Promotion odds

[Rockford's Love Child]

Bet 365 have Rovers as title favourites next season at 7-1. Grimsby are second faves at 7.5-1. Obviously, the odds with other companies will vary slightly.

Reason for optimism or the kiss of death ?

 

[Boz]

Too early to judge.

On the positive, we have a manager who knows the Conference fairly well, there's a decent budget and the team re-building has started early with some decent signings at this level. However there are important gaps to be filled, in particular the recruitment of a suitably experienced first choice keeper, which will be influential in how we fare.

I'd have thought Wrexham would be among the favourites, given Mills' track-record.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I'm not surprised we are favourites, given our financial stability and fan base. Gary Brabin is another positive, but he is new and we'll have a very different, unfamiliar squad next season, who'll take a while to gel. Grimsby made good progress this season and are more settled, so I think I'd bet on them, if I were a betting man. Personally, I could make a case for at least half a dozen sides. All I know is that every game will be a battle, so I'm glad that we've brought in so many new players who don't have the losing mentality that has pervaded the club for the last two and a half seasons.

 

[Paul Roach]

Things are looking good. I have not been back in England for many a year so been following on line, which is not too easy. Who was the right winger who came on in the second half, the number 14?

 

[Boz]

Paul, triallist 14 is rumoured to be Adam Mekki last playing for Dover.

 

[Ian]

I've just seen this ..http://www.tranmererovers.co.uk/news/article/introducing...-guiseley-2576141.aspx and thought if we are not in the top five all season, it will be a disaster.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Can't help noticing from these introductions that we will be playing at some unglamorous grounds this season........

 

[Higgy]

Mekki has been out on vaious loans - so if signed I hope he is good enough to be a permanaent fixture in the team/squad. I assume he is one of the wide players that GB has stated he needs to feed the strikers - also looking at another from Oxford.

I understand Norwood will play against Everton - so hope his injury worries are behind him as I believe Mangan can be injury prone. Keeping players available will be key this year especially if we want best strikers on the park for the imminent wide men to feed....as it is thin on the ground after these two.

Are we looking at any triallist strikers?

Defence and midfield look well stocked in terms of numbers and quality.

 

[bigmart]

Higgy, Margetts is one of the trialists and think we are likely to sign him. I think we need another central midfielder as weve only got 3 and a wideman or two would not go amiss

 

[bigmart]

Margetts has signed 1 year deal

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Margetts has now signed.

 

[Boz]

Margetts signing up is encouraging. It was impossible to form an opinion given he was one of multiple substitutions in the Blackburn game, but has apparently been promising in earlier friendlies.

My concern about defenders is that Hogan and Sutton see themselves as primarily central defenders and don't think Riley plays outside central defence. We need a right-back.

 

[Ian]

We need a right-back.

We had one.. sadly.

 

[Higgy]

Good point Ian re absent friend at Right Back. Agree with Boz, I don't like centre backs doubling up as full backs unless in an emergency - I think it is a specialist position out there - playing against opponents who are likely to be tricky with a bit of pace, and from a making room and distribution point of view - it is not something that is easy to pick up quickly. Maybe GB wants bigger lads across the back as we will probably face more "land of the giants" teams in this league and we did suffer at set pieces previously.

Thanks for the Mangan/Margetts correction - don't know where that came from. I assume it is Margettts then where there have been injury concerns previously?

 

[Higgy]

Further to my previous post I have now got my head around my confusion between Mangan and Margetts. Mangan is the earlier signing from Shrewsbury and is the one with the injury concerns. So forward options are now Norwood, Margetts, Mangan - supplemeted by Stockton and Davies. As before hope we steer clear of injuries up top as options are limited after the first three in pecking order. Presumably none of these will play wide.
If they impress Mekki and the lad being considered from Oxford could be the answer, although I do like the option of a full back who can get forward doing the job in front of someone steady at the back eg Ridehalgh and Hill combo. Used to like Zoum in that role.

Agree with previous posts - good specialist right back required.

 

[bigmart]

Ideally I would like to see us sign a right back, a central midfielder and two wide men

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

In my view, we don't need any more right backs. Hogan is a specialist right back and has been very good there in pre-season; the centre back pairing will be between Sutton, Ihiekwe and Riley, with a bit of juggling if we get injuries. Our squad numbers are going to be fairly limited, so having two specialist right backs is not a priority.

I am just pleased we have got much more quality in the most important areas - centre back, centre midfield and centre forward - than in previous seasons.

I would guess our two remaining signings will be the wingers who played tonight.

 

[Boz]

Hogan as he made clear when joining is primarily a central defender. I believe Sutton has played more games at right-back than him. While he did a reasonable job v Blackburn in that position, he didn't show much attacking prowess, compared to what was happening down the left.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Hogan played right back in the three pre-season games I had seen before today and looked natural in that position in all of them. I actually thought he looked better going forward than defending, and was very willing to overlap.

It does not matter what 'he thinks' his best position is: if Brabin has signed him to play right back, that is where he is playing.

 

[bigmart]

Hogan has played right back but he is not a natural right back that's why we need to sign a specialist right back