Callum Waters

Ahead of the weekend’s fixture against Widnes, Wayne Goodison is hoping for more consistency throughout the 90 minutes, after a quickfire double from Hanley Town last week saw 1874 fall to a 4-2 defeat.

“Overall we were generally pleased with what we saw for most aspects of the game. We were better in possession and looked more creative going forward.”

“Ultimately we got out of shape for a 15 minute spell that cost us and the lesson learnt was that if we stop being as competitive out of possession, at this level it will cost you, and it did.”

Looking ahead to Saturday, and Wayne expects another tough test against a much improved Widnes side, but hailed the players attitudes as competition for places remains strong after a recent strong showing from Michael Ibeto on debut.

“As always with Widnes, they will be hard to play against and we expect a competitive fixture.”

“He (Michael) did okay on his full debut, but we expected that having seen him in training, though he is not the only one who is pushing to play.”

Reflecting on the season as a whole, Wayne hopes to show further improvement in the run up to Christmas.

“I would say we are slightly behind where we thought we could be at this stage, but we have seen some progress in individuals that we hope will see us improve further over the next quarter of the season.”

1874 co-manager Paul Bowyer has praised the players ability to switch to a new system, and hopes to see a more sustained attacking threat when 1874 host Vauxhall this weekend.

“Overall I think they’ve done really well with adapting to a new system. We’ve certainly had a more attacking threat and created a number of good chances.”

“I thought our first half performances in both games were decent. Against Mossley was probably some of the best we’ve played in an attacking sense.”

Despite the change in system, 1874 fell to a 3-1 defeat on Tuesday, and Bowyer spoke about the importance of balance in the lead up to the game this Saturday.

“We now need to get the balance right and as players continue to understand the system and their expectations we should get better.”

“However given the changes we’ve made, full credit to how the players went about approaching both games and it’s given us something to build on.”

“In many of the matches we’ve threatened our opponents and seen positive signs but we can’t keep saying, we need to continue to improve and learn with each game.”

Vauxhall occupy 16th position in the division, and with a recent change in management, Bowyer spoke about the potential for the visitors to look to respond positively to the change.

“In some respects it’s an unknown on Saturday. We’ve seen it lots of times where a team respond well to a change of management and as long as we’re on our game and play on the front foot we’ll have a good chance of coming away with the three points.”

1874 will be without Jack Marrow again on Saturday, whilst Elliott Williams and Matty Fenton await decisions on their fitness ahead of the game.

After a difficult August, 1874 start September’s action away at Newcastle Town this Saturday. With the bank holiday providing no rewards for two defensively solid performances, co-manager Paul Bowyer is hoping to see some improvements in 1874’s attacking fortunes at the weekend.

“We both can’t remember a game where we’ve given the ball back to the opposition as much as we did at Prescot and although slightly better on Monday against Nantwich, we’re making too many errors in possession and haven’t found our rhythm. “

“When our standards drop in possession, we’re unable to get up the pitch and the balls keep coming back.”

“We should have scored more against Stalybridge and Chasetown, missing some clear chances and the pleasing thing in these games is we were getting into good positions. We’ve not created as much in the past couple of games and this is something we need to work on and improve.”

“I’ve read a lot about our centre forward situation and you could have all the forwards you want but we need to be better with the ball or we won’t find them.”

Despite 74 struggling to find the net in recent games, Bowyer was pleased with the defensive efforts, showing huge improvements from the beginning of the season.

“As a team we’ve looked solid and Ellis has had a minimal amount to do in both games. He’s made a couple of good saves and we’ve got bodies in the way and looked dogged, combatting the threats of Both Nantwich and Prescot.”

Looking ahead to Newcastle Town, Bowyer spoke about the strength of teams in the division, and expects another tough test on Saturday in search of 74’s first 3 points of the season.

“As last season I think anyone can beat anyone in the league. There’s no excuse over who we’ve played- there’s no easy games and we need to be better to win games. It’s too early to say who the top and bottom teams will be in the league this season but we do need to capitalise on others not playing this weekend.”

“They’ve (Newcastle) made a number of good signings this season and obviously had a couple of great wins over the weekend. It’s always been a tough place to go with it being so open and I’d expect them to put the ball on us as much as possible and make us defend. They’re strong on set plays and tough to break down so we need to be at it from the start on Saturday and play on the front foot.”

Nicholson, one of 74’s forward minded players, missed the bank holiday fixture against Nantwich, but looks set to return at the weekend.

“Siyam will be unavailable for a couple of weeks while he’s away. We may have an additional player onboard in the next week. Jack Irlam is still feeling his groin so we’ll assess him ahead of Saturday game. Jamie Nicholson is feeling better after resting a slight knee injury so should be in contention for Newcastle.”