Cod Almighty | Diary

It's a stretch but Basque Diary is an optimist

29 January 2021

Basque Diary writes: Saturday is fast approaching. If you're BOTB Diary, this weekend's game is one to miss - Stevenage. A team not worthy of our lofty, proper League club status, yet they sit one point above us in the fourth division table.

Their form is better too. In the last six matches we've lost four and drawn two, conceding eleven in the process and scoring only two. That leaves us bottom of the form table. Stevenage meanwhile have only lost once, winning two and drawing their three remaining games in that period. They have scored six and conceded five in their last six. They are comfortably in mid-table of the form guide.

Delving further into our recent performances from a statistical perspective I took a look at the expected goal stats for the last three matches. At Port Vale, we matched our counterparts 0.9 to 0.9 but we lacked efficiency when in those situations. Against Southend our woeful 0.1 lost out to their 1.0. Last week, at Scunthorpe, we went down 1.6 to 1.1 but we made progress in chances created on paper.

Naturally, these aren't a reflection but they do point to steady progress going forward. Tactical View on the Town has also highlighted how since Habergham has joined the Mariners, our play seems to be directed down the left much more showing signs of a concerted game plan.

Hurst was scathing after the result against Scunthorpe but it was refreshing to see the man in charge question his players, rather than absolve them of all responsibility and blame the pandemic. We may well be marooned in the bottom two but we are showing small signs of turning it around. With three full weeks on the training ground in between games coming up - and hopefully a couple more players - maybe Hurst can right the ship and steer us to safety past those pesky non-Leaguers.