Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:35 pm
As disappointing as it is to say, we've been here before. Notts police didn't cover themselves in glory when we played at the City ground a few years ago. Today, one Walsall fan got needlessly singled out for standing up and singing. The fact that there was a mob doing exactly the same both behind and in front of him seemed to count for nothing. I've scarcely seen trouble at football, but when I have, it's generally been due to complete incompetency by police.
Anyway, onto the game. We were poor. Unlike last season, this squad is together, it's looking to work as hard as it can for the manager, but frankly, it's just not good enough in terms of quality.
Westlake made a steady start to the season, but was carved apart twice this afternoon. Fair play to Dean Smith for not singling him out when prompted on WM, but the winner was largely his fault, unfortunately.
That aside, where are the chances coming from? We did look like scoring two or three times during the game, but all of those were via set pieces, which you'd expect to come good every once in a while.
Midfield is a huge concern for me. Chambers improved as the game went on, but neither he nor Taundry get into the final third to worry defenders. Peterlin fits that mould too. We desperately need to sign someone who will either do all the defensive work, letting Taundry/Chambers to push forward, or someone with flair to play in front of Chambers/Taundry. At the moment, we have two midfielders who are the epitome of 'jack of all trades, master of none'.
When things aren't working in the middle, you can usually rely on your wide players to create. Not in our side, you can't. Like him or not, Gnakpa is a defenders nightmare because of his physique and his ability in the air. Once he went off this afternoon however, we had Nicholls and Hurst huff and puff but fail to create anything worthy of being called a chance. Nicholls' run and shot would be encouraging if it wasn't for the fact that we know he never puts those chances away. Never. Hurst is also flattering to deceive - he's got ability, but struggles to translate that into anything which impacts on a game.
The odd thing is, I thought both Macken and Jarvis played reasonably well. They just don't see enough of the ball in threatening areas to make things count.
Smith has given his squad the chance to impress since the start of the season, but the way things have faltered should be enough to suggest we need more options. I'm not usually one to go for the jugular in terms of wholesale changes, but I really feel he needs to shake things up for Tuesday's game before we find ourselves in a bit of a rut. I'd replace Grof, Westlake, Smith and Nicholls with Walker, Beevers, Lancashrie and Paterson and take things from there.