Bartley wields the axe as Marlow's midfield comes under fire after poor start

Credit:  Credit: TME Sports Photography

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Four games into the new Southern League Central Division season and Marlow manager Mark Bartley has already seen enough of certain players to feel they don’t have a future at Oak Tree Road.

Having been relegated from the Southern League Premier South last season, having finished bottom of the pile with only five wins all season, the Blues had been hoping to make a more positive start to this campaign.

Unfortunately, they’ve managed just one win from their first four league matches and have lost four on the spin in all competitions.

Their last defeat, a 2-0 reverse at struggling Stotfold, was particularly galling for Bartley who called parts of their performance ‘inexplicable and inexcusable’.

He’s now in the process of moving certain players on, and bringing more experienced players in, having targeted a weakness in midfield as the reason for his side’s underwhelming start. Once those issues have been fixed, he anticipates an improvement in form, and he hopes they can kickstart that uptick at home to fifth placed Hadley on Saturday.

“We had to tweak the squad a bit, and there were a few players we brought in who we thought were possibly a little bit different from what they were,” he said.

“But as we’ve looked over these first games, there are a few of them that aren’t quite at the level we need them to be at.

“We’ve started to move a few of them on in certain areas of the pitch. Lots of it isn’t too bad.

“Defensively we feel like we have the right people in there, we’re happy with that. We’re happy with the majority of what we’ve got at the front end as well. I think we need to add one more there and we’re working on that.

“But where we’ve been a little bit short is in the middle of the pitch. I don’t think we’ve had the right calibre of players there.

“A couple of the lads haven’t been at the level and that’s cost us in those games. We’ve been a little bit naive at times in that area of the pitch, and we’ve been punished for those mistakes.

“Even though we’ve looked back and we’re disappointed we’ve lost games, there have been lots of positives as well. It’s just about navigating those moments where I feel the midfield has been a little naive. There’s a couple that have left the club now because we’re not able to give them first team football based on what we’ve seen so far. We’re working on bringing in one, possibly two players who we feel will make a big difference in that area.”

Marlow have lost five of their opening seven matches in all competitions but only four of those have come in the league, and Bartley believes they’ll start clawing their way up the table in the coming weeks, The Blues sit 17th and are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference and, while he can understand supporters’ disappointment and frustration, he is adamant their form will improve soon.

Adapting to a new league and teams’ more pragmatic style of play has also been a challenge, but it’s one he believes they’re rising to already.

“It’s been disappointing in these games but we’re not too far away from being very competitive,” he said.

“In this league, the teams are less pedantic about maintaining possession. In the Isthmian League South Central there are more purist, possession-based teams. In this league there’s a bit more pragmatism. It can be equally effective, but it is a slightly different style. I don’t think that’s been our main problem though. Our problem has been that we’ve lacked a bit of experience in the middle of the park, and our decision making has gone a little awry.

“A lot of the games we’ve lost, we were in that game for long periods but there was a mad five minutes where we’ve not tracked runners and have been caught out by our own naivety. I don’t think we’re far away from being a very good side and hopefully we’ll fix our issues and be in a much stronger position.

“The supporters will be disappointed when we lose games. I’m disappointed as well but once we fix that slight area, we’ll be ok. We’ve been down this track before as a management team and we know what we must do.”