Another time in which we have affected a team’s promotion hopes after beating Bradford and drawing with Preston. I thought the first 30 minutes were excellent and I was really thinking that this could be our best home performance of the season. The closing down from Marquis, Dack and Cody were excellent and although we didn’t create too many clear cut chances, the effort and the attempts to create chances were excellent. However despite this we could have been 2-1 down where Rochdale were creating chances against the run of play. They had the one chance where the ball fell to their player practically on the line and I don’t know how the ball didn’t end up in the back of the net. Also they had the chance from their players cross which looped up over Morris and hit the post and bounced out. However in the last 15 minutes we did seem to let them back into the game a little. In the second half we didn’t seem to be creating much, always seemed to be the final ball which let us down as we got into good areas. Then we had the two sending offs. The first one, I am pretty certain it was a sending off, although I am not sure if there was someone covering the goal keeper i.e. he wasn’t the last man but as he was the goalie it was probably right. JE said that he thought the second red card was only worthy of a yellow card but personally I thought it was a 100% certain red card and it happened right in front of me. For me, the ball had gone and he took both of Dack’s legs out. However after the two sending offs, we seemed to get worse. I think it was partially because, at 11 men, I think they thought that they could try and work themselves into a commanding position but once they went down to 10 and then 9 men, they went all out for a goal or two which would have been needed for them to try and keep up their play-off challenge and we actually seemed to struggle and they were the team finding the pockets of space and making us look like the team with 9 men. However I did feel that if they equalised we could have gone up a gear or two and got another goal. A note though, what a play-actor their number 27 was. Every challenge that we put in he would roll around ‘in agony’ trying to win a free kick and I thought it was totally unacceptable when he pushed the ball boy in front of me on the Medway Stand side of the pitch. I hope maybe the Ref or the Linesman report him for that as it was totally unneeded. Comments on players: Glenn Morris, John Egan, Leon Legge – I thought all of these were unspectacular but did what was required. Morris didn’t really have any difficult saves to make and the other two did their jobs when needed. Max Ehmer – I thought if one of the 3 CB’s or the GK stood out it was Max. He again did the jobs as required as did Egan and Legge but he seemed to stand out in terms of making himself available and distributing the ball. Doug Loft – I thought he tried exceptionally hard, possibly the hardest I have seen him work all season. His passing of the ball wasn’t the best but sometimes I feel he lacks the effort but definitely not today. Aaron Morris – I thought Aaron Morris was physically strong and dominated the midfield quite well today better than Hess does and probably Pritchard but personally I see Hess and perhaps Pritchard as more Loft style players and I think we should sign someone else like Aaron Morris in the summer. Jermaine McGlashan – I thought he troubled their defence with his pace but his end product was poor most of the game. Brennan Dickenson – I’m a fan of Dickenson and felt that he should be given a chance like Norris has done. However I don’t really think he is a LWB. Yes he can fill in for 10 minutes at the end of a game but I think at times he stands off his player too much and then the player eventually beats him like their number 27 was doing especially in the second half today. I do think he tried going forward but was often tackled before getting somewhere, where he could make a real difference. Bradley Dack – As I said earlier he tried very hard along with others. Got the goal to win the game and probably was or tried to be our most creative player. Cody McDonald – Didn’t have a lot of service so didn’t really create/ have any major chances. He did ‘win’ the red card for their keeper as he chased the ball down causing the goalie to commit the foul. John Marquis – Tried very hard but didn’t really have any major chances. Some people I have seen said that they though the ref should have waved play on before sending off the goalie but I don’t agree as I don’t think Marquis really had control of the ball. One very strange decision from the linesman was when near the end of the game Norris played the ball over the top to Marquis who was unmarked and then the linesman gave offside even though Marquis was, from my view in our half. Anyway another 3 points and we are in 9th and could finish the season in 7th place which was unimaginable at the end of December but the GO4 turned it around and JE has carried on the work. I am very much looking forward to next season. I said before the game that our target should be to achieve at least 60 points and have a positive or at least 0 goal difference. I still think we should aim for that in terms of GD and hopefully we can get at least one more win out of the last 2 games.
With Taylor 23 games 25 points ( 0.92 points per game ) With fab 4 / Edingurgh 21 games 34 points ( 1.61 points per game ) 44 games @ 1.61 points per game = 70.84 points 46 games @ 1.61 points per game = 74 points............. and look where that would have put us .........If only we hadn't wasted half a season.
Looks like Taylor did make some good signings last season shame he was so negative and did not get the best out of them. When he made the signings I was expecting the team to be in this position in the league and now under a new manager they are doing better. Both morris's look good, Loft and Mcglastion look the real deal now. Egan is player of year. Ehmer would be a great signing if QPR don t want him. Still not sure with Prichard with all his injuries. Dickenson has shown something as has Norris but not enough yet. Hoyte good back up but might get replaced. If we get get 2 or 3 quality signings we should have a top 10 season and hopefully be in the mix with the play offs. Bit worried about keeping Dack now that he has 10 goals from midfield, a championship side could be looking.
