The Lounge

[MacWomble]

Crikey! And there was me looking at the upcoming fixtures and trying to forecast our points. Clearly a home win against Fleetwood would fit in with any optmist. The Cod Army FFS! I will await the reports, but this looks like our worst result of the season. I guess where there is life there is hope! The Cod Army….. FFS!

[Windlesham Don]

I was at the game yesterday and can provide some insight.

The mood among the fans is darker than the slate grey skies which enveloped KM for most of the day yesterday. Constant heavy rain from mid-morning added to the already sodden ground to produce a quagmire – the attached picture of the car park post-match gives an idea!

The pitch was fit to start the match, but within 20 minutes it was obvious that the ball was not going to roll and the match would become a lottery. The Fleetwood goal was a direct result of the sodden ground, when Trotter’s pass across the back stopped in a puddle and Fleetwood broke through to score. From then on, and whilst the scores were not even, the lily-livered man in black was not going to call the game off, not matter how farcical the conditions. My guess is that if we had equalised then he would have immediately abandoned the match. Crazy logic.

We huffed and puffed, but the combination of the state of the playing surface, our lack of physical threat up top and Fleetwood’s no nonsense defending resulted in another defeat.

The atmosphere among the crowd at the end of the game was pretty angry with the manager and the players, but taking a step back and looking at the situation objectively the entire game was a complete lottery. Calling for the manager’s head after losing yesterday is akin to sacking your cricket captain because he lost a toss!

IMO the game was decided by several factors: first and above all others was the farcical state of the playing surface. The referee bottled it because the game should have been abandoned. Second, was our lack of a target man – the loss of Pigott to injury on Thursday was a cruel blow, as the conditions meant that playing on the floor was impossible. Third, once again George Long did not cover himself with glory for the Fleetwood goal, committing himself far too early. At the other end the Fleetwood keeper made a couple of outstanding saves to keep them ahead. If Long had stopped their goal then I believe the match would have been abandoned at half time.

Once again the post match calls for the manager’s head are ridiculous. Once the footballing Gods had frowned on us there was little we could do on the pitch.

However, and sadly it is a big however, I hold Ardley responsible for not getting the game abandoned. If Steve Evans or Karl Robinscum had been in charge then they would have been berating the officials to get the game called off. When the referee stopped the match and called on the groundstaff to ‘mop up’ it was the management team’s duty to make sure that the match did not restart. Calling the groundstaff on implied that the ref did not think the pitch playable, the groundstaff did nothing to improve the conditions and therefore the game should have been called off, but we meekly allowed it to continue. In my book that was naive and unprofessional with us a goal down.

This match also highlighted our woeful lack of firepower and drive in midfield. Again, I hold the manager responsible for this as the recruitment in the last two windows has proven to be inadequate.

We may yet survive, but even as a long term Ardley supporter I now believe that he should go in the summer regardless of which division we are in. We need a manager who is a leader and who is not afraid of kicking butt when needed. Ardley appears naive in transfer dealings and weak when dealing with players.

We still have 7 games to save our season, but at the moment we are showing little evidence of having the fight or leadership, both on the pitch and off, to be able to achieve it.

[Ken the Womble]

The Fleetwood game was “The Game we HAD to Win”. Had we done so we’d have been level on points with them and in 18th spot. More importantly we’d only require 5 points for virtual safety.
We now require 8. Looking at our remaining six fixtures It’s hard to see where three wins or two wins with two draws will come from: Home matches with lower ranked teams have never been our forte so Bury (23rd) and Oldham (21st) will be no easier than away games at Wallsall (18th) or Doncaster (13th). I’m afraid that the new stadium is going to look quite empty with League 2 crowds next season.

[Windlesham Don]

Ken – I’m also confident that the new stadium is going to look empty next season, but with any luck may have a few in it the season after! ;o)

Today’s match is off, which is probably a blessing after playing 90 minutes on a quagmire on Friday. May 1st being touted as a rearrangement date and hopefully Doncaster will be on their summer holidays by then!

On a wider note, this was posted on the WUPGB after Friday’s game:

“Apparently Neil Cox openly admitted in the Prez Lounge on Friday that we have players who don’t give a toss.”

I’ve no idea whether this is true, hearsay, or simply a wind-up, but if true it would explain many of our awful flat performances recently.

IMO if there is an attitude problem in the camp then it is likely to be among our midfielders, who have looked as though they have been sleepwalking through most of our matches this season. My finger would be pointing at Trotter, Soares, Abdou, Forrester and Parrett as the most likely to have a bad attitude, and also the reason for us being overrun in midfield in many games (especially against the other strugglers) this season.

But what can be done this late in the season to turn this attitude around? IMO the management team should be taking the likes of Fuller and Charles to one side and asking them to take each of those in turn, slam them up against the dressing room wall and tell them exactly what will happen to them if they don’t knuckle down for the remaining games – I’m sure Harry Bassett will be able to advise on techniques!!

So, two home games now against play-off contenders, who will both be looking to gain maximum points from us. IMO we need to win at least one of these matches.

COYD!!

PS – I appreciate that the above opinion may be throwing a bit of a ‘curve ball’, but as Aussies you are apparently adept at making the ball curve as long as you have a piece of sandpaper handy… ;o)

[Devon Womble]

Phew! Thank Doncaster for the cancellation… pity NA didn’t have the balls to call for one too.

As for our future, while some faithful still cling to hope of survival (and I applaud them for their optimism), I do not.
Perhaps what worries me most is that when I look at the squad and what we might start anew with, I find that most are now too old, too injury prone, most certainly already signed up for another club, on loan (and I’m sure will be glad to get back to their old club), or not worth a light. All that leaves is our youngsters…. Oh, now there’s a thought…
Is it time for another ‘Batsford Babes’ I wonder? …. but then, that would require vision, nerve, leadership, guidance, encouragement, conviction, guile, people management skills… Ah, now I see the problem…

[Colum]

Here’s a question of a slightly different type. Why the hell did we sign Lloyd Sam? He’s obviously not fit, and we don’t really need yet another midfielder who can’t run fast. I just hope we’re paying him on a match fee basis and that he never gets further than the bench.

[Author]

Posts