Look I've been watching Cobblers for over 50 years, for most of the time in this league. Only Carr's side of 86 could be described as top quality entertainment, and Wilder's team of 2015 comes a close second. Last night there was not even the pretence of trying to play football the way it should be played.
A couple of points.
During the early stages of Wilders tenure, some of the football was shocking. He then got himself/us Ricky Holmes, Nicky Adams etc and we were able to play, to an extent, free flowing football at times...but it took him well over a year for things to click.
Under Carr, we played hoof ball. Get the ball to Benji/Morley asap...the back 4 all pushing up to play the offside trap...then the quality of Hill, Eddie, Gilbert etc made the difference. The season we got relegated (under Carr) was about the worst football I've witnessed, hoof balls to Bobby Barnes ffs!
The point Im making is simple. The style of football can only be dictated by the types of players you have. With regards to senior players, we have one winger, Powell, who is very inconsistent. Our midfielders are all either powerhouses or light weight kids who cant do anywhere near 90 minutes yet. Previously we had Crookes...but he was massively in-consistent as well.
KC has had one window to work in, and getting the high in demand skilful players we need to top up what is now looking like a solid group, was virtually impossible, given the financial constraints he's currently working within.
He's taken us from 22nd to 11th, so from a results perspective Im struggling to moan at this point in time. At all. From an entertainment prospective, its such a rare thing to see free flowing stuff in the bottom league its again hard to be too critical. Perhaps next season if he can find 2 or 3 'dreamy players' who work hard as well (like Ricky, like Adams), then they can strutt their stuff on the back of more combative team mates (who we already have in place and I hope remain) earning the right for us to play. Time will tell on that.
As for the game last night, I found it quite fascinating for an hour (not thrilling), after which it became a bore-fest. I said with 10 minutes to go it was the type of game Ricky would have won for us 3 years ago...ironic given Powell comes on and scores a wonder right towards the end.
Wilder once said on the wireless, 'its not about the results you get in the 10 games when you play well, its about the results you get in the other games when you don't'. We seem to have once again become a team capable of grinding out results when we are not at our best. Long may that continue!
