04-08-2019, 09:24
I agree it was pretty dire, Dancing, and you`re right; 42 minutes to muster your first shot, especially when you`re playing at home, is completely unacceptable. Once again, just like last year, a complete lack of creativity in that first half. I`d argue with you, though, over it being as bad as some of the stuff we had to endure in the first half of last season. At least it wasn`t total hoofball; we did at least TRY to play a bit of football. Unfortunately, in the first half at least we just couldn`t seem to manage it.
Our passing was sloppy, too much of it was sideways and backwards, the ball still spent far too much time at an altitude of over 6 feet, and we seemed to have no idea how to defend a quality high ball into the box. Thankfully, until that last 10 minutes the quality of Dover`s delivery into the box was so poor it didn`t punish us; otherwise they could have been out of sight in the first half-hour. I agree that they looked a decent side, but is that because we made them look good?
I don`t like slagging off individual players – we`ve all had bad days at the office – but Joe Rowley certainly had a bit of a `mare and i`m amazed that he wasn`t subbed at half-time. In fact, I`m amazed that JS didn`t seem to want to change anything until it was really too late. The whole midfield was a bit of a mess, to be fair, and the quality of the service to the front men was shocking. A number of times I saw Scott Boden pointing to where he wanted the ball to be delivered – at ground level, mostly - but the midfield just weren`t able to do it.
Boden is not a target man in the same way that Tom Denton is, to my thinking, and it`s no good expecting him to be effective as one. His strength is as an ‘on the shoulder’ player to my mind and to play that role he has to have someone alongside him. Yesterday, he and Jack Mackay were playing way too far apart; there was about 20 yards between them a lot of the time and they need to be playing a lot closer together, I reckon.
As you say, Dancing, at least the second half was a lot better and gives me at least some cause for optimism. I really couldn`t see us losing once we went ahead and if we`d been a bit more clinical in the box maybe my prediction of 4-2 wouldn`t have been quite as embarrassing as it turned out; mind you, I did at least predict Dover to score 2 so I was half right (any chance of a point for that, Matt?). I think it`s a bit premature to write off the whole season on the basis of just 1 game; there are still 45 to go and plenty of time to sort things out.
One minor plus point, I thought, was the programme. The quality of some of the articles seems to be much improved and I must say I`m intrigued by the thought of C S Lewis being a Spireite. Nice idea, though; having Aslan in the dug-out could have been a big help yesterday.
All in all, though, I drove back down the M1 wondering – yet again – whether I really do put the mokkers on things by making the 120-mile round trip and whether I – or the team, to be more precise – would be better served if stayed at home and listened to the match on SD. Having said that, the bloke sitting next to me had driven all the way from Newmarket; that`s more than double my journey. He must have been even more disappointed than I was.
I don`t know what you`re messing about at, Dev.
Our passing was sloppy, too much of it was sideways and backwards, the ball still spent far too much time at an altitude of over 6 feet, and we seemed to have no idea how to defend a quality high ball into the box. Thankfully, until that last 10 minutes the quality of Dover`s delivery into the box was so poor it didn`t punish us; otherwise they could have been out of sight in the first half-hour. I agree that they looked a decent side, but is that because we made them look good?
I don`t like slagging off individual players – we`ve all had bad days at the office – but Joe Rowley certainly had a bit of a `mare and i`m amazed that he wasn`t subbed at half-time. In fact, I`m amazed that JS didn`t seem to want to change anything until it was really too late. The whole midfield was a bit of a mess, to be fair, and the quality of the service to the front men was shocking. A number of times I saw Scott Boden pointing to where he wanted the ball to be delivered – at ground level, mostly - but the midfield just weren`t able to do it.
Boden is not a target man in the same way that Tom Denton is, to my thinking, and it`s no good expecting him to be effective as one. His strength is as an ‘on the shoulder’ player to my mind and to play that role he has to have someone alongside him. Yesterday, he and Jack Mackay were playing way too far apart; there was about 20 yards between them a lot of the time and they need to be playing a lot closer together, I reckon.
As you say, Dancing, at least the second half was a lot better and gives me at least some cause for optimism. I really couldn`t see us losing once we went ahead and if we`d been a bit more clinical in the box maybe my prediction of 4-2 wouldn`t have been quite as embarrassing as it turned out; mind you, I did at least predict Dover to score 2 so I was half right (any chance of a point for that, Matt?). I think it`s a bit premature to write off the whole season on the basis of just 1 game; there are still 45 to go and plenty of time to sort things out.
One minor plus point, I thought, was the programme. The quality of some of the articles seems to be much improved and I must say I`m intrigued by the thought of C S Lewis being a Spireite. Nice idea, though; having Aslan in the dug-out could have been a big help yesterday.
All in all, though, I drove back down the M1 wondering – yet again – whether I really do put the mokkers on things by making the 120-mile round trip and whether I – or the team, to be more precise – would be better served if stayed at home and listened to the match on SD. Having said that, the bloke sitting next to me had driven all the way from Newmarket; that`s more than double my journey. He must have been even more disappointed than I was.
I don`t know what you`re messing about at, Dev.