The Lounge

[Colum]

What a great night it was, and what a wonderful game of football. Of course Lyle will get the plaudits, but as was revealed at the post match MOTM award, at 91 minutes it was going to Harry Forrester. Then up steps Lyle again to get us looking for the record books. When was the last time a Dons player scored a hatrick? My guess was Jon Main sometime back in the Conference South, but who cares.

The whole team were immense defensively. Darius and Will at the back showed what they’re about, limiting the visitors to absolute scraps and long range shots. Don’t forget Soares and Trotter. Yes Trotter. His distribution may be hopeless, but he did his job well. Up front Barchie, Kaja, and LTB did the rest. Barchie’s slide rule pass for Lyle’s first was a thing of beauty, and Forrester’s run to create the space for his second shows that football is so much more than just kicking a ball.

So we go in to Saturday and a game against bottom placed Plymouth. Suddenly it no longer seems like a six pointer. If we win, perhaps we’ll be saying “Crisis? What Crisis?”.

[Windlesham Don]

There would have been some sore bodies amongst the team this morning after an evening of tremendous effort and commitment. Rotherham were all we had expected – hard, fit, physical and when necessary, cynical. Anything less than 100% commitment and we would have lost. Fortunately we were given the sort of performance that we have been crying out for all season – we matched them tackle for tackle, header for header, for 90 minutes.

The difference between the teams was probably Harry Forrester, who finally showed for a full match the quality we had only seen in glimpses until last night. Quicker in thought and in deed than the Rotherham defenders, he was a thorn in their side all night. And of course there was Lyle Taylor (baby), who ended a six month barren spell with a hat-trick which moved his tally from zero to top goalscorer for the season!

There is still much to work on, however. After the Millers equalised there only looked to be one winner until LTB relieved the pressure with his piledriver second. I still feel that a natural left footer should replace Francomb at left back and Oshilaja would provide athleticism and physicality in that role. I also feel that Abdou would offer more dynamism in midfield than Trotter.

Hopefully, everyone will recover in time for the visit of Plymouth on Saturday – for the first time this season we will go into a match with a degree of confidence, and the opportunity (perhaps briefly) to look up the table rather than down it…

[Windlesham Don]

And so on to Saturday and the visit of basement dwellers Plymouth. Despite propping up the table, I am sure that tomorrow will be a game just as tough as Northampton and Rotherham were. The Pilgrims will be desperate to pick up something, despite having a long injury list at the moment – they are even likely to have an emergency loan keeper making his debut tomorrow.

We will need to snuff out Graham Carey, as Bully did so effectively at Wembley, as he is the player who tends to make them tick. Another factor may be the weather, with 40mph gusts predicted – I’m expecting another scrappy game with desire rather than skill liable to be the deciding factor.

Although I’d like to see a couple of changes to the starting XI, I’d be surprised if the manager changed anything at this stage, as he is not exactly known for his adventurousness. However, fingers crossed, the return to fitness of Appiah and Meades should come within the next couple of weeks, and with it a pleasant conundrum for the boss.

I can’t believe that we will get 9 points out of 9, so I’m going for a hard fought stalemate.

COYD!!

[Colum]

So here’s the bottom line. Six points from three games is what most of us would have settled for coming into the Northampton game. We achieved that. So why do I feel real negativity about Saturday’s performance? Did we deserve to win? Maybe, although that is open to debate. Did they? Definitely not.

Plymouth came to defend and did it well until we figured out we’d need to score to get anything from the game. Having to get past ten men for the first 70 minutes, and playing not one, not two, but three defensive midfielders (more on that later) and you had a game of football you’re instantly going to forget. Trotter resorted to type. How someone as tall as him fails to win any headers is beyond me, it might help if made a passing attempt at jumping, and his lack of distribution continued to astound. Soares was little better once he’d broken up play.

Up front Barcham and Taylor fed on scraps. Taylor resorted to coming deeper and deeper to win the ball, only to look up and find no one where he was supposed to be. Barcham seemed to play in a much more narrow position.

After about 30 minutes of turgidity, finally someone figured out that if you ran at them with the ball, they didn’t like it up them. Unfortunately for us, that was Darius Charles, and on reaching the edge of their area showed why he really isn’t a stand in centre forward. What was worse was that no one seemed to learn the lesson.

Going one nil down added some urgency, but despite some late pressure, we never really seemed likely to score. Their keeper had a good game, making some good saves, and the referee did them a favour when Barcham was upended on the edge of their penalty area by waving play on to the consternation of everyone including the Plymouth players.

So why did we lose? You could argue that after the last two games, we should have stuck with the same team. We did largely, but the inclusion of Abdou, Trotter, and Soares was surprising. It stank of conservatism. They’re not a Jake Reeves. They may defend well, but on yesterday’s performance they couldn’t create a passage out of a wet paper bag. Even with the home crowd crying to get the ball forward to a man in space, the ball went wide to the left or right. With ten men to beat, it was easy for Plymouth to take a couple of steps across and snuff out any danger.

If the team selection made little sense, so did our first substitution. Yes the answer to scoring an equaliser was to bring on a former Gillingham front man so down on confidence that he hasn’t scored all season, rarely gets involved in play, and looks so distraught when a cross goes past him you feel like calling social services and reporting some form of cruelty. I’m not sure he even touched the ball after coming on.

One last point. I should come clean and say I may have been harsh of Barry Fuller in recent weeks and WDSA issues. He seems to have recovered some of his mojo. After analysing things some more, the issue may be not so much with Fuller, but the lack of protection in front of him. With Francomb playing left back, there isn’t the same protection in front of Barry. On the left, Barcham often falls back to help the left back. On the right, this doesn’t happen. Forrester did his bit, but it wasn’t the same.

All this boils down to poor team selection. Why did we field three defensive midfielders against a team we knew would defend? Why do we continue to have a naturally right footed left back when we have a natural left back on the subs bench? Francomb may do an OK job, but you can see he’s unsure when forced to defend with his left foot. Neil Ardley may be “frustrated” by the result, but this is not purely down to Plymouth’s tactics. Maybe he just got the starting 11 wrong. OK I understand he didn’t want to lose, but having got six points already from the week I’d have liked to see us having a bit more of a go.

[MacWomble]

One spot above the relegation zone would be the perfect end to a disappointing season. So far, so good. I look forward to hearing your views on the latest ‘crunch’ game.

[Windlesham Don]

I will be travelling to the Valley more in hope than in expectation tomorrow. I’m hoping to meet up with Singapore Don pre-match to put the Womble world to rights!

NA’s pre-match interview explained some of the difficulties of last Saturday’s fiasco/debacle/unlucky defeat (delete as appropriate). However, he does seem to have a growing habit of shooting himself in the foot in interviews at the moment. He mentioned that Forrester was struggling with injury… so rest him or risk him in his best position, but don’t move him out to the flank losing his creativity and risking further injury (which it appears he has now picked up). Francomb was apparently also struggling… so why play him when regular left backs, Kennedy and Oshilaja, were awaiting a call? I have great respect for NA, but at the moment he seems to be digging holes for himself with the fans…

NA has admitted that we are struggling in the creative areas of the pitch and the news that Appiah has had a setback with his hamstring injury should be extremely concerning for all of us – with his recent injury record he was a risk when we recruited him and we cannot afford him to turn into the new Jon Meades…

Tomorrow, I don’t expect Forrester to make it, meaning that creating chances from our misfiring midfield will be nigh on impossible. I feel that NA will set us up not to get beat – I would take your hand off for a 0-0 now, and to nick a 1-0 win..?!

From Saturday’s team I expect either Francomb to move to right midfield, or Taylor to be shifted back there with McDonald restored up front. I prefer the former option with Deji coming in at left back to add athleticism and physicality.

Charlton are on a great run and have recruited well in the summer. I expect them to be contending for an automatic promotion place come the spring, and I struggle to see us returning with anything tomorrow other than another defeat. However, hope springs eternal…

COYD!!

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