Gas flickers, Leaburn dowsed
Gassan Ahadme scored twice and could’ve had a third in the final run out of the season today, but he did do it against his favourite opposition.
Still it was a nice surprise and will do him no harm. Sonny Carey was the other scorer in the 3-0 win at Southend.
Ahadme got minutes today because there was no Miles Leaburn at Roots Hall apparently after taking a knock in training. Surely not?
Luke Berry is back in training but rumour has it that Matty Godden will be out until September and new signing Joe Rankin-Costello is also sidelined. Also in the physio’s room is Reece Burke and one would assume Will Mannion.
Added to that Harvey Knibbs will need to get up to speed and Lloyd Jones gingerly walked off today after being substituted. Not ideal as Nathan Jones plans for next Saturday’s opener.
I did think despite all of the new signings at Jones’ disposal, he would in the early games stick with the majority of last season’s side as he and his coaching team work to integrate the new lads fully into the set-up.
Therefore I would have had Gillesphey in over Bell from today’s starting XI, but there’s a good chance that is how Jones will line up on Saturday.
Decisions also have to be made on Dexter Lembikisa and Joe Bennett, plus I would not be surprised to see a further new addition other than one of them.
Jones still has a whole month to make decisions on outgoings which I’m pretty confident will include Ahadme.
I doubt Ahadme will leave if Leaburn and Godden are in the treatment room. With 9 subs, two will need to be strikers.
Yep injuries are a concern but better to get niggles out of the way ( signed from Luton 😉).let the season commence on Saturday on pristine pitch inside a recently decorated and looking fantastic staduim.
Credit to all the groundstaff for all the work over the past couple of months.
Agree CA, but don’t understand why he hasn’t given Kanu a chance considering he did quite well in the early game and trip abroad but has just been left on the bench since?
Godden hasn’t played at all and from what I originally gathered he wasn’t that fit after the break, whether that was correct or not, but there has been no mention of him being injured! As for Leaburn, I assumed there must have been somthing wrong as he has hardly been featured in any of the pre season games, which is another concern and also L Jones limping off also whats happened to Dixon? Plus is Reece Burke going to be continually taking over the physio’s bench from Chucks, which he has mostly been on, over the last three seasons with Luton?
Lets just hope the other newbies get up and running pretty fast, as in this league you can’t afford to get off to a bad run, especially if you have just come from League one, as previous seasons have shown!
It’s a puzzle to me, how our players get so many injuries in the close season ….
It’s a puzzle
Perhaps we can focus on the positives as well.
The back 3 looked solid, Bell was composed again and he certainly adds something to that back 3. Apter and Carey linked up well, apter has had some impressive displays.
Coventry was everywhere and linking up play. On the substitutes, again Zak Mitchell looked good, Anderson was linking up and fullah continues to impress. Ahadme did well with 2 good finishes and effectively killed the game off. His performance certainly raised his profile, be it with us or somewhere else.
Injuries happen and the squad has been added to provide cover.
As a pre-season friendly it did the job.
Perhaps Kanu is off on loan, with links to AFC Wimbledon being rumoured.
Now the real business begins..
Red-Army
Agree with your positives, but again, it has happened before signing injury-prone players like Burke and yes, there is the one from Blackburn, and now again Leaburn and hope it is not too serious, and also Jones limping off.
You are right about injuries and all teams have them, unless one is very lucky and yes Godden is a worry and who do we start up front next Saturday?
I, for one admit do not like Ahadme or rather “I had you” took his goals very well against his favourite team and a bit surprised about Kanu.
It was interesting the Luton supporter the other night talking about the 3 ex-Luton players and stated the GK is up there with the best with his shot stopping but he needs a strong and vocal CH and yes us older ones will remember the same with Dean Kiely.
Yes, who do we start upfront and surely the 2 strikers we recently signed and if Leaburn if not too serious to be on the bench, but we all know about his injuries.
COYR and was thinking, most of our core players from last year would start and it looks like the new GK will be No1, although believe Mannion is injured and IMHO was superb for us last year.
I m just gonna say GOOD LUCK everybody against Watford and tough season ahead let’s all get behind the addicks and do us all proud and most of do yourselves proud …. Cory
I am glad that Knibbs has signed as I worry that Olaofe and Kelman although hard working are not strong technically. In my experience strikers need technical ability when stepping up a division. In the past we have signed strikers like McLeod and Ajose and it did not work. NJ when in charge of the U21s favoured Piggot over Smith which was a major mistake.
I hope I am wrong, pairing Olaofe or Kelman with Leaburn or Knibbs might work. Although Campbell is classified as a striker by NJ, he plays wide left like a inverted winger, maybe a 3-4-3 system would be appropriate.
I watched the Luton v AFC Wimbledon game on Friday evening and Stevens who scored 20+ goals in Div2 did not get a kick in Div 1 game.