by Duffman » Wed Nov 18, 2015 11:05 am
I don't go to many games anymore. I guess in the past I would have considered myself part of the hardcore, going to almost all home games and some away games since I was old enough to attend games. However in the last couple of seasons I've been to less than a dozen homes games and after last nights performance I won't be rushing back.
I don't attend matches expecting or demanding a win but as long as the players and management give their all and display a will to win, you can't grumble too much after a match. However, last night was a shambles.
The Weather: No excuse to blame the weather, as with pitches you have to adapt. We all knew what the weather was going to be like, it was mentioned on here and weather warnings were on the news. The winds were westerly and due to get worse as the night progressed. So what do we do? We made sure we kick into the wind in the second half! The mind boggles.
Tactics: What tactics? We didn't have a clue in the second half. A team with one win all season got their tactics right. They pressed us, shot on sight, used the wind to whip in corners and put our defenders under pressure and more importantly, showed a desire to win. Jimbo sat on the bench with Ken Mc seemingly spending more time chatting to the linesman and 4th official than give any advice to the shambles on the pitch. We desperately needed a change of approach, but the double substitution did nothing. You can't just change the formation and expect it to work. In my opinion we should have packed the midfield to protect the defence a bit more and played the ball on the deck instead of hoofing the ball into the wind only for it to come back at us. We struggled to get the ball out of defence so by taking off two midfielders for two attackers made no sense to me whatsoever.
It didn't feel like an FA Cup match last night. It didn't feel like the club wanted it enough (apart from a couple of players, noticeably Barkhuizen). Something needs to change, £17+ to watch terrible football that seems to be getting worse each season can't continue. 3 or 4 seasons ago PMG was talking about boosting attendances to over 2400 (I think), now the club get half that with a promotion and for an FA Cup tie.