Before I start today, let me ask a question. What is my role as fan-driven media?
To show balance and an understanding of the wider picture? Yes. To find the bright spots in the dark, and highlight the dark ones in the light? Maybe. To be fair, reasoned and informed? I’d say so. I’d hope so, at least.
So, I think to myself as I walk around the Wolds with my dog after today’s debacle, how do I write that up? Genuinely, how would you approach it? I could sum it up in four words, two of which you wouldn’t want to hear your ten-year-old say, but what good is that? I could try to gloss over some of it and point to the good parts, but in heart of hearts, I cannot. Today, I cannot talk about positives, about the hunt for automatic promotion and all of that, because if I did, I would be lying to myself.
I said at the start of the week, six points from the three games was a minimum. Anything else, and we’re play-off material, not automatic promotion candidates. I’m not a hypocrite and sadly, four from the three games is not good enough to challenge for the top two. We could have moved back into contention this evening, instead, in my opinion, we showed why top six will now be an achievement.
Look, in the grand scheme of things, it would be an achievement, a huge one at that. I keep seeing comparisons to 2006/07, but there’s a difference. Back then, we were surrounded by teams of our size and we had no reason to feel inferior. This season, we’re competing against teams who have played in the Championship and above. I’m afraid the last few weeks are not us collapsing, they are us finding our level this season. If that level is sixth or higher, then we’ve done bloody well, even if we did look likely to top the league at one point.
You can point to many reasons for the recent form. Liam Bridcutt being out is the main driver for me, we had begun to fall off when Jorge got injured, and even when Joe did, but Liam is the key for me. He allows us to play any central defensive pairing and not feel like we did today, that every break might result in a goal. He ensures that we have a moment on the ball in the middle of the park and he calms down some of the younger, more talented players we have on the field. Once he is back, we might just do enough to finish third or fourth, but my honest assessment is that we’re not quite top two standard yet. To be so close is a huge achievement, but not because ‘four years ago we were playing Boreham Wood’, because that context is not applicable here. By the same rationale, we could say ‘two months ago we were top’ and make our current position look poor. It isn’t poor, we’re still doing incredibly well, but one thing I will not shy away from is today’s performance.
For me, it was the worst of the season by a country mile. This was our Southend from last year, the one game where we could have played for six hours and still been beaten. I haven’t said this much this season, but I felt we were poor all over the pitch, and not against a side who are doing anything at all. Rochdale won one in 17 going into today, and hadn’t scored since early February. Against us, they looked like scoring every time they got the ball.
I make notes through the game and usually do a full match report, but I can’t bring myself to write that up today. I don’t want to relive what felt like a relentless and utterly futile grind against a side we should have brushed aside. We can talk about injuries all we want, but they have lost key players too, not least 11-goal leading scorer Matty Lund. Today, all of the usual things that I feel apply in terms of squad quality, games played, injuries etc, do not apply. There are no excuses, there is nowhere to go and hide. We lost to a team that (and I’m sorry for this Rochdale fans) I believe will be playing League Two football next season, and we didn’t just lose, but we deserved to lose.
I am upset, because from the fourth or fifth minute you could see the way the game was going. I’d write down a chance in my notes, with Alex Palmer going to take a goal kick, and when I looked up, Rochdale would have possession. We gave the ball away easily, when we had it, we had no real zest or imagination and when they had it, we shrunk away like scared children hiding from playground bullies. Often, when a nice meaty 50/50 looked likely, I saw our players shy away from the challenges and as far as I’m concerned that wasn’t acceptable.
For 36 minutes it was a bad performance, but one you felt we could still win. If we get the first goal in that game, we go on and win 3-0. That’s my opinion, I feel Rochdale were a side low on confidence, but high on character and with a degree of self-belief. A goal for them would always give them something to believe in, and that is why the first goal was crucial. Let’s be honest, they could have had it three or four times over, were it not for Alex Palmer in the first half. Dare I say that if any player other than Palmer gets Man of the Match from the SW readers this weekend, I’ll be tempted to take down the player rater. He was the difference between a 2-1 defeat today and a much more embarrassing outcome altogether.
The goal wasn’t actually as bad as some of the other chances we conceded. I counted eight Rochdale corners, and seven first contacts I think, which is really bad, but when the goal came it had shades of Plymouth. Nobody seemed to want to challenge Rathbone and his finish was enough to beat Palmer, who saw it late through a crowd. It’s not the first we’ve conceded like that, no bodies were being put on the line and we paid the price.
Rochdale should have scored two or three before that, and before the half ended, they should have scored one more. It came from our attacking free kick, which was poor, cleared quickly and Humphrys’ ended up with a chance. It summed up the first half for me, and whilst I always try to find some bright spots, I couldn’t. We had one shot, off target in the first half and Rochdale and 11 shots, three on target. They started the day bottom, remember that.
Look, before you stop reading because of the negativity, I can accept us being third. Hell, if we finish third it’ll be the best finish in my lifetime, and it will represent and wonderful job from Michael and the squad. If we finish in the top six, I’ll class that as success, I’m not a moaner who will point to being top earlier in the season. I can accept bad performances too, but I won’t hide away from calling a spade a spade and that first half was, I’m afraid to say, as bad as anything I witnessed last season. Michael will have been fuming, no doubt at all, and he will have wanted a second half response from his players.
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