And anyone who quotes that advert again has to live in Accrington for two weeks.
So, we’re back to being shit again. Especially in a relegation six pointer where we could have done ourselves a big favour.
I suppose the optimism beforehand, drawing against Burton earlier in the week and beating Posh before then, should have been the big warning sign for this game. As if we’d put three decent performances on in a row.
While an average of W1 d1 L1 isn’t a bad return over the past three games, this manages to feel worse because of a) who we’re playing, and b) results elsewhere.
Ignore Franchise, they’ll finish above us. And it seems we’ll be looking at Tranmere for the third and final relegation rivalry – assuming there isn’t a team that collapses in form from mid table.
GH certainly wasn’t happy, and maybe this will be a kick up the arse some badly need?
There isn’t too much point going over the game – I wasn’t there, most of you weren’t either, and I don’t think you’ll want reminding how lousy it was.
It does put in the whole activity in the transfer window into perspective. Or rather, lack of it.
We only made one deadline day signing – bienvenue a l’AFCW, Monsieur Julien Lamy – although we have the weird setup that Trott was going back to West Ham then suddenly he wasn’t.
Two keepers vying for places and hardly anyone anywhere else. Great.
By all accounts, we were trying for more, but the January transfer window is like shopping for a turkey on Xmas eve. If you’re lucky, you can pick up a turkey crown for over 60% of the retail price, but usually you have to accept stale vol-a-vents.
Instead, you either have to pay decent whack (which we haven’t got), or accept you’re going to get the dregs. Hodger himself seemed a little bit defensive in the OS piece this morning, saying he wasn’t going to spend for the sake of it.
Was it a poor transfer window, as some have been saying? In terms of new players in, then yes. We still have too many youngsters not being helped out by the older guard, many of whom still keep getting injured too often.
If only we got another Danny Bulman in…
If we’re talking terms of getting in better than we already have, then without knowing who we were going for, and who we could have realistically obtained, then perhaps it wasn’t such a bad one after all.
Here’s the problem : we mention we have the likes of Roscrow and Appiah, that they’re not going to get us out of the goalscoring hole (though judging by yesterday, it’s our defence that’s the issue).
That could be the case. So what is the point of adding more players of that calibre, if that’s who we were most likely to get in?
Lamy may or may not be the answer. Until he plays a couple of games at least, we’re not going to know.
If he does add something different (and better), then I’d rather that than getting in three or four players that just clog up the wage bill.
This is always the problem with the January transfer window, especially when you’re struggling. You need better players but you have to spend the money to get them. And you pay over-the-odds for them, when you can get better value in the summer.
We haven’t replaced Forss, but we might not have been able to. We’re after a striker, but so many others are as well.
Thinking about it, January gives out a lot of false hope to supporters. If you’re in the situation we are, there’s an expectancy that we will add four or five, all of whom will make our ascent up the table inevitable.
When it ends, and we get reminded of what it’s really like, people start sounding like a Leonard Cohen record minus the laughs and jollity.
We now have fourteen sixteen games left (forgot Rochdale and Oxford away). The fortunate thing is that it’s results and not performances that matter from now on.
Since GH took over, we’ve not lost two in a row (that’s torn it…), and since Forss went, we’ve still not done so.
We collectively think our forward line is weaker post-Flying Finn, and yes – losing him was a major blow. But even so, we’ve managed to find the net every game we’ve played since he’s gone.
Even yesterday, I understand we came close at 1-2 with some headers, and if one of those had gone in…
We have a good chance of staying up, and I don’t think GH deserves relegation on his CV. I certainly don’t doubt he’ll remind the players what’s what after yesterday’s debacle.
I wouldn’t put it as anything better than “good”, because we’re down the wrong end for a very good reason.
That said, we do need Wordsworth and Sanders back for starters. And is it too much to hope that Appiah in particular finally realises he’s out of contract this summer..?