PT wrote:Frustrating.
Having gone a goal up the whole place became shrouded in complacency. On the pitch in particular, the complacency was close to dis-respect in that there seemed to be an expectation that Crewe would stand aside and applaud our play. It doesn't work like that. For the second week running we concede a comedy goal and for the second week running we clutch a draw from the teeth of victory.
The goals we have conceded this season have been farcical. Today's fitted the bill perfectly.
Having gifted them an equaliser we came out really well in the second half and could/should have won comfortably but that record is beyond broken when it comes to Walsall over the last few seasons.
I thought Forde and O'Conner played well. I thought Taylor and Mantom were absolutely shocking and was very surprised we didn't see Flanagan and Henry brought on to replace them. Taylor must have taken 50 free kicks from the edge of the box over the years. Scored one at Colchester but the majority of the rest have been awful. Do we practice?
We're second which is nice but having won just one in the last six and the league closing in behind us, you fear we're on the cusp of a slide. Let's hope we get our scoring boots on on Tuesday and knock the benevolence in possession/from our throw-ins/from our corners and all the other ways we contrive to concede on the head.
I agree with much of this.
The complacency, or arguably cockiness, was best summed up on the occasion when we were leading 1-0, Downing brought the ball out of defence, proceeded forward as Crewe retreated and then made a short forward pass to someone (can't remember who) and then continued forward past the man looking for a return pass, recklessly leaving the defence exposed behind him.
I don't think anything came of that, but it was mindless and unnecessarily risky, which suggested to me that he thought it was easy and that Crewe were there for the taking.
There were some glorious cross field passes today by a number of the players, including Downing until he tried it too often, especially in the first half when Lalkovic found oceans of space, but sadly we were not clinical enough to make use of the space and certainly not ruthless enough in taking chances to deliver the desired result.
Mantom was relatively poor again and him playing deeper than Chambers makes little sense.
Morris again showed that he should start at home, or at least be given more than 15 minutes, or whatever he had today, as he is looking to be positive at all times and shoots more than most.
Wouldn't have taken Lalkovic off either, as he far more effective than Cook.