Consistency The Key For Town
Thu 13th November 2014 | St Helens Town | By Ian Templeman
Despite some mixed results since the start of the season, St Helens Town manager Ian Price believes that the squad he has assembled will improve as they build on a recent run of good performances.
Inconsistency has been a key feature of Town’s campaign so far, but Ian says he is now seeing signs that his fairly inexperienced team is beginning to gel.
“We have a fairly young squad that came together at the start of the season, and it's difficult in those situations to get players used to playing with a consistency”, he said.
“We have started to get consistency in team selection and the lads are getting used to playing together, although with a young side like we have, you are always going to get blips.
“For example, we lost 5-2 to Colne on Saturday, but there were things I saw in that game that were better than what we have done previously, and despite the result there are positives we can take from the performance.
“The lads have learned some difficult lessons at times this season. They are all good players and have good character, and they are used to winning games in their own age groups (of football) but now they are playing senior football, it's different to what some may have been used to”.
That defeat against Colne came on the back of two good wins, one of which was a 3-1 win over Yorkshire Amateur in the FA Vase which secured an away tie at Alnwick Town in the Second Round, and Ian believes that the Vase success has been an unexpected plus point.
“The results in the Vase have given us a real boost”, he admitted. “The positive results we have had in the Vase have had a knock on effect. After the Irlam game (in the First Qualifying Round) we went out and won our next game, and after the last round (against Yorkshire Amateur) we did the same.
“In that game against Yorkshire Amateur we were a goal down at half time, but we showed a lot of character to come back. We didn't panic, we played good football, and it was a game we won that we might not have been able to win a couple of months ago.
“So it's been important in terms of giving us a break from the league, but the results have given us some confidence as well”.
A long day trip up to Alnwick in Northumberland, near the Scottish border, now awaits Town and while Ian sees it as another good learning experience for his players, he is also focussing on making sure that the team are in the hat for the next round.
“We are not going there for a day out”, he said. “We are going there to win because I want to do as well as we can in the competition. I want the players to learn as much as they can this season, but at the end of the day it's about results. The Vase is such an important competition for this club, with our history as past winners, and we are going there to win”.
As far as the rest of the season is concerned, Ian is looking for his team to continue the progress they have made in the first few months.
“I set targets for where we want to be and measure the squad against those targets”, he said. “We know we are not going to win every game, but we do want to get results whilst seeing players keep learning and developing.
“We’ve brought in some more experienced players with a bit of character to strengthen the side and I think those players have given us that. We are happy with the group we've got now, and we want to keep this squad together.
“I don't expect us to put runs together of 12 or 15 games unbeaten; we might have three or four good games and hopefully get the results our performances deserve, and then we might be off the boil in the next game. The main thing is we keep developing as the season progresses”.
Consistency The Key For Town
Thu 13th November 2014 | St Helens Town
By Ian Templeman
Despite some mixed results since the start of the season, St Helens Town manager Ian Price believes that the squad he has assembled will improve as they build on a recent run of good performances.
Inconsistency has been a key feature of Town’s campaign so far, but Ian says he is now seeing signs that his fairly inexperienced team is beginning to gel.
“We have a fairly young squad that came together at the start of the season, and it's difficult in those situations to get players used to playing with a consistency”, he said.
“We have started to get consistency in team selection and the lads are getting used to playing together, although with a young side like we have, you are always going to get blips.
“For example, we lost 5-2 to Colne on Saturday, but there were things I saw in that game that were better than what we have done previously, and despite the result there are positives we can take from the performance.
“The lads have learned some difficult lessons at times this season. They are all good players and have good character, and they are used to winning games in their own age groups (of football) but now they are playing senior football, it's different to what some may have been used to”.
That defeat against Colne came on the back of two good wins, one of which was a 3-1 win over Yorkshire Amateur in the FA Vase which secured an away tie at Alnwick Town in the Second Round, and Ian believes that the Vase success has been an unexpected plus point.
“The results in the Vase have given us a real boost”, he admitted. “The positive results we have had in the Vase have had a knock on effect. After the Irlam game (in the First Qualifying Round) we went out and won our next game, and after the last round (against Yorkshire Amateur) we did the same.
“In that game against Yorkshire Amateur we were a goal down at half time, but we showed a lot of character to come back. We didn't panic, we played good football, and it was a game we won that we might not have been able to win a couple of months ago.
“So it's been important in terms of giving us a break from the league, but the results have given us some confidence as well”.
A long day trip up to Alnwick in Northumberland, near the Scottish border, now awaits Town and while Ian sees it as another good learning experience for his players, he is also focussing on making sure that the team are in the hat for the next round.
“We are not going there for a day out”, he said. “We are going there to win because I want to do as well as we can in the competition. I want the players to learn as much as they can this season, but at the end of the day it's about results. The Vase is such an important competition for this club, with our history as past winners, and we are going there to win”.
As far as the rest of the season is concerned, Ian is looking for his team to continue the progress they have made in the first few months.
“I set targets for where we want to be and measure the squad against those targets”, he said. “We know we are not going to win every game, but we do want to get results whilst seeing players keep learning and developing.
“We’ve brought in some more experienced players with a bit of character to strengthen the side and I think those players have given us that. We are happy with the group we've got now, and we want to keep this squad together.
“I don't expect us to put runs together of 12 or 15 games unbeaten; we might have three or four good games and hopefully get the results our performances deserve, and then we might be off the boil in the next game. The main thing is we keep developing as the season progresses”.
