By Andrew Tidswell (Spalding United player and Elite Sports Academy MD)
Although the season has only really just begun, we at Spalding United find ourselves looking for solutions.
With just a handful of league games gone in Evo-Stik League First Division South, it is not a time to panic – or get carried away.
Many times we have seen promoted teams go into the next league and kick on again. At Spalding United, that is definitely something we set our stall out to achieve once pre-season began.
Over the first few league games our record has been pretty modest. We have gone from magic to tragic within days and weeks.
Highlights so far have seen a fantastic team win away at a strong Coalville Town outfit and then going to the (then) league leaders Loughborough Dynamo and winning 6-0. That scoreline didn’t flatter us.
Apart from another two big wins in front of our own fans at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field, that’s as good as it’s got so far.
The weekend just gone, at Sheffield FC, was another missed opportunity to get three valuable points, as a mad ten minutes straight after half time saw us concede three horrendous goals – but even then we could have got something out of the game.
Scoring three goals away from home, you expect to get something from the game. But the feelings we had after the game were those of total dejection at losing 4-3.
The biggest thing for us is to keep working hard and to search for some kind of consistency, as on our day we know we can give every team in the league problems.
Down the road at Holbeach United, it seems another success story is brewing.
Having won eight out of nine in the UCL Premier Division, they are currently sitting in second place behind a Yaxley side which is under the stewardship of Brett Whaley.
But this start, together with navigating their way through the early rounds of both the FA Vase and UCL Knockout Cup, would suggest that silverware could be on the horizon for the Tigers again come April.
The only blip for John Chand and Graham Drury’s side is the disappointing FA Cup exit earlier in the season to Boston Town.
Another local side in the UCL Premier Division, Deeping Rangers, look like they are coming back to form with an 8-1 demolition of struggling Harborough Town.
From my time in the league, I know they were always a difficult opposition to play and that’s down to how Tuncay Korkmaz galvanizes his teams. From what I hear there are more restrictions on Tuncay this season due to unforeseen circumstances – how true that is, I don’t know.
But I will say this: Tuncay is a winner and I am more than sure he will show that throughout the season.
