The new season kicks off in a few days and there appears to be a real mixture of Optimism and pessimism amongst Saints supporters.

The optimist would have you believe that this is a brave new world with a new approach from a manager who appears to favour youth over experience.   They will point to the successful pre-season games against Winchester, Basingstoke etc, and indeed the performance against West Ham, where the youngsters passed the ball around well, and secured a respectable draw against a premiership side.
They will say and have said this shows we have a real chance of promotion this season.

The pessimists will tell you that’s all very well, but we have yet to face a team, like we will in the championship.  A place where physical presence and strength is as important as ability.   They will point to the squad and be concerned about the lack of cover at the back, especially at full back.  And also be concerned about the fact that our recognised strikers seem to be replaced with youngsters, like Mcgoldrick, who has done well in pre-season, but never looked like being a main striker in his championship games in the past.

The truth I believe will end up somewhere in between the two. 

There will be games when we play good football, and come away happy, but there will also be games when, the opposition will not allow us to, and we will record defeats against teams we should beat.

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