Two Hills In The Valley

Courtesy of Kings Hill Addick* I will be at the Valley tomorrow.

After two straight away defeats the pressure (IMHO unfairly) is rising for Parkie and the team.  Woe betide us if we go a goal down tomorrow against one of the oldest clubs in the world, Notts County.  I can hear the boos already.  But honestly we are only a few games in and we need players to bed in and learn to work with each other.  Sometimes this can take a game or two, others it can take a while.  Would we rather we started like a steam train, ala last season and peter out or would we like to do a Millwall and rush for the finishing line and get the enormous prize of a bronze and promotion.

I am sure there will be a few boos reserved for Lee Hughes Sadly I think that will only spur him on.  Parkie has a number of selection decisions to make.  At times he is a bit like Curbishley in his loyalty to players and I wonder if this approach leads to a level of complacency amongst the chosen players and a feeling of injustice amongst those left out.  It certainly had a bearing on both Spring and McCenzie last season, who were both ignored during the slump despite claiming to be fit.

By all accounts Fortune had a good run out in the reserves last week and the question is raised wether he is fit enough to start tomorrow instead of the hapless Llerra.  OK that is a bit unfair, but his decision making this season is a bit iffy and he should never have gone in so recklessly at Exeter.  for the record, I think that was a penalty.  There is always the option of playing Fry at Centre back and bringing back Jackson at left back.  I like what I have seemn and heard about Fry and would like to retain him at left back, despite his heroics their last season, Jackson is not a natural left back so I would prefer Fry there, plus I have never seen Fry in the centre of defence.

Midfield seems to be the key area of concern at the moment in that we have numbers but do we have quality.  The response from Exeter and Huddersfield is that Semedo and McCormack are too similar and there is a lack of creativity ... Racon or Jackson maybe for McCormack.  This I think is where Parkies loyalty to players may play against him as he has faith in McCormack (same as Francis) and is expecting him to come good.  I would actually like to see racon go in to the role of creative midfielder and in dailly's absence be given the captaincy - which is probably why I am not very good at Football Management games.

Martin is odds on for starting on the right with Wagstaff around on tjhe bench.  Martin potentially offers a lot but he is also a bit of a show man, that's ok if you are ronaldo, but Martin needs to prove himself before being able to wander through games strutting.  Assuming Reid is fit, he needs to put in a performance that is telling, again like Martin he has shown flair but is yet to really hurt defences in the way he did last season.

Up front it is unlikely to be anything other than Abbott and Benson.  Abbott has told the Evening Standard that he has quickly settled in and is ready to start scoring goals tomorrow, so here is hoping that he can fulfill his promise.  Abbots move from Oldham may be physically and emotionally harder than Bensons but he needs to put a performance in similar to the one he did at Shrewsbury.

There has been no news specifically on Akpo having had a bad knock on the head at the end o f the game at Exeter, although there was news about the Sodje families gala dinner at the valley for poverty in Africa.

I'm going for a dull game at the Valley tomorrow, with us grinding out a 2-1 victory.

Ps Any chance of not singing the incest song?


*Much appreciated Kings Hill