AT the end of last season, the summer break couldn’t come soon enough. The dark clouds were hanging over our heads with one insipid display after another. At ten to five on the last Saturday afternoon of April it felt like we had been set free from the shackles of our poor season.

Leaving Blackwell Meadows after the draw with Leamington, we could look back both at what we had been lumbered with, but also look forward with a degree of optimism in the hope that with the right managerial appointment we could start to move forward. The summer was going to be key. Could the club get their man the second time around?

While bringing in Alun Armstrong 18 months or so ago wasn’t possible, getting him at the second time of asking feels like it has reinvigorated the club, both on and off the pitch. It has allowed the club to raise far more than it could ever have hoped to through Boost the Budget scheme, while on the pitch Alun has recruited sensibly and yet impressively.

Between the guys he has brought with him from Blyth to those who have joined from elsewhere, it feels like every signing has a purpose. Each signing has been a perfectly fitting jigsaw piece which, when put together, reveals a very clear picture of the type of football Alun wants to play.

Gone is the blunderbuss approach to putting the squad together trying to fit a random collection of players into some sort of organisation. Instead, each player has been selected to fit a meticulous plan. The keeper who can distribute. The centre half who can play a bit. The midfielder who provides the muscle and bite. The attackers who get at the opposition with the pace and fluidity to bamboozle opposition defences.

I can understand if you’re reading this and are feeling a bit sceptical. I get excited before every season kicks off. That’s just me. We were also rather excited about last season and it nosedived quickly like a shoddily constructed paper aeroplane. Sadly, our team last season was of little sturdier construction than that and, in hindsight, it was there to be seen during the pre-season. With that in mind, our run of games during this July has given us a glimpse of what is to come.

Alun is a man with a plan. There is a structure to his team. You can see they have worked on shape and patterns of play. The players look fit. Really fit compared to last summer. There are even leaders in this side. There’s a spine of players through the middle of the team who seem to read the game well and are constantly communicating to their team-mates. There’s flair, imagination and pace in attack. Without wishing to be too unkind to Tommy Wright, Alun’s squad is the antithesis of the collection curated by our previous manager ahead of last season.

If pre-season is anything to judge, the most impressive element of Alun’s rejuvenation work has been the substantial reduction in the club’s playing budget compared to last season. The new manager has had to work in a challenging North-East market with less money than his predecessor and yet he appears to have done it commendably.

Time will tell whether all the hard work he and the players have put in during the summer will actually pay off in meaningful games, but the early signs look promising. All the talk from the management on and off the pitch is of this being a transition season as the club finds it feet both sides of the perimeter fencing. That is, of course, the sensible approach to take. However, one thing for certain is; we are going to be entertained this season.

Blackwell Meadows will not be the home of boring, turgid football. If we do end up with mid-table mediocrity, I suspect we’ll do it in style. If you were put off by last season’s brand of football, I would highly recommend popping down to Blackwell Meadows and giving Alun’s approach a go.