Dreadful spectacle. I was really disappointed, I’d brought friends last night who’d never been to a Steel City Derby before and had hyped it up to them all week. I was in the Family Stand, midway between the halfway line and the Kop and I have to say, the atmosphere, for a Derby, was appalling. First 15 minutes we were loud, we were on top and the match wasn’t too bad... but then it all disappeared and all I could hear was the odd disjointed chant from the back of the Kop which I doubt the away end or Sky could pick up. Next thing you know Wednesday are singing “is this a library?” and it was justified.
In terms of the match itself, I said on here a week or so ago that I was “sick to death” of our crosses not beating the first man and Pinchy decided to pick a battle with me. I stand by that position after last night. What’s the point in attacking the wide positions and overloading with wing backs and centre halves if the best we can hope for is a corner - which amount to nothing. On the odd occassion we did manage to get a decent cross in nobody had gambled on it, probably because they’re playing the odds (that 9 times out of 10 it’s not going to get to them).
John Fleck, Richard Stearman and Simon Moore were our three top performers for me. I would then praise the efforts of all of the rest of the players (except Donaldson who looked uncommitted) but apart from Mark Duffy (who wasn’t getting the rub of the green), nobody was positive enough to try and force the issue last night... sadly Wednesday looked extremely comfortable with their two banks of 4, sat watching us pass it around in front of them. We need players who can beat a man and scatter those lines of defence, we badly miss David Brooks for this.
On a more positive note, I hear Lee Evans has a great set piece delivery and Ricky Holmes has a sweet strike on him too. It was a shame Holmes couldn’t be on the field for the free kick that Mark Duffy blasted over on the edge of the box (a great chance).
That’s 1 win in 10 now. We’re still playing nice football, but that’s relegation form. I don’t want us to have a massive system overhaul, I love the way we play, but I do fear teams have us figured out now and we have to be able to adapt different systems and give teams more to worry about.
