Having missed out on Havant on Tuesday, this was my first taste of live football since that glorious day at The Hawthorns a couple of months ago. Of course I'm fully aware that pre-season matches don't really reflect "real football" in any way, shape or indeed form, but even so a few observations on yesterday are in order.
As I was leaving I heard a guy say "this proves we haven't got anywhere near enough numbers in the squad", which I can't say I really agree with. The fact we named two different XI's and even then were without Pericard, Viafara, Fuller and The Hurricane leads me to think that we have got enough numbers. The problem we have is quality over quantity. It's fairly clear we need someone else in the middle of the park and that we definitely need a right winger; notice how Gary Silk, a centre back, was forced to play there in the second half.
Personally the biggest worry that came out of the game was Laurent Robert. Now I don't expect him to "turn it on" at Yeovil in a pre-season friendly, so it was no real surprise that he was pretty poor. But what we did see was just how his presence causes problems within the formation. Taylor was swamped on the left hand side, so usually a midfielder - Hughes for the most part - came across to cover. And as we saw on Yeovil's first goal, if the ball breaks to the middle of the park from the wing then there's acres of space to play with because the main holding midfielder is out of position. Yeovil weren't quite up to scratch so only managed to take advantage of this the once, although there were plenty of times when they came streaming forwards and a better team (all disrespect intended) could've made us suffer.
On the plus side we're looking good up front. Ten goals in two games is a good tally, regardless of the opposition, and it's nice to see Toddy scoring again. Perhaps the surprise package of next season could actually be Mornar who was one of our best players in the first half - until he got an attack of blood lust and starting hacking down half the Yeovil squad anyway. I'm not saying that he's a starter but he's certainly a decent option to bring on if it's tight with ten minutes to go - he's a very physical player and could work well with a lightweight sprinter like Lua playing off him.
Another positive, from the first half at least, was the way in which we kept the ball. Although in the second half it tended to be a bit more (gulp) hoof orientated, in the first forty-five we played some nice stuff, kept it simple and kept the ball in our possession. There was a particularly nice moment down in the corner where we were under pressure in the corner but still didn't panic; rather played it round the strikers and then moved it across the pitch to a player in space. Good positive play and staying calm, rather than panicking and twatting it long, giving it straight back to the opposition more often than not.
So a nice day out in the country sunshine and a nice win, but still plenty to think about. The defending will need some examination and Guatelli didn't do himself any favours by getting lobbed by a cross for their second - no doubt this will trigger off more thoughts about Niemi/Green/whoever the media link us with this week. But the winning streak goes on, so next to Bournemouth.