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.”