Buoyed by the emphatic win over the Wendies and with the anticipation of one of our favourite prematch refreshment stops of the calendar, it was Wagons Roll, for the Battlebus towards Sherwood Forest.
Enter Stage Left The Chairman, or rather, just turn up..alas. The empty front seat next to Mr Poole echoed with the words “I thought it was ten past” and the sight of The Chairman, scurrying down Bilton Lane (not followed by a bear), signalled the start of looming discontent. As we left the sunny skies of Yorkshire, the cloudy horizons of Forest billowed in front of us and the heavens opened.
So, to the game itself. Defensive nightmare just about sums it up, along with the inexperience of the midfield, with Mr Hernandez as the main culprit. Failure to defend from corners notwithstanding, not being able to string two passes together was our main downfall. To be fair, I thought the signing of new boy, Ayling , would turn into Garry-with-two-Rs master stroke. His debut against Birmingham was one of the best I have seen for a while. However, like many new players that pass through our doors, they arrive with optimism and promise, and we beat it out of them with a razor wired cudgel. I can understand Monk wanting to play his own team, but the midfield just hasn’t enough Division 2 experience. In fact, Sacko, ‘just-about-back-for-good’ Bridcutt and ‘I’m not Ronaldo nor Patrick’ Vieira don’t have a full season of 1st team football between them. I like the look of Roofe, Pablo, Not Patrick and Hadi, but they may be best brought on as Supersubs at 60 minutes when we aren’t winning, rather than starting 11 material. You can’t leave them to 75th minute to see if they can make an impact on the game though! I like Murphy, he’s no flair player but I think he can hold a ball up, put in a decent challenge and his distribution isn’t any worse than any of our current players. Between him, Dallas, Mowatt and Phillips, there is a level of reading the game that gives us the upper hand when it comes to putting balls in for Antonsson to just not hit with enough conviction to get past the goalie.
On a positive note, CRACKING goal by LUSC sponsored player Kalvin Phillips.
So back to work we go….
MPO
