PreSeason Review

Well, the new season is nearly upon us so I thought that I would sum up the close season. Think of it as my own pre-season workout!

Firstly the new signings.

Michael Duberry. Hugely experienced, he has looked excellent in preseason. He seems to be able to anticipate the play, making up for any lack of speed. Although I haven't noticed that he is particularly slow anyway! If he can keep fit over the season, he will be hugely influential.

On the other side of the experience coin is Doobs' potential centre half partner, Ryan James, a product of the Nike academy. He featured in the last two pre-season matches and looked decent in both. Probably not a first teamer, at least at the start of the season.

Tony Capaldi. Haven't seem him. A back injury has kept him out of preseason and will keep him out of the start of the season. Left back.

Liam Davis. After good games against Birmingham and Everton, has been given a one year deal. Looked OK - and can play left midfield as well as left back.

Andy Whing, also a defender by trade, has had a couple of games in central midfield. He's done fine, but I think he's really a defender (and judging by his interview on the radio, so does he!).

Oh, and you can add Wayne Brown as the second keeper. From his own admission (RadOX) he hasn't played much since Christmas and isn't match fit. Once that is sorted, he will be a good backup to Clarke and may even push him for a place if Clarke gets sloppy.

That's five defensive players and a goalie signed, which I guess shows where CW thinks one of our main weaknesses was last time out.

Of course, we were also a bit short of goals up front. So we have some new additions there as well.

Dean Smalley has looked good up front as has JP Pittman, both new summer additions. Pittman has added some pace (and seems to have a good eye for goal), Smalley is more of an out-and-out striker.

The final (maybe) addition is Peter Leven, a midfield player of some repute. Came on for the last part of the Everton match and looked good, but on the road back from a couple of operations (hand and foot) - certainly not match fit.

So the signings are one goalkeeper, five defenders, two strikers and one midfielder. Personally I'd say that was at least one quality midfielder light.

Especially when you take into account the injuries. Leven won't start the season, nor will Heslop. Both may be recovered, but aren't match fit. We might possibly see one or both on the bench I guess. McLaren (thigh I think) isn't going to recover in time so he is a non-starter as well. I'd say that was pretty much our first choice midfield three (if we play a three of course), although Hall and Payne have made decent claims for inclusion over the preseason. A measure of how light we are in the middle is the preseason midfield inclusion of the out-of-favour Clist and the not-really-a-midfielder Whing. Another midfield worry is that fact that McLaren couldn't complete quite a few matches last season, coming off after 70 minutes or so.

The defence also has injury worries, with Wright (infected elbow) and Worley (knee) missing as well as Capaldi. Wright may recover in time for Rotherham, the others won't.

Let's just hope we have got the worst of our injuries over before the season has started! Of course, it doesn't work like that, I'm afraid.

Let's have a quick look back at the preseason schedule. Now I am going to be a bit tetchy here, and suggest that the record (played 8, won 7, drawn 1, lost 0, just two goals conceded) looks much more impressive on paper than it actually was.

You'd expect to beat Didcot and Brackley, and they are local matches against teams of a known standard. The US tour I am not so sure of. As a team bonding excercise, absolutely fine. Otherwise, I have my doubts. Playing teams of an unknown standard, in high heat and humidity on an astroturf (or similar) pitch. I'm not convinced really. I'm also not sure what benefit there is to the club overall of the Seacoast link. I'm sure there must be some, but I don't know what they are. Not financial, not as far as spotting new players is concerned. And once the team arrived back from the trip, they were playing the first of the three home friendlies within a couple of days. Too soon?

The performances against the three senior English teams were all fairly similar. A poor first half, followed by a better second half. In the first halves of all of them we couldn't get the ball for long periods and but for some awful finishing (MK and especially you Birmingham) we could have been well behind at half time. The second halves were better each time, but we can't afford to start so slowly once the phoney war stops and we kick off for real.

So, in my opinion of course, our preseason hasn't been quite as good as the results might indicate. In fact (as everyone keeps saying) preseason results don't matter that much apart from helping team confidence. If performances are what count (remember I've only seen the three home matches), I'd give the defence an 8, the midfield a 5 and the strikers a
6.5 The midfield has been weakened by injury and I have high hopes that it will improve once Leven and McLaren are back and playing. Hopefully that will give the forwards more ammunition and allow them to up their game as well.

Having used the magic and amazingly accurate hindsight at the end of last season, let's have a bit of a go at the much more risky prediction area of things!

Looking into the crystal ball - we will start the season slowly, picking up towards the end of October. A better run towards the end of the season will see us reach the play offs, but miss out on automatic promotion.

So, I can't wait for it to start. I could have done without a trip to the awful Don Valley Stadium to start the season, but the first and last matches of the season are a must! A couple of matches against the old enemy (which we mustn't let overshadow the whole season), the chance to show fatso Evans what's what and a better squad than last time out all point to an exciting nine months.

See you at Rotherham.

MY HEART BEATS FOR YOU, THE YELLOW AND THE BLUE