Quick, somebody burn the Haydons Road post office…
Well, that was a great Easter period, wasn’t it? A time where we could have properly kicked on.
A time where six points would have been orgasmic, four would have been great, two would have been so-so, and one would have been a disappointment.
We managed to get zero. A huge, big, fat, blubbering zero.
Your editor was out for virtually all of the game yesterday, but caught the last eight or so minutes, although I gave up when Fleetwood scored.
I saw the goal once, and once is enough.
Tzanev knows he should have done better, and if he has a dog he’ll be (proverbially) kicking it all week.
Though if he does, it’ll probably rebound off a Fleetwood player.
But our Bulgarian Kiwi shouldn’t worry so much. He was the hero the previous game in SW17, and he’s been better than most recently.
Instead, focus is on what passes off as our forward line. No shots on target yesterday, wasn’t it?
While the table suggests we’re still very much in this, the collective mood suggests otherwise.
And a great deal of that is down to how the arse has fallen out of those who supposedly get the goals.
As said above, your editor caught a snippet of the game that I was told had been like that for the whole fixture.
The standard on display when we attack just shocked me.
I may not have intricate knowledge of tactics (no supporter does), but I know when we’re whale wank.
If we were still playing this morning, long after Fleetwood got back home, we’d still be overhitting crosses.
Many are frustrated/angry over the tactics we’re employing, and some are wanting us to go direct again.
But we’re shit when we’re doing that too.
I don’t think tactics are so much the problem as the sheer lack of quality full stop. Whatever we try, we don’t seem to be good enough at it.
That said, the past two games have been the first time under MR where we’ve lost back-to-back
You have to go back to the dying days of the GH regime for the last time that happened.
We have got better in the last two months. It’s now a case of whether we’re good enough for the remaining eight games…
Also, I note for the second game in a row that Pigott got subbed. Either he really is injured, or he’s increasingly ineffective.
If the suggestion that he’s saving himself because he’s moving on is true, I’d bench him.
Because we’re paying his wages, and he’s playing for us. Not himself.
Yes, we need all the goalscorers we can muster, but something is wrong with him right now, and he needs to know his place isn’t automatic.
If a striker is looking to move on after the season ends, he needs to be playing and scoring. Pigott is currently just taking to the field.
I could rant and rave a lot, but I won’t. Though some will be treated for hyperextended knees this morning, because they were too busy jerking them last night**.
** – I know that emotions are always raw after a bad defeat, but calling for the manager’s head?
We have some big issues, but our Head Coach isn’t one of them at the moment. Thankfully, the club has more of a brain these days.
Instead, I simply have a feeling of resignation, because we put one foot into League Two yesterday.
We’ve been here before, needless to say. My first thought after losing was back to Easter 2013, and THAT Barnet game.
That was an Easter Monday. Which was sunny but freezing. Where we’d lost on Good Friday. And we were “treated” to a player mistake back then too.
It does say something about our progression that I wrote all that eight years ago, but much of it is relevant in 2021.
Then again, back then we had the likes of Gary Alexander and Alan Bennett. Who do we have now?
Mind you, I also remembered this morning of another Easter shit-show, again against Fleetwood, though this time on Good Friday in 2018.
I think remembering that particular clusterfuck is why I’m just weary and resigned to the whole thing now.
Because what’s changed in three years?
Yes, we’ve had three (or is it four?) managers since then, and Robbo is having to deal with the turds he got left by GH.
But the years of tinkering with recruitment, when it needed (and needs) a big overhaul, the constant firefighting, the make-do-and-mend attitude, and having precious little identity as a team are finally catching up with us.
MR recognises that, and to be fair to AFCW itself it seems to know that too. But we actually have to act on it.
Too many people at the club talk a good game, but never do anything about it afterwards.
That last sentence could apply to so many areas, but for now we’ll aim it at our alleged goalscorers.
After t’Stanley this weekend, it will be the Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday grind until the end of the season.
Excuses have finally run out, and it’s now time to put up or shut up. Because come the next cull, most of this lot won’t be missed…