IT’S ALL GOING DOWN TO THE WIRE
Amanager I once played for called this time of year “mining season”. The time of year when the heat is turned up, the pressure is on, and you find out what your players are really made of. He would explain the process of how coal and diamonds are created and then ask us the question: “What are you? Are you a diamond that is going to shine or are you just a lump of coal that’s going to burn itself out?” Fair play to him, it was an elaborate analogy to question if we were up to the job as we battled to stay in the division. Luckily for us that year, we had a team that had enough carats within our ranks to keep us up. So this is where we’re at right now, seeing which teams will glisten in the light and which ones will end up as charred embers left in their wake. Take a look at the top end of the National League. Is that how you envisaged the top five places before a ball was kicked in anger? I’d say the top four is just about right. And the last place is usually anyone’s guess. At the time of writing, that place goes to Aldershot who have gone from struggling in 15th last season to a run of one loss in the last 15 games this year, taking them to fifth. I can’t see any of the top three changing with the teams below them, but that makes the excitement of this year’s promotion race two-fold. Lincoln, Tranmere and Forest Green are going to slug it out for top spot, with the next five sides battling for the final two play-off spots. You always find there are mini-leagues within the league, but it’s not just every point that counts, every goal, every injury, every card, every refereeing decision matters so much more now.
Pressure
I love the fact there can be so many permutations at both ends, but particularly at the top. Successful league sides generally do well in the cups too. Winning games breeds confidence and as a result of that, there’s generally a difference in games played and I love playing the guessing game. Weighing up who’s playing who. How many away games do they have? Are the pitches drying out, making one-touch passes impossible? Parent clubs recalling loan players as a precautionary measure because they are under pressure themselves. It’s not just the pressure to your own team that you need to take into consideration. Match-ups between top and bottom of the table sides take on a different dimension. What would have been a stroll for the top side earlier on in the season turns into potential upsets as the reality of relegation starts to set in for the strugglers, kicking them back into life. And then there are those teams who seemingly have nothing to play for but pride and the odd league placing. There are those teams who tend to put their trunks and flip flops on when promotion and safety are equidistant, but more often than not, these are the trouble makers to sides far above and below them. The pressure is off. No heat either. Just the fine grains of sand, sifting through the players’ toes as they relax and play a game free of worry. These are the true party-poopers. They’re already looking ahead to next season. Blooding young players, resting those who have been carrying injuries, experimenting with sides. You just don’t know what you’re going to get. Unless you’re playing Boreham Wood, that is. If you’re playing against Luke Garrard’s side, you know you are not going to have an easy ride, as Danny Cowley’s Lincoln City discovered to their cost after losing 2-0. Wood’s defensive record is one that is deserving of a much higher league position. Only Tranmere have conceded fewer goals on 32, and Aldershot in equal second place with 34. It’s testimony to the work they put in as a defensive unit and no more so than the contribution from their keepers, Grant Smith and Montel Joseph, and their coach Glen Johnson. It’s not a coincidence that on the way to the league’s second best defensive record they have kept 15 clean sheets. Working alongside the Cowleys and Braintree last season, Glen and his keepers amassed 22 league clean sheets which formed the basis of their play-off challenge. This ‘team within a team’, a tight-knit bond of goalkeepers and their coach, deserve to get praise heaped upon them as much as any striker who scores the goals. Their success isn’t just measured in terms of going up and going down. It’s in the statistics that sometimes get lost in the hullaballoo of hype and goes underappreciated. Which goes to prove there’s still gems to be found in the sandy beaches of mid-table after all.