Just an observation from a different angle on this one.

Who's on set pieces?

Good question, probably someone like Bridge, maybe McWilliams. There doesn’t seem to be a standout player. Morgan Roberts is apparently handy from dead ball situations but I doubt he’ll be starting much in the short term

Any update on when we'll be playing this fixture?

It’s next Tuesday isn’t it? Austin said those that don’t play against Lincoln will get game time.

Lincoln’s pre season fixtures have been much tougher than ours .
Anyone else think we have had a soft ride and this is going to be a big step up ?

To be honest you can make a case for harder or easier pre-seasons, they usually have baring on the season. What concerns me more is that we’ve been splitting the squad all pre-season, I don’t think we’ve put out the team that will start tomorrow.

I’m also hoping the fitness work has been top notch, we’ve not got many 90 minutes in the legs. Hopefully my fears are misplaced.

You have to start the Hoskmeister..

I don't have to do anything, you need to take it up with Austin 

Not sure of the figures, but isnt it something like 160 odd games and less than 20 goals, not very good for somebody to be considered as a forward. He best place i feel is on the bench at best.

Probably unfair to judge him by goal scoring stats when he's never really been given a run of games up front. Over half of those 160+ have been out wide I would think.

I've no strong feelings either way about Hoskins but I do think his pace and work rate can be useful. I think he is lost out wide, should be played up front or of another striker only if he's going to play. Maybe with a run of games up front his finishing may improve.

It is a tough one to guess, the nature of our pre-season has been that we have been splitting the squad into two teams which were a mix of 1st choice, squad and youth players. I don't think McWilliams, Crooks and O'Toole have all been on the pitch at the same time in pre-season, but I might be wrong.

My guess is;

Ward

Facey Taylor Pierre Buchs

McWilliams O'Toole

Bridge Crooks Powell

Williams

Would be a bit left field given he's mainly played 4-4-2 pre-season but Morais aside I think these are the players he wants to get in the side. When Morais is fit maybe a switch to 4-4-2 with Crooks to the right and Bridge dropping out but he does seem to like him.

That is until Facey, Taylor, McWilliams and Crooks all leave of course  

I've also got a feeling that as the season goes on we might see Morgan Roberts more and more as well.

Bar a visionary wealthy chairman in the mould of Holt at Accrington it seems that only a fan ownership % will deliver the infrastructural progress that is at the heart of all this squabbling.

Regarding the fan ownership % Meccano, I know you have put forward some Infrastructure funding options before, could similar routes be used to raise funds for buy out of the club, partial or otherwise? As the club is for sale is this something that we could be looking into now?

retired

Another injury? Shame if it is true, I liked BM

Best post for a long time, how anyone can disagree is beyond me.

I'd only really take issue with the following;

"under our current ownership there is no prospect of anything happening to the East Stand in the near future"

A fair number of fans (myself included) will wait for the legal wrangling to be complete before fully signing up to that view. What I don't think can be argued with is;

"But that will run its course and then KT will have nowhere to hide and the heat on him will increase"

which I think is fair enough!

Quite possible. I thought he was signing for someone with a contract offer we couldn't match.

Re: Moloney, I wonder if his agent was playing a bit of a game and hyped up another offer that wasn't yet concrete when negotiating with the club, only for the club to walk away. Certainly odd if he hasn't got fixed up anywhere yet.

powell providing natural width ahead of the more solid DB and crooks tucking in from the right allowing facey/odokkin to "bomb on" - nice

i think 10 of the 11 pick themselves - it will be interesting to see who partners williams up front

This was exactly my thinking looking at our squad but I noticed Austin didn't mention Crooks when he listed the players who could play wide the other night. Let's see what he has up his sleeve his week.

Not 1-11 tho, surely if he were staying and his our best player as some of you make out he would have a 1-11 number?

So O'Toole has been nothing more than a squad member in all his time here in your view then? And Odoffin and Facey will both be starting? I can' work out if you're on a wind-up or incredibly naïve.

It's purely a sign of the times, there is a hell of a lot of players now who have a preferred squad number, O'Toole and Crooks are prime examples of that at our club. McWilliams possibly as well, I'd imagine he could have had 4 or 8 if he had waned is I think he's probably ahead of Foley.

You do know we have in at least 5 occasions at Sixfields, faced the drop to non league oblivion only to be saved on occasions by luck, skill, rule breaking and intervention?

Assume you mean 5 different seasons here? Feels like you might be exaggerating a bit here. My memory is likely fading but it only really ever felt like we were at real threat twice since we went to Sixfields, you could maybe argue another couple of occasions but I think we always had a fairly comfortable gap. As with Uni's post interested to hear what the rule breaking was?

Meanwhile Luton, Lincoln, Tranmere, Oxford have all gone down in that time to name a few, despite having a bigger ground than us.

I'm mostly on board with your view that we need to develop Sixfields and our general Infrastructure to make any meaningful, sustained progress but you make it difficult to defend your stance when you twist everything to your agenda constantly (IMO)

Sorry Deepcut we are all entitled to our opinions and for what it's worth I agree if either or both Bowditch or Hoskins are near are starting 11 we will be struggling are both are short on quality - that is my opinion - Sorry if that differs to yours 

By "near" our starting 11 do you actually mean key players, starting the vast majority of games or do you actually mean just near, i.e. starting around half and being on the bench the others?

Both players could provide value if used in the right way, within the right team. Hoskins started around half our games when we won the league, came on in most of the others. Bowditch started nearly 30 games a couple of seasons back when MK Dons go promoted from league 1. They can clearly add something in the right team / framework.

I'm not sure why everything has to dialled up to be so absolute, it is a team game and there are many ways to get a successful team out. there are so many examples of players who thrive at one club or under one manager who flop at/for the next.

Well done Alfred - looks like one or two critics spouting false news disguised as an opinion!

In fairness I don't think finances are what most have an issue with when it comes to this competition in its current guise.

We need a keeper first.

I don’t think anyone would argue with that. Add in a wide player, keep the key players and I reckon we look alright

Still no stand out leader on the pitch. IMO it was our biggest missing factor last season and it’s still not been addressed. A seasoned experienced pro in centre mid please, if Crooks goes. If he stays it probably won’t happen though?

Not sure about this, I would have thought Buchs, Taylor, possibly Williams are all good leaders. Also JJOT to an extent. If I compare the current squad to the one that walked this league a couple of years ago I wouldn’t say the title winning team screamed leadership over this one.

As far as Joe goes, contrast the way Austin talked about him last season with how he has talked about McWilliams, Roberts, Whaler and the young Centre Back that has gone to Spain. Also how he's used him in the friendlies so far, he's been shunted to the wing a lot, even swapped with Waters in one game after coming on up front I think.

I'm sure we'd all love Joe to come good, academy players are always rightly given a lot of goodwill, a potential Goalscorer even more so I think.

If he is going to make it with us he needs to at least spend the first half of this season on loan at a decent standard, National League North/South as an absolute minimum.

Regards the keepers I'm guessing the plan is new No.1 in, Cornell 2 and Goff no.3. Maybe a loan for Goff with a recall clause. I don't think the Transfer window applied in non-league so he could be recalled any time in an emergency. It just occurred to me that Austin has never said a word about Goff either, could be because he's a keeper and he leaves the judgement to his specialist coach I guess.

I’m sure we all want people to share the information that they have but I think the point is more around the hints and suppositions that are posted, if you have some itk info and it is safe to post then why not do so in full detail? If it is confidential and can’t be clearly posted why bother hinting at something that leaves everyone taking stabs in the dark?

Someone who claims to be itk saying things like Crooks “might” not be happy about going to Spain is not helpful imo. If you know he isn’t and wants away fine, if you’re guessing based on a vague conversation then all it does is plant a seed in the mind of fans that will mean any action he takes on the pitch going forward that people don’t like will be pre-judged under that cloud.

Good signing on the face of it. Will be interesting to see how we line up this year. Something tells me that Austin will play two strikers, but our current personnel and lack of a left-sided winger doesn't really fit a 4-4-2.
Either he signs a left-winger and goes to 442 (which would mean possibly sacrificing McWilliams from the starting line up) or he goes with a 4-2-3-1:

                        New GK

         Facey  Taylor   Pierre   Buchanan

              McWilliams     Crooks

          Powell    O'Toole        Morais
                        Williams 

Obviously all of this is conjecture based on everyone still being here in August. I think whatever happens that we need two more players (or one player who combines both these attributes): a left-sided winger and a creative playmaking midfielder.

Agree with you that I think he wants 2 up front. This is my guess based on who is currently here, obviously we know some will probably go.

new GK

Facey  Taylor  Pierre  Buchs

Crooks  McWilliams  O’Toole  Powell

Williams  Morias

I know we lack wingers but nowadays not many will go with 2 up front and two out and out wingers. Give Crooks license to roam and support the middle pair from one wing and I think he could be very effective.

Of course that’s all bull when half of them leggit!