Despite only conceding 1 goal so far, our defence does tend to give the opposition a lot of half chances. In reality, Wycombe and Port Vale should have scored against us and Ryan Delaney missed a good chance on Tuesday so I need the defence to be alert for the whole 90 minutes. No drifting off to sleep a la Santos at Wednesday last season.
My comments before the match were just too true!
A casual sloppy performance from which we got exactly what we deserved – nothing.
The opening exchanges were reasonable but we found it so hard to get any form of midfield control. We had a number of corners which were totally wasted. Passes were slow and off target so we couldn’t get going. But neither could Wednesday whose passing was pretty bad too.
Bradley livened things up when he burst into the box but his shot was blocked.
Afolayan and Bradley combined to rob a defender but Bradley shot wide from a glorious position. That and the following minutes’ farce changed the whole match.
Continuing our endless passion for passing between the defenders and the keeper, Santos ridiculously just turned and hoofed the ball backwards. Unfortunately, Trafford was not on his goal line and the ball headed towards an own goal but Trafford brilliantly got back and hooked the ball away with his leg.
Unfortunately, it went to Bannon who wasn’t in a position to shoot so he looked to play it into the area. At this stage, we had the chance to get men back to cover but they were slow and didn’t cover as the ball eventually came across to an unmarked man 15 yards out to score. A terrible mistake by Mr Casual but the rest of the team had ample opportunity to get back and cover.
And at that the game changed.
Our heads went down and Wednesday bucked up. Iredale went to sleep defending and lost his man to almost immediately concede a second. Poor poor defending.
So 2-0 and effectively game over.
We were down and looked lost.
Hopefully, the manager would shake them up at half time but there were no changes and no change to the pedestrian passing across the back.
Johnston left his man to run clear and pass inside for Windass to miss an absolute sitter.
Santos then ridiculous miskicked again and we continued to give the ball away.
Nothing whatsoever had changed since half time. It makes you wonder what the manager expected to happen but we just did not attack.
Their keeper saved a free kick from Iredale. Santos was outpaced on a break only for Trafford to dive bravely at their man’s feet.
5 subs were made but nothing changed.
We were just so slow – slow of movement and slow of thought.
Very very poor.
Marks:-
Trafford - 6 Not much hope on the goals. His kicking was a bit poor and the slowness of playing out in 2nd half when we should have been chasing the game was annoying
Bradley - 6 Yet again, our best player. Had one shot blocked and then, sadly, missed our only chance of the game
Jones - 5 Outjumped for a couple of dangerous headers in the 1st half
Santos - 2 Awful. Mr Casual! At fault for the moment that changed the game and just did not improve. So so slow in playing the ball out. He played the game at walking pace.
Johnston - 4 Out of position a couple of times in the 2nd half when Wednesday should have scored.
Iredale - 4 Mistake for goal no 2 – just left his man to go clear and score
Williams - 5 A struggle
Morley - 4 The midfield was totally ineffective. Some horrible corners and free kicks
Dempsey - 4 Could not impact the game
Afolayan - 4 Again, just not in the game
Bakayoko - 3 Dreadful. His first touch was horrible, leading to us endlessly losing possession
Bodvarsson - 4 Like others, could not get in the game
Charles - 4 Like Bodvarsson, could not get in the game
Kachunga }
Sadlier } – all 3 just added to the averageness of the team as a whole
Kachunga }