Mark Kennedy said the Shodipo miss changed the game, and perhaps it did. “I’ve been relegated twice, and trust me, confidence is low, so I just thought it was a pivotal moment in the game,” he said of our opponents after the game. “The conditions were horrendous, and I just felt it would’ve been difficult in the second half, and they would have a lot more opportunities with the wind, and naturally, they’ll go direct. I thought if we were 2-0 up, we could’ve seen the game out.”
I thought a more pivotal moment was them bringing on Dylan McGeouch at half time. McGeouch is a former Sunderland midfielder who came to England from Hibernian, having once been at Celtic. He has two Scotland caps and, in my opinion, is a good solid League One midfielder. When you’re in trouble at the foot of the table, should you be starting young loanees from the Premier League, or established, experienced players who have been in the division in the past? I think the answer to that was obvious.
Plus, the wind was behind them, they started going a bit more direct, and they got their rewards. I didn’t like how straight balls down the middle caused us problems; they struggled to play through Erhahon, so they began to bypass him, and it worked. It worked for Portsmouth last week as well – a straight ball over the top freed Colby Bishop, and he fluffed his lines. Yesterday, the same happened with Corey O’Keeffe, with the same outcome.
However, before that, the game had been levelled, and the combination of second assists and scorer was not hard to work out. Whenever a team faces their ex-players you expect them to score – in actual fact, it happens far less than you think. Jamie Robson, a player I still say could have been big for us, delivered a cross that caused issues, and the ball eventually broke to Jordon Garrick. He only ever looked effective against Forest Green for us, so maybe it’s the bamboo kit that makes him a good footballer. Whatever it is, he suddenly came alive after being anonymous, bagging the goal with a good finish. He made his way over to the visiting fans and put his fingers to his lips to suggest quiet. Given he’d been given a bit of stick, I’ve no problem with that at all – he never got going here, but he had a decent attitude, and yesterday aside, I’m pleased he’s getting regular football somewhere.
Many said the goal changed the game in their favour, but it didn’t really. We weren’t at the races in the second half, but I thought they seemed to be happy with a draw. Bar a couple of big balls over the top, they didn’t really threaten, despite having eight shots, five on target. Their xG was only 0.66, which suggests that we were comfortable, bar the goal we conceded, and I don’t think many could argue with that. We had by far the best chance to win the game ten minutes from time, when Poole flicked a corner back into the box, and O’Connor scooped a shot over the bar.
If you look at the attacking momentum at the bottom of this page, it suggests despite us lacking finesse, we were still the more dangerous of the two sides.
It’s hard to get too worked up either way about this game. I can’t say I’m delighted at drawing with the bottom team, but at this stage of the season, they can be more dangerous than midtable also-rans. Forest Green are fighting for their lives, not that it was evident yesterday, and aside from their thrashing at the hands of Ipswich, they’ve been in almost all of the matches they’ve played recently. They’re not a good side, but they’re not an awful one – I think we’ve played worse. They would have broken yesterday had we got the second, but they got to half time still in the game, made some changes and found the wind behind them and leveraged that to get themselves a point, which isn’t a whole lot of use to a team adrift at the foot of the table.
As for us, I said after the Cambridge game, all we needed to do to stay up was stay in credit in terms of games-to-points ratio, and that’s happened. Of course, not winning games is frustrating, but I have to ask those being critical what they expected. Mark Kennedy is what, eight months into his reign as head coach? I’ve seen a huge amount of evolution in that time, and there’s still a long way to go. However, solid defence, combative midfield and the makings of a decent attack are a good start. We’re not a top-ten side right now, we might just about claim to be a top-half team, maybe, but it’s marginal. However, we have the makings of something here, I’m sure of it. I was sure of it against Derby when a 1-1 draw was seen very much as a victory, and I’m still sure of it now when a draw is seen as the opposite.
We might draw more games this season than anyone ever has in the Football League, but they’re not defeats. People say nothing separated us and the bottom team yesterday, but I say 17 points and nine places do. Last season, we lost to Doncaster when they were bottom, but where are they now? That was a chapter in a story, just like yesterday was. However, I don’t think this story is a tragedy – I think it might even be a romance between a young head coach and a fanbase left brokenhearted by the empty promise of a one-off season.
It’s early stages, and there’s no telling quite where it goes from here, but I think we’re going to be heading up over the next 12 months, whilst yesterday’s opponents are heading down.
Have a good weekend, what’s left of it, and Up The Imps.
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