2018-19 National League North

[MWS]

Nothing much been going on at EP these last few weeks, Just been going about our business getting ready for the big KO next weekend.

Looks like we have signed (or will be signing) Kallum Mantack from Oldham now he's recovered from a horrendous leg break at the hands of Ciaran Keane last season. That gives us a squad of 22 (incl 4 youth / reserve players) which is pretty much spot on i'd say. Look well balanced, competitive with cover for all positions (except maybe left back).

Finished off pre-season with a 1-1 draw at home to Macclesfield. Pretty combative game. draw was probably a fair result although if anyone was going to nick it it would have been us!

Roll on Saturday vs FCUM!!

 

[DarkSithLord]

Another week means another crisis at Nuneaton. Apparently several players have left and they have been placed under a transfer embargo. Fucking joke of a club.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Nothing much been going on at EP these last few weeks, Just been going about our business getting ready for the big KO next weekend.

Looks like we have signed (or will be signing) Kallum Mantack from Oldham now he's recovered from a horrendous leg break at the hands of Ciaran Keane last season. That gives us a squad of 22 (incl 4 youth / reserve players) which is pretty much spot on i'd say. Look well balanced, competitive with cover for all positions (except maybe left back).

Finished off pre-season with a 1-1 draw at home to Macclesfield. Pretty combative game. draw was probably a fair result although if anyone was going to nick it it would have been us!

Roll on Saturday vs FCUM!!

That aforementioned tackle is the reason why Keane has not been able to train and has been forced out by Billy Heath. The club hasnt gone about it in the right way but Keane`s disciplinary record has caught up with him.

 

[AndyPark]

Another week means another crisis at Nuneaton. Apparently several players have left and they have been placed under a transfer embargo. Fucking joke of a club.

But they announced a signing today.. James Hurst if I recall..

 

[ForzaCounty]

Looks like we have signed (or will be signing) Kallum Mantack from Oldham now he's recovered from a horrendous leg break at the hands of Ciaran Keane last season. That gives us a squad of 22 (incl 4 youth / reserve players) which is pretty much spot on i'd say. Look well balanced, competitive with cover for all positions (except maybe left back).

Still a bit light at the back, and having seen Mantack a couple of times this pre-season he looks a shadow of what he was before the injury. Plus we already have Thomas and Minihan down the right.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Still a bit light at the back, and having seen Mantack a couple of times this pre-season he looks a shadow of what he was before the injury. Plus we already have Thomas and Minihan down the right.

I’m fine with what we’ve got at the back, it’s going forward I think we’re short.

I prefer Minihan at full back and we need better than Thomas on the wing.

A versatile attacker who could play wide right in a 4321 or 433 or upfront in a two.

I wonder if Brewster had ended up anywhere.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Since i am up on baby duty i may aswell ask the Question with Conf North less than a week away..........how do you feel heading into the season in regards to your club and meeting its realistic expectation now squad is brought in and settled??

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

At Curzon i'm not too sure as it stands.

Of course the simple, realistic expectation of a good season is survival and a cup run, a top 7 push is tough due to having a much smaller budget than most and players get snapped up who play well for us during the season and suddenly have to be replaced.

It looks like we have decided to not drastically change the approach so it may make us the last conf north side to constantly try and play out from the back if Kiddy have changed theirs, the suggestion end of last season from Manager was a more direct approach seemed the only way to survive here or push on because the division has turned into many solid, strong hard to play against sides and finding suitable quality players for the passing game on a budget of 150 fans in a division of clubs with budgets 10 times higher or more was making it tough, but looking like it was decided on continuity than change.

I thought a while back things didn't look bad, we made signings to the areas we had to, added another tricky wide player to seemed to have a good flexible squad with 2 decent wide men and unlike last summer did not have all our key players vanish........but two aspects of this summer cause me worry.

first is that Ben McKenna after signing a week later left for BPA.....it happens alot with Curzon they head to other conf north sides, but had hoped we'd got 6 months with him, now we lost the two solid wide men and although i think having seen him Connor Hughes 'should' be ok this level you can never tell (I was sure we'd found a gem in Max Leonard this time last year and he ended up a failure)

The bigger worry is i ain't seen Naill Cummins at all this summer and guessing his injury at end of season was bad....unlike when following Carlisle you don't get much in way of news on injury front and sometimes players vanish a long while. Cummins isn't what i'd class as a striker a top conf north side would need, but he is almost certainly an excellent forward for a midtable or below conf north side, always dependable every single match and will grab a good 15 plus goals and cause most sides problems.........guessing he may be out for large parts of the season which is tough for a club that has been lucky to have him the last few years.

It will be a hard season, we will as always be tough to beat, hard to score against but will struggle to score, the key will be again trying to drag as many home points as can and hope our superb manager can over the next 6 months find his 1-2 additions to just push us on.

am looking at Leamington, FCUM, Nuneaton, Telford and Ashton Utd as the clubs we need to try and finish above.

 

[Alty Pieman]

Alty = Total football

 

[Harrier94]

We'll still be playing a possession based game. But with a 5 at the back formation with wing backs instead. Means we can use Ironside as an outball with Chambers up there with him for support when needed.

 

[GuiseleySteve]

Boston away for our first game. From what I've read they are one of the fancied teams so it will be interesting to see how far away we are from them on Saturday. Hopefully we will have everyone fit as there have been a few knocks over the last week.
Our last psf tonight against Barnsley, probably their u23's.

 

[eightiesrobin]

Altrincham have signed Brendon Daniels on a initial one month loan. Has already proved to be a bad apple at Port Vale and blown his 6 month deal?

When he hits it, it stays hit and he is lethal from set pieces. But his attitude is awful and he tends to be lazy.

I was going to ask you about this, but I haven't been able to log on for a few days. He played on Saturday, OK in first half, petered out a bit in the second, according to our forum.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Cannot wait for the new season. We look reborn. Billy Heath has done a great job over preason which couldnt have gone much better. Recruitment has been excellent. Makes a refreshing change to going in to pre season unprepared and a mess.

Our first 8-10 league fixtures are extremely tough. Id be happy to be in and around the top 10 heading in to the FA Cup break.
Kidderminster up first at the Impact Arena on Saturday. Intriguing tie as Kiddy have recruited a couple of ex Reds in Baxendale and Wagner along with Bradley and Ironside
Feeling confident. Hopefully not too confident..

Is Dan Bradley fully fit now Harrier94?

 

[Andy Harrier]

Cannot wait for the new season. We look reborn. Billy Heath has done a great job over preason which couldnt have gone much better. Recruitment has been excellent. Makes a refreshing change to going in to pre season unprepared and a mess.

Our first 8-10 league fixtures are extremely tough. Id be happy to be in and around the top 10 heading in to the FA Cup break.
Kidderminster up first at the Impact Arena on Saturday. Intriguing tie as Kiddy have recruited a couple of ex Reds in Baxendale and Wagner along with Bradley and Ironside
Feeling confident. Hopefully not too confident..

Is Dan Bradley fully fit now Harrier94?

Yep, Bradley is good to go. I'll be surprised if Wagner plays, I think he's just come in as backup. It's probably between Baxendale and Ed Williams for a start on Saturday, personally I'd go with Williams. Saturday will be interesting as the sort of physical team that you've built is where we would have come unstuck in the past, but MacFarlane's main task is to make us tougher off the ball. No bigger test than a Heath team for that!

 

[MWS]

The biggest threat Alfreton are going to offer is Denton. He's a nightmare to deal with given his height. He really knows how to use it to good effect. Only way to deal with him in open play is to accept you're not going to win the first ball, so you've got to make sure you pick up the 2nd ball.

Defending him on set pieces is another problem altogether!

 

[Quakerz]

Feeling confident that we'll piss this tinpot league by Christmas, although we have a very tough start with our first 3 away games at Spennymoor, Kidderminster and Brackley.

So we might be a little off the pace at the end of August, which is part of the plan to lull everyone else into a false sense of security.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Feeling confident that we'll piss this tinpot league by Christmas, although we have a very tough start with our first 3 away games at Spennymoor, Kidderminster and Brackley.

So we might be a little off the pace at the end of August, which is part of the plan to lull everyone else into a false sense of security.

It seems a lot of the better teams are playing each other earlier on.

We have Southport, York, guiseley, BPA, Alfreton and Kiddy all in August.

 

[Quakerz]

Cannot wait for the new season. We look reborn.

This is our 3rd season in this league and this is the 3rd season you've said similar.

Pre-season optimism v3.0.

I wonder if it'll also be the 3rd season in a row where you're tanked 4-0 in august and realise that you have a mismatched squad of talented, yet underachieving bottlers?

What's different this time then?

 

[Quakerz]

It seems a lot of the better teams are playing each other earlier on.

We have Southport, York, guiseley, BPA, Alfreton and Kiddy all in August.

That's even worse than our start.

 

[DarkSithLord]

This is our 3rd season in this league and this is the 3rd season you've said similar.

Pre-season optimism v3.0.

I wonder if it'll also be the 3rd season in a row where you're tanked 4-0 in august and realise that you have a mismatched squad of talented, yet underachieving bottlers?

What's different this time then?

I see what point your trying to make. However there was reason to be confident heading in to recent seasons. In 2015/16 we were in the play offs in Early September and had started well. Yes we had a non descript season and underachieved and eventually squeaked to a 10th placed finish with 58 points.
In 2016/17. Again we had a decent start picking a memorable win against the Quakers 4-3 in fact and looked ok. We had a very good run which in fact stretchered our threadbare squad which didnt help. Also our training was not adequate and has been a big reason why we have underachieved recently
Similar story last season. Bit of a honeymoon period under McDermott which saw us inside the top 8 in Early September before cracks started to appear in the FA Cup defeat at Stourbridge where we finished with 9 men and it the season just petered out to a real struggle.

This season is totally different. We have our training sorted by all accounts its a much more proffessional set up and there is genuine effort going in to improve and work on things.
The manager has a proven track record of success and knows his way around the league and what he wants from his players. We look so organised and each player knows there role. Not unlike the unorganised rabble of recent seasons.

Also a big thing this season is the pre season has been a big success with going in to the season totally ready.

Seems to be a real feel good factor around the club too. Crowds are still down but not surprising after 4 seasons of awful football hopefully some good results can tempt a few back

 

[DarkSithLord]

I was going to ask you about this, but I haven't been able to log on for a few days. He played on Saturday, OK in first half, petered out a bit in the second, according to our forum.

Yeah, sounds like Daniels. He tends to lose interest as the game goes on. Such a shame as he has loads of ability.

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

It is a very very interesting season based on fact that no one drastically stands out......seems to be no major nut-job spending side, about 10 clubs which have a chance, squad and set-up to attack top but all of them you can pick out flaws which could be a reason why you'd not back them at a bookies.

bottom i think is much easier, because league is quite solid across the board your not looking at many weaker sides this season, I sort've see 3 from maybe only 6 clubs going down and to be fair in most of them it isn't because they are terrible, moreso that the league this season has many stronger clubs.

but...............as shown by altrincham 2 years back and southport last season, someone will badly cock-up for what should be a strong club and in a tight league could see relegation.

 

[Lucky Bobble]

Since i am up on baby duty i may aswell ask the Question with Conf North less than a week away..........how do you feel heading into the season in regards to your club and meeting its realistic expectation now squad is brought in and settled??

Well, in the predict the league thread, most have Brackley hovering around 6th or even out of the playoffs. It's always a punt in the dark at this stage - every team claims to have signed excellent new players every year... then half of them turn out to be duff. With nearly 1/5th of the league season played in August alone, hitting the ground running is key, so I think those teams with a settled formation and players who know each other well always have the advantage - and Brackley have changed very little.

Problem is, having a consistent goalscorer (the first in 12 years since Matt Murphy) made the difference for us last year... and now Williams is gone, unless we can find goals regularly (and I can't see it with our existing forward line) I fear that 6th place prediction is more likely than I'd wish it to be. Nevertheless we'll be tough & concede few.. Just hope no-one runs away with the league and we can stay in the hunt. Looks a tough tough league - other than perhaps Ashton (and who knows, a poor pre-season doesn't prove anything yet), is there any side anyone can be 'sure' of getting 3 points from?

Our pre-season has seen 5 wins and 1 defeat. We were much better than Oxford City on Saturday, and really impressed in the home game vs. MK Dons - I doubt a neutral could have picked which one was the non-league team. Nevertheless I hoped we'd 'kick-on' from last year, but no doubt we're not as strong this year as last yet...

Thanks to you and DarkSithLord especially for keeping the posts coming - makes me feel a bit more connected to the league all the way down here...

 

[eightiesrobin]

I think we'll be alright, certainly much less trepidation than at the start of Alty's last season here.

I reckon sneaking into 7th would be as good as it gets.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

After seeing a fair few of the friendlies, my chief concern is up front. Playing one up front we need someone who makes a nuisance of himself. Oswell was good at this. Mulhern doesn't seem to offer anything in this department, and Bell, whilst showing flashes, has been inconsistent. We certainly don't have a Danny Lloyd type player who will terrify defences - Warburton's probably the closest we have.

Elsewhere we look solid. Palmer and Keane look decent additions, and Sam Walker and Paul Turnball look fitter and sharper than last season.

My prediction: about the same as last season (4th/5th)

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Another week means another crisis at Nuneaton. Apparently several players have left and they have been placed under a transfer embargo. Fucking joke of a club.

Well that's good news DSL. We'll have the satisfaction of giving them a good thrashing.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Since i am up on baby duty i may aswell ask the Question with Conf North less than a week away..........how do you feel heading into the season in regards to your club and meeting its realistic expectation now squad is brought in and settled??

I think with the quality signings we've acquired throughout the summer I'd be very disappointed if we didn't reach the play-offs this season. We've had a good clear out of player's that have been great servants for the club over the year's of coming up through the league's.

Got rid of a manager which for me i don't think will take any club any further, I could be wrong (oops York will piss the league now) but i just can't imagine for one minute he has any further improvement in him to offer as a football manager.

If our expectations and standards are to aim high, we've got to approach Aug/Sept at full steam ahead.........So I'm looking for no excuses of how hard or easy our games are in the coming week's at home & away at the likes of Brackley/Kidderminster and Southport.

Btw, we must beat fookin Spennymoor!! That's a must win game.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

It seems a lot of the better teams are playing each other earlier on.

We have Southport, York, guiseley, BPA, Alfreton and Kiddy all in August.

One thing's for sure It'll be a good test to see how strong you are as a team.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Sat 4th August Fixtures

AFC Telford United vs Southport
Alfreton Town vs Kidderminster Harriers
Altrincham vs Leamington
Ashton United vs Nuneaton Borough
Boston United vs Guiseley
Bradford Park Avenue vs Brackley Town
Chester vs Spennymoor Town
Chorley vs York City
Darlington vs Curzon Ashton
Hereford vs Blyth Spartans
Stockport County vs FC United Of Manchester

With all the shenanigans going on at Nuneaton Borough, I think Ashton United have a great chance of picking up 3 points.

 

[CFC4LIFE]

Looking forward to the new season. Playing much better football now Jansen's gone, same formation worth 3 at the back, bit the wingbacks are much further up. Still need a goalscorer up front though, we will create many chances especially when both newbys are playing but lack a finishing touch. Almond has impressed and scored the most pre season. Predicted line up will be:
Belford
Teague Leather Meppen-Walter/Anson
Challinor Newby OKeefe Newby Blakeman
Almond Carver