Sat Aug 18, 2012 6:06 pm
I don't really know what to make of this afternoon's performance. We kept the ball as well as we have done for years, but really lacked any potency up front, which is proving to be our achilles heel at the moment. Whilst I thought our midfield gave theirs the runaround for large spells in the game, their back four and front two were all about 6' 2" or above, which made it look like men against boys at both ends of the pitch on ocassions.
Their first goal was unlucky. Regardless of the apparent divide in opinions on Grof, I'm sure we'd all agree he'll hold onto crosses like that nine times out of ten. Spilling a cross to the feet of a striker after six minutes really gave us a mountain to climb as they hadn't started playing before that point.
Taking a look at the second goal, I'm not sure Grof can carry much blame. Football managers, coaches and players would all say that you're usually quite happy to let a player try his luck from the halfway line. Unfortunately for us, Cotterill executed his effort perfectly, and the deficit was doubled.
It's very easy to blame Grof for both goals, but let's also take a look at who failed to block the cross for the first goal and who should have been tighter to Cotterill for the second.
Yes, we could have scored when that rocket from Hemmings was well blocked by a defender who probably knew little about it. Yes, we could have scored again when Paterson found space to have a good volley well blocked again. But ultimately, we didn't create enough genuine chances to expect to get something from that game. That said, we did everything but create chances as we saw a lot of the ball and generally used it quite well. As per last week, I thought Featherstone looked very good, as did Chambers, Cuvelier and Hemmings. Paterson's the weak link in that he never delivers any end product for all his pace and ability, and Grigg just looked like a young striker set to have his confidence further unnecessarily dented by several games of struggle playing up front on his own.
What summed things up for me was that whilst Grigg really struggled against the two monsters they had at centre half, the one time they played off Chris Brown to good effect, they knocked it to his feet, he held it up really well, laid it off to Bennett, who curled a fine effort past Grof. That's exactly why we need a striker with a bit of muscle and a bit of a presence - they not only carry a bit of a goal threat themselves, but also give those around them (in our case, Cuvelier, Hemmings and Paterson) a better chance to score goals.
Having seen their side and the way they lined up today, I reckon Doncaster will probably end up in the top six. Where we end up will, I suspect, very much depend on who Dean Smith brings in over the next two weeks. As things stand, he risks seeing all his hard work in assembling a really good, young, footballing side completely wasted.
