… though somehow it feels I need another break again.
Since the last update, it almost seems like ancient history that we lost to both Hartlepool and, far more predictably, Oxford. Unfortunately, the current slump is all too real, and anyone going up to Rochdale tomorrow (including your editor – yes, really) can feel justified in feeling a bit of trepidation.
Let’s not beat about the bush here. October has been an absolutely god-awful month for us. In fact, it was a pretty lousy week before that too, when Cheltenham gubbed us in the ninety-zillionth minute.
Did that hammerblow hit us a lot harder than we dare to admit? If our current form wasn’t worrying enough, we’ve now got into the trap where even when we do play well we still don’t win. As was apparently the case at Morecambe and Hartlepool.
We’re fortunate that we’ve still got breathing space with the good start we have, but that’s now starting to get smaller. Already, we’re looking at the bottom again, and that was NOT supposed to happen this season.
Where is it going wrong right now? I don’t believe this is a bad collection of players, for the most part. They’re not the horseshit from last season, but as somebody put it at the Accrington game – there’s something wrong with this team.
This “something” is, er, something that NA is starting to run out of time on. No, I’m not going to say he’s fighting for his job, but he’s now getting close to it going from we-will-turn-this-around to I-am-now-starting-to-look-over-my-shoulder.
Or if it isn’t, it certainly should be.
Before real life hit your editor in the worst way possible, there was due to be published a review of the first year of NA’s tenure. One of the points from it that never got to be made was that one of the biggest compliments was forgetting at times that this really is/was his first year in senior management.
Unfortunately, right now, we’re seeing that he is most definitely still a rookie.
And I wonder if this slump continues whether it will be worth rethinking some aspects of our coaching. No, that’s not a call to sack him (although equally we must never have the paralysis that we had in getting shot of TB), but I do think he now needs more backup.
We know he often calls on Harry and Terry Burton, but does he now need more readily available backup when he needs more experience to turn to? I’m thinking that maybe the time is right to consider adding a Shaun North type figure to his backroom staff.
If we’re being honest here, when your current assistants have the managerial/League experience of a) being Leek Town manager for a little while, and b) being here because you’ve spent a decade at the club, it’s no wonder NA reportedly had his head in his hands at the end of the Oxford game.
NA hasn’t put together a bad side, but it now needs a little bit extra – something a bit different to at least mentally get out of the rut we’re in. Is there any way of getting North involved with the first team at least short-term? His pre-season training sessions went down very well, apparently.
That would only be a sticking plaster, though. His remit is the u21s and we need him to concentrate on that. But there really are loads more experienced coaches around who don’t want to be a manager and certainly won’t tread on NA’s toes. But they would know little signs and little ways of stopping things like this become terminal.
Perhaps the next time NA speaks to Harry, he should ask him whether he knows of anyone in the LMA grapevine who could be that addition? We don’t need a “name”, just somebody who can help our current boss take that next step himself.
For now, and for tomorrow especially, we’ll see what NA had on his flipchart. Maybe he drew some sketches of statues and did his impression of History Today to the players : “See those statues? That’s you, that is. That’s you running your fastest”.
Things must be getting bad when the return of Charlie Sheringham – Charlie fucking Sheringham – gives us a genuine addition up front. To be fair to Teddy’s kid, he’ll never have a better opportunity to stake his claim again. He was fast becoming a flop before he got crocked, and a purple patch by him could send us – and him – skyward again.
Nobody else is performing up front, and Smith has hinted that he might not be here after his loan is up. To be honest, if we go into the loan market again, it won’t be the end of the world. While we absolutely can’t plunder it excessively like we did last time, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t freshen things up when we need to.
If our u21s were at a more advanced stage, they would have been put into first team action by now. And nobody would have complained, because that’s what clubs do when they’re in shit form – they try and change things. Unfortunately, our revolving door of players over the last few years reached pisstake levels and it has affected our mentality.
I know players tend to tell fans what they want to hear, ours especially, but I do semi-believe them when they say that we need the rub of the green again. OK, always going a goal behind is entirely their fault, and perhaps a more experienced backroom would help us identify why it happens like clockwork, but a couple of good wins really would lift the spirits again.
And yes, where that next win comes from is anyone’s guess.
When we go to Spotland tomorrow there’s little expectation. Last season’s defeat to Oxford proved to be a catalyst for us in some ways, and hopefully history will start repeating itself again. We could do ourselves so many favours tomorrow it’s unreal. But then, we could have done the same against Northampton, and Cheltenham, and t’Stanley…
The big news that happened during your editor’s break/hiatus was the FAC draw. And at least it being on BT Sport means only slightly more people than normal will get to see how shit we are at keeping clean sheets.
As a tie though, it’s a good one. Coventry are a big name at this level, and you would hope that our squad would be up for that. Indeed, I hope NA is using that as a carrot for tomorrow – want to play against the Sky Blues? Do the business in Rochdale first.
It won’t be an easy tie at all, and all things being equal we’ll probably lose it. But imagine if we didn’t? How much of a boost would that be? That said, a few consciousnesses will be pricked at if we draw and we have to go to Northampton for the replay.
Then again, 3000 of us turned up at a soul-less shithole in Buckinghamshire last season for a game we didn’t want to play.
I don’t envy Coventry fans over their ground situation, we’ve all been there and done it ourselves. I expect they’ll sort it out eventually and they’ll be back at the Ricoh, although not before more metaphorical blood is shed.
Will there be some sort of “home is where the heart is” display beforehand? If it’ll have the same effect at WAW before Barnet (and Franchise) then we should stay away from it. They never tend to work and the vast majority forget about it afterwards anyway.
That’s for this time next week, however. We have Rochdale tomorrow, and I’m not sure I fancy a 5h drive back in a bad mood…