BRYAN HUGHES: Defensive solidity gives us a platform

We’ve had a great start to the new season with two wins from two.
Bryan Hughes' columnBryan Hughes' column
Bryan Hughes' column

To get two clean sheets from those games is really pleasing for Paul Foot and I.

We wanted more experience at the back and we’ve managed to get just that in Nathan Peat and Ryan Qualter at centre-half.

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They’ve marshalled both games superbly in front of Ben Simpson, who has looked really solid in goal since coming in during pre-season.

Our two performances were very different, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as we’ve shown versatility.

We played some great football at New Mills on Saturday and we were on top from the start.

At one point I thought it might turn out to be one of those days as we missed a load of early opportunities, but we got the three-goal lead and killed the game off.

We handled it well at 3-0 and saw the match out.

Ben Simpson has shown a safe pair of hands for Boro since signing onBen Simpson has shown a safe pair of hands for Boro since signing on
Ben Simpson has shown a safe pair of hands for Boro since signing on
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That is part of the game management myself and Paul are trying to instill in the players and they put that to great effect on Saturday.

The performance against Farsley wasn’t one of our greatest, we started well and took our foot off the gas a bit.

They turned up late on the night and we took full advantage of that and started on the front foot.

Once they got back into the game and got into their stride a bit more, they started to move the ball pretty well, but they’re a good side and we expected no less.

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You will never dominate a game of football for 90 minutes and there will be times when we have to defend as a unit, and Ben, Nathan, Ryan and the rest of the defence stood firm under pressure on Tuesday night.

We made a few individual errors that led to some frustration on our part and we gave a lot of silly free-kicks away, which didn’t help.

But we held firm and grabbed another three points and another clean sheet to boot too.

One of the more pleasing aspects of Tuesday was the great attendance of 407.

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It was a wet and horrible day and there was a pitch inspection too, so many would’ve thought the match was off.

We need the fans to back us again this season, we hope they will buy into what myself and Paul are trying to build at the club in what is a pivotal season for Scarborough Athletic.

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