After a night's sleep, I still haven't got my head around yesterday's mad happenings at Kingsmeadow.
For 95 and a half of the 99 minutes, it was the perfect away performance - we controlled the game, were solid at the back, dangerous up front and running the midfield.
But for three minutes and a second or two in the sixth minute of injury time, we were a shambles, and those were the minutes which ultimately decided the game.
For a side to fold as we did from such a position of strength was a shambles - and showed the lack of backbone which crops up every now and then.
Some will compare it to Chesterfield the other week - but they were ruthless finishes against a quality side - this was a collapse against a side who had barely had a shot of note all afternoon, and had been second best.
Others will cite a lack of leaders on the pitch, and use it to once again bring up the departures of Russ Penn and Keith Lowe, and before that Alan Bennett - but we have seen similar collapses with them on the field in the past, with 4-1 losses at Rochdale and Chesterfield, and the game earlier this season at Bury coming to mind.
It was just spineless, and I am afraid even those who have the biggest agenda against the manager cannot put this one at his door. He had set the players up perfectly, got the selection and tactics spot on and could not have done any more. His players let him down.
People will say it's his team, and his fault, but I don't go with that on this occasion as he could have done no more - no-one, not even the most ardent Dons fan, could have seen that coming.
First the good bit. Mark Yates shuffled the team around, and brought back the diamond. Not all thought that was the right decision and I certainly had my doubts about it, but it was working.
We got the perfect start with Troy Brown's header in the first five minutes - our 10th goal this season in the first 15 minutes of a league game.
But maybe we should have seen the omens coming, as this collapse means we have only won two of those games in which we have scored so early - away at Fleetwood and home to Exeter.
We looked confident though. David Noble's return was a welcome one, and he seemed to bring the best out of Matt Richards and Jason Taylor, who won the battle in midfield and gave Byron Harrison and Jermaine McGlashan plenty to feed off.
We were as dangerous in the final third as we have been all season. McGlashan's pace and Harrison's willing running and hold-up play was too much for the Dons' back line and we were comfortable.
McGlashan should have had a goal in the first half, but when he got on the end of Harrison's perfect cut back five minutes into the second half, we were in cruise mode.
Remember this was a Dons side which has struggled to score goals recently. We haven't been prolific either, so to go into a 2-0 lead away from home (or in any game) is virtually unknown territory.
It should have been enough. Scott Brown had had little to do, the defence had dealt with what threat there was from front two Jack Midson and Charlie Wyke as the game entered its' final quarter.
Neal Ardley had used all three of his substitutes. Jake Nicholson had come on at half-time, then he put Chris Arthur on at left-back as McGlashan was having the other one on toast, and he threw on an extra forward in Danny Hylton.
He had to do something as the home fans were very restless, and all three of them had an impact, but only because we allowed them to.
McGlashan should have wrapped the game up with a chance similar to the one he missed in the first half. Once again he did Darren Jones for pace, but dragged his shot across the face of goal.
It shouldn't have mattered as we had that two-goal cushion - but it did.
Everyone knows that it is a dangerous lead. We should have closed the game out, and not given the home fans anything to cheer, and the home players anything to grasp on to.
But three minutes after that, we were behind.
The first two goals had an element of luck about them, but for both we allowed Midson too much space down our right-hand side.
The first ball in found Hylton, and his first touch looked to be going wide but went in off Sido. Midson's second pass was square to Nicholson on the edge of the box, and his shot hit Richards and wrong-footed Brown.
Two subs, two shots, two deflections, two goals. Yes, a stroke of luck for both, but they should not have been given the opportunities.
It got worse with the third goal. Barry Fuller's long ball, an unchallenged flick-on, and Hylton skipped through to score past our shell-shocked, static and square back four.
Our heads were mentally scrambled. That third goal, I am sure, was a direct result of the first two, which had left us with sagging shoulders and dropped heads.
The lead was gone in the blink of an eye, from a position of comfort to chasing the game, which, to be fair, we did as Taylor benefited from more Harrison spadework to score, thanks to a goalkeeping error (more of that later).
More stats - this is the only second time we have scored three goals in a league game this season, and only the fifth time we scored two goals in one half - we drew three of them 2-2, with Burton, York and Hartlepool at home, and beat Morecambe at home.
Three goals away from home has been a bigger rarity - Northampton away last season was the last time it happened in a league game, and before that you go back to Oxford and Bristol Rovers in the heady days of 2011-12, then at Macclesfield and we scored five at Dagenham. It also happened in the FA Cup at Luton.
One difference - we won all those games. We should have won this one as well and I am afraid the reason we did not is ultimately down to a player who has saved us single-handedly on many occasions.
Despite that, Scott Brown has his critics. Those who say he doesn't come off his line enough, and doesn't do enough to command his box.
They have a point to a certain extent, but I think Brown is in the top five goalkeepers in this division. It is rare when we have to say he is at fault for a goal, but this one is down to him.
It was a decent cross, but having decided to get something on it, he had to get there. He didn't. Wyke won the header and Midson had a tap-in.
It is ironic given his perceived failings, but I think if he had stayed on his line, I don't think the Dons would have scored. Wyke would have headed the ball across goal, but then Brown could just have plucked it out of the air, and we would have come away with a point.
There were six minutes added on, and my watch timed the goal going in at six minutes and seven seconds. The last kick - literally.
Not the reward we should have had after the performance for the vast majority of the game, but at least it would have been something.
The bottom line is we should have won the game. We deserved to win the game, and the lack of mental strength among the players is the reason we didn't win the game.
It is something the manager needs to address, as it is the fourth game we have lost this season from being in front, and add that to eight draws when we have been leading, that is 28 points given away.
28 points. With those, we would have 76 points and a comfortable lead at the top of the table. Think about that for a moment.
But if you think this is a problem just confined to this season, then think again. Our 28 points lost is the biggest number in the division - and we also held that record last season, yes - with the much-lamented and missed Penn, Lowe and Bennett in the squad.
Last season, we lost 26 points from winning positions - again we lost four games after we were winning, and we drew seven, so this is not a new issue.
That would have taken us up comfortably. Two seasons ago, we only gave 10 points away from winning positions, and gained 14. Again, those lost points would have taken us up.
But look at those last two seasons in particular - 54 points lost. Mind-blowing.
Most of those games have been when we have led by a goal, or ended up drawing a game from 2-0 up. The last time I can find a Cheltenham Town losing a game from two goals in front is August 21, 2010 when we led 3-1 at the Don Valley against Rotherham, and lost 6-4.
When Steve Cotterill looked to bring players in, he used to target two things - club captains and players-of-the-year - Neil Howarth and Mark Yates were players he brought in under that criteria as they were leaders.
Now Yates and Howarth need to take a leaf out of his book. On the field we need leadership, and we need players with mental strength, and that is partly where the summer recruitment needs to be focused.
We need some characters. Players who are going to fight all the way for the shirt, and put their bodies on the line. We had them in Penn, Lowe and Bennett, but the manager let them go, I hear some say, but the stats above show they too were part of teams which let games slip away.
It is not an easy solution, but one that needs to be found, or this club will never get out of League Two.
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
So that's that then...
Ah well, it was good while it lasted. Hope you enjoyed it.
What, I hear you ask...?
Those 11 brief, unforgettable, tantalising minutes when Cheltenham Town had a chance of getting into the play-offs.
Those 11 minutes between Byron Harrison's 68th minute goal, and Dean Morgan's 79th minute penalty, where there was that little crack of light into the promised land of the top seven before it was slammed shut again.
I know we can mathematically still make it. We are six points behind with nine games left, but take away the sentimentality and heart-ruling-the-head thinking and we all know it isn't going to happen.
We know it especially after this, another curates' egg of a performance, another to put into the 'sums up or season' bracket, and consign to the 'quickly forgotten as a spectacle' pile.
I thought we started off okay, lost our way for a bit, then got a bit better, and finally lost our way again. Seven months summed up again in 90 minutes, something we have seen far too often.
We are just not good enough. Not enough quality, not enough ruthlessness in key areas, not enough players who can change a game by taking it by the scruff of the neck and dominating it.
The effort is there. Troy Brown, Steve Elliott, Sam Deering and Terry Gornell epitomised that for me. Brown and Elliott are a decent pairing looking reasonably solid each game, Deering and Gornell both try very hard, but neither has the quality to really affect a game, and make tight encounter into a comfortable win.
I feel sorry for Gornell. I am a fan of his, like his work-rate and he has ability. But nothing is going his way. He needs a goal desperately, but I am not sure he is being helped his role in the system.
All of his career, he has played up front and now is being asked to do a different job which is alien to him, and while he does it wholeheartedly he must be frustrated when he looks 10-15 yards up the field and sees Jamie Cureton missing chances he must wish were falling to him. I am convinced that if he played further forward, Gornell would be a success.
Cureton has been a great player, and has a great goalscoring record, but we have not seen that.
We have not seen the 20-goal man from Exeter last season, we have not seen enough of the instinctive finisher and goal poacher from Bristol Rovers, Norwich, QPR and Reading.
Is that down to lack of service? Partly maybe.
But lack of service wasn't why he missed those golden chances at Scunthorpe, Tamworth and Northampton to name three, or why last night he found himself one on one with the last defender on three or four occasions but was easily dispossessed each time or why that late header from Deering's perfect cross was closer to the corner flag.
Have we expected too much? Maybe, but I think we are entitled to expect more of a player with his record and pedigree - but ultimately I am afraid we have another Bob Taylor scenario here, a player with past glories who has come here as he is heading down the other side of the hill.
It was always a gamble for us to put our goalscoring faith in the hands of a 38-year-old, but this is, I am afraid, like most of my gambles at the races last week. A loser.
Once again, it took a change up front to bring us a goal, and once again it was Byron who provided it. He has 13 goals now, a decent return in a struggling, mid-table side.
On the flanks, Ashley Vincent looked leggy. Seven games in a row after four or five months of nothing is taking its' toll, while Jermaine McGlashan had a wretched first half and improved slightly when the diamond came back and he moved more central. But only slightly.
Post-match he said there had been 'brief discussions' about a new contract and didn't want to talk about the situation. For someone who usually find it difficult to stop talking in interviews, this is very telling.
Everyone knows he won't be here next season. The club will try to keep him, but his agent is, I am sure, already hard at work, but judging on performances like last night will he be missed?
His pace will, but has there, over the past 100 or so games he has played for us, been enough end product?
He has undoubtedly won us matches down the years, but has he done it often enough?
I say no, in terms of goals and assists, and if he goes up a level to League One that is something he needs to work on if he doesn't want to join Kaid Mohamed in the 'quickly discarded' file.
I don't see him as someone like Martin Devaney or Marlon Pack - someone who will go on and forge a career higher up and play a decent number of games in League One or the Championship.
It was good to see David Noble again and he definitely brings a calm to us - although his introduction did mean we saw that diamond again. It is not a loved formation and is blamed by many for this season's travails.
Noble is not fully fit, and it showed at times. His passing though was good, bar one vital moment, when he gave the ball away in the lead up to the mess which resulted in the penalty.
Another interesting area at the moment is our full-back positions. At right-back, we have Mitch Brundle, who in his four games has played well in three of them and discovered he has a long throw into the bargain.
He has never played right back before, and has displaced another out-of-position loanee in Michael Ihiekwe, and has out-performed him with better distribution and better aerial ability.
Brundle, we are told, is effectively on trial with a view to next season, and on the evidence of three of his games so far might have a chance. I'd like to see him at centre-half though, if that is his number one position.
His introduction has shifted Sido Jombati to left back, and pushed CBB out (not before time, a large number of fans would say), and we have looked a bit more solid since that happened.
The club has an option for another year on CBB's deal, but his recent axing must mean the writing is on the wall there. As for Sido, he is still nowhere near the player who burst on the scene two years ago, and there is still a decision to made for me about whether he gets another contract.
In fact, Scott Brown is the only 'must-keep' player for me on the out of contract list. Jombati is 50-50, while I cannot see Deering, Elliott and Cureton being retained along with CBB.
I would keep Connor Roberts but he might want to go and find regular games somewhere and no-one could begrudge him that, while we haven't seen Joe Hanks or Ed Williams. I'd keep Joe, but think Ed will go.
Troy Brown, Jason Taylor, Matt Richards, Zack Kotwica, Harrison and Gornell have another year.
One or two of them could be made available, who knows for example if Taylor would want to stay if he isn't going to get games, but these players will form the basis of the summer rebuilding job.
With nine games left, and mid-table mediocrity all we have to play for now, I want to see Zack given some starts, and maybe the odd run-out for some other youngsters.
There is one other thing that we definitely needs resolving, and very quickly please - the manager's contract.
If he is going to stay on, then can we please just get it signed, and be done with it, so we can all move on. If he isn't going to sign it, then let's just say so and give someone else these last few games in charge to bring down a very welcome curtain on this difficult and ultimately forgettable season.
What, I hear you ask...?
Those 11 brief, unforgettable, tantalising minutes when Cheltenham Town had a chance of getting into the play-offs.
Those 11 minutes between Byron Harrison's 68th minute goal, and Dean Morgan's 79th minute penalty, where there was that little crack of light into the promised land of the top seven before it was slammed shut again.
I know we can mathematically still make it. We are six points behind with nine games left, but take away the sentimentality and heart-ruling-the-head thinking and we all know it isn't going to happen.
We know it especially after this, another curates' egg of a performance, another to put into the 'sums up or season' bracket, and consign to the 'quickly forgotten as a spectacle' pile.
I thought we started off okay, lost our way for a bit, then got a bit better, and finally lost our way again. Seven months summed up again in 90 minutes, something we have seen far too often.
We are just not good enough. Not enough quality, not enough ruthlessness in key areas, not enough players who can change a game by taking it by the scruff of the neck and dominating it.
The effort is there. Troy Brown, Steve Elliott, Sam Deering and Terry Gornell epitomised that for me. Brown and Elliott are a decent pairing looking reasonably solid each game, Deering and Gornell both try very hard, but neither has the quality to really affect a game, and make tight encounter into a comfortable win.
I feel sorry for Gornell. I am a fan of his, like his work-rate and he has ability. But nothing is going his way. He needs a goal desperately, but I am not sure he is being helped his role in the system.
All of his career, he has played up front and now is being asked to do a different job which is alien to him, and while he does it wholeheartedly he must be frustrated when he looks 10-15 yards up the field and sees Jamie Cureton missing chances he must wish were falling to him. I am convinced that if he played further forward, Gornell would be a success.
Cureton has been a great player, and has a great goalscoring record, but we have not seen that.
We have not seen the 20-goal man from Exeter last season, we have not seen enough of the instinctive finisher and goal poacher from Bristol Rovers, Norwich, QPR and Reading.
Is that down to lack of service? Partly maybe.
But lack of service wasn't why he missed those golden chances at Scunthorpe, Tamworth and Northampton to name three, or why last night he found himself one on one with the last defender on three or four occasions but was easily dispossessed each time or why that late header from Deering's perfect cross was closer to the corner flag.
Have we expected too much? Maybe, but I think we are entitled to expect more of a player with his record and pedigree - but ultimately I am afraid we have another Bob Taylor scenario here, a player with past glories who has come here as he is heading down the other side of the hill.
It was always a gamble for us to put our goalscoring faith in the hands of a 38-year-old, but this is, I am afraid, like most of my gambles at the races last week. A loser.
Once again, it took a change up front to bring us a goal, and once again it was Byron who provided it. He has 13 goals now, a decent return in a struggling, mid-table side.
On the flanks, Ashley Vincent looked leggy. Seven games in a row after four or five months of nothing is taking its' toll, while Jermaine McGlashan had a wretched first half and improved slightly when the diamond came back and he moved more central. But only slightly.
Post-match he said there had been 'brief discussions' about a new contract and didn't want to talk about the situation. For someone who usually find it difficult to stop talking in interviews, this is very telling.
Everyone knows he won't be here next season. The club will try to keep him, but his agent is, I am sure, already hard at work, but judging on performances like last night will he be missed?
His pace will, but has there, over the past 100 or so games he has played for us, been enough end product?
He has undoubtedly won us matches down the years, but has he done it often enough?
I say no, in terms of goals and assists, and if he goes up a level to League One that is something he needs to work on if he doesn't want to join Kaid Mohamed in the 'quickly discarded' file.
I don't see him as someone like Martin Devaney or Marlon Pack - someone who will go on and forge a career higher up and play a decent number of games in League One or the Championship.
It was good to see David Noble again and he definitely brings a calm to us - although his introduction did mean we saw that diamond again. It is not a loved formation and is blamed by many for this season's travails.
Noble is not fully fit, and it showed at times. His passing though was good, bar one vital moment, when he gave the ball away in the lead up to the mess which resulted in the penalty.
Another interesting area at the moment is our full-back positions. At right-back, we have Mitch Brundle, who in his four games has played well in three of them and discovered he has a long throw into the bargain.
He has never played right back before, and has displaced another out-of-position loanee in Michael Ihiekwe, and has out-performed him with better distribution and better aerial ability.
Brundle, we are told, is effectively on trial with a view to next season, and on the evidence of three of his games so far might have a chance. I'd like to see him at centre-half though, if that is his number one position.
His introduction has shifted Sido Jombati to left back, and pushed CBB out (not before time, a large number of fans would say), and we have looked a bit more solid since that happened.
The club has an option for another year on CBB's deal, but his recent axing must mean the writing is on the wall there. As for Sido, he is still nowhere near the player who burst on the scene two years ago, and there is still a decision to made for me about whether he gets another contract.
In fact, Scott Brown is the only 'must-keep' player for me on the out of contract list. Jombati is 50-50, while I cannot see Deering, Elliott and Cureton being retained along with CBB.
I would keep Connor Roberts but he might want to go and find regular games somewhere and no-one could begrudge him that, while we haven't seen Joe Hanks or Ed Williams. I'd keep Joe, but think Ed will go.
Troy Brown, Jason Taylor, Matt Richards, Zack Kotwica, Harrison and Gornell have another year.
One or two of them could be made available, who knows for example if Taylor would want to stay if he isn't going to get games, but these players will form the basis of the summer rebuilding job.
With nine games left, and mid-table mediocrity all we have to play for now, I want to see Zack given some starts, and maybe the odd run-out for some other youngsters.
There is one other thing that we definitely needs resolving, and very quickly please - the manager's contract.
If he is going to stay on, then can we please just get it signed, and be done with it, so we can all move on. If he isn't going to sign it, then let's just say so and give someone else these last few games in charge to bring down a very welcome curtain on this difficult and ultimately forgettable season.
Monday, 17 March 2014
We couldn't... could we?
During the half-time break on Saturday, I walked along the main stand with my son, and down the stairs into the bar.
Along the way, I saw lots of head-scratching and finger-pointing, and was stopped twice to ask how many times I had been tempted to swear during the opening 45 minutes of commentary.
The answer is quite a few, but I had managed to bite my tongue in what was probably the worst halves we have seen this season. And, yes, it has some competition.
It was truly dire. Gutless and passionless, with no desire, will to win any 50-50s, no passing ability or real commitment. I don't think we put together more than three passes in one go, and it was a mirror of the games with Accrington and Mansfield - where we think it is acceptable to just turn up and win.
When they play like this, you can understand why this group of players is so unloved.
Torquay passed around us with ease, and with some more cutting edge up front they could have been ahead, and we would have had no complaints about that.
Mitch Brundle and Ashley Vincent, who was the only player to actually be positive and look confident when he got the ball at his feet, can be excepted from the brickbats, and none of the other outfield players could have had a grievance if they had been hooked off.
The midfield was a mess. Sam Deering, Matt Richards and Terry Gornell were dominated easily, and there was none of the excellent and combative stuff we had seen from them at Portsmouth and Oxford.
I don't know what was said in the dressing room at half-time, but I hope they all got a rocket, as performances like that 45 minutes are exactly why there is so much apathy about, and why the crowds are at the level they are.
Fans are being short-changed by it and although it is a results business ultimately, halves like that will not bring the lost fans and the floating fans back.
After that shambles however, it was to their credit that they put it right after the break, helped in no small part by a quick substitution, with Byron Harrison replacing Gornell.
We all know how frustrating Byron can be. It was no surprise he was benched after two anonymous games at Portsmouth and Oxford, when we saw the languid, at times lazy, at times lethargic Byron.
But this time we saw the effervescent, pain-in-the-backside-for-defenders, holding the ball up, running the channels and working hard Byron - the one we wish we could see all the time.
From the moment he went on, we looked a different side. We had a focal point up front, a pivot to play off, and someone, finally, to pose a concerted threat to a Torquay defence which had been given an easy ride, bar one Jamie Cureton shot which was saved.
It is so frustrating for us - but imagine how Mark Yates must feel, not knowing which Byron is going to turn up, and knowing that, nine times out of 10, he is going to have to make a substitution before the team can look like posing any kind of attacking threat, as he has had to in the last two games.
Chances are Byron will now start tomorrow against Wycombe. Which one will we see...?
After bringing on Byron, Yates then turned to trying to sort our midfield out. David Noble made his second cameo appearance, and the decision who to take off was a flip-of-the-coin job as Richards and Deering had been equally bad.
Heads for Deering, tails for Richards. It was heads, so off came Deering. A good decision as it turned out, with Richards breaking his open-play duck with a nice finish - redeeming himself for an otherwise off-colour display.
The goal was made by a superb piece of skill by Vincent, which forced a defender to give a throw away, and then a long-throw from Vincent (no, I didn't even know he was capable of it either) which fell to Richards' feet after Harrison caused chaos.
It was interesting to see that with Harrison on the field with Cureton, we moved to play a 4-4-2, the formation we never seem to be able to play. We did the same on Tuesday at Oxford - and maybe with Noble back in the side, we can play it.
Besides the goal, Harrison and Troy Brown headed over, and bar one shot which Scott Brown saved near the end, we never looked like relinquishing the lead.
Brundle had an excellent game, and in his three games has looked good twice - the other game being Chesterfield, when he wasn't alone in looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
And it was good to see the crowd top 3,000, and I was also pleased to hear some good noise from the LMI stand in the second half - despite all the trials and tribulations, and, frankly, despite some of the rubbish served up at home the crowd has, by and large, stuck by the side.
Yes, there have been boos after poor halves and poor performances and results, that is going to happen, and at times this season has been justified.
This time, we have to just sit back and say a win is a win. It wasn't pretty at all. Sometimes it doesn't matter how you win, as long as you do.
Now, ahead of tomorrow's game with Wycombe, we find ourselves in 11th place, five points off seventh, with this game in hand to play. Madness.
A win tomorrow will be our third in a row at home, after we had previously won three out of 16 at home.
It is bonkers, and further sums the division up that Southend, with six draws and four defeats in their last 10 games, are still in the zone. Above them are Oxford, who looked no great shakes against us, and have two wins in 10.
York are the team on the surge (unbeaten in eight), and Plymouth have climbed up also, but - ridiculous as it may sound - a win tomorrow and we are there as well.
Here's a few stats - in our last 10 games are won three, drawn five, lost two. Away from home we have lost two in 13 (Burton and Bristol Rovers).
In our last eight games, we have four clean sheets, and conceded one goal in three of the others. The eighth game was that mad seven minutes against Chesterfield, which in the grand scheme of things hasn't proved too costly for us.
So we have, that game aside, become more difficult to beat, more solid and resilient - at the right time of the season. Unspectacular and difficult to watch still, but definitely on the whole tougher to break down.
We have some tough games left. Three of the current top seven, Scunthorpe, Southend and Fleetwood, still have to come to us. We still have to go to Rochdale, and the side who sit just above us, Hartlepool.
Yet it really would be the supreme irony, wouldn't it, it this squad, this largely disregarded, derided mish-mash of a group of players, could succeed where the still heralded Pack-Penn-Summerfield-Bennett axis failed, and went all the way.
It is still a huge outside bet, but stranger things have happened. Crewe and Bradford were huge outside bets in the last two seasons, and they came through the pack with late momentum, sneaking into the top seven at the very end of the 46 games, and then went all the way.
What this side has in its' favour is the lack of expectation, eroded by inconsistency and performances like Saturday's first 45 minutes.
For the past two seasons, we were always in the mix, and could (no, should) have finished in the top three.
This time, no one, maybe outside that dressing room, thinks it is going to happen. I certainly don't, but as the table stands ahead of tomorrow's game, it cannot be definitely ruled out.
In public, the manager is targeting eighth. In private, I bet he isn't.
But anyway, that's enough optimism. If we lose tomorrow, we will be looking over our shoulders again, and this talk of the top seven can be canned.
However, if we win...
No, surely not. It couldn't happen. Could it?
Along the way, I saw lots of head-scratching and finger-pointing, and was stopped twice to ask how many times I had been tempted to swear during the opening 45 minutes of commentary.
The answer is quite a few, but I had managed to bite my tongue in what was probably the worst halves we have seen this season. And, yes, it has some competition.
It was truly dire. Gutless and passionless, with no desire, will to win any 50-50s, no passing ability or real commitment. I don't think we put together more than three passes in one go, and it was a mirror of the games with Accrington and Mansfield - where we think it is acceptable to just turn up and win.
When they play like this, you can understand why this group of players is so unloved.
Torquay passed around us with ease, and with some more cutting edge up front they could have been ahead, and we would have had no complaints about that.
Mitch Brundle and Ashley Vincent, who was the only player to actually be positive and look confident when he got the ball at his feet, can be excepted from the brickbats, and none of the other outfield players could have had a grievance if they had been hooked off.
The midfield was a mess. Sam Deering, Matt Richards and Terry Gornell were dominated easily, and there was none of the excellent and combative stuff we had seen from them at Portsmouth and Oxford.
I don't know what was said in the dressing room at half-time, but I hope they all got a rocket, as performances like that 45 minutes are exactly why there is so much apathy about, and why the crowds are at the level they are.
Fans are being short-changed by it and although it is a results business ultimately, halves like that will not bring the lost fans and the floating fans back.
After that shambles however, it was to their credit that they put it right after the break, helped in no small part by a quick substitution, with Byron Harrison replacing Gornell.
We all know how frustrating Byron can be. It was no surprise he was benched after two anonymous games at Portsmouth and Oxford, when we saw the languid, at times lazy, at times lethargic Byron.
But this time we saw the effervescent, pain-in-the-backside-for-defenders, holding the ball up, running the channels and working hard Byron - the one we wish we could see all the time.
From the moment he went on, we looked a different side. We had a focal point up front, a pivot to play off, and someone, finally, to pose a concerted threat to a Torquay defence which had been given an easy ride, bar one Jamie Cureton shot which was saved.
It is so frustrating for us - but imagine how Mark Yates must feel, not knowing which Byron is going to turn up, and knowing that, nine times out of 10, he is going to have to make a substitution before the team can look like posing any kind of attacking threat, as he has had to in the last two games.
Chances are Byron will now start tomorrow against Wycombe. Which one will we see...?
After bringing on Byron, Yates then turned to trying to sort our midfield out. David Noble made his second cameo appearance, and the decision who to take off was a flip-of-the-coin job as Richards and Deering had been equally bad.
Heads for Deering, tails for Richards. It was heads, so off came Deering. A good decision as it turned out, with Richards breaking his open-play duck with a nice finish - redeeming himself for an otherwise off-colour display.
The goal was made by a superb piece of skill by Vincent, which forced a defender to give a throw away, and then a long-throw from Vincent (no, I didn't even know he was capable of it either) which fell to Richards' feet after Harrison caused chaos.
It was interesting to see that with Harrison on the field with Cureton, we moved to play a 4-4-2, the formation we never seem to be able to play. We did the same on Tuesday at Oxford - and maybe with Noble back in the side, we can play it.
Besides the goal, Harrison and Troy Brown headed over, and bar one shot which Scott Brown saved near the end, we never looked like relinquishing the lead.
Brundle had an excellent game, and in his three games has looked good twice - the other game being Chesterfield, when he wasn't alone in looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
And it was good to see the crowd top 3,000, and I was also pleased to hear some good noise from the LMI stand in the second half - despite all the trials and tribulations, and, frankly, despite some of the rubbish served up at home the crowd has, by and large, stuck by the side.
Yes, there have been boos after poor halves and poor performances and results, that is going to happen, and at times this season has been justified.
This time, we have to just sit back and say a win is a win. It wasn't pretty at all. Sometimes it doesn't matter how you win, as long as you do.
Now, ahead of tomorrow's game with Wycombe, we find ourselves in 11th place, five points off seventh, with this game in hand to play. Madness.
A win tomorrow will be our third in a row at home, after we had previously won three out of 16 at home.
It is bonkers, and further sums the division up that Southend, with six draws and four defeats in their last 10 games, are still in the zone. Above them are Oxford, who looked no great shakes against us, and have two wins in 10.
York are the team on the surge (unbeaten in eight), and Plymouth have climbed up also, but - ridiculous as it may sound - a win tomorrow and we are there as well.
Here's a few stats - in our last 10 games are won three, drawn five, lost two. Away from home we have lost two in 13 (Burton and Bristol Rovers).
In our last eight games, we have four clean sheets, and conceded one goal in three of the others. The eighth game was that mad seven minutes against Chesterfield, which in the grand scheme of things hasn't proved too costly for us.
So we have, that game aside, become more difficult to beat, more solid and resilient - at the right time of the season. Unspectacular and difficult to watch still, but definitely on the whole tougher to break down.
We have some tough games left. Three of the current top seven, Scunthorpe, Southend and Fleetwood, still have to come to us. We still have to go to Rochdale, and the side who sit just above us, Hartlepool.
Yet it really would be the supreme irony, wouldn't it, it this squad, this largely disregarded, derided mish-mash of a group of players, could succeed where the still heralded Pack-Penn-Summerfield-Bennett axis failed, and went all the way.
It is still a huge outside bet, but stranger things have happened. Crewe and Bradford were huge outside bets in the last two seasons, and they came through the pack with late momentum, sneaking into the top seven at the very end of the 46 games, and then went all the way.
What this side has in its' favour is the lack of expectation, eroded by inconsistency and performances like Saturday's first 45 minutes.
For the past two seasons, we were always in the mix, and could (no, should) have finished in the top three.
This time, no one, maybe outside that dressing room, thinks it is going to happen. I certainly don't, but as the table stands ahead of tomorrow's game, it cannot be definitely ruled out.
In public, the manager is targeting eighth. In private, I bet he isn't.
But anyway, that's enough optimism. If we lose tomorrow, we will be looking over our shoulders again, and this talk of the top seven can be canned.
However, if we win...
No, surely not. It couldn't happen. Could it?
Friday, 14 March 2014
Two points on the road
IT is a microcosm of Cheltenham Town's season that we should come back after a week on the road with two points out of six, and be left wanting more.
The width of a post was all that is separating us from a maximum haul - and then we would be sitting in 10th place, three points off the play-offs, with these two home games to come.
Could be, if only, what if... Story of the season, but the truth is we are 14th - equi-distant between 7th and 23rd, the ultimate mid-table side, and exactly where we deserve to be on performances and results.
Portsmouth was always going to be a stern test, one of the biggest of the season, even more so when they cut the prices and packed the place out with nearly 17,000 home fans.
Mental strength is something which has been lacking at times this season, and this was going to be another examination for it - and we passed with flying colours.
The 4-2-3-1 system employed in recent weeks has served us well - we have looked more resilient, harder to break down, and better balanced with outlets down both flanks.
That was the case at Fratton Park, especially in the first half, when we put in what I thought was one of the best 45 minutes of the season.
The stats post-match said we didn't have a shot on target which was strange to me as Jermaine McGlashan and Terry Gornell both forced saves from Trevor Carson with shots that definitely would have gone in, and then there was Ashley Vincent's piledriver off the post.
Although we could not keep up that attacking momentum in the second half, we still looked relatively comfortable, leaving the home crowd frustrated.
Led by Troy Brown, we turned in an excellent defensive performance. Having seen Portsmouth play on TV at Chesterfield six days before our game there, the threats were going to come from Ricky Holmes and Jed Wallace down the flanks.
That put pressure on Michael Ihiekwe and Sido Jombati in the full-back areas, and they passed the test with flying colours, and Holmes and Wallace were kept very quiet.
In front of the them, Sam Deering and Matt Richards put in a good shift as we saw little of Wes Fogden and the formidable Toumani Diagouraga in the Pompey midfield.
Those six did a great job of nullifying the Portsmouth threat, and Scott Brown barely had a worthwile save to make - it was just a shame that we could not have taken one of those first-half opportunities and nicked the points.
Deering buzzed around but was let down once or twice by his decision-making with the final ball, but he competed superbly well against Diagouraga, a complete opposite to Sam in height and build.
We were not overawed by the occasion and surroundings, and we kept our shape and discipline well, and although we could not create anything in the second half, we dug in.
In the first half, Vincent, McGlashan and Gornell were a good outlet, but in the second half they couldn't get the same freedom - but it would have been a travesty if we had lost the game.
To be honest, that didn't look like happening bar that crazy little melee right at the end, and a point was what we deserved.
And so it was on to the Kassam, and after a nice new ground to visit, we had to go to a soulless three sided bowl where our 200-odd fans easily made more noise than the 4,000-odd home fans who bothered to turn up.
It was no real surprise that we were unchanged. The only switch I might have considered was Jamie Cureton for Byron Harrison, but that was only down to Byron's largely anonymous game at Fratton.
We found things a little bit more problematic here defensively, especially Ihiekwe, who was posed problems by James Constable laying a strange left-wing-cum-sort-of-striker role, coming in from out wide to attack far-post crosses.
He should have scored with two first-half headers but missed them both, and we rode our luck a bit when Dean Smalley got through and a terrible touch allowed Scott Brown to come off his line and block.
We didn't create anything of note in the first half, bar a trio of long shots, but we did cause ourselves a few problems by over-playing in our own half and occasionally putting people in trouble.
Another issue was the lack of movement in the final third. On several occasions, Deering or Richards had the ball 30-35 yards from goal, and there was no movement from the four ahead of them.
They were constantly static - in a straight line, with none of them making a little run, offering themselves for a short pass, or trying to spin off a defender into some space.
As the first hour of the game came and went, we started to look leggy, and it was no surprise when Cureton and David Noble were introduced, or that Harrison and Vincent, the most anonymous pair on the night, we given the hook.
The fresh legs, especially Cureton's, gave us a lift, and while it as good to see Noble on the field he did look ring-rusty, which is hardly a shock after his long lay-off.
We fell behind, but were a bit unfortunate. The 'playing someone into trouble' bug struck though as Richards gave the ball to Elliott, and his clearance hit Ryan Williams, who controlled the ricochet, and then, to be fair to him, produced a decent finish.
It seemed our luck was out as that happened seconds after Ryan Clarke somehow nudged a Cureton header onto the post from a superb Richards free-kick.
So we were behind with 15 minutes left, and more often than not that would be that, but we had a bit of luck of our own (or benefited from Cureton's 'fox in the box' tendencies, whichever is your viewpoint).
Zack Kotwica had a shot on goal, which didn't seem to have enough power to be going in, until Cureton got something on it and it looped in.
Exactly what that 'something' was is open to some conjecture, but we might well have got a point 'with a goal off someone's backside' - something we so often say we would settle for in these circumstances, but which rarely materialises. Until now.
So another hard-won point on the road, taking our overall record to 6-6-6, the ninth best in the league, and better than at this stage last year, when we were 5-7-7 from one more game.
The draw also means we have only lost two of our last 13 on our travels, not a bad record and testament to some newly-found resilience after those meek surrenders in Bury and Torquay back at the start of the season.
At home we are 4-8-5 ahead of this week's double-header (11-6-2 at this stage last season) so I am hardly telling anyone something they don't already know about why we are 14th in the table...
Six points from Torquay and Wycombe would take us to that pre-season nirvana of 50 points, and end once and for all any lingering worries about going down this season (and could re-ignite play-off talk for the super-positive...).
Four points would just about extinguish the relegation flames but any less would keep them fanned for a little bit longer as it would allow those below us to squeeze in even tighter, if that were possible in this concertina of a league.
Deering's injury which saw him replaced on Tuesday might keep him out, and I suspect Yates will want to try and fit Noble in somewhere.
Harrison's insipid pair of games will surely see him benched, but the lingering question is whether Cureton can play the lone role in the 4-2-3-1. He has yet to convince me he can.
These two are 'attitude games'. Torquay and Wycombe are scrapping for their lives (they are the two sides I tip for the drop) so we will have to match their determination, something we have not done in the past - think Accrington and Mansfield especially.
In between our two away games, I saw something to cheer an old traditionalist (or stick-in-the-mud, whichever you prefer) like me - a CTFC win over Gloucester City.
OK, so it wasn't at a packed Whaddon Road or Meadow Park/Horton Road on a Boxing Day or Easter Monday, it was a GFA Senior Cup game played on a freezing night in the wrong county at Evesham United FC in front of 97 people, but who cares? We beat them.
We beat them with our youth team, plus Joe Hanks and Ed Williams. They fielded a team with six players who started the win over Stockport 48 hours earlier, and the win was, for me, more evidence for the mooted Under 21/development team.
Hanks, Ed and Harry Williams, Adam Powell, Bobbie Dale, James Bowen, Spencer Hamilton, Harvey Rivers and Elliott Keightley all stood up well against experienced players and Dale and Powell scored well-taken goals to win us the game.
Centre-halves Keightley and Hamilton stood out for me against the experience of Charlie Griffin, while midfield trio Hanks, Powell and Harry Williams grew into the game and Dale worked hard on his own up front.
They won't all make it, but I hope we give a majority of them every chance to do so with regular games in this under-21 team, allied with loans at clubs like Gloucester, Weston, Bath and Worcester - a decent level where they will get a taste of 'proper' football.
Most of those I have named above have played for John Brough at Bishop's Cleeve this season, while Powell has been to Redditch and Harry Williams to Farnborough, while Hanks is going to play some games at Gloucester.
Decisions on them will be made soon, but having seen them play a lot there is some talent in there and I hope we don't make the same mistake we did with players like Sam Foley and Kieran Thomas in the past, by discarding them after investing years of coaching and development in them.
The recent forum with the chairman and board saw fans saying they want less loanees and more chances for our youngsters. We are told that this is the best crop we have had, and I would concur with that.
I know we won't and can't keep them all, but I hope some are given the chance to bridge the gap between promising youngsters and first-team opportunity in the coming seasons.
It is crucial for our club to start regularly producing young players of its own. The Duff brothers, Andy Gallinagh and David Bird are the only real successes, while people like Adam Connolly, Marley Watkins and Theo Lewis flitted around the side briefly.
Some others have gone elsewhere, notably the brothers Courtney and Tyrone Duffus, now both on professional contracts at Everton - keep and eye on their progress as the further they go, the more money we get.
It is down to finance as it always is at this level, but we have an academy, and it's about time we used it.
The width of a post was all that is separating us from a maximum haul - and then we would be sitting in 10th place, three points off the play-offs, with these two home games to come.
Could be, if only, what if... Story of the season, but the truth is we are 14th - equi-distant between 7th and 23rd, the ultimate mid-table side, and exactly where we deserve to be on performances and results.
Portsmouth was always going to be a stern test, one of the biggest of the season, even more so when they cut the prices and packed the place out with nearly 17,000 home fans.
Mental strength is something which has been lacking at times this season, and this was going to be another examination for it - and we passed with flying colours.
The 4-2-3-1 system employed in recent weeks has served us well - we have looked more resilient, harder to break down, and better balanced with outlets down both flanks.
That was the case at Fratton Park, especially in the first half, when we put in what I thought was one of the best 45 minutes of the season.
The stats post-match said we didn't have a shot on target which was strange to me as Jermaine McGlashan and Terry Gornell both forced saves from Trevor Carson with shots that definitely would have gone in, and then there was Ashley Vincent's piledriver off the post.
Although we could not keep up that attacking momentum in the second half, we still looked relatively comfortable, leaving the home crowd frustrated.
Led by Troy Brown, we turned in an excellent defensive performance. Having seen Portsmouth play on TV at Chesterfield six days before our game there, the threats were going to come from Ricky Holmes and Jed Wallace down the flanks.
That put pressure on Michael Ihiekwe and Sido Jombati in the full-back areas, and they passed the test with flying colours, and Holmes and Wallace were kept very quiet.
In front of the them, Sam Deering and Matt Richards put in a good shift as we saw little of Wes Fogden and the formidable Toumani Diagouraga in the Pompey midfield.
Those six did a great job of nullifying the Portsmouth threat, and Scott Brown barely had a worthwile save to make - it was just a shame that we could not have taken one of those first-half opportunities and nicked the points.
Deering buzzed around but was let down once or twice by his decision-making with the final ball, but he competed superbly well against Diagouraga, a complete opposite to Sam in height and build.
We were not overawed by the occasion and surroundings, and we kept our shape and discipline well, and although we could not create anything in the second half, we dug in.
In the first half, Vincent, McGlashan and Gornell were a good outlet, but in the second half they couldn't get the same freedom - but it would have been a travesty if we had lost the game.
To be honest, that didn't look like happening bar that crazy little melee right at the end, and a point was what we deserved.
And so it was on to the Kassam, and after a nice new ground to visit, we had to go to a soulless three sided bowl where our 200-odd fans easily made more noise than the 4,000-odd home fans who bothered to turn up.
It was no real surprise that we were unchanged. The only switch I might have considered was Jamie Cureton for Byron Harrison, but that was only down to Byron's largely anonymous game at Fratton.
We found things a little bit more problematic here defensively, especially Ihiekwe, who was posed problems by James Constable laying a strange left-wing-cum-sort-of-striker role, coming in from out wide to attack far-post crosses.
He should have scored with two first-half headers but missed them both, and we rode our luck a bit when Dean Smalley got through and a terrible touch allowed Scott Brown to come off his line and block.
We didn't create anything of note in the first half, bar a trio of long shots, but we did cause ourselves a few problems by over-playing in our own half and occasionally putting people in trouble.
Another issue was the lack of movement in the final third. On several occasions, Deering or Richards had the ball 30-35 yards from goal, and there was no movement from the four ahead of them.
They were constantly static - in a straight line, with none of them making a little run, offering themselves for a short pass, or trying to spin off a defender into some space.
As the first hour of the game came and went, we started to look leggy, and it was no surprise when Cureton and David Noble were introduced, or that Harrison and Vincent, the most anonymous pair on the night, we given the hook.
The fresh legs, especially Cureton's, gave us a lift, and while it as good to see Noble on the field he did look ring-rusty, which is hardly a shock after his long lay-off.
We fell behind, but were a bit unfortunate. The 'playing someone into trouble' bug struck though as Richards gave the ball to Elliott, and his clearance hit Ryan Williams, who controlled the ricochet, and then, to be fair to him, produced a decent finish.
It seemed our luck was out as that happened seconds after Ryan Clarke somehow nudged a Cureton header onto the post from a superb Richards free-kick.
So we were behind with 15 minutes left, and more often than not that would be that, but we had a bit of luck of our own (or benefited from Cureton's 'fox in the box' tendencies, whichever is your viewpoint).
Zack Kotwica had a shot on goal, which didn't seem to have enough power to be going in, until Cureton got something on it and it looped in.
Exactly what that 'something' was is open to some conjecture, but we might well have got a point 'with a goal off someone's backside' - something we so often say we would settle for in these circumstances, but which rarely materialises. Until now.
So another hard-won point on the road, taking our overall record to 6-6-6, the ninth best in the league, and better than at this stage last year, when we were 5-7-7 from one more game.
The draw also means we have only lost two of our last 13 on our travels, not a bad record and testament to some newly-found resilience after those meek surrenders in Bury and Torquay back at the start of the season.
At home we are 4-8-5 ahead of this week's double-header (11-6-2 at this stage last season) so I am hardly telling anyone something they don't already know about why we are 14th in the table...
Six points from Torquay and Wycombe would take us to that pre-season nirvana of 50 points, and end once and for all any lingering worries about going down this season (and could re-ignite play-off talk for the super-positive...).
Four points would just about extinguish the relegation flames but any less would keep them fanned for a little bit longer as it would allow those below us to squeeze in even tighter, if that were possible in this concertina of a league.
Deering's injury which saw him replaced on Tuesday might keep him out, and I suspect Yates will want to try and fit Noble in somewhere.
Harrison's insipid pair of games will surely see him benched, but the lingering question is whether Cureton can play the lone role in the 4-2-3-1. He has yet to convince me he can.
These two are 'attitude games'. Torquay and Wycombe are scrapping for their lives (they are the two sides I tip for the drop) so we will have to match their determination, something we have not done in the past - think Accrington and Mansfield especially.
In between our two away games, I saw something to cheer an old traditionalist (or stick-in-the-mud, whichever you prefer) like me - a CTFC win over Gloucester City.
OK, so it wasn't at a packed Whaddon Road or Meadow Park/Horton Road on a Boxing Day or Easter Monday, it was a GFA Senior Cup game played on a freezing night in the wrong county at Evesham United FC in front of 97 people, but who cares? We beat them.
We beat them with our youth team, plus Joe Hanks and Ed Williams. They fielded a team with six players who started the win over Stockport 48 hours earlier, and the win was, for me, more evidence for the mooted Under 21/development team.
Hanks, Ed and Harry Williams, Adam Powell, Bobbie Dale, James Bowen, Spencer Hamilton, Harvey Rivers and Elliott Keightley all stood up well against experienced players and Dale and Powell scored well-taken goals to win us the game.
Centre-halves Keightley and Hamilton stood out for me against the experience of Charlie Griffin, while midfield trio Hanks, Powell and Harry Williams grew into the game and Dale worked hard on his own up front.
They won't all make it, but I hope we give a majority of them every chance to do so with regular games in this under-21 team, allied with loans at clubs like Gloucester, Weston, Bath and Worcester - a decent level where they will get a taste of 'proper' football.
Most of those I have named above have played for John Brough at Bishop's Cleeve this season, while Powell has been to Redditch and Harry Williams to Farnborough, while Hanks is going to play some games at Gloucester.
Decisions on them will be made soon, but having seen them play a lot there is some talent in there and I hope we don't make the same mistake we did with players like Sam Foley and Kieran Thomas in the past, by discarding them after investing years of coaching and development in them.
The recent forum with the chairman and board saw fans saying they want less loanees and more chances for our youngsters. We are told that this is the best crop we have had, and I would concur with that.
I know we won't and can't keep them all, but I hope some are given the chance to bridge the gap between promising youngsters and first-team opportunity in the coming seasons.
It is crucial for our club to start regularly producing young players of its own. The Duff brothers, Andy Gallinagh and David Bird are the only real successes, while people like Adam Connolly, Marley Watkins and Theo Lewis flitted around the side briefly.
Some others have gone elsewhere, notably the brothers Courtney and Tyrone Duffus, now both on professional contracts at Everton - keep and eye on their progress as the further they go, the more money we get.
It is down to finance as it always is at this level, but we have an academy, and it's about time we used it.
Thursday, 6 March 2014
Confidence holds the key
Confidence is a much-used word in football - and in the last two home games we have seen just what an effect it can have on results and performances.
Against Chesterfield, we displayed a distinct lack of it at both ends of the pitch, and carried that on against Bury - until the final 10 minutes after Byron Harrison's winner, when it looked as though a massive weight had come off our collective shoulders.
Going into that Chesterfield game off the back of that fine, and unexpected win at Newport, we should have been exuding confidence.
As we have said so often this season, it was no surprise that we went out with the same side - after all they deserved that after the clean sheet and battling qualities we had seen at Rodney Parade.
For the first 20 minutes, we gave as good as we got again, had a half-chance or two, and could have gone in front, but then we were blown away in a mad seven minutes.
Three of the four goals we superb finishes, but could all have been prevented. The first saw Tommy Lee's clearance bounce over Sam Deering for Gary Roberts to cross and Dan Gardner to smash it in.
The second and third were our errors, giving the ball away and being punished, while the fourth was poor marking from a corner.
Aside from that, it wasn't our worst performance of the season and didn't really deserve all the criticism it got over social media, with maybe a few looking at the result rather than the overall performance.
We have played a lot worse at home - Accrington, Mansfield, Plymouth to name three games - but this brought the low confidence strikingly back into view. Terry Gornell could have had a hat-trick, Jermaine McGlashan had a decent chance or two - yet that tentativeness in replicating the ruthless finishing we saw at the other end and in the decision-making of picking the right pass at the right time to set up a better-placed team-mate made all the difference.
Defensively, the same back four looked a shadow of what we saw at Newport, but it was a different approach from Chesterfield.
At Newport, they had 33 crosses to deal with. Meat and drink for Michael Ihiekwe and Steve Elliott, and easier for Mitch Brundle and Craig Braham-Barrett to support them and tidy up when needed.
Chesterfield were different. They looked to play through us, using excellent movement, especially with Ollie Banks, Roberts, Gardner and Eoin Doyle, to pull us out of shape and exploit the space.
I felt sorry for Brundle - he is not the first player this season to have been given the runaround by Roberts, and he won't be the last, but was a rabbit caught in the headlights on occasions.
Braham-Barrett had a tough time against Gardner, and also had Tendayi Darikwa joining in from right-back.
They were not helped by our midfield two, especially in the first half, sitting deep and not pushing out to put pressure on the ball.
I am not sure if that was the game plan for Deering and Matt Richards to give Sam Morsy and Jimmy Ryan that space to dictate the tempo of the game and switch the ball to left and right, but that is what they were allowed to do.
They got a but closer to them in the second half, and hey presto the Chesterfield pair's influence was diminished and we were able to come into the game more.
The cynics will say that Chesterfield sat back with a four-goal lead and the game in the bag - that is true to an extent but we did show a bit of spine and pride and I am sure the pan was not for us to get a goal back, and for Lee to have to make saves from McGlashan and Ashley Vincent which, had those chances gone in, could have made the last few minutes more interesting.
But the damage had been done, and it was interesting to see Portsmouth's approach in their Sky game with Chesterfield on Monday.
They got in their faces, with Toumani Diagouraga especially prominent in this, and their 4-1-4-1 system worked well to nullify the midfield two who got free rein at our place, and also the threats out wide from Roberts and Gardner.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if we had taken that approach from the start... I am not saying we would have won the game but we might have made it a bit more competitive.
That result led to a 'clear the air' meeting on Wednesday and it seems some home truths were said from both sides. That is a good thing, and I hope it goes some way to dispelling these claims of players not caring.
We had Troy Brown in our commentary box for the Chesterfield game, and he was literally kicking and heading every ball. My arm is still sore as he grabbed it every time we went near the Chesterfield penalty area! He certainly cares.
Thankfully for my arm he was back in the side for the Bury game, and it was clear to see where Mark Yates felt the problems were from the Chesterfield loss - the full-back positions, with Ihiekwe and Sido coming in for Brundle and CBB.
We have used eight different centre-halves this season, and have also had five right-backs (Sido, Lowe, Ihiekwe, Brundle and unforgettably CBB at Tamworth) while CBB, Sido and Matt Richards have played at left-back. Is it any wonder we haven't kept 20 clean sheets this time round?
Sido's up-and-down form has caused a problem at right-back, while we have barely had a solid left-back since Jamie Victory retired (with a nod to Alan Wright and Billy Jones as the closest we have come).
The midfield five stayed the same against Bury, but again I didn't feel Deering and Richards did a good enough pressing job on their opposite numbers, with Andrew Tutte and especially Danny Mayor able to find some space and get on the front foot.
I am sure I was not the only one fearing the worst when they went in front - Danny Nardiello did very well, but the simplicity with which he skipped round Elliott was worrying, and only served as more evidence that Father Time may be catching up with Steve and this will unfortunately be the last season for a great servant to this club.
But the response was heartening. A quick equaliser, and a good finish from Ash for a second in three games. Like a new signing... and asking questions about what he could have done had he been used more earlier in the season, but that is water under the bridge now.
His presence in the side on that left side has finally given us the balance we have been crying out for all season, and gives us a threat from both sides of the pitch at last.
I am not convinced at all by Deering and Richards as a midfield two, and hopefully the sight of David Noble warming up before the Bury game means we will see him on Saturday at some point.
I like Gornell in that attacking midfielder role. I am sure he would rather be right up top with Jamie Cureton or Harrison, but he has the work rate to get up in support when needed (as he showed against Chesterfield with a hat-trick of great chances) and also to help out the others.
McGlashan set the winner up again, and it was almost a carbon copy of the Newport winner - Jermaine skinning his full-back, knocking a decent ball over, and Harrison going in where it hurts to score.
Byron made a difference when he came on. Jamie Cureton had, again, been pretty anonymous I am afraid. He links the play well occasionally, but does not provide a real focal point up front as that lone striker. The ball does not stick, and he does not provide that outlet we need.
There is no question in my mind that the signing has been a disappointment.
Whether that is because we haven't played to his strengths at all times is open for debate, and I see that view to an extent, but he cannot expect it all on a plate - I think his work-rate has been wanting at times, and although he has scored some well-taken and opprtunist goals, he has definitely missed some chances that should have been taken given his record and reputation.
After Byron's goal, we looked a different team immediately. The confidence shift was remarkable.
Gone were the slumped shoulders and bowed heads I had seen for the previous 80 minutes. Players were suddenly standing tall, with chests pumped out.
Gone was the listless lack of movement and urgency and it was replaced by quick tempo, passing and everyone suddenly wanting the ball rather than hiding away or treating it like a hot potato.
Bury never looked like getting an equaliser. They were pressed back and we could have had another goal or two in those last 10 minutes.
It was a fleeting glimpse of what we might have expected to see this season from this squad of players, and only served to provide more frustration at the way this campaign has turned out.
Byron's goal was a crucial one too in the bigger picture. As the only team to win in the bottom half of the table, we went up four places, and broke through that psychological 40-point barrier.
We can't be complacent yet, but it gives us some little breathing space as we go on to Portsmouth, a much-awaited game all season, and a big test against a side in decent form and coming off the back of that useful point at Chesterfield.
It was another sign of the ridiculous nature of League Two that their point at the Proact moved them up four places in the table.
They looked a very decent side when they drew 2-2 here earlier in the season, and we are expecting to face a 15,000 crowd at Fratton, so hopefully that confidence we showed in the closing stages on Saturday can be carried forward.
We cannot afford to be tentative like we were against Chesterfield. We need to take a leaf from Pompey's own book from Monday night and get in their faces on Saturday and try to silence that crowd early, that represents our best chance.
Against Chesterfield, we displayed a distinct lack of it at both ends of the pitch, and carried that on against Bury - until the final 10 minutes after Byron Harrison's winner, when it looked as though a massive weight had come off our collective shoulders.
Going into that Chesterfield game off the back of that fine, and unexpected win at Newport, we should have been exuding confidence.
As we have said so often this season, it was no surprise that we went out with the same side - after all they deserved that after the clean sheet and battling qualities we had seen at Rodney Parade.
For the first 20 minutes, we gave as good as we got again, had a half-chance or two, and could have gone in front, but then we were blown away in a mad seven minutes.
Three of the four goals we superb finishes, but could all have been prevented. The first saw Tommy Lee's clearance bounce over Sam Deering for Gary Roberts to cross and Dan Gardner to smash it in.
The second and third were our errors, giving the ball away and being punished, while the fourth was poor marking from a corner.
Aside from that, it wasn't our worst performance of the season and didn't really deserve all the criticism it got over social media, with maybe a few looking at the result rather than the overall performance.
We have played a lot worse at home - Accrington, Mansfield, Plymouth to name three games - but this brought the low confidence strikingly back into view. Terry Gornell could have had a hat-trick, Jermaine McGlashan had a decent chance or two - yet that tentativeness in replicating the ruthless finishing we saw at the other end and in the decision-making of picking the right pass at the right time to set up a better-placed team-mate made all the difference.
Defensively, the same back four looked a shadow of what we saw at Newport, but it was a different approach from Chesterfield.
At Newport, they had 33 crosses to deal with. Meat and drink for Michael Ihiekwe and Steve Elliott, and easier for Mitch Brundle and Craig Braham-Barrett to support them and tidy up when needed.
Chesterfield were different. They looked to play through us, using excellent movement, especially with Ollie Banks, Roberts, Gardner and Eoin Doyle, to pull us out of shape and exploit the space.
I felt sorry for Brundle - he is not the first player this season to have been given the runaround by Roberts, and he won't be the last, but was a rabbit caught in the headlights on occasions.
Braham-Barrett had a tough time against Gardner, and also had Tendayi Darikwa joining in from right-back.
They were not helped by our midfield two, especially in the first half, sitting deep and not pushing out to put pressure on the ball.
I am not sure if that was the game plan for Deering and Matt Richards to give Sam Morsy and Jimmy Ryan that space to dictate the tempo of the game and switch the ball to left and right, but that is what they were allowed to do.
They got a but closer to them in the second half, and hey presto the Chesterfield pair's influence was diminished and we were able to come into the game more.
The cynics will say that Chesterfield sat back with a four-goal lead and the game in the bag - that is true to an extent but we did show a bit of spine and pride and I am sure the pan was not for us to get a goal back, and for Lee to have to make saves from McGlashan and Ashley Vincent which, had those chances gone in, could have made the last few minutes more interesting.
But the damage had been done, and it was interesting to see Portsmouth's approach in their Sky game with Chesterfield on Monday.
They got in their faces, with Toumani Diagouraga especially prominent in this, and their 4-1-4-1 system worked well to nullify the midfield two who got free rein at our place, and also the threats out wide from Roberts and Gardner.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if we had taken that approach from the start... I am not saying we would have won the game but we might have made it a bit more competitive.
That result led to a 'clear the air' meeting on Wednesday and it seems some home truths were said from both sides. That is a good thing, and I hope it goes some way to dispelling these claims of players not caring.
We had Troy Brown in our commentary box for the Chesterfield game, and he was literally kicking and heading every ball. My arm is still sore as he grabbed it every time we went near the Chesterfield penalty area! He certainly cares.
Thankfully for my arm he was back in the side for the Bury game, and it was clear to see where Mark Yates felt the problems were from the Chesterfield loss - the full-back positions, with Ihiekwe and Sido coming in for Brundle and CBB.
We have used eight different centre-halves this season, and have also had five right-backs (Sido, Lowe, Ihiekwe, Brundle and unforgettably CBB at Tamworth) while CBB, Sido and Matt Richards have played at left-back. Is it any wonder we haven't kept 20 clean sheets this time round?
Sido's up-and-down form has caused a problem at right-back, while we have barely had a solid left-back since Jamie Victory retired (with a nod to Alan Wright and Billy Jones as the closest we have come).
The midfield five stayed the same against Bury, but again I didn't feel Deering and Richards did a good enough pressing job on their opposite numbers, with Andrew Tutte and especially Danny Mayor able to find some space and get on the front foot.
I am sure I was not the only one fearing the worst when they went in front - Danny Nardiello did very well, but the simplicity with which he skipped round Elliott was worrying, and only served as more evidence that Father Time may be catching up with Steve and this will unfortunately be the last season for a great servant to this club.
But the response was heartening. A quick equaliser, and a good finish from Ash for a second in three games. Like a new signing... and asking questions about what he could have done had he been used more earlier in the season, but that is water under the bridge now.
His presence in the side on that left side has finally given us the balance we have been crying out for all season, and gives us a threat from both sides of the pitch at last.
I am not convinced at all by Deering and Richards as a midfield two, and hopefully the sight of David Noble warming up before the Bury game means we will see him on Saturday at some point.
I like Gornell in that attacking midfielder role. I am sure he would rather be right up top with Jamie Cureton or Harrison, but he has the work rate to get up in support when needed (as he showed against Chesterfield with a hat-trick of great chances) and also to help out the others.
McGlashan set the winner up again, and it was almost a carbon copy of the Newport winner - Jermaine skinning his full-back, knocking a decent ball over, and Harrison going in where it hurts to score.
Byron made a difference when he came on. Jamie Cureton had, again, been pretty anonymous I am afraid. He links the play well occasionally, but does not provide a real focal point up front as that lone striker. The ball does not stick, and he does not provide that outlet we need.
There is no question in my mind that the signing has been a disappointment.
Whether that is because we haven't played to his strengths at all times is open for debate, and I see that view to an extent, but he cannot expect it all on a plate - I think his work-rate has been wanting at times, and although he has scored some well-taken and opprtunist goals, he has definitely missed some chances that should have been taken given his record and reputation.
After Byron's goal, we looked a different team immediately. The confidence shift was remarkable.
Gone were the slumped shoulders and bowed heads I had seen for the previous 80 minutes. Players were suddenly standing tall, with chests pumped out.
Gone was the listless lack of movement and urgency and it was replaced by quick tempo, passing and everyone suddenly wanting the ball rather than hiding away or treating it like a hot potato.
Bury never looked like getting an equaliser. They were pressed back and we could have had another goal or two in those last 10 minutes.
It was a fleeting glimpse of what we might have expected to see this season from this squad of players, and only served to provide more frustration at the way this campaign has turned out.
Byron's goal was a crucial one too in the bigger picture. As the only team to win in the bottom half of the table, we went up four places, and broke through that psychological 40-point barrier.
We can't be complacent yet, but it gives us some little breathing space as we go on to Portsmouth, a much-awaited game all season, and a big test against a side in decent form and coming off the back of that useful point at Chesterfield.
It was another sign of the ridiculous nature of League Two that their point at the Proact moved them up four places in the table.
They looked a very decent side when they drew 2-2 here earlier in the season, and we are expecting to face a 15,000 crowd at Fratton, so hopefully that confidence we showed in the closing stages on Saturday can be carried forward.
We cannot afford to be tentative like we were against Chesterfield. We need to take a leaf from Pompey's own book from Monday night and get in their faces on Saturday and try to silence that crowd early, that represents our best chance.
Sunday, 23 February 2014
Newport state of mind is good!
"We are going to get hammered"
"I am going for a 4-0 defeat"
"Can't see us scoring, a thrashing is on the cards"
Just three of the pessismistic tweets and Facebook posts I saw ahead of yesterday's game at Rodney Parade - even the old guy we spoke to after parking the car told us to expect a stuffing.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find him later on to get his post-match views on the result, but suffice to say I think the outcome was a pleasant surprise for all of us with a ruby persuasion.
I must confess when I saw the team sheet, even my eternal optimism took a knock - a debut for Mitch Brundle alongside another relatively inexperienced player in Michael Ihiekwe, the selection of Sam Deering and Matt Richards as a holding pair which didn't fill me with confidence either, and the emergence of Ashley Vincent from the ice box after injury and 40 minutes in training on Friday.
It almost seemed to smack of a bit of desperation - but with David Noble and Troy Brown out, I'm not sure Mark Yates really had much choice, given that the players left on the bench, Jason Taylor, Lee Lucas, Jamie Cureton and Sido Jombati, didn't tear up any trees in our last outings, and none of them can really argue that they deserved a place.
The selection also brings Sido's long-term future into sharp focus. Ihiekwe has played recently at right-back, now Yates picked a teenager with no league experience to play there, out of position, ahead of Sido.
His contract is up, so are we seeing the possible death throes in the Cheltenham career of a terrace cult hero (although would he be that if his name was Sid Jones, and he came from Ledbury rather than Lisbon?)
Only time will tell, but more displays like we saw from Brundle yesterday and Sido will not get his place back in a hurry, and won't get the chance to show he deserves a new contract.
Newport's 3-5-2 system has proved awkward for many sides this season. Not many sides at our level play that way and it has been largely effective as their league position suggests.
But like us, their form has stunted of late, apart from the 3-2 home win over Oxford last Tuesday, which was their first win in seven, but the opening 15 minutes looked ominous.
They were attacking down the flanks, hitting our perceived weaknesses in debutant Brundle and Craig Braham-Barrett, but the crosses were eaten up by Ihiekwe and Steve Elliott. In all, they would put in 33 crosses, and our centre-halves must have won 90 per cent of them.
Brundle was not fazed by Andy Sandell's forays, likewise CBB by Robbie Wilmott, while Chris Zebroski and Rene Howe got no change from our centre-backs.
Zebroski was quite lively, but Howe was not. I don't want to hear any of our fans calling for us to sign him again!!
In midfield, Deering and Richards gradually warmed to their task despite occasionally having to drop deeper to help out the back four, while further forward the pace of Vincent and Jermaine McGlashan eventually had a telling effect.
McGlashan, whose crossing (or the lack of it) has been a long-held bugbear of mine and many others, had already out one great ball in which nearly found Terry Gornell, was at least five yards behind Andy Hughes when Matt Richards played a ball down the right-hand channel.
By the time he reached the pass, McGlashan was two or three yards ahead, and sent a ball into Vincent's path and it went in off some part of his anatomy.
The finish won't win any awards for prettiness, but it was priceless. We had weathered the storm, and scored the perfect counter-attack goal, ended our scoring drought and given ourselves something to protect.
And protect it we did, and more easily than I thought we would.
I expected the Alamo. We got crosses, they had territory but our defensive shape and organisation was superb.
We didn't drop deeper than the 18-yard line and compressed the space well, asking them to come through the middle, which they couldn't, or get round behind us, which they couldn't.
Scott Brown had no serious saves to make in the game, testament to the back four in front of him, and the industry of the two holding midfielders in front of them, plus the outlets we had in the perpetual motion of Gornell, McGlashan, who worked hard defensively as ever, the busy Vincent for an hour, then his replacement Sido and Byron Harrison, who ploughed a lone furrow and ran his heart out while harassing their back three all game.
We might had ridden our luck at times with balls flashing across our box and being desperately cleared anywhere at times, but that matters little. When Sam Deering is winning headers on the edge of your penalty area, you know it's going to be your day.
We might not have seriously threatened a second goal, bar the odd breakaway, but even as things got more and more desperate for Newport, we didn't buckle.
Our boys were mentally strong, put bodies on the line, and showed spirit and determination in spades. It was a welcome sight as that is something we haven't done enough this season.
We have folded too often like a pack of cards under the sort of pressure we came under here, but not this time.
Playing for the manager? Definitely. Playing for the shirt? No doubt about it. It is too easy to accuse players of not trying or not caring when they lose a game as limply as we did at Bristol Rovers last time out, so equally we need to give them credit this time round.
This group of players have had a lot of brickbats and negativity thrown at them this season (mostly deservedly) - so they deserve plaudits after this display.
What also pleased me was our 'game management'. We slowed things down, drew Newport into giving away niggly fouls, and frustrated them and their fans more and more as the game went on.
We were a bit clever - something other teams do to us all the time but an area in which we are often naive, but not this time.
Newport got more and more wound up. That was typified by Ryan Burge, another player we have tried to sign twice, but who was lucky to stay on the pitch after first leaving a foot in a late (or maybe even stamping) on Brundle, and having been booked for that then ploughed through Deering seconds later.
After seven without a win, and with confidence fragile in the dressing room and ebbing away rapidly on the terraces, this was a valuable three points.
Put it into perspective - that was the first League game this season in which Newport have failed to score. A top achievement for a back four which has never played together and, Elliott aside, had very little experience.
A check of the results which revealed wins for Bury, Wycombe, Accrington, Mansfield and Northampton, added to Bristol Rovers' victory on Friday, made it an even more important three points.
Defeat would have left us 20th, but as it is we are 15th and right in the middle of a clutch of clubs seperated by eight points from Newport in 8th to Wycombe in 22nd.
It is ridiculously tight. Above Newport is a seven-point gap to the play-off spots, and below Wycombe a five-point advantage over the bottom two, so we could still (realistically) finish anywhere between 8th and 24th.
There will be annoyance over missed opportunities in the games where we have thrown away leads to draw or lose - but we can't do anything about that now.
All we can do it try to play like we did yesterday for the majority of the remaining 15 games and it will be a lot nearer to 8th, but now we need to sort this home form out for the two games coming up with Chesterfield and Bury.
We have taken 17 points at home this season - about half as many as we had at this stage last season (33). Away, we have taken 22, two more than at a comparable stage 12 months ago.
Chesterfield will be tough, as will the trip to Oxford, but we have Bury, Torquay and Wycombe at home, alongside trips to Portsmouth and AFC Wimbledon in the next month - all massive games against teams below us, and four of them in the bottom five.
I would go as far as to say those five games will decide which way we are heading so I'm not under any illusions that one win gets us out of the woods.
But yesterday has given me hope (once again) that we can move back in the right direction. Let's hope it's not a false dawn again.
"I am going for a 4-0 defeat"
"Can't see us scoring, a thrashing is on the cards"
Just three of the pessismistic tweets and Facebook posts I saw ahead of yesterday's game at Rodney Parade - even the old guy we spoke to after parking the car told us to expect a stuffing.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find him later on to get his post-match views on the result, but suffice to say I think the outcome was a pleasant surprise for all of us with a ruby persuasion.
I must confess when I saw the team sheet, even my eternal optimism took a knock - a debut for Mitch Brundle alongside another relatively inexperienced player in Michael Ihiekwe, the selection of Sam Deering and Matt Richards as a holding pair which didn't fill me with confidence either, and the emergence of Ashley Vincent from the ice box after injury and 40 minutes in training on Friday.
It almost seemed to smack of a bit of desperation - but with David Noble and Troy Brown out, I'm not sure Mark Yates really had much choice, given that the players left on the bench, Jason Taylor, Lee Lucas, Jamie Cureton and Sido Jombati, didn't tear up any trees in our last outings, and none of them can really argue that they deserved a place.
The selection also brings Sido's long-term future into sharp focus. Ihiekwe has played recently at right-back, now Yates picked a teenager with no league experience to play there, out of position, ahead of Sido.
His contract is up, so are we seeing the possible death throes in the Cheltenham career of a terrace cult hero (although would he be that if his name was Sid Jones, and he came from Ledbury rather than Lisbon?)
Only time will tell, but more displays like we saw from Brundle yesterday and Sido will not get his place back in a hurry, and won't get the chance to show he deserves a new contract.
Newport's 3-5-2 system has proved awkward for many sides this season. Not many sides at our level play that way and it has been largely effective as their league position suggests.
But like us, their form has stunted of late, apart from the 3-2 home win over Oxford last Tuesday, which was their first win in seven, but the opening 15 minutes looked ominous.
They were attacking down the flanks, hitting our perceived weaknesses in debutant Brundle and Craig Braham-Barrett, but the crosses were eaten up by Ihiekwe and Steve Elliott. In all, they would put in 33 crosses, and our centre-halves must have won 90 per cent of them.
Brundle was not fazed by Andy Sandell's forays, likewise CBB by Robbie Wilmott, while Chris Zebroski and Rene Howe got no change from our centre-backs.
Zebroski was quite lively, but Howe was not. I don't want to hear any of our fans calling for us to sign him again!!
In midfield, Deering and Richards gradually warmed to their task despite occasionally having to drop deeper to help out the back four, while further forward the pace of Vincent and Jermaine McGlashan eventually had a telling effect.
McGlashan, whose crossing (or the lack of it) has been a long-held bugbear of mine and many others, had already out one great ball in which nearly found Terry Gornell, was at least five yards behind Andy Hughes when Matt Richards played a ball down the right-hand channel.
By the time he reached the pass, McGlashan was two or three yards ahead, and sent a ball into Vincent's path and it went in off some part of his anatomy.
The finish won't win any awards for prettiness, but it was priceless. We had weathered the storm, and scored the perfect counter-attack goal, ended our scoring drought and given ourselves something to protect.
And protect it we did, and more easily than I thought we would.
I expected the Alamo. We got crosses, they had territory but our defensive shape and organisation was superb.
We didn't drop deeper than the 18-yard line and compressed the space well, asking them to come through the middle, which they couldn't, or get round behind us, which they couldn't.
Scott Brown had no serious saves to make in the game, testament to the back four in front of him, and the industry of the two holding midfielders in front of them, plus the outlets we had in the perpetual motion of Gornell, McGlashan, who worked hard defensively as ever, the busy Vincent for an hour, then his replacement Sido and Byron Harrison, who ploughed a lone furrow and ran his heart out while harassing their back three all game.
We might had ridden our luck at times with balls flashing across our box and being desperately cleared anywhere at times, but that matters little. When Sam Deering is winning headers on the edge of your penalty area, you know it's going to be your day.
We might not have seriously threatened a second goal, bar the odd breakaway, but even as things got more and more desperate for Newport, we didn't buckle.
Our boys were mentally strong, put bodies on the line, and showed spirit and determination in spades. It was a welcome sight as that is something we haven't done enough this season.
We have folded too often like a pack of cards under the sort of pressure we came under here, but not this time.
Playing for the manager? Definitely. Playing for the shirt? No doubt about it. It is too easy to accuse players of not trying or not caring when they lose a game as limply as we did at Bristol Rovers last time out, so equally we need to give them credit this time round.
This group of players have had a lot of brickbats and negativity thrown at them this season (mostly deservedly) - so they deserve plaudits after this display.
What also pleased me was our 'game management'. We slowed things down, drew Newport into giving away niggly fouls, and frustrated them and their fans more and more as the game went on.
We were a bit clever - something other teams do to us all the time but an area in which we are often naive, but not this time.
Newport got more and more wound up. That was typified by Ryan Burge, another player we have tried to sign twice, but who was lucky to stay on the pitch after first leaving a foot in a late (or maybe even stamping) on Brundle, and having been booked for that then ploughed through Deering seconds later.
After seven without a win, and with confidence fragile in the dressing room and ebbing away rapidly on the terraces, this was a valuable three points.
Put it into perspective - that was the first League game this season in which Newport have failed to score. A top achievement for a back four which has never played together and, Elliott aside, had very little experience.
A check of the results which revealed wins for Bury, Wycombe, Accrington, Mansfield and Northampton, added to Bristol Rovers' victory on Friday, made it an even more important three points.
Defeat would have left us 20th, but as it is we are 15th and right in the middle of a clutch of clubs seperated by eight points from Newport in 8th to Wycombe in 22nd.
It is ridiculously tight. Above Newport is a seven-point gap to the play-off spots, and below Wycombe a five-point advantage over the bottom two, so we could still (realistically) finish anywhere between 8th and 24th.
There will be annoyance over missed opportunities in the games where we have thrown away leads to draw or lose - but we can't do anything about that now.
All we can do it try to play like we did yesterday for the majority of the remaining 15 games and it will be a lot nearer to 8th, but now we need to sort this home form out for the two games coming up with Chesterfield and Bury.
We have taken 17 points at home this season - about half as many as we had at this stage last season (33). Away, we have taken 22, two more than at a comparable stage 12 months ago.
Chesterfield will be tough, as will the trip to Oxford, but we have Bury, Torquay and Wycombe at home, alongside trips to Portsmouth and AFC Wimbledon in the next month - all massive games against teams below us, and four of them in the bottom five.
I would go as far as to say those five games will decide which way we are heading so I'm not under any illusions that one win gets us out of the woods.
But yesterday has given me hope (once again) that we can move back in the right direction. Let's hope it's not a false dawn again.
Thursday, 20 February 2014
Return of the ramblings!
Firstly, an apology for the lack of activity on this blog lately. My laptop broke, Christmas happened, then I moved house and Sky took eons to finally get round to setting up my broadband.
I know. More excuses than Mark Yates after a defeat.
It has nothing to do with our form or the general apathy which seems to have descended across the Theatre of Shattered Dreams in the last few months. Honest guv.
Anyway, since my last blog at the end of November, nothing much has changed really, has it?
We still can't win at home, people still want the manager sacked, many are still reminiscing about players who left two years ago and we've had a drop of rain.
I can understand the apathy and grumbles to a certain extent. We have been spoilt with two decent seasons, FA Cup glamour games, a Wembley trip and some decent football to watch.
But this season, we have had none of the above.
Home games have been difficult to watch, and when the vast majority of your fanbase only watches home games, then that is all they have to judge the team on, and if some of the games are as much fun as a three-hour trip to B&Q then it's not surprising the natives get restless.
The Captial One game with Crawley, JPT game with Plymouth and the games with Oxford and Portsmouth are just about it when it comes to games I can remember being anywhere near decent this season.
There were patches in other games - first halves against Burton and Hartlepool, second half against Morecambe and Jamie Cureton's winner against Wimbledon, but otherwise not a lot.
Away from home, we have been better, in most cases showing good resilience and commitment, but three league wins in 15 home games is not going to get a team anywhere.
At the moment, it is getting us to 15th place, and has more of us looking over at shoulders at what is behind us, than upwards at where we hoped we would be.
But while I can understand the frustration and annoyance of some, I do feel some of the reaction has been over the top.
I have seen this season labelled a 'disaster'. A bit strong. Ask Northampton about their season. I would say that is the definition of a disaster -play off final to bottom of the table via a change of manager and huge player turnover. Ordinary yes, a disaster? Not for me.
The season has also been labelled 'the worst in living memory'. Come on. That's just being silly. Martin Allen anyone? Going further back, Ally Robertson? This is mild, believe me!
However, I come at this from a slightly different perspective. I spent 20-odd years dreaming of CTFC reaching the Football League, watching plenty of terrible defeats along the way, and never thinking it would ever happen.
In my 20s, Cheltenham reaching the final qualifying round of the FA Cup and having 1,000 people in the ground was a huge success. When you can remember a 4-1 defeat at Sutton Coldfield Town, a draw at Plymouth Argyle or a home defeat by Mansfield Town doesn't become the worst result in the world.
Fans in their 20s now have only seen seasons with either a promotion fight or a relegation battle, chances of games at Wembley or the Mill Stad and some decent Cup runs. A run-of-the-mill mid-table season is not in their script.
That doesn't mean I want to see the team and club go forward, of course I do. But I do feel people need to get a bit of perspective sometimes, and remember where we have come from. Non-league is not a dirty word. The club was not founded in 1999.
We have to acknowledge where we have come from, and make sure we don't go back there again - too many people have worked too hard for it all to be thrown away.
I also saw a comment on Facebook that someone would be happy to see us go back to the Conference. Great. Let's give up now then shall we? I would suspect that the person who wrote that wouldn't be there to see it if it did happen.
It's no surprise that the crowds are falling after those home performances, and by the ridiculously high prices for football (not just at CTFC but across the whole of the game), and I have seen people saying they are not coming again as the club isn't going anywhere and shows no ambition.
But that is a vicious circle. Fans turn their backs on the club, and the progress is stunted as less money comes in, the budget is cut, and the chance of bringing in better players diminshes.
Paul Baker and co don't have bottomless pockets and cannot just subsidise everyone's entertainment for ever, and if crowds keep going down, the club will struggle and eventually we will be relegated.
But no one can hold a gun to fans' heads and force them to part with their money and come through the turnstiles. It is an eternal question which doesn't seem to have a solution.
No ambition. A constant barb thrown at the board and the club, which I think is unfair.
15 years in the Football League where many others who have won the Conference before and since have gone by the wayside, and others who have dropped out have struggled to come back shows in my view how well the board have looked after the club.
Three sides of the ground transformed from the decrepit mess it had become in the late 90s, and a club run along family lines controlled prudently by a board who actually care about it rather than using it as a cash cow or as something to asset strip is a good thing I feel.
Take a look around.
Scarborough, Rushden, Halifax, Chester, Stockport. Clubs who have all gone bust and re-formed or struggled financially since dropping out of the league, unable to maintain the momentum.
Cambridge, Wrexham, Grimsby, Luton, Aldershot. All down in the Conference, and none finding it easy to find a way back, and again beset by ground woes, boardroom battles or financial problems
Mansfield, Torquay, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Exeter all went down, re-grouped and eventually found a way back.
Successes like Yeovil and to a slightly lesser extent Wycombe, are few. There have been those helped by money like Crawley and Stevenage, but I don't want us to go the way of those clubs I listed first, or struggle like my second list.
Fans bemoaning our perceived lack of ambition look at Yeovil. They were always a big fish in non-League, probably the biggest of all. We were not. They always had huge crowds, we did not.
Look at the other big non-League fish before promotion came in - among them Enfield, Altrincham, Runcorn, Telford United, Wealdstone, Maidstone, Worcester City, Nuneaton Borough. Only Maidstone went into the League, lasted a season and went bust. The others have got nowhere near, and some have also gone bust, reformed and now play at a lower level. Only Nuneaton are in the Conference Premier.
Speculate to accumulate. That is another favourite phrase of the 'no ambition' shouters. But what that really means is spend money you do not have.
We tried that, and nearly went into adminstration. Most of the clubs I have listed above also tried it, and it got them precisely nowhere. It doesn't work.
However, all across the world of football these days there is an aura of short-termism, which I am not totally comfortable with.
A few poor results, and the season tickets are being lobbed on to the pitch, the forums are in overdrive, the radio phone-ins are jammed and fans turn their backs on clubs.
I saw a tweet from a Northampton fan after Chris Wilder had been in charge for two games, which said he 'had not made any difference, the results were still the same'. That was after they drew with us and lost at home to Plymouth. No patience whatsoever. Two games!!!
It is all about success right here, right now. Draws? Pah. Not good enough. Defeats? unthinkable. It has to be win, win, win, and they can't be scruffy 1-0s either. They have to done with style or the knives come out.
I call it the Sky factor. The top games are hyped up to such an extent it is ridiculous, and I laugh at the tweets during a big Premier League TV game labelling it as 'boring' or 'dull' if it doesn't finish 3-3 or if there are no goals by about the 20th minute.
I see that mentality permeating down to our level to an extent - I think some turn up to games expecting, nay demanding, a victory and a goal-fest or to see us play like Barcelona. It's never going to happen, so why expect it? But some do expect it, and turn their backs when they are disappointed.
Football is an entertainment industry, but the bottom line is, and always will be, the results, and this season they have not been good enough.
A lot of players have not performed to the reputation they arrived with, the manager has made mistakes in his recruitment of players and his tactics, and that combination has seen the season fail to gain any momentum.
We just have to hope we can scrape enough points together and then re-group in the summer.
Many of this unloved group of players won't be here, but some of the more unloved among them, Jason Taylor, Byron Harrison, Matt Richards to name but three, will be.
Terry Gornell, Zack Kotwica and Troy Brown also have contracts for another season, Craig Braham-Barrett might, and of the rest only Scott Brown, Sido Jombati and Jermaine McGlashan might get the chance of another.
So it will be a re-build job, and I think we got a clue of how that might be done with the announcement of a development under-21 side next season - which I am very pleased about.
Zack has had a few chances, but Joe Hanks and Ed Williams have not - yet must have some potential to have been given a deal, and after years spent investing time into their development, to cast them aside without seeing if there is a nugget there seems wasteful to me.
Add them to the crop of second-year scholars (players like Harry Williams, Bobbie Dale, Spencer Hamilton, Elliott Keightley. Adam Powell and Harvey Rivers) who seem to be the best prospects we have had for a long time, then the move makes sense and will bridge the gap to the first team, and finally we might see a conveyor belt of talent coming through as clubs at our level need.
It might also stop our extensive use of loans, which have been productive in previous seasons with the likes of Jack Butland, Luke Garbutt and Michael Hector, but have not had the same impact this time round.
My theory on that one goes back to the FA Cup defeat at Tamworth, which is the pivotal result of our season.
That game killed our campaign stone dead as it ended any hopes of extra finance, and also led to the contentious exits of Keith Lowe and Russ Penn in order to find those funds to shake the squad up.
It is my hope that now this under-21 side is being put in place, we will try out our own youngsters and see what they can do, rather than help out other clubs by being a nursery for their kids.
That might happen later this season if we can cobble a few wins together in the next few weeks and just give ourselves a bit more breathing space, but I wouldn't be throwing the likes of Zack in just yet.
All in all, much to ponder in the coming weeks, and months until April, when, hopefully, we can build for another Football League campaign.
Maybe it is all the ruby's fault. Ah well, the red and white stripes are back next year, so watch us fly!
I know. More excuses than Mark Yates after a defeat.
It has nothing to do with our form or the general apathy which seems to have descended across the Theatre of Shattered Dreams in the last few months. Honest guv.
Anyway, since my last blog at the end of November, nothing much has changed really, has it?
We still can't win at home, people still want the manager sacked, many are still reminiscing about players who left two years ago and we've had a drop of rain.
I can understand the apathy and grumbles to a certain extent. We have been spoilt with two decent seasons, FA Cup glamour games, a Wembley trip and some decent football to watch.
But this season, we have had none of the above.
Home games have been difficult to watch, and when the vast majority of your fanbase only watches home games, then that is all they have to judge the team on, and if some of the games are as much fun as a three-hour trip to B&Q then it's not surprising the natives get restless.
The Captial One game with Crawley, JPT game with Plymouth and the games with Oxford and Portsmouth are just about it when it comes to games I can remember being anywhere near decent this season.
There were patches in other games - first halves against Burton and Hartlepool, second half against Morecambe and Jamie Cureton's winner against Wimbledon, but otherwise not a lot.
Away from home, we have been better, in most cases showing good resilience and commitment, but three league wins in 15 home games is not going to get a team anywhere.
At the moment, it is getting us to 15th place, and has more of us looking over at shoulders at what is behind us, than upwards at where we hoped we would be.
But while I can understand the frustration and annoyance of some, I do feel some of the reaction has been over the top.
I have seen this season labelled a 'disaster'. A bit strong. Ask Northampton about their season. I would say that is the definition of a disaster -play off final to bottom of the table via a change of manager and huge player turnover. Ordinary yes, a disaster? Not for me.
The season has also been labelled 'the worst in living memory'. Come on. That's just being silly. Martin Allen anyone? Going further back, Ally Robertson? This is mild, believe me!
However, I come at this from a slightly different perspective. I spent 20-odd years dreaming of CTFC reaching the Football League, watching plenty of terrible defeats along the way, and never thinking it would ever happen.
In my 20s, Cheltenham reaching the final qualifying round of the FA Cup and having 1,000 people in the ground was a huge success. When you can remember a 4-1 defeat at Sutton Coldfield Town, a draw at Plymouth Argyle or a home defeat by Mansfield Town doesn't become the worst result in the world.
Fans in their 20s now have only seen seasons with either a promotion fight or a relegation battle, chances of games at Wembley or the Mill Stad and some decent Cup runs. A run-of-the-mill mid-table season is not in their script.
That doesn't mean I want to see the team and club go forward, of course I do. But I do feel people need to get a bit of perspective sometimes, and remember where we have come from. Non-league is not a dirty word. The club was not founded in 1999.
We have to acknowledge where we have come from, and make sure we don't go back there again - too many people have worked too hard for it all to be thrown away.
I also saw a comment on Facebook that someone would be happy to see us go back to the Conference. Great. Let's give up now then shall we? I would suspect that the person who wrote that wouldn't be there to see it if it did happen.
It's no surprise that the crowds are falling after those home performances, and by the ridiculously high prices for football (not just at CTFC but across the whole of the game), and I have seen people saying they are not coming again as the club isn't going anywhere and shows no ambition.
But that is a vicious circle. Fans turn their backs on the club, and the progress is stunted as less money comes in, the budget is cut, and the chance of bringing in better players diminshes.
Paul Baker and co don't have bottomless pockets and cannot just subsidise everyone's entertainment for ever, and if crowds keep going down, the club will struggle and eventually we will be relegated.
But no one can hold a gun to fans' heads and force them to part with their money and come through the turnstiles. It is an eternal question which doesn't seem to have a solution.
No ambition. A constant barb thrown at the board and the club, which I think is unfair.
15 years in the Football League where many others who have won the Conference before and since have gone by the wayside, and others who have dropped out have struggled to come back shows in my view how well the board have looked after the club.
Three sides of the ground transformed from the decrepit mess it had become in the late 90s, and a club run along family lines controlled prudently by a board who actually care about it rather than using it as a cash cow or as something to asset strip is a good thing I feel.
Take a look around.
Scarborough, Rushden, Halifax, Chester, Stockport. Clubs who have all gone bust and re-formed or struggled financially since dropping out of the league, unable to maintain the momentum.
Cambridge, Wrexham, Grimsby, Luton, Aldershot. All down in the Conference, and none finding it easy to find a way back, and again beset by ground woes, boardroom battles or financial problems
Mansfield, Torquay, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Exeter all went down, re-grouped and eventually found a way back.
Successes like Yeovil and to a slightly lesser extent Wycombe, are few. There have been those helped by money like Crawley and Stevenage, but I don't want us to go the way of those clubs I listed first, or struggle like my second list.
Fans bemoaning our perceived lack of ambition look at Yeovil. They were always a big fish in non-League, probably the biggest of all. We were not. They always had huge crowds, we did not.
Look at the other big non-League fish before promotion came in - among them Enfield, Altrincham, Runcorn, Telford United, Wealdstone, Maidstone, Worcester City, Nuneaton Borough. Only Maidstone went into the League, lasted a season and went bust. The others have got nowhere near, and some have also gone bust, reformed and now play at a lower level. Only Nuneaton are in the Conference Premier.
Speculate to accumulate. That is another favourite phrase of the 'no ambition' shouters. But what that really means is spend money you do not have.
We tried that, and nearly went into adminstration. Most of the clubs I have listed above also tried it, and it got them precisely nowhere. It doesn't work.
However, all across the world of football these days there is an aura of short-termism, which I am not totally comfortable with.
A few poor results, and the season tickets are being lobbed on to the pitch, the forums are in overdrive, the radio phone-ins are jammed and fans turn their backs on clubs.
I saw a tweet from a Northampton fan after Chris Wilder had been in charge for two games, which said he 'had not made any difference, the results were still the same'. That was after they drew with us and lost at home to Plymouth. No patience whatsoever. Two games!!!
It is all about success right here, right now. Draws? Pah. Not good enough. Defeats? unthinkable. It has to be win, win, win, and they can't be scruffy 1-0s either. They have to done with style or the knives come out.
I call it the Sky factor. The top games are hyped up to such an extent it is ridiculous, and I laugh at the tweets during a big Premier League TV game labelling it as 'boring' or 'dull' if it doesn't finish 3-3 or if there are no goals by about the 20th minute.
I see that mentality permeating down to our level to an extent - I think some turn up to games expecting, nay demanding, a victory and a goal-fest or to see us play like Barcelona. It's never going to happen, so why expect it? But some do expect it, and turn their backs when they are disappointed.
Football is an entertainment industry, but the bottom line is, and always will be, the results, and this season they have not been good enough.
A lot of players have not performed to the reputation they arrived with, the manager has made mistakes in his recruitment of players and his tactics, and that combination has seen the season fail to gain any momentum.
We just have to hope we can scrape enough points together and then re-group in the summer.
Many of this unloved group of players won't be here, but some of the more unloved among them, Jason Taylor, Byron Harrison, Matt Richards to name but three, will be.
Terry Gornell, Zack Kotwica and Troy Brown also have contracts for another season, Craig Braham-Barrett might, and of the rest only Scott Brown, Sido Jombati and Jermaine McGlashan might get the chance of another.
So it will be a re-build job, and I think we got a clue of how that might be done with the announcement of a development under-21 side next season - which I am very pleased about.
Zack has had a few chances, but Joe Hanks and Ed Williams have not - yet must have some potential to have been given a deal, and after years spent investing time into their development, to cast them aside without seeing if there is a nugget there seems wasteful to me.
Add them to the crop of second-year scholars (players like Harry Williams, Bobbie Dale, Spencer Hamilton, Elliott Keightley. Adam Powell and Harvey Rivers) who seem to be the best prospects we have had for a long time, then the move makes sense and will bridge the gap to the first team, and finally we might see a conveyor belt of talent coming through as clubs at our level need.
It might also stop our extensive use of loans, which have been productive in previous seasons with the likes of Jack Butland, Luke Garbutt and Michael Hector, but have not had the same impact this time round.
My theory on that one goes back to the FA Cup defeat at Tamworth, which is the pivotal result of our season.
That game killed our campaign stone dead as it ended any hopes of extra finance, and also led to the contentious exits of Keith Lowe and Russ Penn in order to find those funds to shake the squad up.
It is my hope that now this under-21 side is being put in place, we will try out our own youngsters and see what they can do, rather than help out other clubs by being a nursery for their kids.
That might happen later this season if we can cobble a few wins together in the next few weeks and just give ourselves a bit more breathing space, but I wouldn't be throwing the likes of Zack in just yet.
All in all, much to ponder in the coming weeks, and months until April, when, hopefully, we can build for another Football League campaign.
Maybe it is all the ruby's fault. Ah well, the red and white stripes are back next year, so watch us fly!
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