[Devongone]

Carter was brilliant. His second goal alone was worth the price of the season ticket. Happy days are here again. 4930 not bad for a Tuesday night and top of the league. Crowd got behind the team and we looked good. No Anyon on the bench again so even more positivity from me.
Dev I said last week come Sat night we could be sat with 9 points and its looking good. We want teams to be scared of coming to the Proact and we might just be going the right way. I'd rather have the Martin Allen start than the John Still start.

So would I, and I think we played better teams than Barnet too ......... but Gateshead, Solihull and Halifax won both their games and it would be a big surprise if they made the play-offs. What you have to remember is very rarely is more than one team in this league rubbish and very rarely are even the winners brilliant. Matches are tough, a Gateshead can come back from an early goal down against Salford and holding on at 1-0 against Ebbsfleet, as Leyton Orient were, isn't often as smooth as it was for us on Saturday. And one player at his peak can make a real difference down here too - Blair Turgott has a monster reputation as a goalscorer, but at this level injuries and stuff have been blunting him - but two from him and Maidstone are suddenly potential away winners rather than relegation-fodder, just as Yussuf's strikes are putting Solihull in the picture.

3-0 surprised me. I was expecting 0-0 or just one goal to decide it. But remember last season when we were going through our team and only Dennis and Ugwu had any history at all of goal scoring? You need goals from elsewhere, you have to have a midfielder with goals in him - remember the impact Danny Whitaker made with us. Charlie Carter is obviously making a difference. You only have to have played the game at any level to know that the more goal threats an opposition carries around the field, the more difficult it is to defend against them. If all you have to do is find Dennis and keep him quiet it's pretty easy.

But teams at any level can take time to settle and clearly John Still thought that might be the case with Barnet, but with Coutlhirst and Harrison up front I'm guessing they will soon click for a few goals and their defence already seems to be holding it together. Similarly Salford have brought in a couple of stars, but they clearly haven't yet improved their team as much as their reputation suggests ...... and when that happens and even IF it EVER does, is a matter of conjecture. (Halifax are leaving their best player, Kosylo, on the bench, but teams are often more than the sum of their parts.) With Salford it might just be that they need the age and steady experience of a Nathan Pond on the pitch alongside Piergianni at the back to succeed, before they can get the best out of a more mercurial player like Adam Rooney. But it might also be that their spending has made them the top target for every other team and everyone is going to be better against Salford than anyone else.

In our case, whilst I'd like to see the Proact become a points factory I think we should dip our toes into a Saturday game first, before becoming over-optimistic. Aldershot travelled a long way for an awkward Tuesday night fixture ........ that was in our favour. Braintree will love the Proact when they see it, they'll be up for a Saturday game even after a long journey. It's early season, playing will still be fun to them, even the travel will be exciting. They've got some decent players, they are under no pressure. Let's see how that test goes. It's been great so far, but 44 games to go is leading out of the blocks, we still have to run the race.