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I have to admit I was a little bit nervous about this - keeping the nucleus of the squad together was what helped us to safety this year, and there is a lot to be said about impact in the dressing room.

At one point I did think I would have been quite happy simply having another go at finding a second striker to push Kyle into third spot.

However, given the lottery of signings at this level, I suppose signing 2 strikers (as I assume we hopefully will do) gives us a better chance of at least one of them working.

We can't just sign another Gillespie and make no progress from this season, perhaps that was Lee's line of thought on this.

Looking at the Conf North top scorers, there must surely be a couple of avenues worth pursuing there?

Bogle is destined for L1 apparently
Southwell is refusing to sign a contract with Boston just like Ricky Miller last season
I assume Barrow and Fylde players are on a decent gig so let's rule them out
Oxford too far south (assuming most players are regionally based)
Adam Boyes at Guiseley has surely always been one worth pursuing

I suppose a lot depends on who comes up with Barrow - just out of interest when do we reckon the retained/released list will be done?  A lot of clubs are very quick after the last game of the season

I think Leather is competent enough at right back for us not to have to take action just now.

Having said that, let's get that last win (or ideally 2) ASAP...

Ah, I thought he was OK from memory - I suppose it was a while ago.

It depends what we're after - ideally of course you want someone to push a starter to the bench - let's just be glad we're not starting from scratch! (Marc Joseph? Paul Jones? Mark Lees?)

But if we're happy with the current starting back line, and we're on a budget, it's about finding someone that's happy to be cover, that's played sufficiently at the level (and can preferably play at both CB and FB like Scott)

Whilst we're on the subject of former defenders, whatever happened to James Smith? Last I heard he was at Southport?

Yeah yeah, where's Senior etc

I'd keep Lawrie, he's got the ability to score at this level. Ideally we'd be strong enough for him not to be in the starting line up.
I think if we're playing 4-5-1 as we need to then you need a solid midfield 3 with the creativity coming from the flanks.

I think we'd definitely all value having 3 men in midfield (and that would surely necessitate having 2 wingers for balance?) than getting a couple of pieces of James Lawrie magic per season.

4-3-3 / 4-5-1 combo:

                                          Coburn

Densmore            Leather             Havern                  Griffin

                 Richman         Cavanagh         Moult             

Crowther                             Reeves                        Clee

That would be absolutely spot on for me as well, predominantly in the 4-5-1 of course.

Cav and Crowther's productive appearances from the bench on Sunday should see them recalled; Perry was largely ineffective starting and should drop back out; and I'd rather keep Moult in the team over Lawrie.

I'd hedge a bet that the majority of those teams suffering "second season syndrome" lost their heads and chopped and changed too much too soon. In addition, look at "first season" teams like Chester last season and Telford this one. It's now conclusive that Lee got it right by retaining the nucleus of the squad together, and it's also worth mentioning that our relative gains year on year last time at this level (until we lost key players like Young, Senior and never recovered from a bad start) was done on swapping out one, maybe two first-teamers per year with upgrades (e.g. Kearney). I'd say any more than three in, three out would be suicidal.  Even if we went again with the same team (not that I'm recommending it!) would be better than panic signings.

Now the fun bit - who do we go and get?!  I suppose it all depends on contracts etc, but surely Adam Boyes at Guiseley fancies a crack at this level (assuming they'll fail to come up again)?

Quite frankly I'm getting sick of this crap from Kiddy.