Well, we are holding the rest of the division up…
Doesn’t look particularly good right now, does it? The slight feeling of a recovery after Rochdale got extinguished yesterday at the Valley, and the league table really isn’t lying at the moment.
We’re bottom, and for a very good reason.
When WD/GH start working on things this week, they’ll probably look back at why we failed to respond positively to having a man advantage from the first minute. Maybe they’ll both think that they took the wrong approach.
Or maybe it will just end up confirming what many if not most of us know already – this lot are shit, and January cannot come quick enough.
That’s just three games away, or more realistically four. As much as I’d like a wholesale change on 1/1/19, I’ve just realised we have a game that day at Portsmouth.
Happy fucking New Year indeed.
Then again, that game won’t seal our fate, and in truth neither will yesterday. It was always going to be a tough ask with our full-strength squad (don’t laugh) anyway – CAFC are a good side, and they beat Pompey midweek after all.
But it doesn’t help when you’ve got a half-fit striker who’s had to sit on the bench. Nor does it help when your best one is injured until the New Year, that the guy you’re having to put up front is sent off for diving.
It also doesn’t help when your club captain and (still) best defender is crocked as well, even if he’s still distracted by his failed move to Ipswich before the transfer deadline day.
And it really doesn’t help when you’re being constantly let down by a player who seems to spend six months off if he stubs his toe (Appiah) or who could get injured and nobody could tell the difference (Jervis).
So we were a bit on a hiding to nothing yesterday, and the pre-game predictions were more or less spot on.
It doesn’t make it any easier to swallow though. And that now puts pressure on getting results at Wycombe, and winning against Plymouth and/or Blackpool too. Something we’ve got to do with this bunch of retards as well.
Can’t we have a spate of bad weather that calls all games off between now and Fleetwood in the FAC?
So, are there any positives to be had right now? Believe it or not, yes. We’re “only” six points off safety, and it only takes a couple of good weekends to claw that back. Never underestimate the power of momentum.
We still have 24 games left this season, and while I wouldn’t particularly recommend us doing so we could still get out of trouble even if we’re in the same spot by the end of February.
There are apparently moves already being made for January, and as said on SW19 previously – WD isn’t going to publicly throw the players under the bus just yet. Especially when he needs them to somehow do something in the next four games.
And thankfully we’ll be playing more of the Rochdales and less of the Charltons.
Of course, none of that should put a gloss on the harsh reality we’re in. I read last night a CAFC fan thought we looked a Conference side, and he’s not wrong.
I understand that a couple of our players weren’t too happy with Taylor coming over to applaud our fans after the game. Especially as our former striker got the heartfelt chants, and they got the “not fit to wear the shirt” treatment.
Truth hurts, I guess.
But then, letting Taylor go in the way we did is symbolic of our current turmoil. Especially seeing his goal yesterday and realising how sharp he was – even though he wasn’t 100%.
What you’re seeing with us right now is the logical conclusion of 18+ months of continued poor planning. We probably wouldn’t have been able to keep Taylor, but his replacements have been awful.
And with recruitment, it’s always been the case of who you replace an outgoing player with.
Sadly, a couple of our more moronic fans are already going full-in on blaming our new manager for yesterday. No real surprise though, they’re pretty much the Ardley cultists who are still extremely bitter at his departure.
Thankfully, the majority of our fanbase have much more of a brain, and much less of a major axe to grind. WD may or may not turn out to be the answer, but by fuck – some people really don’t want him in charge.
I want us to stay up this season for so many reasons. But I didn’t think one of them would be because it would aim a well-deserved middle finger at some of our lot…