Tuesday August 19th National League Altrincham 0-2 Hartlepool United Boston United 0-1 FC Halifax Town Carlisle United 1-1 Solihull Moors Tamworth 2-0 Truro City Woking 1-2 Wealdstone National League North Alfreton Town 0-2 South Shields Bedford Town 3-1 AFC Telford United Buxton 1-2 Hereford Chester 1-1 Curzon Ashton Chorley 2-2 Scarborough Athletic Darlington 1-3 AFC Fylde Kidderminster Harriers 1-1 Oxford City Merthyr Town 1-3 Marine Peterborough Sports 0-0 Leamington Radcliffe 2-1 Worksop Town Southport 1-2 Macclesfield Spennymoor Town 0-5 King's Lynn Town National League South Chesham United 0-0 Horsham Chippenham Town 1-2 Weston-super-Mare Dagenham & Redbridge 2-2 Tonbridge Angels Dorking Wanderers 2-0 Slough Town Eastbourne Borough 0-1 Dover Athletic Ebbsfleet United 1-0 Chelmsford City Enfield Town 0-1 Hornchurch Maidenhead United 2-2 Hemel Hempstead Town Maidstone United 2-0 Hampton & Richmond Borough Salisbury 0-1 Bath City Torquay United 3-1 AFC Totton Wednesday August 20th National League Aldershot Town 2-3 Eastleigh Boreham Wood 2-1 Braintree Town Forest Green Rovers 4-0 Sutton United Rochdale 4-0 Gateshead Southend United 0-0 York City Yeovil Town 2-1 Brackley Town National League South Farnborough 1-0 Worthing
Solihull at home. After getting quite a fortunate draw against Boreham wood, this will be a tough game against a more seasoned National League team. Unfortunately for us I think they’ll punish our frailties rather than letting us off the hook. With our attack we’ll threaten and possibly score, but the shit far outweighs the good and our awful midfield and defence will be the undoing and is the reason we’ll end up closer to the relegation places than the top 7. Taking all that into account and head over heart, I can’t realistically see anything other than a comfortable Solihull win. Carlisle United 1-4 Solihull Moors
Gateshead next up. Another side who looked poor last season and weakened over summer. Should be another 3pts here I expect. Again, please start Petit in midfield. Expect a couple of changes to the staring XI here Alty put a few knocks in on us today.
Just for context, myself and @Mr Sheen were amongst a group of Stones supporters in the Spoons in Ruislip last night, and I mentioned him being at more Stones games than Watford these days, hence the profile change. I did not expect Woking to concede 6 in their first two games. I’d suspect we remain unchanged (maybe Massey for Kadji) and try to catch Woking whilst their tails are down.
Looking forward to this one. A game to gauge the improvement in our squad from last season. We only took a point from York last season, York were one of the teams that came out on top in both games against us. Should be a game where football is the winner and I expect it to be a close one and hopefully we come out on top.
Will be interesting to see how they perform after a long trip away to Cornwall,I personally think it will be a month before we are up to speed. We definitely was a better team this time last season,would be very happy with a point.
We are planning York as the away weekender this season, so I couldn't believe it when the other half said to me yesterday, when you get your ticket for Wednesday, can I come too. I nearly fell over. Didn't expect that said I, why? "because if we are going there in January, I want to see who we are playing and how they play". Beware Minstermen, you are being seriously scouted!
I hope we don't lose. The longer we can feel 'in it' this season, the better. It's a long wait for May once top spot is out of reach.
With respect to the other two teams so far Altrincham should be a good benchmark for where we are even this early in the season. Personally wouldn’t change a thing, front two looked better together yesterday, just need support from the rest in order to be effective. Would be happy with a point but we should be going there to win.
Solihull rely predominantly on their long throws. Otherwise they are rather limited. They seem defensively sound. That may change if you get an early goal!
Looking forward to being there and running the rule over Grayson's side. I think this is a really good test to see where we are. Yeovil and Braintree will be solidly bottom half sides you would think, so get a result here and it might bode well.
Woking played some nice football without really creating anything against us Defensively they’re a calamity, should be easy to exploit
Wouldn’t say we were limited, when we get the ball down we can play some good stuff, Saturday however we seemed to panic in possession a lot, mainly due to how well you pressed us. Admittedly we did rely on the long thrown too much, MT definitely needs to look at a plan B/C for throw-ins inside the oppositions half. Our main issue this season (imo) will be the size of the squad, competitive eleven if all fit but limited options off the bench.
