovers fifth before Powell coolly slotted a penalty away after being felled in the box. Each goal was different, it could have been even more but it was a marker laid down by a team full of confidence.

Yeovil Town celebrate Brett McGavin doubling the advantage. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

It did take time. Yeovil were relatively in control from the opening whistle without being cut throat. Ryan Jones was doubled up every time he got the ball and struggled to get into his free flowing best up until he’d scored. Boston offered next-to-no threat although they did force Jos Barker into a good safe low to his left before the onslaught began.

Everyone played their part. We’ve talked about ad nauseam this season, the depth is great, the squad is great and yesterday was another example of every single player playing their part. The subs all came in and made an impact. This has to be the most complete squad we’ve had, maybe ever? When we’ve been successful before we’ve had a good core 11 with players you’d definitely consider bench players, that is not the case this season.

Johl Powell. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

More firepower has arrived. Prior to kick off the club unveiled is new signing, Owen Dean. It feels absurd to say this after a 6-0 win, but Dean will add something different to the front line giving us a bit more variation up top as well as adding more pressure to Ste Walker and Slavi Spasov. He sounds like a forward who will send from the front – chasing things down and one whos consistently scored goals. Exciting

It was an historic day. It’s not very often your team wins 6-0. It’s a spooky turn of fate that on the same weekend 24 years ago Yeovil tore through Southport 6-0 with an Abdoulai Demba first half hat trick in a season that went on to be historic. That game lives long in the memory and this one will too. Will we repeat history? Who knows, but let’s enjoy the ride.

Mason Obeng celebrates in front of the Thatchers | Photography by Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

Make sure you vote for your Man of the Match in our post-match poll – click here to vote.

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A thrilling encounter at Huish Park saw Yeovil Town and Worthing share the spoils in a 1-1 draw. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…

We didn’t take our chances. There was some blistering football on display at HP. Both teams went toe to toe in a proper football match but I felt Yeovil had the better of the opportunities. Johl Powell had two good chances in the first half and I lost count at the amount of times Ryan Jones got into spaces where he is capable of doing damage. Just as the Glovers seemed to be on the verge of breaking the door down, Jos Barker- who made a big safe on the first minute – let a soft effort slip through his gloves and Worthing went ahead. Brett McGavin’s chaos theory free kick got the Glovers back level early in the second half, but Yeovil were unable to find the winner.

Johl Powell. Picture by Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

Johl Powell looked the part. After scoring three goals in two substitute appearances Johl Powell earned his starting spot and I felt he looked comfortable and confident. If you can be critical of his early performances you can maybe say he’s been too safe, but last night there were flicks, tricks and efforts at goal and a confidence that comes off the back of a nice scoring run.

We’re using the squad. One of these conclusions could have been around how we missed a certain box crasher in moments last night, but what were seeing is the quality in depth. While the subs didn’t necessarily make the desired impact last night, Hayden Muller, Johl Powell, Jack Kingdon and James Daly looked worthy of spots in the starting line up. Ben Radcliffe has been in and out. Spasov toiled while Ste Walker returns to fitness. Zain Westbrooke, Charlie Lennon and Mason Obeng were all utilised. Before the depth was a bit of an unknown but now we’re seeing contributions at a level that there is expectation.

Both teams left it out on the pitch. By the time the final whistle went both teams were flat out after an intense (and entertaining) match. Billy Rowley called it a good advert for the league and you’d have to agree. Even going in behind at half time, the supporters at Huish Park applauded and that appreciation was there at the end too. It was a tactical battle but one where both sides wanted to go for it and find the winner and in doing so, left open spaces which made for an entertaining match.

Photo by Tates Photography

The start has surpassed my expectations. The Green Day rule has been in effect at GCHQ and with September ending, the start to the season has been impressive. At the time of writing the Glovers sit in 6th after 11 games and everyone at the club has to be pleased with that. A new team, new relationships (not without it’s bumps in the road) and the team have put together some great results, some good performances and – you’d hope – we’re only going to get better. We’re just under a quarter through the season and it’s been a start to build on.

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It is back-to-back wins for Yeovil Town after a hard-fought win at Kidderminster Harriers yesterday and, whisper it quitely, but as September comes to an end, we’re inside the play-off places at the top of the National League Premier Division table.

Abby Carter was among the almost 500 Glovers fans at Aggborough and here are her conclusions on the performance.

It’s nice to add a new away day

21 years since we’ve been to Kidderminster and Aggborough is a very welcome addition back to the National League, that felt like proper away day with a great atmosphere in the away end. We travelled well with 481 Glovers’ fans in attendance, and and for those of you wondering if the tea bar is still good after all these years – you will have to ask Dave and Foxy!

We still have one game left in September, but I’m calling the Green Day Rule early

Two months of football and we’ve barely left the play-off places in the National League Premier Division table and even had ten minutes at the top of the league earlier this month. With performances like these, it’s easy to forget this is a two-year project.

You will struggle to see a team playing more attractive football than us in the National League this season, or many more exciting players to watch than Ryan Jones.

Yet again he was a cut above in the first half, he ran the show at Aldershot a few weeks ago and he was in great form at Kiddy yesterday, but after the last week we have to remember – don’t fall in love with footballers.

Brett McGavin and Hayden Muller celebrate with goal-scorer Johl Powell. Picture courtesy of Jayden Tate/Tate’s Photography.

This team is special.

It’s hard not to feel excited about this season and this team and yesterday was yet another complete team performance. The football is a joy to watch and they are playing like a team that have been together for years, even though the majority were not together last season.

In previous seasons we’ve struggled for leaders and what’s clear is Billy and Darren are building a team of them. This side is full of character and accountability, togetherness, communication, friendship and fight. The relationship between fans and players feels as strong as I can remember and wounds of seasons past are healing.

Johl ‘Goal’ Powell

Ryan Jones, Zain Westbrooke and Brett McGavin all could have seen their name on the scoresheet yesterday (not score board because Kiddy don’t have one), but the job fell to super sub Johl Powell who made it look easy. If this is the sort of player you sign in nightclubs Billy and Jamie, you best get yourselves on a few more nights out because that finish was absolutely fearless.

Johl Powell slots home at Kidderminster.  Picture courtesy of Jayden Tate/Tate’s Photography

We probably need a bit more upfront

Whatever has happened between the manager and Luke McCormick, only they will know the truth, but one thing is clear, with our top-scorer rumoured to be on the transfer list, we are going to need to replace those goals.

Impact subs are important and the response since the home defeat to AFC Fylde has been everything we could have asked for – the midfield is magic, Jos Barker has been outstanding in goal, the defence feel like they’ve found themselves and now we need our strikers to join the party

After all defences might win leagues, but goals are going to be needed for the play-offs and now we’re here, it would be really nice to stay there.

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Four goals, top seven (for a few hours) and more than a fair share of entertainment on show at Huish Park.

Ollie Marsh was at the home of football, on Friday night, with the fancy new floodlight and fluid football to brighten it all up further.

Here are his four conclusions on the game… and an important one on the teamsheet!

Where’s Macca?

No matter what happened on the pitch tonight, the main talking point was already decided an hour before kick-off. For Yeovil Town’s talismanic captain to be absent from the squad entirely was a puzzler, and Billy Rowley’s classification of the decision as “tactical” didn’t quell the confusion. It was somewhat comforting to see him watching from the main stand, but the lack of Mac was undoubtedly the evening’s big question mark.

Luke McCormick. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

Our wingers ran the show
The sub-plot around McCormick did at least open up the opportunity for our other attacking talents to take centre stage, and boy did they. I thought Flyin’ Ryan Jones was outstanding – a constant threat even during the moments we didn’t look at our free-flowing best. James Daly also deserves credit – he seemed to constantly get a good few yards on whichever Solihull defender was unlucky enough to chase his shadow, and he used his pace to perfection.

Spasov again olé olé

Fresh from his first Yeovil goal against Aldershot in midweek, Slavi Spasov was back leading the line, with Ste Walker still absent. I thought it was a difficult game for the Bulgarian, who was struggling to get involved. But it’s two in two (from two… yards) and I don’t mind having a striker who gets in the habit of scoring tap-ins at all. Let’s keep getting behind him, keep singing his song and hope the goals keep coming. I think he has the makings of a bit of a cult striker.

Spasov celebrates – Pic C/o Indy Pictures.

Patience paid off

I was already planning to give Jack Kingdon a line, following the defender’s first run-out since the 20 minutes he got on the opening day at Scunthorpe. Rowley praised him as a model professional, and I thought for a young defender who’s received such little game time, he looked completely on top of the Solihull attack. Then Johl Powell popped up, and turned what should have been a routine cameo into a starring role. His first goal was a McCormick-esque controlled finish that he took beautifully, and he was on the mark to get his second moments later. Another one who’s had to bide his time, I enjoyed seeing him get the post-match fist pumps.

Johl Powell pic c/o Indy Visuals

That’s entertainment.

Another 4-1 scoreline at home – this time with the Glovers on the correct end of it – and another throughly entertaining showing at Huish Park. I thought there were times when we looked a little reluctant to get out of first gear, but when we switched the on button, we ran rings around an almost stunningly uninterested-looking Moors back line. It was such an unfortunate goal to concede and Jos Barker will be fuming to lose his clean sheet in that manner, but the reaction to turn the screw and chuck a couple more on the scoresheet was *chef’s kiss*. DAZN should swing a couple extra quid our way for the entertainment we’re providing.

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A 1-1 draw against the stingiest defence the league doesn’t tell the full story of another rollercoaster evening for the Glovers, Andy Craig was in the away end, here are his Five Conclusions.

We gave it one hell of a go with 10 men. You wouldn’t have seen us deliver that kind of performance from the past couple of seasons.

We probably wouldn’t have even tried to win the game either when Aldershot drew level. But this is a new Yeovil Town side now. We win that game 11 v 11 and were electric until the red card. Then, with one less player, there were periods during the second half you didn’t know which side was playing with 10. We asked for a reaction after last weekend and without a shadow of a doubt got one.

James Daly. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman – Indy’s Visuals.

Apparently James Daly is still running.
I don’t know what the guy eats for breakfast, but as we saw so often last season, what a serious motor JD11 has on him. He completely embodied the fight in this team to ensure we came away with something on Tuesday evening. As well as putting in a superb performance as a makeshift left back, he crucially got us up the pitch on so many occasions too – where he was also robbed of an assist when setting up Super Luke McCormick. Cheers, ref.

Luke McCormick celebrates with James Daly. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Big moments have killed us recently.
For the third consecutive game we’ve failed to score from a big chance and then our opponents have made us pay by going up the other end and scoring. Ste at Southend to make it 3-1, Archie Davies in front of the Thatchers to make it 1-1 against Fylde and now Brett McGavin, perhaps a tad unfortunate, to make it 2-0 at Aldershot. If we converted these key chances into goals we’d be looking at more than 1 point out of a possible 9. On a more positive note, the buildup for all three chances were delightful passages of play. Liquid Football.

It’s important to remember this is very much a Two Year Project.
You don’t see many National League sides finish 16th one season and get promoted the next. Billy Rowley, Darren Simpson and the vast majority of their new signings are all under contract until summer 2028. Whilst we can all get carried away this season, I’m confident even if we don’t reach the Top 7 come May, we’ll be in a very good position to go for it in 2027/28. However, after an encouraging start to the season it can be difficult to stop us from dreaming… (yes, I have visualised Macca scoring the winner under the Arch).

Long live the cowshed away ends.
Over recent years English football has lost too many of its traditional ‘proper’ grounds, but in our last two away fixtures at Southend and Aldershot we’ve visited the Old School Colosseums. Our travelling support has been excellent at these games – helped by the big barrel roofs to create a rocking atmosphere at both Roots Hall and the EBB Stadium. As the best away ends in a many a league, it’s something The Shrimpers and The Shots need to desperately hold onto for as long as possible.

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Yeovil Town’s unbeaten start to the new season came to an end as they gave up a two-goal lead to suffer a 3-2 defeat at Southend United yesterday. Glovers’ fan Ed Turnbull was in the away end at Root’s Hall and here are his conclusions.

 

For a while it was textbook. For 65 minutes, that was a textbook away performance. We had to weather a storm or two, but we defended doggedly. Whenever Southend breached the first line of defence, there was someone in green on the cover, or a Super Jos Barker™️ in yellow making a solid stop. We didn’t have loads of chances up the other end, but we were clinical when they arose.

Yeovil Town celebrate Archie Davies opener at Southend.

That free-kick killed us. We wilted in the end though. As soon as Darren Oldaker’s expertly-dispatched free kick hit the net, it felt as though 5 and a half games of high-energy football caught up with us. The energy seaped out of our legs, and into Southend’s. You don’t take off the likes of Brett McGavin and Luke McCormick unless you have to, and without them we lacked that vital bit of experience and composure.

We didn’t look after business. Even before Rowley rang the changes, I felt we didn’t keep the ball as well as we’ve shown we can. That is just as much, if not more, down to Southend’s quality as it is a drop in our standards, but for me that is a difference between the strong play-off contenders we currently are, and a top 3 team. We did have good patterns of play at times, but there were too many times we lost the ball in our own half, and that ultimately made life difficult for us.

We struggled after the second half substitutions of Luke McCormick and Brett McGavin. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

There’s a silver lining. A loss always hurts, but I don’t feel as gutted as I normally would after seeing us lose having been 2-0 up. Maybe that’s just because following Yeovil over the last decade has numbed me to the pain, but I think it’s also because Southend were very good, and we still managed to get ourselves into a commanding position. I know it counts for nothing if you let it slip, but the scoreline at 65 minutes was further proof that we can really achieve something this season.

Onwards and upwards. My (our?) ludicrous dreams of an unbeaten season are over, but if you’d offered me 11 points after 6 games including Scunthorpe Carlisle Barrow and Southend, I’d have snapped your hand off. I’ve seen more than enough from this team to be confident that we’ll soon be back on a winning streak, with a kinder-looking run of fixtures now presenting a perfect chance to make a very good start an unbelievable one.

Picture courtesy of Ed Turnbull.

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The unbeaten start to the new season continued with a 3-2 win over Tamworth in front of the biggest crowd at Huish Park this season and none of 3,945 can say they weren’t entertained. Ollie Marsh was there to witness and here are his conclusions.

Bench builders. We’re currently witnessing a new phenomenon, never before seen at Huish Park, called ‘strength in depth’. It tells all you need to know about the squad Billy Rowley has built that you can look at a team sheet with seven changes on it and still feel like you have a very good starting XI. There would probably be uproar if any other team in the division dropped their red-hot number nine, but Slavi Spasov getting a runout over Ste Walker barely even raised an eyebrow, let alone questions over the decision – and I thought the Bulgarian gave an excellent, battling performance. What’s more, to be able to bring on players like Ryan Jones – who I thought provided the injection of energy that won us the match – off the bench, as well as Westbooke, Norville-Williams among others is a breath of fresh air.

Ryan Jones added energy when he came on. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz

Good but not perfect. It maybe wasn’t as controlled as Billy Rowley would have liked. You wouldn’t want to be a water bottle in the vicinity of our manager when something goes wrong; all it takes is a slightly misplaced pass or cheap free-kick and the Buxton (other water brands are available) gets a battering. The frustration in the dugout suggested that this wasn’t quite as dominant of a performance as our last showing at Huish Park against Gateshead – but when you can dig in and grind out the three points, who cares? It was all smiles and fist pumps in front of the Thatchers post-match, and that’s all that matters.

Me thinks the Lambs doth protest too much. Don’t let any Tamworth fans tell you they were hard done by. The Lambs players, fans and coaching staff were incandescent when Haydn Hollis’ late equaliser was chalked off, but the only crime from the officials was that the decision took so long to make – the experienced defender was clearly a mileoffside when he poked into an empty net. Even if there was an injustice in disallowing the goal, it would have simply balanced out the blatant handball that was missed earlier on…

Luke McCormick celebrates with Brett McGavin. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

Mac the Knife. Brett McGavin was worthy of his MOTM award. I was intrigued to see how our number 14 would get on without Westbrooke beside him, with the two having formed a decent yin-yang partnership over the past few games. As it turned out, Hayden Muller was equally adept at doing the dirty work, allowing McGavin to proceed at his creative best. He should have got a goal or two (he can blame tired legs for the attempted lob at the end) but that didn’t take the shine off what I thought was a starring performance.

Are you not entertained? That was Yeovil Town Football Club at their brilliant, chaotic best. We’ve seen a few different types of performances from the Glovers this season, and while the dominance of the Gateshead win may be better for the blood pressure, this was the closest we’ve been to Gary Johnson’s ‘you score four, we’ll score more’ football in ages, and I loved it. Cracking goals! Sloppy defending! Late equalisers! Missed penalties! Inject it into my veins. Huish Park seemed to revel in it too, particularly in the later stages, showing no mercy towards the visitors’ misfortune, before becoming a wall of noise to see the boys over the line. UP THE GLOVERS!

Mason Obeng is enjoying himself. Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

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It was quite some Friday night for the Glovers who came from behind to grab a 2-1 win over recently relegated Barrow.

Ben was in the press box for the BBC and here are his five conclusions on a heady night in Cumbria.

Energy. Effort. Desire.

I’m knackered after the nearly six hours of driving to cover less than a 200-mile round trip – I can only imagine how the 80-plus people who got home at 5am on Saturday must feel! I’m was exhausted just watching at the energy, effort and desire from the Glovers.

It’s perfectly acceptable to give a good Barrow team the majority of the ball especially on their own turf, but the more I see of this side, the more convinced I am that you will not out work this new look Yeovil side.

It is world away from us even 12 months ago, it’s so refreshing to see that basic desire to run through brick walls for each other, for the manager and the fans.

Together. Yeovil Town celebrate with the travelling supporters at full time in Barrow.

We would have lost that game last season.

And the season before, and the one before and probably plenty of previous seasons before that!

But here’s the thing we would have shut up shop and taken the point after the equaliser in those campaigns too. We wouldn’t have sent the central defenders up for that late free-kick.

That’s a mentality thing. That was rolling dice and saying we can take the risk of losing a game to try and win it.

Replacing quality with quality.

Oh no, Ryan Jones is on a yellow card…that must mean we have to play someone else out of position to fill the gap… oh, wait. We have Mason Obeng and James Daly ready and raring to go!?

Oh no, I hope Joy Mukena has to be careful in the second half on a yellow. Actually let’s just bring on the vice captain, or a highly thought of loan signing in Ayina. Jack Kingdon and Dan Ellison aren’t even in the squad!

With all due respect, the days of putting square Finn Cousin-Dawson-shaped peg in a round hole because he can do a job, are behind us.

Unbeaten and confident.

I don’t think we’ll go 46 games unbeaten, although I’ve been wrong before. But if a new group with a 15 new faces could have hand-picked a start to the season, there would have been a lot of people choosing to keep a 0 in the L column for as long as possible.

What we’ve got is a group that is determined to keep it that way but, also a group learning how to stick together when (if?) the first defeat comes. That might be the biggest personality trait I’ve spotted. Together.

The Green does sometimes rub green.

You earn your own fortune, right?

Barrow had chances, plenty of them, but they probably will say Mukena was lucky to stay on the pitch – for what it’s worth, I think the distance he and Alex Reid were from goal puts enough doubt in the referee’s mind re: DOGSO.  It wasn’t a free kick for our winning goal, but Amos committed half a dozen other cynical fouls and got pulled up on none through the game, so we might have earned one going our way.

These moments are the fine margins that haven’t gone our way in those first two games. For as much as we deserved something from the game, we deserved something going our way.

Scorer Joe Gubbins celebrates with manager Billy Rowley at the final whistle.

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Ian was at a resplendent Huish Park for the lunchtime kickoff as the Glovers carved through Gateshead again and again. Here are his Five Conclusions…

The first half was as complete a performance as I can remember. The Glovers were scintillating from the off. Breaking forward at pace, perpetual motion from the forward players and it took just 2 minutes for Ste Walker to bag his second goal in green and white. In truth, it should have been four by half time. Ryan Jones hit the bar, Walker couldn’t get his feet untangled, Charlie Lennon caused all sorts of problems and the Glovers had 8 shots on target in the first half. It was probably the first time since Gateshead at home last season that we’d seen such a performance…

Who gets a feeling we’re going to see a lot of Ste Walker doing this in front of the Thatcher’s? Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

The midfield duo are finding their feet. Brett McGavin, who Gateshead clearly hadn’t watched, was given the license to dictate all afternoon. When McGavin is given the sort of time he was afforded he will control the tempo and pick out pass after pass after pass. But, he has had the perfect partner in Zain Westbrooke. Westbrooke is the ever-willing runner who quietly goes about his business. He’s one of those that may go unnoticed during a game, but lose him and it’ll leave an almighty hole.

We’ve got fantastic depth. It’s a testament to the recruitment and the ownership group that we’ve got the most depth I can recall us having in National League, if not further back. The be able bring on Loick Ayina, Mason Obeng, Hayden Muller, Slavi Spasov and Johl Powell and have the levels not drop shows how far we’ve come. They’d be starters in previous seasons and there’s still the likes of Jack Kingdon, Joe Gubbins, James Daly and Joe Haigh that weren’t available or didn’t get on the pitch.

Luke McCormick
Picture courtesy of Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.

Super Luke McCormick. It’s only taken three matches but the skipper looks to be back to his mercurial best. His goals yesterday were calmness personified, in those moments he was the coolest head in Huish Park we needed that to finally put a game to bed this season. We saw that sort of performance so many times before his injury last season and to see it this soon is promising. Chants of ‘Super Luke McCormick’ rang out of the Thatchers yesterday, the chant solly reserved for Super Gav has been passed on.

What is this feeling? Is it confidence? Is it comfort? Have you ever seen such a one-sided highlight package in our favour? There was a moment yesterday where we had Gateshead chasing shadows and it reminded me of us, and how teams come to Huish Park and give us the run around. Yesterday, we were the dominant team and we have set a benchmark now for what we are capable of. Next weekend will be another challenge with two fixtures so close together but for the first time in years, I’ve got confidence in the Glovers.

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The new season got underway at Huish Park in heart-breaking fashion yesterday as Carlisle United snatched a point scoring an equaliser with the final kick of the game. Dave paid a rare visit to Huish Park and here are his conclusions from his view on the Thatcher’s End.

Absolutely gutted: The first emotion I and I am sure everyone of a Yeovil Town persuasion felt at the final whistle was absolute heartbreak. It felt like it was going to be a tall order to keep out even a below par Carlisle side for 25 minutes with ten men following the sending off of Joe Gubbins. But it looked like our heroics had done it right up until Harvey Bunker’s equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time. It was de ja vu from last weekend at Scunthorpe, that mixed emotion of positivity at how we had played, but utter heartbreak that we had not got all three points.

The scoreboard at full time was full of ‘so close.’

Heroic defending: For the final 25 minutes with ten men we defending like absolute lions, but our good defending extend beyond that. Yes, granted Carlisle were not great, but our defence made players who are good even below their best, the likes of Regan Linney, David Ajiboye and Georgie Kelly, look average. That was the case last weekend at Scunthorpe as well and that is not just by chance.

Super Jos Barker in goal: We always needed to see Jos Barker in competitive action before we judged him and I’m liking what I see. He’s not afraid to mix it and comes for everything and gets it more often than not. It is only two competitive games, but from the a player who has jumped two tiers of the football pyramid, he has not looked out of place from anything I have seen.

Jos Barker – he came to claim a lot and he got more than he didn’t.

How good is it to have a striker again?: Did anyone else get Rhys Murphy vibes when Ste Walker picked up that through ball from Ryan Jones and coolly slotted it home? In his competitive debut for us, that is the mark of a true striker. I can only imagine what the strikers we had at the club last season would have done in that situation.

So much to be positive about: We are sat here a matter of minutes (seconds in the case of yesterday) away from six points against two sides who will be in the promotion mix come May, and we only have two on the board. But I can’t feel anything but positive about how we have started the season. Seeing us pass the ball quickly and look to move it forward when the time is right is like meeting an old friend after many years apart. Even when we had to move it sideways or backwards, I felt like it was all part of the plan. To hear so many cheers and applause at the final whistle, I know I can’t have been the only one.

Ste Walker celebrates his first league goal in green-and-white. Picture courtesy of Jayden Tate/Tate’s Photography.