Andy Welsh had a canny game after he came on in the second half.
Well, that’s that bit of the report over and done with.
Nah, it wasn’t that bad. It was a curiously neutral game in deciding where to veer on the ohmygodwe’recertaintoberelegatedometer. We looked to have our fitness levels up to where they ought to be and we were creating chances while showing some organisation. However, it was pretty much devoid of inspiration.
I assume this was Mick’s first choice team from the players he had available. Davis obviously in goal. It was good to see Breen and Caldwell back together in defence. Whatever our views on them as a premiership quality pairing it looks like they are going to be the ones so it was good for them to get the work out. Wright at right back. With both Ringo and Collins D injured (and having effectively no pre-season) we have quickly flicked from left back being the position we have the most players to it being a crisis. Arca is just not a left back. He is good enough to perform the role in the Championship but his style of defending will see us ripped apart in the Premiership. The number of times he decided to do little twirls and pull backs in front of us in the first half was doing my head in. Yes it gets a cheer from the crowd but so do well endowed lasses doing the half-time draw and no-one is suggesting we play them (although there is still time). In any case Arca is more valuable to us pushed up. On the right wing we had Lawrence, not being very effective at all to be honest. In central midfield we had Whitehead, who had a canny game until he was pushed wide right in the second half and Robinson, having a moderate game punctuated by one blooper, one poorly executed shot just inside the box and one very poor return of a one-two with Welsh. But that was enough. The boo boys Selection Sub-Committee had held their pre-season OhhellWhitleyhasgone meeting and made their decision. When Robinson made his central midfield blooper in the first half, there was an almost audible sigh of relief followed by a rustle of paper as the song sheets were taken out and then “booooo”. That’s the way lads. Booo for Victory. Boo for all you’re worth. For booing is the Way. Remember this is a particularly unglamorous pre-season friendly. You have to be pretty committed to the cause to want to turn up to this one. We know we’re in for a long hard fight. And yet you boo? I just don’t understand it. I don’t know how many people do it but even one I can’t cope with the mentality of it. It is weird beyond my comprehension.
Where was I? Oh yes, where was Piper? Is he nacked again? Not even on the bench? Oh god. On the left we had Woods. I still can’t see owt in him. Had a moderate to poor game I thought. Up front was the real worry. We’re just not scoring. Stead is getting into positions but not converting. Just as worrying is that him and Brown don’t even look like they’ve met each other. I don’t think Brown is a particularly poor player but you can’t even begin to talk about his “partnership” with Stead. There is no partnering going on. You could see that in any case but when Brown went off and Murphy came on it was made even starker. The two of them were just physically closer to each other. Elliott was poorly apparently. Oh god.
Second half they started off brighter. We improved when Welsh came on. Miller also came on but from my point of view (i.e. short sighted and short attention span) he got sucked into the Black Hole of our central midfield, where you know things must be going on but have no known ways of measuring them. At the end of the game I thought to myself “what is my opinion of Miller’s performance?” and realised I didn’t have one. Oh god.
Danny Webber tried to help our left back crisis by splitting the Arca (who amazingly might be OK – but nacked for Alkmaar next week). Breen reacted stupidly and should have been sent off. Bliddy annoys me that. If he had been sent off, he could have been suspended for the early Prem games. Breen is meant to be captain. He knows how Premiership referees work. They want to stay on the Premiership list. They want the big games. The way to do that is stay on the right side of Ferguson, Mourhino, Wegner and Benitez. The opinions of the likes of O’Leary, Moyes and Souness are a lot more important than the opinions of Robson, Jewell and McCarthy. It is wrong, it is immoral. But it is nowhere near as important as staying up. If Van Nistelroy commits a tackle on George McCartney like the one Webber did on Arca, chances are nowt will be done. If Breen reacts like he did and that nice Mr Keane says to the ref (one from the Graham Poll school of “I’ve got no ability but watch me kiss bum” school of refereeing – i.e the only one in the Prem) “that man just touched one of my players” then Breen is off. I hope McCarthy had a word with him. Not just for his reaction but also the example he sets as captain.
Nosworthy came on, but as left back. He is very right footed. So, while he coped with it better than being at centre half, he struggled a bit. Still managed to be more actively involved in our attempts to push for an equaliser than several who had either been on the pitch or were still on the pitch mind.
Like I said at the beginging: not disastrous; not enormously encouraging. There are plenty of siren voices prepared to declare that this is proof positive of the fact that we’ll be relegated. But they tend to be the ones who had already declared they had proof positive that we were going to be relegated beforehand. They are like Creationists – they are 100% positive that something that can only be an opinion is a certain fact and yet somehow manage to achieve the mathematically impossible feat of every experience in life making them even more convinced of their fact/opinion.
So on to Alkmaar where one hopes the mellow feelgood mood on our return is more down to the SAFC goalfeast than extended stays in the café bars of Amsterdam.