Another Defeat

The pattern for this season (and many others!) continues and we should be used to it by now. We dominate for large periods, create lots of opportunities but fail to take them before finally gifting goals to the oppo.

It was blindingly obvious that if we didn’t turn that first half dominance into goals were going to be at risk of at least not winning. I’m as pessimistic as the best of them but at half-time even I didn’t think we could conspire to lose this!

Like Barnsley we’ve played Vale at home, like Barnsley we play in red and white but there ends the similarities. The Tykes had 8 shots on target, we had 7. They scored 7, we scored 2. Barnsley also didn’t gift goals in order to keep a clean sheet!

How can you explain a young lad and a very experienced player both making mistakes that lead directly to goals. To be fair to Asiimwe he is young and inexperienced and that aside, he looked knackered. Hector really ought to know and do better.

We constantly change the defence but no one is really staking a claim for a right to start. That, allied to changing systems is a recipe for disaster and so it proves.

Finally playing two up front made us more potent and it should have happened before. However, we still need to make more of our chances. CBT gets in to some positions but again his slowness to either shoot or cross early enough costs us.

In the first half he kept cutting inside but worked his across the goal trying to create a shooting chance. At one stage I thought he’d end up in the car park before doing either!

The ref was awful and yes, it should have been a red card but that doesn’t excuse the loss. Again we’ve collected more yellow cards. You might argue that one or two were unjustified but the players ought to know that time wasting and arguing will almost certainly lead to a card.

AMB and Alfie have now, I think, both collected 3 yellows. Both Saturday’s booking were avoidable. They know how it works this season. Ultimately, our thin squad will be tested again as the inevitable suspensions kick in.

The bench was awful on Saturday and most of those players really need to go. I counted 4 that I’d happily say goodbye to. How can we have any success if that’s all we’ve got?

Holden’s post match comments almost seem to distance himself from the recruitment process saying Scott and his team would have it in hand. I hope that Dean isn’t removed from any transfer dealings.

Our new owners and in particular, frontman Charlie boy have been very quiet. We need more than being photographed outside the pub. The season’s start has been a disaster and we need to be told what they intend to do to address it.

I fear we won't hear anything or get any insight.

Prior to 1^st September. By then something will either have been or we’ll have had another lacklustre summer transfer window being told that we couldn’t quite get deals over line, were just beaten to one or two signings etc.etc.

I’m really struggling to see how we can expect to get anything from Saturday’s visit to Oxford. Liam Manning’s boys are in good form but in any case, I think we’d struggle to beat any team in the league at the moment. That’s how bad it is!