Jilted John

Possibly the only surprising thing about Saturday’s defeat was that we took the lead. Even when we did we celebrated with less than full blown enthusiasm.

We had something to hold on to at last but sadly not many really carded that much nor felt like trying to do so.

The Stanley equaliser was a complete embarrassment and our No.1 obviously felt it rude to interrupt the ongoing head tennis by having the temerity to punch or catch the ball.

Apparently he totally forgot the advantage he had over everyone else in the box. Clearly, he believed he could only use his hands when fishing the ball out of the back of the net!

The second goal was almost as embarrassing as Lavelle allowed Leigh to come on the inside instead of showing him outside. They had a whole week working on the blee**ng obvious but all to no avail it seems!

There were more changes to the team with Clare coming straight back into the starting eleven. Apparently there was no room for Famewo nor Nile John in the squad even.

Jilted John as we can now call him hasn’t set foot on the pitch in a first team game. He’s made the squad but the bench is as far as he’s progressed.

Post-match and Jackson told us that John had been unlucky ( you can say that again ) as he’s been close to getting on. Jacko has seen more than us and says he not quite there for selection.

We may not have been at training but we’ve all witnessed the awful displays in the last 7 winless games. We have now garnered 1 point from a possible 21 points.

In those games we have scored only 3 times and been goalless in 4 of those matches. In all that time it appears that we can’t afford to risk John playing. How bad must he be? What is he doing so wrong in training? We need to be told.

It all points towards one of the worst loan signings in recent history and my God, there’ve been a few!

Week by week we are looking increasingly like a total disaster. That’s both on and off the pitch!

Our recruitment policy for the last two windows has been a shambles save for a couple of signings. I’m aware that there are no guarantees when any player is signed by we can ill afford to make even one mistake never mind the several we have committed!

Our newly acquired assistant manager has made an impact but again it would appear to be a negative one.

Pressuring is growing on Jackson as fans are starting to lose faith with him which awful to see however understandable.

The gloss is coming off Sandgaard following his recent interview and Q&A. He has done nothing to reassure fans over a number of issues and show little sign of doing so or changing his ways.

Obdurate indeed he is! Surely, even he can see how bad things are. If we don’t start getting wins soon then League Two beckons for sure! The implications of that don’t bear thinking about.

The worse matters get then the more foolish his recent comments appear. Remember, football is simple and only needs common sense, I’ll get a CEO in up to two years time, Martin knows loads about football.

I paraphrase of course but that is the reality of what he’s said and the consequence of his refusal to change, take a different approach or listen to others.

Thomas can colour it any way he wants but come August the reality of the almost inevitable poor season ticket sales will hit home. He then would have to at least admit he’s got it wrong in some areas and can’t just put it down to a poor season.

Some of us simply renew no matter what. There’s never been a guarantee of good football, being up the top of the league or indeed getting value for money.

I’ve not had any of that for years. Most of us renew almost out of blind loyalty but this year is different and I’m struggling to find reasons to do so again.

I accepted that Roland was a fool with no interest in our club. However, we have someone claiming to care about the fans and the club. A seemingly intelligent man who is acting like a bigger fool than Duchatelet.

Is Sandgaard trying to hoodwink us and makes fools of us in turn? I’d like to think not but I don’t like what I’m seeing now.

If he’s lost interest then I’d rather he told us and be done with it and pass the club onto someone else. I do wonder if that is the case and that the hamfisted attempts to fill The Valley are aimed at attracting an investor or increasing the likelihood of a sale.

Mind you, as expressed before, how you go about selling a club when a third party owns both the training ground and the ground itself I don’t know!

Of more immediate concern is tonight’s game against a resurgent Gillingham. Might we see the aforementioned Nile John I wonder? 

A few weeks ago we’d have been confident of a result against almost any team. However, we’ve not won at home since 5^th February.

We can but pray for a win to ease the pressure. If we go behind at any stage I think we’ll struggle to win.

Let’s hope we get the three points.

Come On You Reds!