A few quick thoughts about drawing against Carlisle over the weekend…
One point is better than a loss, though when you go ahead (especially away from home) it does always feel a bit anti-climatic. Especially as we needed to do something after Cambridge.
Reading back, it seems that we still seem to deal with corners as well as a Suzuki jeep, although Barcham is at least matching Chris Arthur in his early season promise.
So, watch him go on loan to Woking by December.
It sounds like we tried to win the game 1-0, but failed, and those there suggested how ordinary we looked in the second half. Or to quote somebody, “making bad decisions”.
There are some things that don’t help – Elliott missing a sitter is one of them. Neither is Osbourne’s current form, where for the second time in a week people were singling him out.
One only hopes that it is form rather than Brizzle City lending us a dud. If it’s the latter, then we’re in trouble because for some reason Nightingale remains collecting splinters.
Whether that’s kid gloves, being a kid, or as some cynic put it over the weekend (no, it wasn’t me) we’re not playing him because we fear he might get signed up elsewhere, it is rather baffling.
Big Willy looked more than assured at Cardiff, anyway, and I’d rather put him in than scrabble around for another loanee when that particular window opens. After all, that’s why we put in a youth system to begin with, right?
I will let others who were there comment on NA’s post game interview, although one wonders if he’s trying to manage expectations already.
As said earlier, a point away is a good one, but not quite so much when you’re ahead and the opposition aren’t any better.
So, can we expect more of the same for the rest of the season? Perhaps, although it’s still not September yet and a decent couple of wins can galvanise things.
The question is whether that will actually happen. Already, the first murmurings of “we haven’t really improved from last season” are getting whispered, and while you can simply dismiss that as frustration right now, it’s not a good idea to let that manifest.
Our big problem may not be struggling against the drop (which shouldn’t happen – this team is beyond good enough to avoid that), or battling for the playoffs, but trying to keep boredom at bay.
That comes when you sense little if any spark from anywhere. We’ve played sporadically well, but that’s not much different to how it’s been since January.
Still, there’s time to turn that around. We don’t have a game this week, which will allow us to think things over. And besides, we can continue to perfect that “raptor” celebration.
OK, being a bit old skool, I think contrived goal celebrations are cringeworthy anyway. But when you’re not winning games then they really do look shit.
SSN featured it for Carlisle and Cambridge yesterday morning, and the lass presenting it made a sly comment along the lines of “yeah, but they didn’t win”. And you can’t blame her or anyone else for saying it.
We seem to be having this sort of thing a bit recently. Akinfenwa’s choose-my-celebration is pretty much par for the course with him, and who can forget Tanner’s promise last season? Shame that he forgot the putting it in the net bit.
As we feel the need to act like a dance troupe for a West End musical, at least we should make it practical. Next time we score, perhaps we should run over to the corner flag, take it from the ground and ceremonially shove it up Osbourne’s arse?
If that doesn’t sharpen up his concentration, nothing will…