[ Fri 29th Jul ] v Luton Town, KO 7pm PSF HOME

[Ricky330]

Agree with all the above & have been saying all pre season we are massively behind. We desperately need experience but I fear the money has been spent on technology & "Heads of". Agree you don't win with kids , even man U had Keane Hughes etc. After tonight we are back to Stamford levels. 11 players, not a TEAM, no communication, no energy (except Cooper) no confidence, no direction, unfortunately, little hope on this evidence ☹

[Olly]

What a load of Trollop, we’ve had the chip shop treatment again. Is it April 1st already.
Didnt that Biggleswade draw to these? How’s they do last year? Hope vests have good resale.
Any tripe pedellers come on here thinking playing 8/9 youth players plus in a starting lineup will work this year, need to have a cold hard look. The league is tough and requires experience, when has a team with this many young players ever done well in the league?
And nonsense about using this as a way to sell players off. Fairy land.how many players have we sold? Players will just leave for free and afraid to say the top ones have been harvested at a younger age.
Squad looks cobbled together this year.

You win nothing with kids

Apart from notable exceptions, generally inexperienced teams struggle, I would love to believe this team that does have young talent in it no doubt could be one of those exceptions, but right now there is little to suggest it will be.

My fears that did subside a bit after Tuesday are definitely back tonight, I am so desperate to see Burge, one of my all time favourite Diamonds succeed, desperate to see these new professional approaches work, desperate to see us get the best out of these youngsters, but I just cannot see it right now, how on earth is such a young team with little experience of this league going to compete?

Well at least pre season is over, certainly the most eventful and difficult ones I can ever remember! Time to get down to business, we all need a decent (or at least half decent) result from the first game to settle the nerves, let's hope we can give a good account of ourselves on the 6th, learn lessons and put the shit of pre season behind us.

[Rushdentom]

Not going to hammer anyone after one result (especially in preseason), but after thinking we looked miles off it beating Daventry, this reinforces my opinion it's going to be a tough couple of weeks.

Such a young team with not much depth, we already need Fossen to be the second coming.

Think my main issue is the lack of clear communication/vision. I'm happy to back Burge if he want's to build a young squad and thinks he can develop them/keep them together longer term, but not managing expectations and speaking like he thinks we're actually going to compete makes him come across as deluded. No idea if he wants to use the lottery money to boost the squad with at least one decent signing or we're sticking with first year pro's on loan?

[Adrian]

Just heard Andy's interview, he looks a bit exhausted,

I wish the interviewer wouldn't say things which basically repeat what Andy has said, noticed him doing this in a couple of the other interviews too or asking a question that is blatantly obvious.

We are a team that is still gelling and there are still players to come back into the squad, in terms of Luton you are looking at a team who are playing football together full time against a team that play a couple of training sessions per week and spend their day at work - if you were a Luton fan you would be expecting that team to come here and win

Each year when the friendlies are released I look at games against league teams as fitness only and a chance to raise a few pennies on the gate, just like the Cobblers fixture couple weeks ago, we were going to lose that possibly 4-1, it's football, of course it is concerning that we lost to teams lower than us but I would be interested to see if those teams had just had the player turnover that we have had,

And those who are saying our young players aren't good enough, if they don't get the chance to play against teams in our league then they are not going to learn or improve, i hope they don't bother reading some of the posts on here, at least wait until they've played some actual league games for us before judging.

[Phil-the-Diamond]

Just heard Andy's interview, he looks a bit exhausted,

I wish the interviewer wouldn't say things which basically repeat what Andy has said, noticed him doing this in a couple of the other interviews too or asking a question that is blatantly obvious.

We are a team that is still gelling and there are still players to come back into the squad, in terms of Luton you are looking at a team who are playing football together full time against a team that play a couple of training sessions per week and spend their day at work - if you were a Luton fan you would be expecting that team to come here and win

Each year when the friendlies are released I look at games against league teams as fitness only and a chance to raise a few pennies on the gate, just like the Cobblers fixture couple weeks ago, we were going to lose that possibly 4-1, it's football, of course it is concerning that we lost to teams lower than us but I would be interested to see if those teams had just had the player turnover that we have had,

And those who are saying our young players aren't good enough, if they don't get the chance to play against teams in our league then they are not going to learn or improve, i hope they don't bother reading some of the posts on here, at least wait until they've played some actual league games for us before judging.

My quote about kids was only repeating what was famously said about Man Utd. Not a comment about our team.

Fully agree about the youngsters, but they need some experience alongside them to help them. I am not saying they are not good enough but rather that will help them develop.

I said last night that our team were probably at work earlier in the day, while Luton were preparing for the game. I won't take too much from the result, but I am concerned that in a week the season starts - I don't want us to be playing catch-up again after 10 games.

[BartonRaz]

Didn't go to the game last night. Have heard that Luton were very good, but regardless of who we were playing a 6-0 defeat in our final pre-season game, after a very difficult pre-season for a host of reasons, isn't ideal preparation for the new season in a week's time. I was quite positive after Tuesday but this is another big step back.

I share the concerns of others, unfortunately. The squad is just too young and lacking leadership. We are all hanging our hat on Fossen but it's not just that, to me we look way short of being able to compete at this level both in terms of physicality and experience/know-how. That team that started last night - there's not one of them I'd say was a poor player, in fact we know that a number of them are very good. It's the collective at the moment that doesn't look right.

Strap yourselves in because I think the first month or two of the season is going to be extremely turbulent.

[fentiger79]

I get the concern and it could be right but surely we need to see how the first few games go. With the squad it could go either way, but how many times have we seen teams with hungry young players running rings around us. The balance is key but give Burge the opportunity and credit to know what he is doing. Some of the comments aimed at him suggest he doesnt see or know what the problem is, im sure he knows exactly what needs addressing. One thing about pre season I do know is that it means nothing, over the years a great preseason has had a poor league start and a poor preseason has had a good league start so I do t read too much into it. I hope that we just have a good cup run this year as we are due one and that any improvements if needed are not done too late.

[bozzer]

I wasn’t there either but with a score line like that I can’t really argue with what’s been said

Had we started the season after tuesday I would have been confident we could compete and with a couple of additions we would be ok, I think those experienced additions are crucial.

[Olly]

I get the concern and it could be right but surely we need to see how the first few games go. With the squad it could go either way, but how many times have we seen teams with hungry young players running rings around us. The balance is key but give Burge the opportunity and credit to know what he is doing. Some of the comments aimed at him suggest he doesnt see or know what the problem is, im sure he knows exactly what needs addressing. One thing about pre season I do know is that it means nothing, over the years a great preseason has had a poor league start and a poor preseason has had a good league start so I do t read too much into it. I hope that we just have a good cup run this year as we are due one and that any improvements if needed are not done too late.

You're absolutely right, pre season is never necessarily an indicator of how a team will do over a season and I certainly agree that we should see how it goes in the games that matter first before passing judgement.

Problem is, it's one thing to have a team with a few young hungry players, but we're talking about a team almost entirely of development squad age players about to go into a league full of physical experienced teams, it's to be expected that people are concerned. There will be some tough lessons for these young players to learn and I'm fully expecting us to be near or at the bottom of the league in the first few months and while I have my doubts I think we still need to give Burge a chance, this will still take time to come together and we will have to be patient.

[GreekDiamond]

Look normally saying pre season doesn’t really matter is correct. However shipping 3+ goals each game and not looking like scoring can’t be ignored.

Young players getting beaten week in and out for the first few months, are unlikely to just flick a switch and start playing well because they’ve “gelled”. Young players will lose confidence and morale after this and then things will really take a turn. That is why you need experience players in the team to guide the youth. Like you will see if any other club, youth players are used to supplement and be supported by the rest of the squad