Another first round in a cup competition, and another crashing out…
And “crashing out” seems a pretty apt term this morning, after being 2-0 up at home to Plymouth. While it’s “only” the JPT, this does seem to hurt a bit this morning.
Granted, we put in some yoof players like Beere (who started and got injured), Gallagher (who came on and also got injured), and David Fitzpatrick (who came on and thankfully didn’t), all of whom aquitted themselves well against a strong Argyle side.
But not for the first time, when they pulled it back to 2-1 you knew what was going to happen. And that’s a bit worrying.
OK, Azeez might have done better with a couple of efforts, although he’s still a “raw” L2 striker (and some argue the toss about even being that level) and did at least get in positions to score.
But when we went behind, just like the Cambridge game, you just couldn’t see us equalising. Even worse, we were ahead then behind in the matter of just three minutes.
Again, if that just happened in this particular cup competition, you could just dismiss it. But we’ve seen us throw it away to various degrees in the first Plymouth game, Cambridge, and Carlisle.
Even our two wins were touch-and-go, at least in terms of being comfortable ones where we dominated throughout.
The long and short of it is, we’ve gone out in a competition at the first hurdle yet again. And the JPT is one that any semi-decent team can have a good run in.
Remember last year, when we only fell to Brizzle City after a decent couple of wins? That’s not so much ten months ago, but feels more like a lifetime.
OK, that might sound a tad melodramatic, and IIRC we got lucky against Southend a bit, but it’s unavoidable to think that when the next round is drawn, we’d be in it if we had a bit more mettle.
NA was “devastated” by the loss last night, and on his birthday too. One wonders if, in this undoubtedly crucial season for him, doing well in the JPT was something he was expected to do?
OK, the injuries didn’t help, although they didn’t affect the defence (which featured Osborne** who got mentioned again a bit after the game – insert own comment here).
** – one day I’ll spell his name without a “U”.
But again, he does have to answer why we’ve fatally let it slip again. His “there are bits we will show them” response isn’t at the level of TB’s infamous “home truths” comment, but many more of these failures…
Fortunately, we beat Exeter, and if we do the same at Mansfield on Saturday then last night will be forgotten pretty quickly. Victory is always the best medicine, unless you’re diabetic then insulin is a better bet.
The trouble is if we don’t win – and especially if we fall behind/concede after half time. The Stags are a tad, ahem, tough and they’re the sort of teams that we often come a cropper against. Even just a month into the new season, we’re finding we need results just to stop the murmurings of discontent from remaining just murmurs.
Unfair? Maybe. Premature? Probably. But even last night I sensed one or two more attitudes hardening, where they had been quite soft beforehand, even with the youth playing.
Actually, they seemed to be the bright spot, which is telling. Maybe we’ll see more of them in the upcoming weeks? At least they had a bit of something about them, so no doubt we won’t see them again until December…