Reality Check | Vital Football

Reality Check

Alfalf2

Vital Reserves Team
3-0 dicking by the National League's money men. Certainly a reality check for anyone who thought Pools were going to walk this league. Salford have strikers who know where the goal is which I guess was the major difference between the teams this evening.
 
It's the difference between top two and top ten. Would we have went from one nil to three nil up in 11 minutes?

I doubt it. We would have, as we have so many times in the past, defended a 1-0 lead, again it's the difference between top two and top ten.
Current top two teams won by the biggest margins tonight, both smelled blood and went in for the kill. Those who know where they need to be played out a draw - Wrexham at Harrogate!

We're the Frank Bruno of the national league, we lack the killer instinct, and it appears we don't have the nous to play for a point in a vital away game as tonight was.

Orient are 6pts in front now and the gap looks as though it will get wider before it narrows. We'll have to work much harder if we're to finish in the top ten, the league is so tight.

:red:
 
Yep, quite right. If we had lost by a narrow margin I could accept it and move on, after all you cant win 'em all but we took a heck of a beating which puts us firmly in our place: we are a top 10 side not a top three or four side.

I think the reason we try to defend 1-0 leads is because Bates knows we just don't have the ability to score enough goals to kill off teams the way Salford killed us off.
 
Last edited:
[QUOTE="Alfalf2, Yep, quite right. If we had lost by a narrow margin I could accept it and move on, QUOTE]

As you never 'accept it and move on' when we win by a narrow margin, there's little reason to believe you'd have 'moved on' if we'd lost by a narrow margin either.
 
I think the result just confirmed what we already knew. We have lost only twice so far. We've had some decent results against some teams, particularly away, and some games where we could and should have done better. We got spanked by Salford who, you would think, have bought enough quality to be odds on for promotion.

The reality seems to be we are OK but not quite good enough at present. We are likely to remain that way until we can get our strikers scoring regularly. I don't see us in the promotion mix but nor do I think we'll struggle unduly.
 
We could scrape into the play offs with a bit of luck but Cant see us going up. Certainly an improvement from last year but then that wouldn't be difficult.