There are many cliches mentioned when talking about football. Some are true, and some are not. For instance, saying ‘it was a game of two halves’ is the most obvious observation and so often correct.
The late Bill Shankly once said, ‘some people believe football is a matter of life and death; I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that’. It isn’t. Football is a lot of things to a lot of people, and at times, it feels important, but at times like 7:44 pm on the evening of November 21st, 2023, we were reminded that it really isn’t that important. There’s something about a supporter going to a game and not going home that digs deep into my soul and finds a certain sadness I think resonates within Imps fans, having experienced such loss in our history. God bless Derek Reynolds, and once again, our condolences to his family and friends.
I feel it is undignified and disrespectful to debate further the intricacies of what should have happened last night. From here I shall treat it as a normal game, and choose not to further delve into an emotive and perhaps controversial decision by the powers that be to replay it. That was their ruling, and we certainly benefitted from it.
I say benefitted but let’s look at that team selection. We had no fewer than eight players out last night, five of whom would almost certainly have started had they been fit. Ben House and Tyler Walker would have filled one slot, Reeco Hackett would have played, and I suspect two from Sean Roughan, Lewis Montsma and Paudie O’Connor would have played. There’s a big call for a fit Teddy Bishop playing as well, and Jaden Brown could easily have commanded a start, given the fact Michael Skubala dropped Burroughs. Jaden must feel unlucky – frozen out for much of Mark Kennedy’s reign, he gets a league run out against Stevenage, and just when we perhaps want pace and a dynamic attacking wing back, he gets ill. Whatever way you look at it, we had perhaps 40% of our first team missing, at best.
That meant three academy prospects on the bench, one of those in Makama and the other Charlie Parks and Gbolahan Okewoye, both of whom played a game the previous night. Jack Burroughs and Danny Mandroiu both dropped to the bench in the first really interesting swap of Skubala’s reign – finally, Haks got to start in his favoured position, and Dylan Duffy was preferred at left-back. Other than that, the side picked itself more through availability than anything. Montsma, O’Connor and Roughan would be a good starting back three at this level; Mitchell, Jackson and Eyoma are just as good. If only we had that depth across the squad, we’d be top right now.
I understand Orient have injury issues also, with Theo Archibald one big miss for them. We only saw Max Sanders late from the bench, and given it was two patched-up teams going toe-to-toe, it was perhaps unsurprising that the first half was tepid. Perhaps tepid is a little generous because my honest thoughts are we were poor. This isn’t through the beer goggles of Saturday – it was through the lens of iFollow. I found the first 45 a very tough watch indeed.
I don’t think we were ‘woeful’ or whatever other hyperbole gets rolled out – we didn’t concede any really huge chances that I can recall, and whilst there was the odd moment where I wondered what we were doing, I could see the plan. It just wasn’t working, and there were a couple of reasons for that. The first is the absences, and I know people will say, ‘we can’t keep blaming that’, but we can. Imagine if you’re a darts player, and you’re right-handed, and you break your right hand. Could your continued poor performances with your left hand always be blamed on your right hand being broken? Yes. Now imagine you’re given new darts, another variable to try to figure into your game. Michael Skubala is the new darts. Our five or six first-team players being out are our broken right hand. However long it goes on for, it will always be a reason.
Then there’s individual performances not quite being up to the standard you’d expect, which was another factor. Imagine if, with your broken hand and your new darts, you also begin to get some of the basics wrong as well. I felt that was the case last night. Up top, neither Haks nor Ali Smith were able to have an impact in the first period, and there was often a lack of cohesion between the passes we played and the runs we made. On a couple of occasions, I saw a short ball played into a man who had already made a run, and even one or two basics let us down – balls controlled badly, headers missed, and pass weight misjudged.
Perhaps Orient should have led – Lasse was outmuscled by Piggott, only for the former Wimbledon man to fire over, and then we were let off massively from (shock, horror) a corner, where poor defending saw Piggott nod over from very close range. At the other end? Nothing.
I can’t say an awful lot more about the first half. I felt we could play until next season and not score, which was pretty much how I felt for most of Saturday. I know I spoke on Saturday about watching the game through the eyes of a fan when you’re there in person under the influence and through the eyes of an analytical supporter at most other times, but that doesn’t stop me from having the fan reaction, the gut-sinking feeling when things aren’t going well. That was how I felt at half time, but it was also how I felt the night we went to Orient earlier in the season. We were poor in the abandoned game, and for the first 45 last night, we were poor again.
However, I’ve covered the reasons I feel that is, it’s not a reflection on the head coach, or the direction we’re heading in.
You must be logged in to post a comment.