PARKS ON ALVECHURCH

Not managers’ notes this week but assistant managers’ notes from Adam Parker who I interviewed yesterday – Roy

I thought Alvechurch were the best team we have played so far this season. Each player seemed to know his job and they were very comfortable with their passing. They worked extremely hard and reminded me of our side of a few years ago. However they did not create that many chances and this was because we defended very well. We also worked hard and we are continuing to improve week by week. I would probably say we are at 60-70 % of where we can be and I know the players are determined to continue to improve.

The belief and confidence is slowly coming back and there is a very good atmosphere at training. But it will take time as we have a number of young players who are learning to adapt to the way we want to play.

The players and management do hear the comments from supporters on the terraces and they read the fans’ forum and sometimes I feel the criticism can be rather harsh. I would like to see more encouragement given as players do need time to bed in. The likes of Kane Smith, Matt Lench, Will Wright and Lewis Rolfe all took time to make their breakthrough so I ask supporters to be patient and supportive.

We are working on trying to improve our creativity in training sessions and while we are moving in the right direction much more is still needed. But we must be realistic in our expectations as young players are not always consistent. At least we have really tightened up defensively after the Needham Market fiasco.

Back to Alvechurch and I think it was a well- earned point especially as some players picked up knocks during the game but battled on. We wanted to play high up the pitch but Alvechurch made it difficult for us.

Finally while I know supporters want a 20-30 goal a season striker I have always wanted to see goals come from throughout the side and I set goal targets for defenders and midfield players to supplement the strikers. I do not want us to be reliant on just one player to score the goals as this can sometimes be counterproductive.

ADAM PARKER