Let's get physical
4:43pm Wednesday 27th August 2008
By Connor Murphy »
ALTY boss Graham Heathcote believes his team must beat the bullies if they are to improve their form.
After an impressive preseason in which they won six of seven games, the Robins have so far struggled to transfer their form to the Blue Square Premier.
And Heathcote believes that is due to the physical demands of non-league’s top flight.
Alty are a relatively small side - with just six of their squad standing more than 6ft tall - and have often found themselves overpowered by bigger, stronger full-time outfits.
A case in point was their 4-0 defeat at Kidderminster last Saturday, although following Monday’s 1-1 draw with Wrexham, Heathcote is confident his players are beginning to understand what is required of them.
He told SAM Sport: “We’ve not had a bad start, picking up five points from five games, but we need to build on that now.
“We played really well in preseason and got some good results but now we are just having a few problems that we didn’t anticipate.
“The physical side of the game has now kicked in a bit and we have not handled it from either a defensive or an attacking point of view.
“We’ve been bullied a bit out there.
“But the reaction was superb on Monday.
“I always thought we would meet a strong physical challenge against Wrexham.
“We needed to be stronger in midfield, which meant I had to make sacrifices in other areas intially.
“But there were people out there on Monday who set their own standards but they need to maintain that.
“We need to raise our game against the teams lower down the table and if we do that we are more than capable of getting results.”
Prior to the Wrexham game, Heathcote set his team a challenge to defend better as a unit.
Throughout their first four games, the Robins conceded 10 goals - an unacceptable return considering the quality of recruits brought in during the summer.
But, led by a towering performance from former Wrexham man Mark McGregor at the heart of the defence, Alty tightened up enough to make the Dragons’ forwards look nothing more than mediocre.
Now Heathcote is calling on his team to apply the same standards in every game.
He said: “Hopefully we can settle down to defend properly and then integrate more of the players we bought to attack.
“If teams had been cutting us apart in our games then I could probably hack it a little bit.
“But they’re not, it’s just been sloppiness that has led to us conceding goals.
“We need to tighten up at the back because you can’t approach games in a kamikaze fashion.
“We defended well against Wrexham but if you can’t get yourself up for a game in front of 2,600 people then what game can you get yourself up for. We have to do the same in every game.”
In the coming week, the Robins face two testing away trips within four days, travelling to Eastbourne on Saturday and Histon on Tuesday.
But Heathcote said his team will be ready for the challenge.
“The fact we got a result against Wrexham shows we should be able to cope with two games in four days.
“It’s about focus, the players might get tired but if they stay focused they’ll get a result.”
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