30/08/2026
Manager’s Thoughts – GNG Oadby Town
They say football is all about habits. We started the season with a winning habit after the first three games, but we’ve now lost the last four. All of a sudden, our habit is losing football matches, and that’s very difficult to accept.
But there has also been a little change in attitude and culture, and that can have a huge effect on what happens on the pitch. The know-how and mindset of players is, for me, one of the biggest things in the game, especially at this level of football.
GNG yesterday were a very physical side. Many of their players were bigger, taller, stronger and more aggressive, and their game plan was about imposing that physical superiority on us.
For many years in my management, we’ve always found answers to that kind of physical approach, despite rarely being the biggest team ourselves. Unfortunately, yesterday we weren’t able to do that consistently enough.
We actually started the first half well, although I think GNG probably had the better half-chances. The pace of their wingers, strength of their centre-backs and power in midfield was evident, but early doors we competed really well.
I thought our strikers, Chatter and Rosie, really took on the challenge against their centre-backs and caused them problems. We won plenty of fouls and I thought we did okay.
Then we scored.
I wouldn’t say it was against the run of play, although GNG had created a couple of half-chances. We scored because we probed, recycled the ball, got players into the box and had good numbers and a good final-third entry.
Chatter deserved his goal. He came on last week at Lutterworth and did really well, and after getting a start yesterday he took his opportunity and scored.
The remainder of the half was very much to and fro. Neither side really dominated possession or played with any great fluency. It became almost a basketball-style game at times – end to end.
We went in at half-time 1-0 up. GNG might have felt aggrieved not to be level, but I felt we’d defended well and taken our chance. They hadn’t defended quite as well as us and hadn’t taken theirs. In that respect, we deserved our lead.
A massive half-time
Half-time yesterday was probably one of the most important half-times of our season.
It was put very clearly to the players that, despite being ahead, if we wanted something positive from the game we had to increase our work ethic.
We had to match them physically all over the pitch. We had to be in their faces, on the front foot, not taking a backward step and not falling into a negative mindset. We needed a constantly positive, front-foot approach.
We knew GNG would be strong in the second half. Their bench was full of physically imposing players, they had changes available and we knew they would come at us.
And, to be fair to them, they fully deserved their victory. I’ve got no complaints.
Second half, they steamrolled us.
We didn’t do what was asked of us. If anything, we did the opposite.
We sat deeper. Our midfielders became part of our defence and at times we effectively had a back six. That meant we had no outlets in midfield.
Our midfield was poor overall. We didn’t retain the ball, we didn’t keep it and we didn’t win it back.
I said to the players at half-time that we were becoming “busy fools.”
It looked like we were doing a lot of work, but too much of that work was being done for no real reason.
Eventually there was no supply chain whatsoever to our forwards, which made them almost irrelevant to the game. GNG recognised that. At times they were happy to leave themselves two-v-two and send their full-backs high because they knew the ball simply wasn’t getting to our forwards.
Their first two goals were scrappy goals but good finishes.
Every goal can be defended better. At our level of football, the reality is sometimes simply being closer to ask the question. Could we have closed the ball quicker? Could we have charged it down? Could we have got close enough to affect the shot?
Those are the margins, and yesterday we didn’t.
The third was simply a wonder strike from their captain. He was a good 30 yards out and from the moment the ball left his boot, it was going nowhere other than the top corner.
I think that goal burst us.
Two goals in around five minutes made it 3-1 and suddenly it felt like the game had gone.
To then concede a fourth and fifth was hugely disappointing. By that stage GNG were rampant.
Could we have given more?
It was a really disappointing second-half performance.
I don’t question the lads’ desire and commitment because they’re there and they’re giving me everything.
But the question I asked afterwards was: are they actually giving me everything they have?
Could the effort have been greater? Could there have been more?
I think the simple answer is yes.
There were occasions yesterday where players were asked to do certain jobs and questioned why they needed to do them. There were suggestions that what was being asked was irrelevant, incorrect or didn’t make sense.
But then, afterwards, some of those same players admitted that they didn’t actually understand their roles within the system or what was required from them.
That probably summed up our afternoon.
A lot of huff and puff. A lot of busy fools. A lot of nothing really.
And ultimately, we took nothing from the game.
A chance to respond
The benefit of a Bank Holiday weekend is that we have an opportunity very quickly to put things right.
First and foremost, though, it’s an opportunity to improve.
Winning football matches again isn’t at the forefront of my mind right now.
It’s about doing the right things that allow us to compete properly in games of football and, importantly, sustaining those things for 90 minutes.
If we do that, results will follow.
That’s the challenge facing us now as we travel to Cradley tomorrow.
