2-1 loss then. Today looked like we had a hangover from the high of Tuesday night. Credit to Accrington, they worked very hard all game to close us down quickly and we resorted to long balls and poor clearances. Frustrating because we have the ability to do better but we were rushed into decisions by Stanley's pressing and never got any semblance of a passing game together. The early goal in the second half gave Accrington confidence and they had us on the back foot for most of that period, we didn't help ourselves with the constant long balls handing possession back time after time. It was a disjointed display, we should have been better but Accrington really did make it difficult to get anything going.
I gave it til end October to get it right. Aint there, clearly gave far too much possession away and they pushed on us. Never found our form. Never mind, bring on next game.
Crazy times. That wasn't football today, I can't get away from it being the same for both teams but we'll not have to go through anything like this again all season. I'm just thankful for no injuries, tbh.
I see everyone on TWTD is on melt down. Most are commenting having probably not even seen the game. For me it was a case that Accrington really did a number on us today. It was similar to some of the early matches in the season where we were put under pressure high up the pitch and weren't allowed to get the ball into midfield from the defence. It was more a case of Accrington made us terrible more than we did it ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I still think we should have been better at adapting to what we were faced with but I'll give credit to Accrington for having a game plan that nullified our threats.
Well, days like today are the reason the stats are against us, but how often in sport do we see people achieve the unlikely?
I felt this season was a write off but the players we brought in just before the window and a few of the performances since make me believe there is definitely a glimpse of something there and we should keep going.
We still have a way to go with this rebuild, there are signs of improvement but sometimes you just have to give the other team credit for spoiling your plans. Accrington worked really hard today, At one point I thought I should count how many players they had out there because it seemed like they had an extra bloody man playing. I will say though, if teams are going to come at us like that then Cook better come up with a plan to deal with it during the match.It's all well and good saying you have a preferred way of playing but other managers will come up with a strategy to stop that. If you're going to stick to a style, you better be damn good at it....and we're not yet.
Well that's taken the wind out of my sails. After 3 good results and feeling Cook had sorted out our weaknesses tactically (mainly space in full back positions) I thought we'd turned a corner, was not expecting a result or performance like that. And it does worry me abit because there didn't seem to be a plan B again. Ive not watched or heard much of the game but sounded like, they forced us to go direct and by pass the midfield today and whilst I've said before Bonne has done superbly well I'm still not 100% convinced he's made for the lone striker role, in a game like this surely we should've gone to a 442 bringing Norwood in much earlier. Going direct with 2 up top doesn't have to be negative, we played that way with Royle and that was very entertaining football, plus we've got the talent to do it. Pump it up to Norwood and Bonne would cause any team problems
