Trying out a new system for watching live games. What worked?

Heading south, again, for a pre-season mission to watch Chichester City at home to Bognor Regis, armed with a notebook and a plan…

The season started with a 5-hour round trip to Chichester, which is a long way for a Friday night. But compared to last year’s adventure to Weymouth this felt like a local derby. 

You can read about that trip here. 

Regular readers will know that I use video for most of my scouting. But the first game of the season is the exception. This is the one match of the year when there isn’t any video. So the only way to get information on an opponent is to eyeball them. And my eyeballs were to do the eyeballing. 

Scouting in person is different and harder. You’re limited to what you can see in one look, and once it’s happened there’s no going back over the same clip again and again. And to be honest, this process doesn’t always go well. 

But this time I decided to try a few new things. I wanted to reduce some of the stress involved, and to come away knowing I’d got some useful information. Enough to avoid a drive home spent wondering if I could even remember what colour shirts they’d worn. 

Here’s how things panned out…

You can read the rest of this article, absolutely free of charge, over on my Substack page. Simple click here to keep reading…