Managers comments – The Half Way Point….
The first half of the season has been pleasing…with only 2 defeats in 13
outings. Our home record remains intact and our growing self belief augers
well for the second half of the season. There have have been many good
performances and a few not quite so good, but all teams have off days. Our
plans were severely dented with the injury to Mark Scrivener back in
October. Mark will miss the whole of the season but is confident of being
back next year. Dan Goodwin has settled well and Richard Carroll continues
to impress both on and off the field. Nigel Hambly has done an outstanding
job as Head Coach and was justly rewarded by being asked to coach the
Cornwall Development team that played Penzance just prior to Christmas. So
all looks good so far…
The second half of the season promises to be an interesting one with all
five of the top teams within striking distance of each other. I suppose out
of all the teams we had the toughest shout first time round playing all four
of our rivals away from home,comimg away with a win, draw and 2 losses. Now
that we have them at home we must capitalise on home advantage and win those
games…but there are a few potential banana skins on the way…..First up
we have Old Pats and this will be a hard game for us as we have never won
there. This is followed by a huge game at home against Lydney. They will be
all out for revenge as they do not get beaten on their home patch too often,
we did that and they will want to inflict a similar result on us down
here… Haywards Heath won’t be easy and then its Weston at home. My wish
for January would be a clean sweep with bonus points in at least a couple of
the games…we shall see! Hopefully the guys have had a couple of weeks rest
and are now raring to go. I can’t believe that half the season is over
already. It doesn’t seem a couple of weeks ago that we were winning at
Westcombe Park in 30 degrees of heat. During February I will miss the Dings
home fixture and the Reading away fixture as I am in South Africa on
holiday. My son is playing cricket there for 2 weeks so I’ll be thinking of
everyone shivering in the February cold ….hopefully the weather will be
slightly warmer there! …
Back with more banter after the Old Pats game….
David Penberthy