well, that was a very strange season, with a rampant injury list, departure of 4 of our best players disrupting things and 3 very distinct periods.
the first period reads - played 18, won 9, drew 4 = 31 points at 1.7 points per game
then we had the disastrous, unprecedented run of losing 11 and drawing just the once
After we had finally broken the hoodoo we ended up playing 8 , winning 3 and drawing 3 = 11 points at 1.4 points per game
Without that run we would surely have been in or around the play offs
What was also noticeable is the amount of injuries we had - look through the appearances and only 6 players started 30 or more  games in our 46 match season, whilst Stobbs, Rudd, O'Connor, Hogg and Ball all started less than half the matches
Losing Hoppy pre season was a big blow and then Jamie & Ty leaving in October hardly helped. Max leaves in February and Gavin james ,who'd scored 5 in 13 games departed fro Risborough

Hope that puts things in perspective - surely next season won't be as taxing / frustrating , can it???

and a meaningless 1-1 draw in a match played like a pre season friendly. In fact I'm only doing this to keep Graham happy!
Lewthwaite scored an excellent goal that he created and scored all by himself, but then contrived to miss 3 golden chances in the 2nd half to blot his copy book. Body language and attitude were a lot better, so hopefully Ben can continue to work his magic with him. The barrel like Appiah in central midfield showed why he'd played at a higher level, but didn't look like he's going to threaten Riddick's position. Was far more impressed by fernandes , who looks a proper left back and did numerous good things. He's apparently 34. but plays like he's 24. On that performance i'd be more than happy to see him in the green n white next season.
Pierce again had a useful game - he always seems to have a decent performance when i see him. Wood and Doc were v. solid, but apart from that there wasn't much to report
ps great support again - half the crowd seemed to be from Aylesbury

https://twitter.com/AylesburyUtdFC/status/1505968799073382407

3 new signings, which was a bit of a surprise; had assumed we'd battle on with the current squad.
Think Daniel played for V.D. in that pre season thrashing we gave them. One for the future i presume.
The other 2 are slightly unusual signings for Ben - experienced 'outsiders'. Fernandes in particular is interesting (although the fact that he's a regular defender for a Staines team that's conceded 101 goals did concern me a little  ) as he was captain at Staines .Is he going to be an organiser of a defence that's looked pretty shaky recently?
Anyone know what type of midfielder Appiah is?
And final question are they coming as stop gaps or is this a start of a rebuild for next season?

That's the 3rd top player we've lost to higher league clubs in less than 6 months (as well as Hoppy moving away pre season).
Good luck to Max, and i hope it goes well for him, but really sorry for Ben; it's just problem after another this season.
Team are really going to have to pull together now - think it's going to be a very tough last 12 games, unless Ben can suddenly unearth another diamond. i know he won't do it but it feels like it's time for 1 of those pack the defence, backs against the wall, battling 0-0 draws, just to get the ship back on an even keel

first time I've seen them in a while. Main thought is that we were a bit disjointed and they were slightly better in every department.
Definitely stronger and better organised at the back and in the keeper dep't. Midfield was fairly equal but they were a bit stronger, bit more robust (and nastier!) and their finishing (as usual with our opponents) were better finishers, although Max's trademark top corner curler was superb
think this season is now a write off and we might as well start thinking about next season.

so, given that we're finished for this season ,how are we fixed?
gavin James has gone off the boil a bit, but i don't think we are going to get any better up front, and he does work hard.
 Jack, Doc,Harry, Sonny (when hes on form) and Jordan are all more than good enough. Anthony Ball and Max are quality, whilst i'm hoping, like a previous poster, that the mix of Ozogbia and Riddick in midfield could be really good.
That just leaves a couple of positions to be strengthened and it has to be remembered that we have 7 players out. Ben must be so frustrated with all these injuries and disruption - it's not anyone's fault and it's just one of those seasons which we look back on with huge frustration , with the potential that we had 2 or 3 months ago.
Interesting to see Curtis Brown, the highly rated young Winslow striker make his debut, after an unsuccessful trial at luton. Looked pretty strong and did some stuff well, although it looked like the step up to our level was a bit of a shock to the system. Certainly worth continuing with if we get the opportunity
Talking of Winslow any idea what has happened to Rocco Tamplin? Not appearing for us nor Winslow, that i can see. Would really like to see him a bit more regularly, he's got a bit of the Jamie Jellis about him
Talking further of Winslow we could do far worse than also having a look at their excellent left back Rio Deall and the very impressive Antonio Iannone in midfield, both promising youngsters

PS MOTM from tonight, probably Anthony Ball

and back by popular demand (well, Graham asked me to restart the tradition! )
so am settled down with a nice large glass of Cotes Du Rhone, celebrating a well earned point against the impressive league leaders Bedford. Big strong side, with big names,big whining gobs, big wages and big expectations ; you can see why they're top. Played some very nice fluid stuff at times, quality shone through during certain periods of play , looked very solid defensively and was particularly impressed by their number 10 who generally controlled the midfield and kept them moving.
We however really raised our game and the level of commitment and enthusiasm matched the Ebbsfleet effort. In a way this was a similar match. They looked very good ,generally, with a higher class of player, but they tended to played in front of us and our sturdy defence was very rarely turned around. I suspect this was how Ben wanted us and them to play and i further suspect he got one over , tactics wise, his Bedford counterpart.
We took the lead when JJ rifled home following a corner (possibly the first time during the game that JJ had kept the ball that low, and that under control! ), but Bedford equalised soon after with a Rene Howe bullet header from a corner which was inexplicably conceded by Jake. It was a very open, end to end game, must've been very entertaining for the neutral.
After that Bedford had the best of the game but were let down by Howe's constant offsides and poor final balls, whilst we caused numerous problems with quick breaks , generally involving Max, Stobbs & Sonny (who,btw, hit the bar from 25 yards in the first 10 minutes).
Great team performance. Archie made some superb saves to keep us in it. Jake had his best game of the season by far and Harry was excellent (looks like he learnt a lot from the Ebbsfleet game)
JJ and Jack were a lovely, rock solid partnership, Jack especially being at his imperious best.
Riddick was awesome and just edged motm for me. Sonny, apart from a quiet middle third of the game, was at his best, constantly creating problems when on the ball. Difficult game for Pierce who was out of position and generally outmuscled, but he stuck in there and will no doubt have learnt a great deal.
Max turned their left back inside out, and the lad cut  a sorry figure when he was saved from his torment by being subbed.
Ayo, our ex Grimsby non scoring centre forward, again proved what a good player he is, but once again never really looked like scoring - so frustrating! He's a really good player, got all the attributes, but just can't finish. He caused their very good, strong defence all sorts of problems. Can't make my mind up about Jaedon, but what i do know is that he really put in a shift and on 1 or 2 occasions showed flashes of real ability. Stobbs gave a brilliant 20 minute performance when he came on and helped enormously in giving them something to think about and defend against, when it looked like it might be  areal backs to the wall final 20 minutes.
All in al they did us, Ben and themselves proud against a team with a wage bill about 10 times bigger - well done lads !

so Ty becomes the latest player to move up the pyramid, following  a spell under Ben at AUFC. It's getting to be quite a list - Tre mitford, Jamie Jellis, Jack Hopwood, Ken Feyi, Jamal Prosper are the ones who immediately spring to mind. Any others I've missed?

...after a couple of pints of the very nice Beavertown Bones lager
a draw probably the fair result - think Barton will prove a tough task for most teams this season. We did well with a patched up defence and many faces missing.
Lots of positives to take from it - not least our refusal to be bullied by a 'robust' Barton side who also possessed some real quality. Before we'd have conceded the game once we conceded a goal, but it spurred us on to play much better. This was after we had missed yet another penalty, max the 'offender' this time
Thought that Ball, Kudo and Harry all played really well in unfamiliar positions against a very threatening attacking unit. Their goal incidentally, was superb, a 1 man 75 yard slalom run, leaving aufc players in his wake before slotting home.
That saw us up our game with us hitting the bar, but generally they defended well and our final ball wasnt quite there.
That changed early in the second half when the always excellent Jellis threaded a superb through ball to Sonny French who finished with his usual aplomb.
It was then nip and tuck until the end, with Barton also missing a penalty

We will play much better I'm sure , as we didn't play with our normal fluency, due to all the changes. Therefore i'd regard it as a point gained in front of a disappointing gate of 124
MOTM for me was Jack Wood who was at his imperious best. Antonio-Forde btw looks like a find - quick, powerful, good technique and not afraid to have a go