After reading through this entire thread, I’ve come up with some points:
1. Under Jim we had 10 points from 16 games, rock-bottom, no cup-run, and we were all resigned to relegation (don’t act like you weren’t!). I don’t want to bring up the past but it’s already been brought up far too much and it’s time to move on by all sides. Let’s draw a line under it.
2. We had a great start to this season, 2 wins and a draw in pre-season. This was then followed by nearly 4 wins out of 4 (if we hadn’t have suffered a late collapse at home to Rochdale!). Plenty to still be encouraged about.
3. I predicted a 2-0 loss to Newcastle. I didn’t expect anything but I still feel disgraced by the performance! Again, just a lack of focus, concentration, discipline, pressure on the man in possession, and a huge lack of any sort of performance ON the ball! We put out a team of 11 professional footballers and, even though I didn’t expect anything from the game, I at least expected a proper fight & more than one chance to our name.
4. Slew was good, mainly in the second half. Lavelle & Davis also didn’t do that badly, most of the goals weren’t their fault. Hendrie on the other hand - don’t get me start on his performance...
5. Did we have a midfield? Almost every time Newcastle won the ball back and attacked in the first half, it was 3/4 of them, versus our 4 defenders. Too many in the midfield were passive and didn’t add anything to the game. And then of course Toums was completely out of his mind to dive in like that.
6. Further to my previous points, if our players had actually closed the man on the ball down, a lot of thse 12 goals could have been avoided.
7. We. Need. A. Striker. I know they’re hard to come by, but goalscoring doesn’t look to be one of our best points that’s for sure.
8. A win on Saturday is a MUST. No excuses. Cooney to start. Southend are there for the taking.
COYS