Three away wins on the bounce now, confidence sky high and the results are coming. Deserved this as well, team decimated by illness but the 'Flu Crew' regrouped, dug in and ground out three more priceless points for the cause.
Wasn't pretty at times, got accused of only 'hoofing it' by the Bowers management and that was music to my ears, by the end it was exactly what they were doing so nice to know teams are copying our style. My own takes rather different, thought we earned the right to play by doing the 'dirty jobs' better than them, we chased them down, hunted in packs and weren't afraid to match them physically, we did not get intimidated and that's a feature of this team. We also kept our shape throughout, we're harder to break down nowadays and that's showing in results. If the ball needed clearing it went 'John Smith's' style but so be it, it was effective and got the job done, so " ’ave it " if you don't like it.
That's ten points from 12 now so things looking much rosier, yes decisions went our way today but they were the right decisions so we only got what we deserved, we rattled Bowers with our approach and I hope surprised them with our togetherness.
All credit to the lads, rock bottom and written off in November, they've met every challenge head on since and hopefully made everyone connected with Barking proud along the way, they train harder and longer than most teams and the buzz in the changing room must be seen to be believed. Most excitingly there's still much room for improvement, even on Saturday;- needless free kicks conceded, slack marking at set pieces and poor ball retention could all have been costly on another day, we need to keep learning, keep improving and who knows what next season might bring.
Some big performances Saturday, centre back pairing immense against a difficult opponent, stood their ground and in the end bossed the dual. Pyney - ice cool from the spot when the pressure was on and my MoM Dave Armstrong, straight in and great job leading the line as I knew he would. Still much to play for this year, target was always finishing sixth when we took over and that would be a massive achievement, always a tall order but not now impossible - watch this space.
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