One of the more puzzling tactical decisions from Graham Westley so far this season has been his reluctance to give new midfielder Stacy Long a run in the team, especially as the creative side of Boro’s game is not quite where it should be. It’s been more long ball than Long. 

Stacy moved to Broadhall Way in the summer after a successful spell at Ebbsfleet United. In his time at Stonebridge Road, Long won the FA Trophy at Wembley and was the star player in Liam Daish’s side. A lot of teams in the Blue Square Premier were after the former England youth international  in the summer when it became apparent that he was on his way out with the club in financial difficulties. Boro beat them all to his signature, with Long stating that GW ‘sold’ him the club when the pair spoke about the transfer.

However, things haven’t turned out like many thought they would. When Boro announced they had signed Long I thought that it was a signing that would add a creative quality to the Boro midfield and add to competition for places which could also mean GW moving Bostwick to centre back when he wanted to knowing that he had the midfielders available to come in. Instead, Westley has opted to play either Joel Byrom or Lawrie Wilson with Darren Murphy in the midfield which wouldn’t of been first choice to many. Long started the season on the left wing, but I’m not sure he would of even played then if Mitchell Cole hadn’t got injured in pre-season.

I think Long can add a lot to the Boro midfield. He is an attack minded player who I think would form a good partnership with Michael Bostwick who is more defensive minded. He could also slot well into a 4-5-1 formation away from home being the ‘support’ player for either Griffin or Boylan. His versatiltity is a very handy thing to have available in the squad, but it’s not being used for reasons unknown. Whether GW is preferring to go with the more ‘tried and tested’ players I don’t know, but why sign a player, who must also be on quite high wages and then not use him.

I would personally put Long in against Rushden alongside Bostwick and see how it gets on with Cole and Drury on the flanks. Although Long is more attack minded, he can play a ‘box to box’ role as we have seen down the years when we’ve played Ebbsfleet United. I remember him doing this very well when the Kent side hammered us last August 4-0 at their place.

“Stacy Long was also impressing in the Ebbsfleet midfield. He was involved in most of their good attacking play.” Taken from last season’s report

It will be interesting to see how Long’s role within the team develops over the next few months, but I think again he will be another good footballer that doesn’t get on with the manager. We’ve seen in the past that similar players like John Martin and Daryl McMahon haven’t been favourites with the boss and it looks like the same is apparent here. I hope I’m proved wrong as I think he can offer a lot to this team, but I think we could see Long move on sooner rather than later.