More reflections after waking up at 5-00 am and with the game still going on in my head. Wahlstedt, one eminently saveable shot to save in 90 odd minutes and it’s a goal. As somebody else said “ like an outfield player playing in goal “. And not a very good one at that. Ritchie Smallwood, when he had to be the emergency keeper that time, was way better. Brittain, other people are saying he had a good half. Not for me, he passes it straight back to the centre halves too much for my liking. I thought the idea of wing backs was to give us some width ? It’s a shit idea, at our level it’s full of players who can’t really attack and can’t defend either. Not many Ashley Cole’s in this league. He gets injured a lot for no apparent reason, like several other players in this squad. Hyam, did ok I suppose. Three centre halves at home against Millwall ? It’s a bit desperate. MacFad, probably the pick of the three for me. I ’don’t like it when he comes lumbering out with the ball. Wharton, again, did ok without pulling up any trees. Opponents exploit his one footedness by pushing him onto his right foot when he comes forward with the ball. Pickering, so so game. He’s another one footed player. Came inside crowding the play all the time when he went to right back. Rarely got forward from left back in the first half. Buckley, played an absolute shocker of a cross field ball right from the kick off that got intercepted. What a way to start the game ! After that a mixture of good and bad. At least he can get his head up on the ball. He was trying to thread a needle with the ball most of the time. Not enough runners for him forwards. Garrett, I thought he played well and I was surprised he got subbed, especially has he hadn’t received his usual yellow card by then. He’s raw but there’s a player in there. Him and Buckley would be better in a three but that’s obvious. Dolan, I keep saying I like Dolan but he’s starting to frustrate me. He keeps running up blind alleys and losing the ball. Totally ineffectual last night. Maybe he needs to go back on the left side. The right should suit him but nothing is happening for him and he doesn’t combine well with Brittain. Sammi, scored a great goal but apart from that struggled to get into the game. Not through lack of effort but lack of support. Started to drop too deep. That’s where you don’t want him as he’s liable to play silly balls. Gally, he’d been playing 30 minutes before I noticed he was playing. Totally ineffectual. Watching Obafemi - he isn’t the answer either but at least he looked to be a threat in possession. Subs Siggy - did the minimum as usual. Good pass at the second attempt to Sammi for the goal. Chrisene - ok, not much of note. Ayari, ok, see Chrisene. Markanday, ok, see Ayari That’s one of our problems - 4 subs, and apart from the Siggy pass for the goal none of them did anything worthy of note. One of their subs scored a goal and looked a threat. As for the game - one paced walking football for most of the time. A really slow tempo that rarely speeded up. When you play 5 at the back and 2 just in front in it stands to reason most of the play isn’t going to be in their last third, where you’d like it to be, but in central midfield where we were out numbered. We play in front of opponents all the time, we never get them turned around. We didn’t create one clear chance all game. Not one ! The goal came courtesy of an awful pass from their defence to Siggy. We’ve nobody who can do the un-expected and catch an opponent on the hop. It’s all basic, stuff. The contrast between last nights game and the Newcastle game was glaring. Why can’t we up the tempo a bit, be brave ? Getting a point a game is unlikely to keep us up. The “ deadmen “ at Xmas, Sheff Wed and QPR are winning games. For me the juries out on Eustace, he’s got a shit, injury prone, squad that start feeling sorry for themselves at the drop of a hat. Keeping us up is a big ask but he’ll live or die by that.

They were really lucky with the goal. Their guy was playing the ball back into midfield until a rebound turned it into a killer pass into our box. That and Wahlstadt diving out of the way of the shot. If I saw the “ Dog And Duck “ second team keeper let that one in I’d be shaking my head. Having said that we got lucky with our goal. Siggy played an awful pass to one of their players. They then played an even worse one straight back to Siggy and he managed to get it right at the second attempt. Nice pass which Sammi dispatched like the second coming of Jimmy Greaves.

We’ve got nobody who can carry the ball into our opponents danger areas. Nobody who can commit opponents and then beat them. Either out wide or through the middle. Up front, with the exception of Sammi, we are toothless. Could you see Gally scoring the goal that Obafemi got ? He was lucky that his pass back into midfield got a rebound that made it into a pass into our area but he reacted quicker than anyone to get a shot away. Gally would have been trying to get the ball out of his feet.

The Essex - A Walkin’ Miracle

Leo had one shot to save and he ducked under it.

He needs to realise this isn’t cricket. We can’t “ get there in singles “.

He’s trying to play long ball football with a group of players who aren’t suited to it skill wise. Did Gally win a header all night ?

Mm, I’ll let you know on Saturday.

More walking football. Nobody is actually running on to the ball . We play in front of teams all the time and never get in up the sides. We play standing still stuff in little bunches, sooner or later we balls it up. it so easy for an opponent to nip in and steal the ball. Great goal from Sammi, the goal of a man in top goal scoring form. No hesitation - bang - far corner. The lad is priceless. I’ll have more to say tomorrow. I watched Ipswich later. It was like they were playing another sport. Pace, high tempo, never say die attitude. Chalk and cheese.

Stand up and it hits him right in the face. He was going down before the lad hit the ball.

James Carr - Pouring Water On A Drowning Man

I think Luton have overachieved and the other two newly promoted teams have underachieved. Especially Burnley given the money they’ve spent. I didn’t expect them to be in the top half of the league but I didn’t expect them to spend the whole season in the drop zone or lose so many home games. That would have never happened under Dyche. The “ Southern Softies “ like Palace, Watford, Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton etc were usually beaten before they got off the coach. Especially on a wet Monday night.

It’s still really hard to defend against. Once you’ve got defenders turned around and running back towards their own goal you’ve cracked it as a striker. They no longer can watch the ball and the guy they are supposed to marking. Making space for a shot is easy then.

All it needed was a good kick on the leg.

Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music

Yeah, who’d have thought that might happen ?

I’ll need to see how he goes for the rest of the season before I jump to that conclusion.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, incomprehensible signing. Absolutely desperate ! How did he ever pass the medical ?

It was a really shocking signing. As soon as I heard he was recently coming back from a second leg break I had a good idea what the outcome would be. At least Martin Britt played 12 games for us before he retired early.

I’ve just seen he was on the bench tonight but didn’t get on.

Where’s Big Ben these days, I thought he’d signed for them ?

Kathy Young And The Innocents - A Thousands Stars

The Band - The Shape I’m In

To use what seems to be a popular phrase - “ No Excuses.”

Gally is one of those footballers who’s actually got worse as he’s reached his prime. He was better when he first came here.