Actually I am a bit more frustrated than you guys, and possibly a bit angrier as well, as today, whilst showing the huge chasm that exists between the NL haves and have nots I thought it was hugely disappointing performance and not because we had several players missing which we did, but both by the teams performance and as bad by the tactics employed which nine times out of ten will result in one thing...... defeat!
Before I sound off though lets give some credit where it's due first as I thought defensively we were relly good.
Lets be honest here their first goal was a real corker and whilst Mr Moores movement for the finish was truly first class-as to be fair it was all afternoon-and so it bloody should be-his second was a mistimed fluke that I think came off his nose and increddibly then bounced past and over our stranded keeper, that apart I thought the defence marshalled their forwards very well indeed, I truly did
Let's not forget who we were playing though, according to the bookmakers St Neots are 6/5 favourites to win the league and for one good reason, at this level they have shitloads of money, money that us and others can only dream of having!
Depending on who one listens to, Moore is the guy who was tranferred for anything between £10 & £15,000 and is reputedly on £1,000 a week wages!
This is the club one assumes because of the money they have at it's disposal,who managed to acquire on loan for the last couple of months last season and from Peterborough who are what, 5 maybe 6 steps up in footballs pyramid a winger who the year before was purchsed for a six figure sum from the conference and who one again assumes they would pay a lot of his wages to do. Could you ever see us doing that from say a club like Reading?
Obviously not everyone is on that sort of wonga but it wouldn't surprise me if their lowest paid player was on at least, in fact, thinking about it on more than our best paid player. So whilst perhaps on paper we might not have expected to win, we most certainly had the right to expect them collectively and to effectively compete...surely?
Offensively we were impotent, and I don't mean to be either critical of the manager or rude to Greg himself but what the f*** is he doing playing up front, he cant run anymore (and I dont mean literally I mean in closing down,working the channels etc) he cant dribble and he hasn't got the guile needed to create chances for himsel or for his fellow forward whose levels of ability were perhaps equally exposed????
Surely he would have better served the teams cause playing in the centre of midfield where his tackling,unquestioned commitment and wealth of experience would have at least had some effect and which would then have also allowed someone with more pace to move forward where they would have at least had half a sniff of unsettling the St Neots back four...or am I being illogical here?
That said I dont blame the two up front, in fact I have a lot of sympathy for them as the service they got all day was truly shocking. Some more cynical would perhaps even suggest non existent, and worse I am assuming it was in the main down to the shape of play and worse still I am assuming to instructions given?
If it wasn't why the hell did management not change things?
If we are to play a 4-4-2 formation which is absolutely fine then the midfield two have to get up and support. If pressing down one of the channels one of them can most certainly sit, but where in any tactic book does it mention having two holding players in a 4-4-2 who must not cross the half way line?
All afternoon both Keiran and Jack played ten yards in front of the back four and whilst one cant argue it gave the defence extra protection the decision to do so completely isolated the front two.
As a consequence when the guys up front did get the ball there was invariably no one to give it to. The wingers could have been an outlet but for some reason we starved the right wing and opted instead to channel moves down the left where in truth the lad. Bernie was it simply wasn't up to the task.
There was a huge midfield void all afternoon, worryingly the same void that appeared so many times last year where offensively no support was given, worse still again like so many times last year, when we did bring the ball forward, especially through the centre we always seemed to choose the wrong option, invariably we didn't even see the options!
Granted that can obviously happen to anyone, but in countering that acceptance, the ability to choose the correct ball is what makes players stand out, the ability to choose wisely, to create with vision, to pass with accuracy and to a bloody team mate are all attributes that were unfortunately not in evidence yesterday.
More frustrating still was that whilst certinly commanding in the air, St Neots were there to be got at, I really feel that, especially their two centre halves.
Oh yeah one other thing the midfield have to learn very quickly is to keep the ball moving. Time and time again we lost posession far too cheaply,resorted to far too many long balls particularly in the second half, hung on to the ball far to long and took ages to find a pass which in Jacks case was seemingly always over hit!
Whats wrong with a short pass, whats happened to the old cliched adage of play the way you're facing or playing the simple ball both are two really important ingredients our young lads have to learn, and quickly
As everyone in the ground knew, except it would appear those on the pitch, they had no substitute goalkeeper and yet in ninety minutes I cant remember one attempt of consequence on their goal, which to me just about summed the afternoon up
A really disapointing afternoon, a really frustrating afternoon and whilst yeah ,most out there were youngsters, they are playing against men and have to learn very quickly indeed that on the pitch no allowance whatsoever will be given because of their tender ages and no excuses allowed for that fact
But hey rant over, on to Tuesday where hopefully some of the absentees will be back and the boys can leave the pitch with a smile on their face....lets hope so anyway
Last edited by MH on Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:17 am; edited 1 time in total
