Felt surprisingly downbeat after Saturdays victory.

Despite the Beeb stats telling me we had more possession and more shots (although I don't remember any other than the goal), my over- riding impression was that we'd "got away with it".

Not too disheartening though, the heat possibly played a major part in the poor second half showing, we'd done a lot more running on and off the ball in the first half so it was no real surprise that Yeovil came at us as the game wore on.

The opening 15 mins or so showed a lot of promise for what this season could be about, Brandon and Schofield in particular looked to be really up for the game going forwards, whereas Holdsworth and Collins camped in the middle seemed subdued but did a decent job of plugging what would have been a gaping hole last season - we didn't NEED to go gung-ho at any time I guess, although personally I'd like to see Collins get forward a bit more than he did.

At the back Clarke & Mirfin looked like they'll potentially make a decent partnership, and perhaps its significant that Clarke took no throw-ins or free-kicks and was able to concentrate on his core responsibility of being a central defender?

Skarz did alright, although never really under any great defensive pressure, it'll be interesting to see how he copes up against GTF tomorrow. His decision making seems to have improved a bit, opting to hoof it where previously he'd have been caught on the ball (he always seems a bit slow to me), and when he did have a bit more time he contributed to a couple of decent moves over the top for Schofield to chase onto.

Sinclair did what you'd expect - not one of his best games but flashes of coming into it overlapping with Kamara. I think we're better off with him on the right, he's a significantly better defender than Holdsworth and has the pace to get us out of trouble, and whilst a bit messier on the ball when he's coming forward I know which of the two I'd rather have running at me if I was an opposing left sided player.

Kamara was a bit of a disappointment - he didn't get the ball in front of him like Schofield & Brandon at the other side, so was often starting from a standing position, but his first touch seemed quite poor and to be honest he looked like he didn't quite know what he was supposed to be doing, although there were flashes of what he can provide, and if you throw Cadamarteri into the equation as well we're going to need to take better freekicks, as we should expect to win quite a lot in dangerous positions with the nature of this squad - players like Brandon/Schofield/Kamara & Cadamarteri are all 'easily foulable' because of the nature of how they play.

Beckett was blown out after 40 minutes and I maintain despite the goal that the squad we have and the way that we need to play has largely left Beckett behind...things might be different when Cadamarteri is fit I suppose, Schofield was just too far away from Beckett a lot of the time and he's no target man.

Glennon worried me with changing his mind or being indecisive on numerous occasions. As he did most of last season, but he's probably on a par with most of the keepers in this league so not THAT much of a worry.

Early days.

By Nigel Taylor from the HTFC mailing list.