Bradley Pritchard column

By Bradley Pritchard
Tamworth midfielder

Five games into our first season in the Blue Square Premier and it reads - won two, drawn three and sitting seventh in the table.

For a team who began as one of the favourites to be relegated, we've performed well above many people's expectations.

It shouldn't come across like it's been an easy transition. Far from it. It was such a shock to the system. The first 20 minutes of our opening game against Stevenage was possibly the most we've constantly had to defend in a very long time.

I'm sure many of us at that time wondered if we'd be able to cope with the same for another 30 odd games... I know I did.

Our confidence is high right now. We've got players who are exhibitionists

But from then on we've adapted well and gone from strength to strength (as the cliche goes). I think initially we were seen as a young team who had the ability to play good football at times, but under a bit of pressure we'd crumble.

Hopefully what we showed with the games against Stevenage and Wrexham have gone some way to altering this perception.

Defensively we've been committed. Michael Briscoe has been a real revelation and has formed a solid partnership with Chris Smith. Smudger and 'Brick head' just never look like losing a header.

Our confidence is high right now. We've got players who are exhibitionists. They really welcome playing in front of large crowds and showing off their talents.

So to potentially have the opportunity to play in front of some big crowds against teams like Luton, Oxford and Mansfield will be exciting.

Hopefully we can carry on playing the type of football that we know we're capable of

The thing is we may have to learn to deal with the passion that is part of large crowds. This passion was no more evident in our last game against Wrexham where they brought a noisy following to The Lamb.

Jake Sheridan scored the winner and thought it was a good idea to celebrate at the end where they were based.

We were bombarded with all sorts. It started off with Lucozade bottles, then beer cans, then... an actual bin! I've never seen Alex Rodman move so quickly. Celebration became self-preservation in a matter of seconds.

On Saturday we travel the long distance to Barrow, followed by bank holiday Monday's game against Kidderminster. The schedule has not let up since the start, in terms of the number of games or the quality of the opposition.

Again we'll have to prove ourselves both individually and as a team and hopefully we can carry on playing the type of football that we know we're capable of.

So far it's been an experience that we're all really enjoying.