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the grumpy old man
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Almost 24 hours after the game I am still totally mystified by that performance, I just never saw it coming. Did we really miss Guthrie that much? should the absence of one player make that much difference? It seems that it did. If that is the case then it doesn't say much for our player recruitment over the summer as we now have a serious lack of defenders, and in particular centre backs (yes I know we have Dyche but is he really ready? and even if he is would yesterday have been the right game to blood him in?) I accept they couldn't have predicted Nelson would get a season ending injury but centre backs are frequently injured or suspended due to the nature of their position so surely we should have signed another CB rather than all those forwards or midfielders. Don't get me started on the Revan situation, he is only here until January and he hasn't even made the squad yet. JB said a week or two ago that he anticipates playing him against Walsall on Tuesday so it will be interesting to see if he turns up.
I must admit that before the game I was sitting at home , warm and comfy, and thinking do I really want to go to this game, it's peeing down, it's windy and for my 74 year old bones it's cold but as a season ticket holder I told myself to get a grip and get up there, after all it should be an easy three points shouldn't it ?. Nothing could have been further from the truth, they were streets ahead of us, and they were no great shakes either, certainly not in Swindon's class as evidenced in the previous home game. Only Roberts comes out of the game with any credit and even he admitted he could have been better.
Like most on here I was completely baffled why Harriman wasn't drafted in at centre back, playing McGowan there robbed us of a good attacking right back and left us exposed in the middle - he is simply not tall enough for a centre back. I thought McWilliams would do ok at right back but I was wrong , he had a mare and once again as others have said was lucky not to get a red card.
As for the midfielders and strikers, apart from flashes from Rose who missed a good chance to put us 1 - 0 up they were rubbish. I honestly believe that if we were still playing now we still wouldn't have scored, and even if we had managed to have a pot at goal we would still have had to beat Bouzanis, who I can assure you is an excellent keeper. As for Kabamba I reckon I could have done as well as him, why on earth wasn't Etete playing ?
I am hoping this was a one off and we will bounce back at Hartlepool (I couldn't give a monkey's about Tuesday's game) , but from memory our record there is not very good, even Wilder's title winners only drew 0-0.
There is another theory though, and that is, that it was my fault! I always drive to my brother in law's house in Duston and leave the car there and walk (I didn't walk yesterday), and just before leaving I always take a grape from the collection he has on display. Now normally they are all green ones but yesterday he had some green and some red ones and it put me in a right old spin - green or red? - well I chose green as I always have green and then Sutton turn up in green shirts and of course we play in red so sorry guys. Mind you I spent the whole of the first half thinking they were playing in blue - unless they changed colours at half time of course !!!
One bonus yesterday though was that the car park was free as there was no one on duty to collect the money - maybe it was too wet for them? And finally why are we housing the away fans in the corner of the East Stand when the South Stand is the dedicated away area?
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