'Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring'

Nothing is won or lost in November

It’s been a while since I last posted a Barnet blog, not for the fact we’ve been doing well just more the lack of time given my other commitments and of course these are free, the bill paying ones come first!

It’s not a knee jerk reaction a loss on Saturday either, I’ve taken my time to read through Twitter, the Only Barnet message board and watch the brief highlights earlier today.

We all have an opinion; we all should be allowed to express it and we should all be able to have a debate or go back and forth with a sense of respect and ability to not be a twat. My thoughts follow as we go through this piece, some bits you might agree with , plenty you probably won’t and I have no problem especially if you’re able to apply your own thoughts without needing to insult or come across as just arguing for the sake of it.

Before the game I would have taken a point, I think most of us would, a kind of mutual respect for where our clubs sit in the table but the gulf in budget and support that brings extra into the club to help facilitate that.

Now, the game itself. We’ve all pretty much either watched the full 90 minutes or watched the highlights. The first half quite typical of us this season, enough chances to bury teams, but rarely more than a goal or two in front and at times it’s come back to bite us on the bum, very similar story last season as well.

We’ve all seen so far this season how often Chesterfield ramp it up second half and fire in a few goals, we all expected them to come at us and they did. However, each of the goals we conceded were pretty poor, I don’t think Chesterfield had to work hard for any of them, disappointing maybe but that’s how it looks.

I’ve seen some suggestions and had them put to me should Dale Gorman have come on at 1-0 down? Was Gary Hooper for Dom Revan the wrong substitution?

I’ll take the latter one first, my only thought with that was to immediately push Chesterfield back and make them sit on their 1-0 lead, give them something different to think about. I can’t say for sure because I wasn’t there or saw enough through highlights to see what impact if any there was. Judging by the scoreline you would have to say it didn’t have the desired effect.

Had Gorman come on it might have steadied the ship, but then you’re one substitution down and a goal behind, and actually would it have added anything going forwards, had it been reversed and a goal in front then absolutely make the substitution as even if they pulled it back to 1-1, it should be more solid, I’m not sure other than that what benefit we really would have seen.

The two late goals brought some respectability to the scoreline, very much a game of two halves as the cliché says and a case of what might have been very much evident.

For me that second half showed the level needed to win the league this year, that’s not to say between now and then we can do that or we can’t, simply an acknowledgement of where they’re at and where we’re at currently.

If any club in that division had access to their budget I’d expect them to be where they are, they’re expected to win, they’ve also had an extra 12 months more than us to fine tune things.

Remember where we were 24 months ago to where we are now, that as well is one game of 46 in a season, we might reach another level, they might have a blip, Saturday didn’t define the season for me, a single game never does it’s three points and no more despite what some Chesterfield fans might think season’s don’t finish in November!

Just before I get to the last bit which is more positive, muscle injuries. We must be one of the few understaffed physio and sport science departments in the National League. We’ve been crying out for improvements here for two years at least, pretty much since Gary Anderson left the club, we plodded along and we’re seeing the fruits of that work, constant muscle injuries and before it constant niggles for other players, why?

Because we expect one physio in Jade, who is excellent by the way, to repair the 26 man squad on her tod every single day and week. Come on Tony, we’ve come on in leaps and bounds as a club but we lack still in some areas, no proper recovery time is in place and we’re seeing what that is causing, let’s not derail the season, cup money there let’s spend on those who have earned it before we run out of legs.

We’re in a good place, plenty of other teams in this division who would trade places with us, there is no panic unless it’s inside your brain, plenty more football to play, plenty more up and down’s to come, that’s the nature of game, Saturday is done, move on and get three points this weekend, don’t get too high at the good points, don’t get too low at the bad points……….