Fans’ season preview 2012/13 – part two

Burton Albion

Adam – @adambafcdrew

17^th in League Two – “Disappointing, stressful, forgetful”

We haven't lost any key players this summer. With Gary Rowett having been given the Burton job permanently not long after the season finished, he's been bringing his own players and staff in. And I was incredibly impressed when he signed up Zander Diamond in defence. Over the last three seasons Burton have had problems with a leaky defence, and I think Diamond seems like a big leader who can play a big part in sorting that. And he's still in his late 20s. Marcus Holness who we've signed from Rochdale seems decent too, despite being built like an overweight Sunday League player.

I am feeling confident we will be in a comfortable mid table position with the squad Rowett's building. It would be extremely disappointed if we find ourselves battling relegation for the third season running. Last season, we flirted with the playoffs a fair bit in the first half of the season, which shows what we are capable of; but then went on that shocking run and nosedived down the league which was depressing. I hope that kind of thing doesn't happen again. I think we'll finish in the top 14 of what is now a very tough league with some big clubs in.

There's a fair few good games I’m looking forward to, despite so many long midweek away games. I'm looking forward to these three the most – a weekender in Torquay when we play them on September 22nd will be brilliant, with many other Brewers staying over; Rotherham away on opening day will be a great occasion because it's the first league game at their new stadium and Gillingham at home on the final day because it’s the date of my dad’s birthday.

Cheltenham Town

James – @whyalwaysjimbo

6^th in League Two – “Pride, Heartbreak, Wembley”

Summerfield has gone to Shrewsbury, we've bought Deering in from Barnet but not sure how well he could play a central midfield role-in a midfield two with Pack or Penn, see him more as an attacking midfielder maybe at the top of a diamond.

I think we should expect play-offs at a minimum. We've only lost one player we didn't want to lose, the others (Low, Lewis and Smikle) were all released and were really squad players. However the league is very strong-so I'd be happy with a play off place as long as we make it count this time.

I’m mostly looking forward to the ones local to me because of where I live; Northampton for example. I’m also looking forward to York because a lot of my family live there and other games where I'd get to see my favourite twitter followers, such as Barnet away.

Chesterfield

Ryan – @ryandickens_cfc

22^nd in League One – “Disappointing, underperformed, unbelievable”

The club released ten player including our longest serving at the time, Derek Niven and a key player in Gregor Robertson who was a good defender for us but struggled a lot with injury over the past few seasons. So far during the summer break we have made five signings and we have promoted three youngsters from the youth team. To replace defenders Gregor Robertson and Simon Ford we have brought in Sam Hird from Doncaster Rovers who will be our new captain for the new season and Terrell Forbes, former Leyton Orient defender to improve our defence overall. We’ve also signed former Scunthorpe midfielder Sam Togwell who is very experienced and will prove to be an important asset within the team. The most exciting signing that Chesterfield has made this summer for me has to be Marc Richards from Port Vale who is a proven goal scorer at League Two level scoring 15+ goals for Port Vale in previous seasons. Richard O’Donnell is a goalkeeper which we have signed from Sheffield Wednesday who will challenge current Goalkeeper Tommy Lee for a place in the starting line-up.

After the disappointment of not being able to stay a League One club the fans expect a strong season ending in promotion come next May. I predict that Chesterfield will finish 5th and hopefully we can achieve promotion through the playoffs. The fans expect to bounce straight back to League One at the first time of asking however League Two is looking very strong next season and this will be a very difficult ask.

I am looking forward to Plymouth away because it is a new ground for me and it should be a very good day out, perhaps even make a weekend of it if the weather is nice. Rotherham away is also a match I am looking forward to most because it is a brand new stadium and Rotherham is close to Chesterfield therefore we will take a lot of fans and hopefully create a very loud atmosphere. Finally I am also looking forward to Fleetwood away which is scheduled to be our last away match of the season. This will be a very tough match as both teams should be at the top end of the table still pushing for promotion if nothing has been decided by this point. A weekend in Blackpool is also too good to turn down.

Dagenham + Redbridge

Nick – @NickDRFCMurphy

(The Daggers Scale)

19^th in League Two – “Disappointing and injury-ravaged”

We've lost a wealth of experience in Mark Arber, Peter Gain and Jon Nurse along with Damien McCrory – however that was necessary in order to stay sustainable. The acquisition of Gavin Hoyte looks to be a good one from what I've seen so far though, he's a very quick and energetic player. I expect the likes of Mickey Spillane, Billy Bingham and Brian Woodall/Dwight Gayle to perform well in the coming season, they're young and will be looking to build on their last campaigns.

I'd be more than happy with a mid table season to be quite honest, although I can realistically see us pushing towards a play-off place should everything come together and we avoid a mass of injuries this year. I'd take a punt at a nice mediocre 10th at this current stage.

I'm quite looking forward to Barnet and Southend as they're two of the more local games. For a new ground though I'm quite excited about visiting Bootham Crescent as it seems quite old fashioned – I like a ground with a bit of personality to it!

Exeter City

Rodney – @roddersecfc

23^rd in League One – “Not good enough”

We’ve lost several players with our player of the year, Troy Archibald-Henville being sold to Swindon. Others we lost include: Daniel Nardiello, David noble, James Dunne and Richard Duffy who all took better offers at other clubs. Despite losing these players we look to have signed some adequate replacements – Kevin Mmankwaah, an experienced right back. We’ve also signed defenders: Craig Woodman and Pat Baldwin, and midfielders Tommy Doherty and Arron Davies, all who have a wealth of experience at this level and higher.

At the end of the season and the loss of several players I wasn't feeling confident, but with the squad Paul Tisdale has assembled so far I’m feeling quietly optimistic for the new season. I think we can manage a top half table finish, even the playoffs.

It’s no real surprise to the game I’m most looking forward to – the renewal of our rivalry with Plymouth Argyle. There’s nothing like a derby game and I’m looking forward to our game at Christmas and the trip to Home Park near the end of the season.

Fleetwood Town

Sam – @SamFTFC

(SamFTFC)

1^st in Blue Square Premier – “Unbelievable, exciting, nerve-racking”

We lost Jamie Vardy, the greatest ever player to play for Fleetwood Town. I have never seen a player like him; 34 goals and a load of assists. Quick, agile and an eye for goal, he’s now applying his trade in the Championship. He was key to our promotion campaign last season. I think the signing that will replace him is David Ball. He has already cut it in the Championship, he is sharp and can certainly finish as he has already proved pre-season. We have made a lot of signings and every single one looks promising so I expect them all to stand out come competitive matches.

With the current squad I fully expect us to gain promotion to League One. We have higher-league experience in the team and we are a club that like to push forward forever aiming high. I can see us securing at least a promotion place and hopefully we will do the business and then be in League One.

The games I’m looking most forward to have to be Morecambe and Accrington Stanley home and away. I absolutely love derby games and I am fully looking forward to them. I think they will be well battled matches and hopefully we'll come out on top in each.

Life = made

As an avid reader of Four Four Two, I was pleasantly surprised when one of their team tweeted me asking if they could speak to me about our final game (and survival in the Football League) away at Burton at the end of last season. Of course, my answer was “yes”. Apparently, they had been following my tweets from the day and had staff at the Hereford/Torquay match – and were looking to speak with a Barnet fan to get their side of events. I jumped at the chance and after a number of emails were exchanged, I was told to look out for the July edition. For those of you that haven’t seen it:

 “I was worried about the game all week. The more I thought about it, the worse I pictured the outcome. I felt sick first thing, but on the journey up to Burton, everyone seemed pretty upbeat. Most of them believed we’d stay up. We’ve done it on the last day of the last two seasons – we’re survival specialists!

When we scored early, I thought: “this is our day”. But we were in shock when we heard that Hereford were three up. Then Burton got one back and a draw wasn’t enough for us. As Zola stepped up to that penalty, I thought we were doomed. My heart was in my mouth. But he skied it. That shot saved our season.

At half time, someone said to me “Hereford could win 27-0 – but we could get a late winner and stay up”. Everyone was still strangely confident. It got a bit mental: at one point, a rumour spread that it was 3-3 at Edgar Street. But then we scored the second. The celebrations were crazy. Everyone was chanting Mark Hughes’ name and bundling.

We held on well and Dean Brill made a blinding save in the final seconds. Our 992 fans – a huge following by our standards – went mad at the end. Who’d have predicted both teams winning their game? We chanted ‘we are Barnet, we’ll never go down’ for about 20 minutes. The players came to celebrate with us, and everyone was elated. I didn’t celebrate that much afterwards – just a couple of drinks. I felt relief more than anything. Every year, so many people write us off, and every year we somehow manage to survive.

I just hope it doesn’t happen for a fourth season running. I don’t think we could go through it all again.”

Match Report: Burton Albion 1–2 Barnet
(Barnet Fan’s Perspective)

The final day of the 2011/12 season and for the third consecutive campaign, Barnet’s fate was yet again, going down the wire. As the Bees travelled to Burton Albion, only two points separated them and Hereford (who were at home to Torquay) and really, anything less than three points would not be good enough. With McLeod on the bench (not fit enough to start the game), Scott McGleish partnered Ben May up front.

It was the home side that started the brighter and a mistake from Jack Saville in the heart of the Bees’ defence gifted an early opportunity to Calvin Zola. Dean Brill, at the second time of asking, saved his volley.

Any pre-match or early nerves from the visiting side were soon deterred with the opening goal coming after just six minutes. A free kick from 25 yards out, taken by Mark Byrne, got a wicked deflection in the Burton wall and wrong-footed Ross Atkins in the Brewers’ net.

Burton Albion 0–1 Barnet (Byrne ’6)

But instead of building on that lead, the visitors had a job of defending their one-goal advantage. Burton had a number of chances – first, Jack Dyer on the quarter of an hour mark, hit high over the bar; before Andy Corbett delivered a delightful cross and any touch from an Albion player would have resulted in a goal; however it deflected out of the area by a Barnet leg. Burton’s player of the season, Zola, then had a golden opportunity to level the scores – but for a great save from Brill between the Barnet sticks. An equaliser was coming, with the ball largely in the Barnet half and it came just before half an hour on the clock, through Jacques Maghoma.

Burton Albion 1–1 Barnet (Maghoma ’27)

As things stood, a point was not good enough – news from Edgar Street soon flooded around the ground, Hereford were winning 3–0. Just before half time, the turning point came… Corbett’s cross was missed by Clovis Kamdjo, who was back in the centre of defence, and Zola, the intended recipient of the cross, was bundled over tamely by Byrne; a penalty was awarded. After some arguing amongst the Albion players, Zola stepped up to take it – and skied it right over the bar!

1–1 at half time, and as things stood, Hereford and Barnet would swap places – a point not good enough.

For the second period, McLeod replaced McGleish up front and with 45 minutes to preserve their League status, the players looked a lot more determined, attacking from the off.

May had a shot early on, only managing the side netting, before Sam Deering really should have done better from six yards out – missing the follow-up, after another shot from May was cleared off the line. Barnet could have definitely felt aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty soon after – Deering the victim, shoulder barged to the floor by Nathan Stanton. “In desperation, they’d shout for anything” seemed a little harsh from the Brewers’ commentary team!

The pressure continued to pile on Burton’s defence and it paid off on the hour mark: a tricky run from Ricky Holmes allowed him into a crossing position, and when the ball was cleared to the edge of the penalty else, who else but ‘Captain Fantastic’ – Mark Hughes with what was a crucial winner, an excellent volley. A worthy winner if ever one was seen and cue jubilation from the away terrace. With half an hour to, the Bees were keeping their place in the Football League.

Burton Albion 1–2 Barnet (Hughes ’60)

Minutes later it emerged that Torquay had pulled two goals back at Edgar Street, although several cruel individuals started rumours of a 3–3 draw – and with that, the away end was rocking.

The game could have easily been put to bed, had McLeod remembered his shooting boots. But the last opportunity fell to home side – three consecutive corners late on, and the Barnet defence needed to remain resilient and fully concentrate on the task in hand. The first two corners were easily cleared by the defence, but the third required an absolute wonder safe from Brill, as he denied Patrick Ada – and Burton of an equalising goal.

And with that, the final whistle was blown and once again, the Bees had managed the ‘Great Escape’.

It was quite an afternoon with so many emotions felt in such a short space of time. The scenes at the end of the match were something else, with elation shared by players, staff and fans alike.

And so, our next League fixture, will be a Football League fixture!

Attendance: 3359 (away 992)

My away day experience: Burton Albion

So it was the final day of the 2011-12 campaign and with our League status still firmly in the balance, why the hell wouldn’t I be going to Burton Albion to see if we could manage the ‘great escape’ for a third consecutive season? I had never been to the Pirelli, so it was also another ground to tick off – but, let’s be honest, there was no way I missing this one! And how glad am I that I didn’t?

8:30am – despite setting my alarm for 8:50 with the appropriate title ‘Survival Saturday – foooootbaaaawll’, I woke up earlier; largely down to the fact I couldn’t sleep due to a mixture of nerves and excitement! I had been awake previously at around 6, when I felt sick – it felt as if all my insides were in my mouth! On one hand, I was absolutely buzzing for the day ahead, but a part of me also felt anxious. I got ready, making sure my bag was packed and I had enough money and all of my train tickets – six of them – before having beans on toast, for breakfast.

9:50 am – I left home for Shenfield station, my mum (again!) being the one up early to drop me off. I had to collect my ticket across London beforehand, as I had pre-booked it, but there was no chance of me paying an extra £4.95 to have it posted (are the rail company having a laugh!?). With trains running regularly to Liverpool Street, I didn’t have long to wait before catching the train.

10:08 am – after missing one train by a matter of seconds, I caught the fast train, which only stopped at Stratford. I made quite good timing, arriving at Liverpool Street within 25 minutes or so. Although the train itself wasn’t that busy, and most people got off at Stratford, Liverpool Street was already heaving! I’d heard the Northern Line wasn’t running and there were a number of problems and delays with our services, with a lot of people standing around in confusion. I took the Metropolitan Line to King’s Cross, before arriving at Euston on the Victoria Line.

11:03 am – arriving at Euston 10-15 minutes prior to the departure of the train, I met up with James and Jack, before buying food and fanta. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the booking of the tickets and with a ticket inspector carefully guarding the train ready to leave; I jumped on the 11:03 alone, whilst the other two waited around for theirs – the 11:23. The journey, despite only being an hour and a half, was boring – my iPod battery ran out within 20 minutes, and although I had packed my phone charger, there wasn’t much to do. To keep myself entertained, I shoved an entire box of Daim Mikado in my mouth, much to the amusement of the man opposite me, and as soon as the clock reached midday I treated myself to an archers and lemonade!

12:28 pm – I arrived at Birmingham New Street after stops at Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham International. The train to Burton-on-Trent ended up being delayed by five minutes, and the platform was packed – I caught glimpse of a handful of Bees’ fans, and a massive hen party heading to Nottingham really stood out from the crowd, with their pink feather boas, and general noise! I met-up with the boys again on the train, and with there being no seats in the carriage, we sat in first class – jumping up when the ticket inspector arrived. We managed to get seats and a table, after he let the hen party go in the empty first class area – they were quite a bizarre group, the majority in their late 20s and 30s, and then a token girl who looked about 15! The train to Burton was no longer than half an hour, and more drinks were consumed.

1:18 pm – on arrival at Burton station, rumour had it a lot of Barnet fans were already at the Devonshire Arms pub, a five minute walk away. Despite it being a rather small and generally pokey establishment, there were a decent number of travelling fans there, all in good voice and spirits. As soon as we set foot inside, there were songs being sung, and plenty of empty glasses and bottles! But then again, who could blame them – you can’t go wrong with a bottle of Bud and a Malibu + coke for £4.20! We definitely created an atmosphere in there – much to the clear annoyance of what looked like a mother and son bar team! The police later on arrived to a chant of “Oh, Old Bill we love you” – although as soon as they left, the ‘love’ was soon changed to ‘hate’.

2:40 pm – we were one of the last to leave the pub, with groups of people coming and going when taxis arrived, and we arrived at the Pirelli Stadium within 10 minutes of kick-off. I managed to pay student admission costing me £12 for the terrace; although I wish I had tried to blag an under-18 at only £4 – bargain! I was slightly disappointed there were no paper tickets, but never mind… the terrace itself was absolutely packed with very little standing room, so I placed myself at the back, next to the aisle, ignoring the people that told me I “can’t stand there”.

Match report will appear soon

5:00 pm – after the match, the majority of fans stayed behind giving the team continuous support. The players came over to where we were behind the goal, to applaud us and vice versa, before returning to the dressing room. The Burton players then came out, but it was short-lived, as many of their fans had long gone. After some chanting for the Barnet players to return, they did – with cameras and reporters getting involved, I assume covering Monday’s Late Kick Off show. We must have stayed in the ground for a good 25 minutes, just taking it what we had just witnessed, before going back to the station – the singing continuing all the way!

5:49 pm – we left Burton station and were heading back to Birmingham for the changeover. A large group got off at Tamworth to head for a pub they previously frequented in the day and despite getting off myself, I quickly changed my mind as didn’t really fancy travelling back later – especially across London at 11pm or so! So two of us got the train from Tamworth to Euston, via Birmingham New Street.

7:49 pm – after arriving at Euston, I made my own way back to Liverpool Street – as everyone was heading for North London. After following the same route back as I took in the morning, I got the 8:35 train from Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria, stopping at Stratford, before getting off at Shenfield. Both the tube and over ground train were packed with Chelsea and Liverpool supporters fresh from Wembley and there were some Essex Liverpool ‘fans’ opposite me on the train home. I must admit I felt a bit bad constantly staring and grinning at them, but I was still absolutely buzzing! I got home just after 9, where I excitedly waited for the Football League Show – of course, their coverage was like any other week: shocking!

But what a day!

We are Barnet – we’ll never go down!

Two minutes with… Burton Albion

It took me a while to find one (over a week in fact), but ‘Two minutes with…’ this time round comes from the point of view of Burton Albion fan, Adam Drew (@adamBAFCdrew, on Twitter). Another day for us to forget in terms of the scoreline, but a thriller nonetheless at Underhill. Thanks to Adam for his contribution.

29/10/11
Barnet 3–6 Burton Albion
(McLeod ’39, Holmes ’55, Deering ’88 – Kee ’7 ’31 ’62, Yussuf ’74, Dyer ’84, Zola ’90+4)
Attendance 1,745 (away 209)

How did you get to the game?

I went on the coach, leaving from a pub called The Beacon.

What did you do pre-match?

I went to the Queens Arms for a few pre-match beers and a meal. Lovely pub – and the meals for were two for the price of one!

Where did you sit/stand in the ground?

I stood in the away end, next to the fence where Barnet’s fans stood. The bantrer exchanged between the fans was very good. It started off with Barnet’s fans singing about their 4-1 win over us last season, and continued to the songs until they equalised at 2-2. However, they were a lot quieter when we slammed in three goals to go 5-2 up.

What did you make of the game?

It was a fantastic game to watch – a goal-fest and great for the neutral. It was a tale of two awful defences, and could have ended up about 8-8.

Was the scoreline a fair reflection?

Yeah, I thought it was fair on the day. But if Barnet sort out their defensive troubles, they will climb the table as they are brilliant going forward.

Who, in your opinion was man of the match?

Our hat trick hero Billy Kee. He scored three fantastic goals that the keeper had no chance of stopping and worked extremely hard all game.

Who have you got next, and how do you think you’ll get on?

We have got Oldham Athletic in the first round of the FA Cup. Since the Barnet match, we’ve played Aldershot away and Macclesfield at home in the League. The FA Cup is famous for its upsets after all, anything can happen.

Thanks Adam

My final word:

Not much to say at all was there. It seems that every week our defence look like they’ve never met, and in truth, are as bad if not worse than last season. You don’t play a match, scoring three goals and expect to lose – but for every goal we seem to net, we concede countless more. It’s really frustrating as we are so good going forward, and most teams in the League would probably love to have Izale playing upfront for them. Luckily since the Burton game we’ve got two defenders in on loan, so hopefully they’ll make a difference!

League 2 season preview - part two

I thought I’d do something a little different and after completing the Twitter92 a month or so ago, I thought it’d be apt to see what my fellow League 2 supporters thought about their aspirations and expectations for their teams in the coming season. Here is part two (of four):

Burton Albion

Rob Dunn – Twitter

“I think we will be around the top half perhaps pushing towards the play off positions if we get a decent striker in. Many of our fans are not as optimistic but I feel we vastly underachieved last season and there's plenty of room for improvement.

Jacques Maghoma is the biggest player to look out for – a talented midfielder with skill in abundance. On his day he is unplayable and can produce great things. Jimmy Phillips is also one to watch, young, tricky winger with lots of promise, expecting a big season from him.

I'm looking forward to all our games, but especially places I haven't been before: Swindon, Plymouth and AFC Wimbledon. I've always enjoyed going to Oxford too.

As long as we don't have a huge backlog of fixtures again and a long list of crippling injuries, I'm fairly optimistic that this season will be a good one, with better quality football and without the worries of being embroiled in another relegation battle”.

Cheltenham Town

James Lewis – Twitter – Blog

“Personally, I’d be happy with a solid mid table finish, somewhere between 12th and 14th. We have a good enough squad, but don’t currently have the budget to really challenge the likes of Shrewsbury, Swindon, Bristol Rovers etc in terms of buying players. What’s making me feel positive though is that last year Accrington managed to get into the play offs despite small gates, a tiny budget, and no real star players. We were crying out of a striker, and have been spoiled with two. I think what we need now is a loan goalkeeper to really battle with Scott Brown for the number 1 spot, and a winger.

 Marlon Pack will be our key next season; signed after he impressed on loan from Portsmouth, I could see us getting a large fee for him later down the line. We have Russ Penn partnering him in midfield and they complement each other well. Then there’s Danny Andrew. Opinion has been slightly divided on him as he’s a little naive defensively, but he’s an excellent attacking left back. Josh Low is also a very important player for us, though most of you will already know about him! There’s also Darryl Duffy who will likely be our main outlet for goals. 

I’m looking forward to the games I can go to really! I don’t live in Cheltenham now so I can only go to a handful. Swindon at home is one – great local derby and Northampton away for the same selfish reason. In terms of games in general, Hereford at home – we need revenge for them giving us a hiding at our place in February, and of course there’s Crewe, who beat us by a humiliating and downright degrading 8-1 scoreline back in April.

Aspirations – in terms of positives, we’ve largely retained the core from last season. The year before we built pretty much an entirely new squad, but this time the players won’t need as much time to gel.  Spirit in the camp appears great and the players seem confident of the season ahead. Listening to some of the fans however you’d think there was no hope”.

Crawley Town

Louie Elmer – Twitter – Blog

“I genuinely think we can achieve promotion this season, and I think the key to that will be the tremendous fitness levels the players possess and the strength in depth as well.

Matt Tubbs is seemingly the obvious stand-out player to watch, with 40 goals last season. But Scott Neilson is particularly dangerous and the two central defenders, McFadzean and Mills were arguably one of the best pairings outside the Championship last season. Young Charlie Wassmer has a lot of potential as well.

I'd say games to look forward to are: Port Vale away (first game of the season), Wimbledon (home and away) and probably Swindon at home, as well as Barnet away (nice bank holiday away day). They're the ones that jump out at me.

To be honest I'm really glad practically all of our transfers are already done and dusted, giving the players time to blend in before the season kicks off- I think it goes to show, whilst he's not everyone's favourite, Evans really knows what he's doing”.

Crewe Alexandra

David Gallagher – Twitter

“I think we may have missed our chance last season by conceding too many goals. We've lost the league's top goal scorer and not signed anyone yet, so I think we'll finish in the top half, but that's about it. I think it'll take at least one more season before we're good enough to go up though.

New players coming through will definitely be ones to look out for; especially Nick Powell and Max Clayton, with Arsenal and Liverpool rumoured to be after both already. I think Shaun Miller will build on last season too.

Looking forward to Port Vale home and away, as always. The league has traditionally had quite a large number of northern teams, so I'll think we'll struggle away from home, even more than we did last year.

I'm looking forward to seeing how these young players turn out. The team is basically full of kids right through, with only a few experienced players. That said you'd expect us to struggle to improve on last season, but you never know”.

Dagenham + Redbridge

Matt Lees – Twitter

“Realistically, I think we have a good chance of promotion via the play-offs. With the departures of Danny Green and Romain Vincelot, next season will be quite difficult. Danny Green in particular was a huge part of everything good while he was at Dagenham. That said, we still have a good squad of players and John Still always manages to pull something out the bag.

D J Green. Another Danny Green, who at the end of last season showed he has quite some talent and may be well be the stand out player for 2011/12.

Three stand-out games for me: Barnet, Oxford and Southend away! Barnet because it's always a feisty game. Southend will be a fun game that's not too far away and Oxford because they were kind enough to let us secure promotion at their ground a few seasons back!

With Dagenham's limited budget I'd say everyone who runs the club has done a fantastic job in bringing in such talent and keeping positivity at the club despite relegation. Still being a league club for players and fans alike is amazing considering where we've come from in such a short amount of time, so I can only praise the fact the club are aiming to bounce straight back up into League One”.

Gillingham

Andy Manion – Twitter – Blog

Gillingham is one of the bigger clubs in League 2. At the start of last season the manager, Andy Hessenthaler, stated that if we weren't promoted last season would be seen as a failure - the target is the same this season. Anything less than promotion will again be seen as failure. Most fans expect promotion and with the new summer acquisitions this should be possible. Realistically promotion should be attainable, but whether it will actually happen is contentious. It will depend largely on managing to keep the squad fit. There isn’t a great deal of depth there and last season was largely injury plagued. However there is still optimism there and amongst the club there is still the belief that Gillingham is still too big a League 2 club. The optimists predict promotion – personally I reckon without further depth the club will once again fall short of expectations.

The biggest signing this summer was undoubtedly Adam Birchall. The former Dover Athletic player was prolific in the lower leagues. Not being blessed with any particular physical presence or speed he has good control, an eye for a goal and good vision. He has already impressed pre- season. The other players to look out for are Chris Whelpdale who impressed last season and possesses both skill and pace. He was a regular starter for Peterborough last season. The other Peterborough signing is also set to impress – Charlie Lee was notable last season in his Loan spell at Gillingham.

There aren't many big games in League 2 for Gillingham as there are no local rivals to speak of. Playing Swindon will be interesting given the controversy over the signing of Adam Birchall. (Swindon agreed a fee with Dover Athletic for him before Gillingham came in last minute and snapped him up, despite being bitter rivals with Dover). The other game to look forward to will be playing Southend United, both teams have a good following for League 2 teams and are fairly close to each other.

The season could go either way, whatever happens we should get off to a better start than last season but whether we can keep it up having lost our two main goal scorers from last season is hard to say. Overall there’s plenty to be optimistic about at Gillingham”.