A lovely weekend in Dorset, totally spolied when i checked the scores on my IPhone yesterday - so, whats the story? seems like Hamer had a mare, and the back 4 werent their dominant self. Go on, enlighten me .
MikeT bought his ticket wrong and that allowed Forte to score a hattrick but he's said sorry and promised it won't happen again. He's a good honest pro and his wears his heart on his sleeve when ticket buying and I fully back him to put it right next time.
First 10-15 we were improved, but then just stagnated. A few penalty appeals later, and then full time. IMO, the only player who could hold his head high was BWP.
It was all our worst nightmares rolled into one Stu. Everything that we have been worried about but have managed to blind ourselves to came true - Goalie useless, defence lost confidence, midfield shape doesn't work, big gap between front and midfield drawing Kermit too deep, resorting to hoofball, CP failing to make changes, Apart from that things were just peachy! Good crowd reaction though. A lot left after the fourth goal, but there were very few boos and a good round of applause at the end. Waggy got 90% of the game and has divided opinion on here. My own view is that this has been coming all season. We have ridden our luck to a ridiculous degree and at some point it was going to bite us on the bum. Hopefully it will be a wakeup call and not the start of a total collapse. Some surgery is needed and CP cant ignore it now. Hamer has to be dropped and one of Stephens and Hollands needs to be dropped or told to get forward. Less likely is that CP sees sense and gets Hayes back.
Too big a gap between defence and midfield. Too big a gap between midfield and attack. Jackson is not fit. Our football is predictable.
Just watched the highlights on CAFC Player, and, again we have let in a screamer for first goal. For me, we alwasy have a problem when we let the first goal in with our setup. Solly looked at fault fr 2nd, and Taylor should have taken charge for 3rd, 4th looked like a good goal from a team in form. Our away form is second to none (dont forget, its a record), so, i believe CP will keep the same team for Scunt, and see if they can turn it around, otherwise, changes for game v Yeovil.
A few weeks ago there was a debate on here with Team A saying we should keep the same team so long as we were continuing to pick up more points than our promotion rivals and were quite happy if we "won ugly" until the end of the season. Team B said we should start resting players before things went wrong, and that "winning ugly" is far more tiring, physically and mentally, than winning well and couldn't be expected to continue. We have a large squad and should start "tinkering" while we were still on a high. We have lost six points we could reasonably have expected to have gained. Luckily for us our rivals have failed to cash in and we are still ten points ahead. Another debacle at Scun thorpe and Team B's views will start looking more credible. I was a "B" but I admit that nothing would be proven. Maybe if we had started "tinkering" earlier we would have started losing matches earlier.
Rule 1 - never change a winning team. Ok, 2 losses, but both at home, and our away record is bar-none, so, to me , keep the same team v Scunthorpe, give them the opportunity for redemption, and if they fail, then look for changes v Yeovil.
I believe that is what CP will do but he really should make changes. Hamer has lost the confidence of his defence.
If Sheff Utd win tomorrow and we get a crap result on Saturday the pressure will start to pile on to the players. Now is the time to ring the changes. Not wholesale changes, but a wee bit of tinkering to ease tiredness and produce a bit more competition within the squad. Scunny will be a tough game where fresh legs and ideas will really benefit the team. If it works, we then have a home match against Yeovil to really kick on.
Its all 'ifs' - we are looking at the worst scenario - maybe they might be 4 points behind us, but 'if' it works the other way, we could be 13 points clear - unlikely , yes, but as unlikley as they will be 4 points away.
i am going to be 10,000 k's away from London on Saturday, but i will be checking Sky when i get back to my hotel on sat night - wish i wasnt going away - as i would have gone to Scunny - lets hope we have a big support to help us.
That's how I see it. The back 4 haven't suddenly become bad players but something ain't right and that's what it is.
