The new reign has started......

A new managerial era has started here at Bloomfield Rd with the appointment of Michael Appleton as the new man in charge. He’s quickly brought in Ashley Westwood as his first team coach, with the purpose of getting the players fitter and improving our defence. Some fans are getting a bit irate about Westwood coming in and taking over Steve Thompson’s role. Well I would have thought that’s for the manager to decide and no one else. When a new bloke takes over they always bring in their own staff, why should it be any different here. For me Thommo has had his chance and although officially he is still classed as assistant manager I think his influence will start to disappear once Appy moulds the team more to his liking.

Appy has already identified areas for improvement including fitness levels and our defensive failings. It seems under Ollie, especially when it appeared he was losing interest, fitness levels and training weren’t as good as they should have been. These contributed to why the team were conceding late goals and matches in recent months. Most of us have been screaming long enough for someone to come in and improve the defence, because under Ollie/Thommo this was an area that suffered and consequently contributed to us losing our premiership status. Yes, Ollie brought us exciting, roller-coasting type of football, which for the neutrals was great to watch. But for us who travelled around the country it was also extremely frustrating watching us throw away games because we couldn’t defend to save our lives. Even this season we have lost games to teams, which we would have steamrollered earlier.

So, since Ollie left, we lost to Derby Co, away 4-1 (absolute nightmare) we have beaten Sheffield Wed away 2-0 (incidently when Thommo was in charge) and drew last Saturday 2-2 at home against Bolton (first game Appy in charge.) The good thing about the Bolton game was we came back twice from being behind, but really a draw at home is 2 points dropped. Again this was a problem in our premiership days too.

Appy is determined to trim the squad down from the current 45 players on the books. This was another problem caused by the chairman not negotiating deals with players Ollie had identified as his first choices. So instead of signing one quality player, we ended up with signing three cheaper but poorer options instead. Hence, a top heavy squad of players who will never get a game, because they don’t possess the quality that’s needed.

Next game is away against a struggling Bristol City. This will give us a good idea of whether the improvement has already started, because I would guarantee we would lose this game if Ollie was still in charge. Why? Because our confidence had gone along with the enthusiasm Ollie once had for the club. That’s why it’s more important than anything we get behind the new man and his staff and create the 12^th man again.