Hinckley Times - Balls Up

The spirit of Christmas is alive and well

2008-12-30T12:22:55Z

CHRISTMAS is a time for giving - just ask Tommy Varndell.

Probably the most precociously talented player in the Northern Hemisphere has disappeared this season, but on Saturday at Twickenham he returned to the radar with a moment of stunning generosity.

As England's newest, and probably least skilful winger, Ugo Monye, raced towards Tom, the Tigers lad obviously thought he deserved a little treat.

So he fluffed a tackle, and in doing so cost us the game.

Tom Varndell gets a lot of stick, and virtually none of it is fair. But for the first time ever at the weekend I lost faith in him.

Tigers coach Heyneke Meyer has given him some time out, due allegedly to a few personal problems, and at the weekend, in front of a packed Twickenham crowd, Tommy got 35 minutes to prove that he remains one of the most exciting talents in the game.

He didn't prove anything.

In fact, with Matt Smith in fine form, Johne Murphy looking stronger and faster than ever and Scotty Hamilton making a real impression, I think Tom may struggle to get a game.

Hell, even Alex Tuilagi might play if he ever gets fit.

It's a crying shame. When Ugo Monye is getting capped by England you know we've got a winger shortage. By all rights Tom should have an England and Tigers spor nailed down by now, but due to a host of cock ups his career is effectively on hold.

The Harlequins game would have been a great way to re-start it in style, but the whole day was something of a damp squib. Tigers were average, and Quins, with something like 49,500 fans behind them, played like headless chickens.

At Welford Road I'm used to dining on the rugby equivalent of caviar. On Saturday I tasted jellied eels, and I did not enjoy them one bit.

Stafford Rangers are masters of their own downfall

2008-12-11T15:10:36Z

MAYBE it sounds a harsh thing to say but if someone shook a bucket at a Knitters game collecting for cash-strapped Stafford Rangers, I wouldn't chuck in.

It's nothing personal against Rangers, one of the biggest and most famous non-league clubs in the country.

But as Knitters boss Dean Thomas said this week, you've got to cut your cloth accordingly.

Rangers have suffered from their high expectations since their relegation from the Conference National.

They employed a big-name boss in Steve Bull just before the end of last season and from what's been written, are still paying Conference National wages to a side not pulling up any trees in Conference North.

To the casual observer it appears they thought high expectations would equal big crowds, success and a means of paying these high wages.

But it's not happened. They have won just two home games all season and although they are just six points from the play-off positions, the figures clearly aren't adding up.

Compare this to the way Hinckley United is run.

Dean Thomas is as canny an operator as you will find at this level, and knows exactly what he can and can't do.

He has (to my knowledge) just a handful of key players on contracts, including Andy Hall, Adam Webster and Rich Lavery.

The rest are on pay-as-you-play, but the loyalty Thomas has a knack of instilling won't make these players feel left out.

The Knitters suffer at times from a lack of strength in depth, but that's a small price to pay for existing the way they do.

That's not to pretend the club is swimming in cash, because it clearly isn't.

But you would hope they won't be disappearing down the same desperate road as Stafford any time soon.

Stuck on a rugby-free island

2008-12-03T13:14:24Z

WHEN I left my parent's Hinckley home and moved 500 metres up Hollycroft Hill I thought it would lead to more time, and more freedom.

But it turns out I really didn't think it through. My parents had one thing that I haven't a hope in hell of getting. Sky Sports.

And as a truly obsessive, depressing rugby fan that is an absolute tragedy.

You see, contrary to popular opinion, us hacks are not the sort to be able to afford luxuries. I've been blagging my way into Welford Road on my mum's season ticket for three seasons, and I've taken to staging parties where guests bring their own food. They always bring too much, you see.

So when the Sky Sports question was broached, I was told as clearly as possible that "we might not be able to afford it, darling."

What my wonderful girlfriend means is that if I go ahead and buy it she will beat my head in with a low-price, and therefore rock-hard, loaf of bread.

I've been learning to cope without regular rugby coverage in the last two months, and I must admit I'm finding it tough.

One thing that would make it a little easier is a half-decent highlights package on terrestrial TV, but I guess that would be asking for too much.

In truth I should be grateful - I've missed the last three England "contests" and instead I've been down and watched Hinckley.

I can never really gauge the number of people interested in Hinckley's performances, because there's never an official attendance figure, but I'll wax lyrical about a few players anyway.

Will Keeling, the young outside centre, is beginning to look a bit special. His score on Saturday was, and I don't use these words lightly, world class.

Ben Ashfield, back rower and captain, is having a storming season. At the weekend, and joined by partners in crime Ben Avent and Chris Mundy, he helped form what could be the best back-row in the league. Keep an eye on all three.

And Sam Swift, the winger, is, like all the most exciting players, completely unpredictable. Defensively he lacks a bit of strength, but offensively he is firmly establishing himself in the Hinckley side.

At a slightly higher level Tigers face Perpignan at the weekend, bolstered by the return of the internationals.

After the Quins game I would back our second string to put a good showing together, but the almost seasonal injury crisis has meant that a number of players are desperately needed.

God bless Dan Carter though. After once again making England look bad, he has pulled out of playing for Perpignan against Tigers because of international commitments.

Hallelujah.

It's about time the Football Association grew a pair

2008-11-13T08:59:14Z

YOU often hear football fans harking back to the days when men were men and players like Chris Morgan were the mainstays of a good side's back four.

After witnessing the Sheffield United skipper's horrific challenge on Barnsley's Iain Hume, which left the former Leicester City favourite in hospital with a fractured skull and internal bleeding, I'm glad that kind of player is a dying breed.

Phrases like "combative", "no-nonsense", "honest" and the like are bandied around far too often. What we saw Morgan do on Saturday was deeply unpleasant and made me feel quite sick.

The guy holds the Blades' club record for most first team dismissals, an unenviable although not at all surprising statistic.

Had Morgan smashed his elbow into Hume's face in a town centre, he would be facing prosecution and quite possibly a good stretch inside.

But as referee Andy D'Urso "dealt with the incident" by way of a yellow card, it's case closed. That's it, certainly as far as the cowardly FA are concerned.

When John Terry gets a red card for one of the most cynical fouls I've ever seen against Manchester City, Chelsea go in all guns blazing and the FA cancel the red card.

But when it is little Barnsley of the Championship who have one of their best players in a hospital bed, the FA's silence is deafening.

It's about time they grew a pair.

Ben Thatcher was only booked for his horror challenge on Pedro Mendes a few years back, but the FA took it as an exceptional case and gave Thatcher the lengthy ban he deserved.

So what is different here? I'd love to know.

The buzz-phrase this season is "Respect". But as far as I can see, the only improvement this campaign has brought about is stopping masses of players haranguing the referee.

Talking to the man in the middle through the captain appears to be an idea which works well.

But how on earth are we supposed to respect the refs when they are making so many dreadful decisions?

Every season there are hard luck stories associated with things referees have or haven't done. But there does seem to be several more than usual in 08/09.

I appreciate they have a thankless task. So surely now is the time to bite the bullet and get TV replays involved in decision making.

There is simply too much riding on these games not to.

Bath time

2008-11-11T13:46:17Z

REMEMBER Jack Rowell?

That tall, slightly aloof looking bloke who told a certain Neil Back he was too small to be an international rugby player?

Well Rowell, quite frankly a man who should have been told he was too rubbish to be an international coach, did something remarkable and unthinkable to me.

He made me, no forced me, to stop supporting my national side.

That's right - for one whole year I followed Ireland, on the basis that their coach at the time picked Tigers boys Eric Miller and Geordan Murphy.

Rowell was so appallingly biased towards his Bath brethren that I just couldn't stand it. I lost my passion for England.

It returned when Sir Clive took over and built a side for the future, but promptly disappeared again when Brian Ashton got the nod.

Now Johnno is at the helm, and surrounded by more former Tigers players than you would find in the Welford Road clubhouse on match day.

And he made a bold choice, he ditched the Tigers boys. My passion for the red rose remains though, mainly because it was the right decision.

Only the most one-eyed Tigers fan will tell you that Harry Ellis is in better form than Danny Care, and despite Toby Flood's great form Kelly Brook's toyboy is still a better shout at ten.

Ok, I'm still a bit perplexed as to how Nick Easter gets a start, and Jamie Noon could well be the most one-dimensional centre since Phil De Glanville, but Johnno got it largely right against the Pacific Islanders.

Delon Armitage and Ugo Monye can shift a bit too.

The least said about Hinckley's defeat at Newport the better.

So I'll leave it there.

Not losing any sleep over tin pot cup exit

2008-11-06T15:58:44Z

I'M not sure I'd have wanted Leicester City's name engraved on the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

Hopefully we will get back up this season and playing at this level will become a distant memory, so winning a tin pot trophy would be an unpleasant reminder of where we were.

But at the moment, it's where we are and regardless of the competition, getting turned over by League Two sides like Rotherham isn't going to inspire much confidence.

OK, so it didn't cost us any league points, but a defeat is a defeat and it won't help our preparations for taking on Conference side Stevenage Borough this weekend in our first ever appearance in the FA Cup first round.

A certain Lewis Hamilton became Stevenage's best ever sporting export this week but hopefully their footballing counterparts won't follow in his footsteps. If they do, I'm sure the headline writers will have a field day.

I met their manager Graham Westley during his brief spell at Rushden and Diamonds and if that experience is anything to go by, I'll be able to smell his potent (and quite frankly rank) cologne wherever I sit in the crowd.

Of course we have a stronger squad than them on paper. But as everyone knows, we can only come out of Saturday badly.

The smaller teams were always going to want to play us or Leeds and for Stevenage it is probably an exciting draw.

I just hope we don't get embarrassed because it would give our ever-fickle fanbase another excuse to invent a crisis.

On a more positive note, the Bristol Rovers game was great entertainment near the end.

We thoroughly deserved the win and I've not shouted myself hoarse like that at a game for a long time.

The first half was dire and after we were denied two stonewall penalties by a referee who had no control over the game, the Gasheads promptly took the lead through a Jo Kuffour wonder strike.

At that point you thought it was just going to be one of those days, and Bristol didn't help by taking every possible opportunity to waste time or play at being injured.

We battered them towards the end and the atmosphere was great. It might not have been a pretty game, but there was a touch of class about Matty Fryatt's equaliser.

When he bundled in the winner in injury time, the stadium went nuts.

We might have fallen a long way and we are some of the longest-suffering fans around, but days like that make it all worthwhile.

Meaningless rugby makes me weep

2008-11-06T10:01:06Z

I LIKE to shout at sporting events.

Be it Hinckley, Tigers, or Westfield Infants U7 netball team, if I have a link to a sporting side, I will shout.

For example, when sweet little Saints hooker Dylan Hartley played at Welford Road, I made the odd comment about optical safety. This had absolutely nothing to do with Dylan's six-month ban for gouging.

Occasionally I wind up referees, although I must admit I have become a great deal more respectful in recent months.

It takes something extra-awful to make me barrack my own side, but last week against Sale I felt duty bound to whinge and moan like a spoilt child.

Why? Because we weren't just bad, we were boring with it.

With a few minutes left, and Tigers heading towards a dismal win in a match that didn't matter, the Welsh referee decided to take the front-rowers to one side and give them a talking to.

Disgusted, I had to ask (by ask, I mean scream towards the pitch) the question "don't you think we're bored enough?"

I turned to my dad Steve, who has been watching rugby with me since I think 1865, and asked why we were playing like blind monkeys.

He asked me if I really cared about the game, and honestly, I said no.

You see, the advent of the Anglo-Welsh Cup has created something truly unique. A meaningless game, in a cup nobody cares about.

I doubted I could care less about a game than I did during last year's Anglo-Welsh Cup final, but on Friday I reached for that rainbow, and slipped into a rugby-related coma.

At least we saw the long-overdue return of potential England and Tigers legend Tom Varndell, who was inexplicably dropped in the weeks before.

But he didn't do much.

Speaking of not doing much (see what I did there? To hell with the people who say blogs should focus on only one subject!) Hinckley didn't cover themselves in glory at the weekend.

But I like to focus on the positives. Kenilworth were better, and there's not much point in dwelling on that.

However I still thought Dave Howgate in the centres was superb, as was AJ Smith at fly-half.

Hinckley travel to Newport at the weekend, with Times columnist Rob Dignum back in the centres.

Maybe he'll write about rugby this week then...

Hail to the chief

2008-10-30T09:04:40Z

SPORT reporting, and I use the term fairly loosely, isn't terribly complex.

I watch Hinckley RFC (most weeks, not every week), ring up Coach Phil Massarella on Wednesday, and hope to god a few people ring me in the days in-between with rugby news.

This week it happened - I had calls from Tom Wheatcroft's dad, a few days after his son had made his debut for Worcester - and Vicky Massarella called in to say she had made the England Women's Seven's squad.

Down the road in Nuneaton or Tamworth this would be a stunning rugby-news week. In Hinckley it's fairly standard.

You see, us Hinckley folk just love the game. I'm biased, which is probably not a good statement for a journalist to make at the start of a sentence, but I think rugby is the town's number one sport.

There's a constantly changing pool of twenty to thirty players who are either acheiving, or on the verge of, success.

There's one thing football fans can't argue with - this area has spawned many many more rugby stars than football stars. Hell, Hinckley United don't even have that many players from Hinckley.

So the news that Phil Massarella and Director of Rugby Paul Walsh sent out one of the youngest ever Hinckley first team was pretty unsurprising, but at the same time absolutely fantastic.

That talent pool is constantly growing, and whilst I would love those players to stay at Hinckley and help the team climb the national leagues, I have a feeling they might be following in the footsteps of Wheatcroft, Sam Harrison, Sam Vesty, Sam Raven, Alex Dodge, Luke Myring, Dean Richards, Graham Rowntree, Ollie Smith etc.

Going on to slightly bigger things, that is.

But maybe they should stick around for a while yet.

A couple of weeks ago I suggested that Phil Massarella wasn't keen on promotion out of Midlands One this season.

He gave me a tongue-lashing for making this assertion (well, he gave me a gentle-rollocking, totally deserved) and said that his side were more than capable of getting out of the league at the first attempt.

And I have a feeling he would be pretty pleased with that.

Apathy and ecstacy

2008-10-27T16:37:08Z

I'LL be brutally honest here - I couldn't give a stuff about the EDF Energy Cup.

Why does it even exist? Actually, that's a stupid question.

We all know why our glorious, if slightly pointless, national cup competition was scrapped in favour of the anglo-welsh cup.

It gives the Welsh club sides the chance to win a trophy.

They haven't a hope in hell of winning the European Cup, and the Magners League usually gives the Irish sides who don't go all out for the aforementioned tournament a chance to triumph.

Essentially what you have is three seperate tournaments that divide opinion. Every side wants to win the European Cup, the Scots and a couple of Irish sides want the Magners League, and only the Welsh care about the EDF cup thingy.

Remember when Tigers last won the EDF? We had Paul Burke at fly-half for chrissakes!

I'm not saying he was bad, but.....ok, he was one of the most horribly turgid players ever to pull on a Tigers jersey.

Yet he effectively orchestrated a cup win.

That says it all for me. But I'm not bitter, at all. In fact I'm delighted the Blues won. I followed them when I lived in Cardiff, and I wish them all the best.

They were much better than us on Saturday and deserved the win.

Which is fine, becuase I genuinely don't care about the tournament.

When I returned from my holiday last week the first score I checked was for the Hinckley vs Longton game.

Hinckley won, Tigers lost, and I was quite happy with my lot.

The only reason I'll be heading down to Welford Road for the anglo-welsh game on Friday to watch Tigers face Sale is to see what a good New Zealand import looks like.

Luke McCallister makes Aaron Mauger look like a complete donkey.

Thing is, Sale don't care about the tournament either, so I bet they leave him out of the squad.

Two draws a bit of a disappointment

2008-10-23T10:58:26Z

TWO games and two points is far from a disaster but I can't help feeling disappointed with Leicester City's haul from the last two games.

A 1-1 draw at Oldham was a good result, and a fair one. But we had more than enough chances to put the game out of sight before the Latics started to play.

Then against Walsall on Tuesday we were good and utterly incompetent in equal measures, and although we fought back well after twice being behind, we should have had the Saddlers for breakfast.

Despite this, we are still 3rd and have a game in hand on the two sides above us. If we can feel disappointed at the end of the week and still be in this position, things can't be bad.

Oldham was another good away day, but the place is one of the most horrible towns I've ever been to.

Despite that, and the rickety three-sided ground (a PROPER old football ground), the general consensus was that their fans were an extremely hospitable bunch.

That's great to hear in this day and age. It would be so easy for them to wander into the city to Eastlands or Old Trafford, but they choose to support Oldham. They are proper football fans in my book.

Lloyd Dyer missed an open goal and Matty Fryatt went close before Steve Howard deservedly hit the net, so we should have been in an unassailable position before Danny Whitaker's goal of the season contender.

Then on Tuesday we looked like we were still in the changing room for the first 25 minutes. No width, no creativity or guile and certainly no cutting edge.

After some woeful defending allowed Walsall to take the lead, we did well to fight back, equalise and dominate the game before half time.

But then after the break yet more bad defending a minute in and we were back to square one. Again we fought back and dominated but couldn't get the third goal.

It was frustrating but we are in League One for a reason (clue: we're rubbish) and we have no god-given right to win any game.

Saturday sees Northampton Town visiting us. They are a renowned passing side, and if they try to out-football us, we should win.

But if they put 10 men behind the ball and try and nick a goal, on Tuesday's evidence it will be a struggle to get the points.

International weeks are a right pain

2008-10-16T10:54:22Z

I HATE international weeks.

I couldn't care less about our national side any more, although it was nice to see them play so well against Belarus on Wednesday night.

Any football fan worth their salt would tell you that given a choice between watching your team win the league or seeing England lift the World Cup, they would plump for the former.

Relegation to the third tier should have removed this unnecessary distraction for the Foxes but bizarrely enough we still have enough internationals in our ranks to merit getting games called off.

The break meant we dropped to 2nd in the table last week, albeit only on goals scored, and with a game in hand on every side down to 21st!

I saw two of our lads - Andy King and Nicky Adams - play in a hugely entertaining encounter between England and Wales U21s at Villa Park on Tuesday.

While King was largely anonymous in a midfield packed with Premiership regulars, Adams made a great impact as a late sub.

OK, it was against an England side down to 10 men and tiring, but his movement and forward runs were impressive.

If he can play like that in centre midfield for us, he would be a good candidate to move across from the wing and replace King.

I'm looking forward to the trip to Oldham Athletic this Saturday for the top-of-the-table clash.

The fun bus stops at numerous pubs on the way so we should all be well-oiled by 3pm.

Irritatingly the Latics have just signed Brett Ormerod, the much-travelled striker who always seems to play well against us.

I remember a few seasons ago when another team of Latics - Wigan - were pushing for promotion to the Premiership. They signed Ormerod a few days before the game and he popped up with two goals and annoyed the hell out of us. That match was rubbish.

I just hope he doesn't have the same impact this week in a game which should showcase perhaps the two best footballing sides in the division.

I think if teams try and outplay us, we have the quality to do the same back and then some. Hopefully this will be the case on Saturday.

Death to the ELVs

2008-10-15T13:31:32Z

SOME things this season have been utterly predictable.

James Haskell has been gouged, Jonny Wilkinson is injured, and Wasps have mysteriously lost two props to injury when they were getting spanked in the scrum.

But that's about it.

The rugby itself has been all over the place. At every level no result can be predicted.

And the Experimental Law Variations (dubbed the ELVs for short) are entirely to blame.

They have single-handedly managed to make me love the game less. They've destroyed the rolling maul, and created some of the most pointless kicking duels in sporting history.

To tell you the truth, if I saw one of those ELVs walking down a street, I'd kick the hell out of it. They all deserve to die a brutal and painful death.

I know why they were introduced - and in theory yes, we should get some decent, free-flowing, running rugby.

But have the people who proposed these law changes tried to sling out a miss pass in the pouring rain? Have they tried to sidestep in a foot of thick mud?

I'd wager not. Yet again the prawn-sandwich brigade are mucking in our sport, and making it worse.

What would I do? Well for a start I'd scrap the mark. It totally inhibits attacking kicking. I'd make it illegal again to pull down a rolling maul, and I'd allow the ball to be passed back into the 22 and cleared on the full.

I've no problem with the offside line being moved a few metres back at scrums, that actually isn't a bad idea.

But the rest of the rules are a farce, and the fans will vote with their feet.

I guess the guy I feel most sorry for is Jonny "remember me" Wilkinson. Every time he comes back from a career-threatening injury he has to learn a different set of rules.

By the next comeback forward passes will be ok, and the game will be broken up into two-minute "plays" loaded with advertising breaks. Danny Cipriani will be stretched, semi-naked, across the pages of Heat Magazine every week, and Scottish rugby will be totally scrapped due to lack of interest.

Before that happens enjoy all the rugby you can. Unfortunately for fans of Hinckley and Tigers, that means you're either going to Italy or doing the gardening this weekend.

I'm going to Germany for a holiday though. Perhaps I'll take in some handball. It's probably not that different to rugby now anyway.

The scourge of the fickle football fan

2008-10-09T10:32:01Z

WE all know football fans can be fickle beasts but there is one Hinckley United supporter who just takes the biscuit.

I won't name and shame the man in question, mainly because I don't know his real name, but suffice to say anyone who posts on the independent Knitters forum will know who I'm on about.

When the side were struggling last season, the fan in question was on the forum after every game, calling for Dean Thomas's head.

There were no constructive suggestions about why he should go - just that he should be sacked. It was like listening to a stuck record (a virtual one of course).

The grumbler in question has been conspicuous by his absence this season - hardly surprising given the Knitters' overall good start in 08/09.

But following the Burscough defeat last Saturday - the first genuinely bad performance this season - said grumbler crawls out of the woodwork again.

Apparently this time, Deano's tactics are awful, just like they were when Hinckley lost to Farsley Celtic in the play-off final choker.

Hang on a minute, wasn't that game nearly 18 months ago?

I think if Brian Little had told his Leicester side to defend in the 1993 play-off final after coming back from three down against Swindon, we would have killed them in extra time...

Talk about living in the past.

Dredging up past glories or bad performances is the staple of many fickle football fans, and there's no change here.

Thank goodness everyone else who has enjoyed the Knitters' excellent start to the season hasn't let their view be clouded by inane criticisms.

Leader of the pack

2008-10-08T09:54:21Z

CAPTAINS should always lead by example. They should make the big hits, the hard yards and the tough decisions that are often the difference between success and failure.

Fortunately Hinckley have a man who seems more than capable. A man who seems to score tries exclusively when his side are losing by a couple of points.

I'm talking of course, about Benny Ashfield.

I've known Ben for an eternity. I still remember him chucking tomatoes at my neighbour's windows when we were young scamps.

Fortunately we've both grown up (me more than him), and now Ben is doing a sterling job at the helm of Hinckley RFC.

The reason? Because Hinckley runs in his blood.

Like most of the lads who turn out down Leicester Road, they've grown up with the club, and Ben is no exception.

Most younger players in the borough play for either Hinckley or Bosworth. I played for both, traitor that I am.

But whoever you play for, you make a conscious decision. You belong to one of the two. I was always Hinckley, and that will never change.

There was a period a while ago when a few Hinckley players left the club for the Bosworth buck, and a chance of playing at a higher level.

Now things have changed, Bosworth are struggling in Midlands Two East, and Hinckley are riding high in Midlands One.

I don't know whether those who left regret the decision, but I know that those who stayed are doing a fantastic job now.

Sam Raven may have left Leicester Tigers several seasons ago, but he still feels strongly about the shirt.

So strongly that when the Tigers came calling he got released from his club side Rotherham and went straight into the line-up for the EDF Energy Cup clash with Bath.

His phone call on Wednesday was the highlight of the week for me, because Sam is a normal bloke who has worked hard and deserves his chance.

Just imagine if a Championship footballer from Hinckley had been signed by Manchester United to play in a cup match.

Would that player have responded to a Facebook message? Would they have laughed, joked, and told me everything I needed to know?

Not on your life.

I've got a sneaking suspicion Mr Raven may not have seen the last of Welford Road, and if he gets the nod again it will come as no surprise.

Like the Hinckley lads, Sam deserves success. If you work hard on the paddock, you will be rewarded.

And on that quasi-philosophical note...

Oh lord, Lloyd Dyer...

2008-10-02T13:42:30Z

I HAVE to admit the first time I saw Lloyd Dyer play for us I wasn't hugely impressed.

He was up against his old club, Franchise FC, in the first game of the season and he frustratingly drifted in and out of proceedings.

Fast forward to this week and super Lloyd is the name on all Foxes' fans' lips, having hit his 4th goal in five games at Colchester to take us back to the top of League One.

He goes like the proverbial off a shovel, sets up goals as well as scoring them and gives us something we've been craving for seasons - genuine width.

"It's not rocket science," Ian Holloway said in January about getting in wingers who can put a decent ball in the box. Sadly, the two he did sign were good for one game and rubbish after, putting us back to square one.

Now, with Dyer on the left and a choice of Max Gradel or Nicky Adams on the right, we look genuinely dangerous whenever we are going forward.

Levi Porter, who has played scores of games on the left wing for us in the Championship, can't get a look in.
The league isn't won in September, but things are already looking good.

We have kept loads of clean sheets, and the defence is once again a strong point as it was last season.
The midfield is creating and scoring goals, and while the Matt Oakley-Andy King partnership would probably struggle in the Championship, it is fine for now.

Then we have the strikers, who are working tirelessly for each other and the team and scoring goals.
I'm missing this Saturday's trip to Huddersfield Town, but the big blue promotion bus is on the road to Oldham Athletic next Saturday and I can't wait.