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« on: November 08, 2021, 07:34:33 PM »
Well put, Oxo. You've captured everything I have been thinking. My only disagreement was I didn't think the officials were poor but our team certainly was.
I have been to 3 away games this season Fylde, Leamington and Chester. We lost them all and didn't score in any of them. At Fylde we played as a team, were certainly their equal and deserved a draw. The other 2 were absolute shockers.
I was very positive about the team we assembled for this season. Whilst I didn't expect the team to perform perfectly from day 1, i thought by now we would see signs that we would be a team to be reckoned with. But with the exception of the Fylde and York games I have seen little to make me think we will be challenging at the top come the end of the season. Leaving aside the early FA Cup games we have been second best for long periods of games against supposed weaker teams, even in home victories. But what was worse were the 2 away games where we totally outplayed (even before we went down to 10/9 men). We have no divine right to win games but given the players we have, we should be doing a lot more. As Oxo said the manager seeming to accept being 1 down after 55 mins and then trying to change it is simply not good enough. We were awful in the first half - why? We were playing a team with a very leaky defence and an even more embarrassing exit from the FA Cup than us. Yet we offered nothing in attack. The only players to come away with any credit were the keeper who kept us in the game in the first half, Garner who always gives 100% and Burrow who won everything in the air. Ferguson came on and showed great commitment, Byrne at long last woke up and Jordan Preston who did his best on his own against at least 3 defenders.
The 2 sendings off were totally justified and stupid. Duxbury had a running battle with their winger from the start and was spoken to by thr ref in the first half. Message to Duxbury - don't shake your head at the ref in disbelief when you have been correctly pulled up for a foul or develop temporary deafness by pretending not to hear the ref when he wants to speak to you. It will not endear yourself to him. Elliott I can only assume was frustrated by the crap service he received all game or at least till he was sent off but he did commit 2 bookable offences and deserved to walk.
We certainly miss Shiels at the back and have had a number of injuries and suspensions this season. But the manager has been backed by the chairman to get replacements in - something not all our rivals have had the luxury of. The suspensions are self inflicted and should not be used as an excuse. At the end the team to their credit came over to applaud the fans, though not too close as they probably didn't want to hear the shouts of rubbish.
Craig says he never gets too carried away when we win or lose. Well I hope this time he does and let the players know that improvement is needed now or move on - them and him.