I often think it's better to wait until the morning after the night before , before analysing a game, but even on reflection, we suffered because we're just not clinical enough in the two 18 yard boxes.
The defending for the first goal was criminal - Yes, the pitch didn't help, and you could argue that Barrett was a victim of that, but the defending which allowed the ball to reach Wordsworth in the first place was laughable. Two games in a row now we have conceded within the first two minutes, and you cannot expect to win games like that. I appreciate M'Voto is coming back from an injury, but he is woefully lacking match sharpness, and has clearly piled on a few pounds since September/October time.
For me, one of our biggest weaknesses right now is down our left side - I have no idea what kind of contract we entered into with Wolves, but why is Malone still in our team? He is, IMO, very poor defensively, and is arguably one of the worst set piece takers I've ever seen at the club - yet he is still our chief free kick/corner specialis(?).... Johhny Herd, who is no Kenny Sansom, is a better option in defence, and has a weapon with his long throw.
The defneing for the second goal was even worse than the first - why/how do we manage to leave one of the tallest men on the pitch completely unmarked at the far post for a free header across goal? Then we have 3 yellow shirts marking 4 Col Ewe players in the middle of the 6 yard box? On top of that, Mildenhall completely failed to cut out the ball when it came back in? These are basic errors, and ones which will continue to undermine anything we do in an attacking sense.
With regard to our offensive play, I thought at times, we looked far more dangerous than we have done in ages - it was nice to see us running at them with pace, power, and menace - Scannell, who was clearly MOTM, was superb, and Laurent, who ought to have picked out better options, was also looking like creating something everytime he had the ball. I think Watt will be a huge asset too when he settles in, and they are all huge positives for us. I also thought Spencer looked very tidy up front, thought he used the ball intelligent, got himself into some excellent positions, and I've seen enough to think he could be a bit of a gem for us long term. Having said all of that, we still lacked a bit of cutting edge, the final pass, the final shot, all of which was a bit wooly at times. We may have benefitted from having Pattersion alongside Spencer, but then the trouble is who do you drop, Laurent, Watt or Scannell?
I think we need to go with 2 out and out strikers on Saturday, and Tilly may have to look at leaving one of the three I mentioned on the bench, because we need to start scoring, and if we have pace and power on the flanks, we need bodies in the middle to put the chances away.
We did OK last night overall - we out footballed Col Ewe, but we beaten by a side who do the basic fundamentals much better than we do. It wasn't pretty, but they were effective, and we just weren't. That said, if we continue to play like that, and on a surface with is conjusive to passing football, I think we may be OK.
