As it says in the headline.
Just briefly – this has been a bit of a muted reaction to a goal-difference busting gubbing. Maybe it’s because Wigan are top, maybe it’s because us being second-bottom is finally starting to sink in, but there’s been no lynch mob this week.
I guess people have accepted we’re struggling, will continue to struggle for a while and, if truth be told, not expecting anything much after the January transfer window shuts. At least we’ve got NPL to make us happy.
Obviously all the issues we’ve had this season remain, but it seems like we’ve got something else to contend with now – us losing our heads.
It’s not the first time it’s happened this campaign, think Blackpool earlier this season, when we played all right but we conceded then Abdou got sent off (or was it the other way round? within a minute.
Three points became none that day, and boy could we have done with those right now.
Losing Forrester to suspension really isn’t going to help us, especially as we’re so reliant on our best starting XI not being injured/losing form. The ability to take a step back and count to ten will be very useful right now.
Wigan appeared to play the gamesmanship very well, and other teams will know that if we’re going to continue to act poorly to it. Scouting isn’t all about claiming free cups of tea and working out who takes corners.
We could have also lost Soares to a red card as well, apparently. Insert your own snarky comment here.
There’s a familiarity about some of the post game comments – played well up until the goal, no shots on target, etc etc. In isolation, losing 4-0 to the league leaders isn’t cause for a pre-Xmas suicide.
Except the trouble is, we can’t afford to do that now.
The good news is that we’ve got four games in ten days. The bad news is that we’ve got four games in ten days. Playing like a freshly-laid turd and getting a point or three is far better than playing well and losing all of them.
You don’t “play well and lose” all the time anyway. You either stop losing (because, you know, you’re playing well), or you’re actually shit. The league table doesn’t lie at this stage of the season, especially when you’re second bottom.
Our aim until the Spurz game is to keep our heads above water. Now is a good time to start getting results, and not just performances.
It’s also true that now is not the time to lose form, and there’s a danger of that – we’ve had a purple patch recently, but we’ve lost the last two games and the latest one by four goals as well.
And I would suggest people look at the league table. I know what the insinuation is when NA or whoever say they don’t (and I don’t entirely believe anyone who says that anyway), but if they really ignore it, they shouldn’t.
It might focus the mind.
It’s certainly not insurmountable, getting out of it, but a poor run now of all times makes it harder. Especially as we seem incapable of putting anything beyond the occasional two-game winning streak as it is.
So whether Saturday was a wake-up call, or just a reconfirmation of what we already knew, it’s hard to say. I guess because of the NPL news last week, that was always inevitable – it’s not like the football side of AFCW to spoil the good feeling of off-field happenings.
And yes, the s106 writeup that I threatened promised last week is due up this week. At least something AFCW related right now will make nice reading…