[Dancingwilldoit]

Wow, six of the best and so easily could have been 10.
I didnt think Barnet played badly which made the result even better. Things are on the up up up.
The sign of the devil? Maybe we have found our way our of this league - naughty but nice.
Hollis has been magnificent the last 4 games and was my MOM today

[Devongone]

Course I'm thrilled with the result.

I suppose only a nit like me would have heard about James Rowe. Having lived in Cheltenham for 14 years I know how unlikely any success for Gloucester City had become. They even lost their ground to flooding. From once being Cheltenham's Boxing Day derby rivals they had declined as their rivals improved. So I knew James Rowe had to be a bit special and they had written about him in the Non-League Paper ..... so I understood how impressive his background was. I didn't think for one minute we'd have the sense to choose him. He's started well and is signing players from the right background. He's clearly got the players together. Hollis is showing his true self, Evans was already known to Rowe, and Maguire obviously now feels he can do what he's good at. If we can get goals and stop them then we can start looking up the table. I do, however, note Bob's is immediately looking to win the league. It's not impossible but if you consider what that would actually mean, it should reduce the pressure on the team. To win The National League we'd probably need to finish on 87 points or more from 44 games. That means 71 more points or 22 wins 5 draws 4 defeats from our remaining games. Torquay would need only 55 more points to reach that target. 6-0 is brilliant but we need to keep our feet on the ground. It makes looking up much safer!

By the way not only did Hollis and Asante make the division's team of the week in the Non-league Paper, but the real good news was from Alfreton where the on-loan Luke Rawson scored, was Man of the Match against Chorley and was in the National League North team of the week. Just what we want from a loan. Just what we need a young striker pressing for a place!

Double by the way, Jordan Flores scored for Dundalk against Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday. Nice to see him getting some success after his horrific car crash.

What is this good news week? Are we doing the Prediction League on Tuesday, there are four games Covid permitting?

[Devongone]

And talking about Alfreton I'd missed the coup Billy Heath pulled off by signing James Jones from Salford. Whilst our development people are round there checking how Luke Rawson is doing, they should be approaching Alfreton about signing James Jones and maybe loaning him back for now. He's 6'4" and can play centre back or full back. He can only be 20 /21. He played for Chester at about 18 and was genuinely impressive. Salford shelled out to get him and have only given him 3 or 4 starts. You are never going to find out about a defender's capabilities that quickly. He won't be at Alfreton beyond this season. We might even consider loaning them Sharman to play alongside him for a month to test them both out.

We are already seeing what an effect it has on a team when a defence begins to look solid. Forwards find scoring easier because they don't feel under so much pressure. When you think it might be your only chance of the game and you are pretty sure your defence won't keep a clean sheet, that's exactly when you snatch at that chance and you've scuffed it before you know it.

James Jones, he might not be an immediate priority, but I'd like to think we'd got him for next season, and to guarantee that we need to do something sharpish.

And Saturday ended poor old Peter Beadle's miserable stay at Barnet. Take a look at him. Dementia isn't the only thing that can happen to a former sportsman. He used to be a speedy, tricky winger. What happened?

[spireitematt]

We can't get carried away and start talking about promotion because we are currently 4 games unbeaten. Need to take 1 game at a time and see where we end up but it looks like things are changing for the better.

To answer Dev's question, yes we are doing the prediction league on Tuesday.

[Devongone]

I agree Matt. We've had false dawns before, like 3 wins out of 3 under Martin Allen. I feel much more hopeful this time but that might just be because I liked the sound of James Rowe before I even knew he was in the running. It is always very easy to forget that the other teams all like winning too and they were signing players whilst we were losing, sacking managers and going nowhere. I do think to succeed in sport you need to keep moving forward and looking to bring in new players before the fans are calling for replacements, so yes I wouldn't hesitate over James Jones even though the defence is looking strong, I'd move for Cameron Mason even though we are keeping clean sheets, I'd be tapping up Kane Drummond even though we just scored six and I'd be doing my best to ensure Sharman and Rowley fulfil their promise and I might even be casting a weather-eye on Blyth to see if Levi Amantchi is finding his mojo.

And yes I'd be trying to win in the FA Trophy. We need to keep that feeling. If we play Brackley, they've got a player I've always liked in Shepherd Murombedze, but he didn't even make their starting eleven last week, so what do I know?

It's great to be hopeful and aim for the top, it gets dangerous when those hopes become expectations, then that first defeat deflates everyone, and someone says, "same old same old" and suddenly we start sucking the ball into our own goal.