Another frustrating loss for us, this time to the team anchored at the foot of the table. Just let that sink in. A few weeks ago we were in an unassailable position, points clear and goals in hand and starting to think we'd piss this league. We were playing pleasing, positive, forward moving football and made teams fear us home and away. What could go wrong? Normally our return from the dreaded international break comes with a drop in form which slowly recovers, but this time the drop is a plummet. Two points from fifteen is actually relegation form and many teams around us have the notion we have bottled it and are easy to shut down and beat, and tonight's match was evidence of that. Yeah, yada-injuries-yada-unlucky-yada-fucking-yada. Again, we had a raft of ex Premier League players out there including some who have been in the Kotex Team of the Week for the past ten years. Big fucking deal. What matters to me is that we win, or at least we don't fucking lose. We nearly lost against Blackpool and very much lost tonight. Hecky has a team in crisis once again so yeah, nice bloke and all that but we have come full circle now, downward spiral with nowt much that looks like a glimmer of hope.
The first thirty five minutes were shockingly uninspirational. We looked badly assembled with no visible on pitch plan of attack and massive gaps between the forwards, midfield and backline. When we did venture forward we looked like we didn't know what to do with it in such high altitudes and McBurnie/N'Daiye once again ran their arses off feeding off scraps or digging out anything that looked like a chance. We barely got round the back or into space or looking like we were putting Coventry under undue pressure. Their keeper, splendidly kitted in white barely got his kit soiled, see also Davies at the other end. It was typically United. We lose RND to yet another fucking hamstring problem - this time it looks like a tear so we are talking February before he's back on the bench for twenty minutes - and the pretty abject Osborn left to deal with the muscular and imposing Dabo. It was like watching a chihuahua take on a mastiff. We ended the half 'okay' but still without anything to count for. Coventry simply 'dealt with us' and stopped us playing by containing any threat. And that disconnect between midfield and the front was so fucking evident. It was a passing line they just filled with bodies forcing the pattern into tippy-tappy tedium.
Second half we switched on and for ten minutes we looked a bit like earlier season United. Norwood hits the bar with a freaky free kick and McB strikes the post with N'Daiye forcing a save from a tight angle. Up the other end Coventry tried and as the game bled out Bash, who'd dealt with Goykyeres quite well up to that moment puts in a shocker of a tackle and up steps that man Waghorn, one of many people we play and fail to stop scoring, to slam in the penalty. Davies also managed a save which woke him up but going the other way - even with a clearly out of condition Fleck on the pitch, and Sharp on for Basham we looked toothless, pointless and ready to accept defeat. It was just what we deserved.
Davies 5/10: Practically fuck all to do but palm a shot away which seemed not to be going in and pick the ball out of the net after Waghorn's penalty
Baldock 6/10: Got up the flank well and pressed but the interplay between him, Doyle and Anel was flaky and untidy at times
Anel 7/10: a good outing for him. Shows composure on the ball and defends well. We'll be lucky to have him this time next year
Egan 6/10: He still plods and is somewhat static. Dealt with multiple threats tonight but that's not saying much. the Coventry front line wasn't quite the same as it was in March in the same fixture
Basham 4/10: Loses a good two marks for that tackle. Up to then I felt he had Goykyres pretty much muzzled but his judgement, pace and agility is fading. Bloke is a fucking legend, but its ashame to see him struggling
RND unmarked: I am appalled we have lost another player ... and such a key one this time ... to a common denominator injury. This is becoming beyond a joke now. The conditioning staff need to get their thumbs out of their arses and find out what the fuck is happening here with conditioning of physiology and pre-game preparation for this level of loading
Osborn 2/10: Struggling in LCM and struggling further in LWB. He puts shitloads of energy into doing and creating fucking nothing. Improved marginally in the second half but not by much. Osborn to me is a L1 or below standard player in a league well above his capability. He'd do well in the Scottish Leagues where that level of energetic fuck-all-ness is like fucking catnip to the sweary kilted hoardes. He's today's Stefan Scougall or Ryan Flynn.
McAtee 4/10: Largely ineffective and still showing signs of 'boy in man's league' levels of return
Norwood 6/10: Some good, some bad. There were times when you were willing him along to play that pass, make that challenge and then you're saying 'Fuck's sake Norwood' as he telegraphs or dawdles and gets robbed. But he's always done that and got in the Team of the Week or Ballon D'Or or summat. I don't care. As people say 'when he plays good, we play good. When he plays bad, we play bad'. So he's inconsistent, then? Tonight he was characteristically both. Managed his trademark row Z attempt on goal.
Doyle 6.5/10: Does a hell of a lot of unmerited heavy lifting in that midfield for such a young lad. Undeservedly subbed for Fleck.
N'Daiye 6/10: Busied himself trying to create and dig stuff out of the turf. But like always, he gets the ball when he shouldn't, twists past one, drops the shoulder past another and goes past yet another and is into space with options. He's the only person capable of doing this in our squad because Basham doesn't any more. But then he's greedy and tries to beat two more and suddenly a good attacking chance is over.
McBurnie 7.5/10: A good performance from him in a game of few chances. unlucky with the post hit and didn't shithouse. Ran his socks off and looked a lot fitter and 90 minutes capable. Just needs to stay out of trouble.
Fleck 4/10: Barely saw him and for me a stupid substitution.
Sharp 5/10: Tried to muck in and get busy but it was all over by then
HJ&SMcC 4/10: Poor substitutions. Robinson on the bench as a practical direct sub for RND or Bash out wide left and he leaves Osborn on to struggle like fuck for 90 and get nothing. Khadra unused despite recent performances and Brewster too. Brings Fleck on. What the actual fuck?
Just as an aside, I am a bit sick of the 'we'll make the playoffs' mentality now. We know what happens in the playoffs, so for me we should be demanding automatic. We have ex-PL players in the team and should, if we have the ambition and yearning for success we ought to have, be seeing players out there performing like PL players if we ever dream of playing there. How much of tonight's - or the past month's performances - say 'Premier League'? How many players in that team tonight would you actually say would put in a night of grit and endeavour under the floodlights in front of the Sky Cameras against say Everton, Brighton of Leicester City? If its 'all of them' I'd say you're fucking deluded. We'd get fucking hammered. If it's two, we'd possibly scrape the playoffs. If it's 'none', then we are where we are, sliding down the league into mid-table mediocrity after a great start to the season. And other results haven't half been favourable to us of late. We are now a loss against Norwich and some not so favourable results on Saturday from ending up ninth or tenth. Hoist that in.
pommpey
