90 minutes of two teams playing some pretty awful football and neither team ever really looking like scoring. Again. I'm writing this this morning as I travelled back to uni after the game last night, having watched 3 games over my Christmas break and not seen a single goal, that's not what fans pay for and if I didn't use a season ticket then I highly doubt I would be paying to be back anytime soon.
How we can be 6th in this league is beyond me and goes to show just how bad this league is. We haven't won a game by more than 2 goals all season and haven't scored more than 2 goals in a game all season either, which is pretty shocking for a team that is so high up the league.
It's all very well and good not conceding many, but I would put that down to poor opposition and Dan being an outstanding goalkeeper rather than strong defensive performances. Today with 3 at the back, Thompson was exposed time after time and White and Coker were pulled out of position a few times as well. Williams is far from the most reliable player in the world either and his time at centre back wasn't too convincing.
Going forward, we were shocking today. Piggott is just Barry Corr three or four years ago, doesn't really offer anything new other than a bit more mobility and the ability to get dragged deep and out wide at times when we need the tall centre forward to be in the box. Shaq lacks the footballing intelligence to be clinical, he'll do a fantastic turn and then an awful pass, or run half the pitch and then wait for the defence to catch up and shoot straight at the keeper. Williams out wide seemed to have no idea where he was supposed to be most of the time, and Weston's introduction was about as useful as a lead balloon.
Deegan offers nothing going forward, Leonard is playing a much more defensive role this season and Payne just got bullied out of the game yesterday. How on earth Brown can justify putting Atkinson on for Shaq with 5 minutes to go at 0-0 at home when we were applying more of the pressure I don't know, Atkinson is a great player for keeping things solid but he isn't a match winner or a player who you can put on to score goals.
Dan Bentley 7 Made some good saves at times but didn't have masses to do
John White 5 Took him 4 or 5 attempts before he realised that the wind blew his long hoofs down the line into the stand, beaten almost every time by his man out wide as well
Adam Thompson 6.5 Very shaky at times and clearly lacking game time, especially as the most experienced centre back, made a few mistakes but on the whole did okay
Ben Coker 7 Wasted at centre back but did the job well and threatened going forwards out wide
David Worrall 7 Our biggest attacking threat yet again, got forward and tracked back well
Ryan Leonard 6 Little impact on the game, tried too hard with his long distance shots and didn't influence the game
Gary Deegan 6.5 He did what he was put there to do, break up the play, but offered nothing else
Jack Payne 6 Bullied out of the game by a physically big and strong team so struggled to have the influence he usually does
Jerome Binnom-Williams 6 Somewhere between left back and left wing to start with but ended up in no mans land most of the time, better at centre back but didn't look assured
Shaquille Coulithurst 6 He had the chances and showed glimpses with good turns but the end product is never there, his finishing and decision making is atrocious
Joe Piggott 7 A good debut when he has clearly only just met the rest of the team, got dragged deep and wide too much for my liking but a promising start
Myles Weston 6 No threat added by his introduction whatsoever
Will Atkinson 6.5 The wrong sub, and little time to impact the game at all
A big statement I know, but I don't see Phil Brown getting us out of this league. Last season we were excellent but didn't score enough, and this season we have taken a step backwards. He clearly can't find a goal scorer for this level and the drop in form from the likes of Leonard and Hurst is particularly worrying. Egan and Sokolik disguised a good, but not outstanding, defence last season, and the rest of the squad has been on worse form this season than last. The only two improvements are Jack Payne, although he can only be truly effective against certain opposition, and David Worrall, other than that I don't think Bolger, Weston, Shaq or any other new signings offer any improvement on what we had before. To retain our key players and take a step backwards from last seaon, still not resolving our key problem, is criminal and I don't see anything changing any time soon.
