Thoroughly let down by the management yesterday. A Swindon fan I know was saying last night that it reminded him of last year's JPT final when they got beat by Chesterfield, commenting that Wembley's a horrible place to be if you don't turn up. What was supposed to be a grand occasion and a hallmark of the club's history turned out to be something of a damp squib, and there's only one man culpable for that. Well, two if you count the man that hired him.
For the first twenty or so minutes of the game, I've no idea what formation, tactic or attitude the players were supposed to have had. It looked like we were trying three at the back with Clohessy and Straker as full-backs, but we've never tried that before, so I can't for one second believe that Brown would be naive enough to attempt that formation in a Wembley final. I also can't believe that Brown would consider that a reasonable tactic to adopt given the propensity of Crewe's full-backs to double-up; Tootle especially spent more time in our half than his simply because the only time he had any defensive task was when Tomlin or Assombalonga chased something in the channel.
For the first goal, I can't say I've ever seen two players attempt to man-mark the corner taker before, so at least that's another Wembley first to tick off. I can't say it was too clear what we were trying to do with defending set pieces either to be honest. It looked like we were going man-to-man, but everybody seemed completely surprised when an extra man popped up on the edge of the box to have a crack. I noticed that we've now changed to leaving one man on the edge of the area and one on the halfway line, but I can't believe that Brown would change the way in which we defend set pieces two weeks before a Wembley final and expect everything to go according to plan against well drilled and well organised opposition.
After we conceded, it looked like we went to play a more conventional 4-4-2 with Tomlin and Assombalonga up top and Straker wide-left which, apart from Straker being played out of position and Mohsni continuing in central midfield having dialled in two utterly shambolic performances in that position in recent weeks. We actually improved, which also coincided with Crewe looking to batten down the hatches for a while and maintain their lead, and played some pretty decent football in patches, but nothing anything like the consistency required to mount a sustained attack. Everything came in fleeting spells, which struck me as being a consequence of the players never really knowing what they were supposed to be doing - it just happened to click on occasion.
The cause for a lot of the breakdown in our play was Mohsni, who spent his time on the field gifting Crewe possession, getting in Mkandawire's way, or having words with the referee. Tam is, by some distance, our best player at the moment and that showed yesterday. Perhaps Brown played Mohsni and Mkandawire next to eachother to convince Ron to spend some money next year, a sort of "this is what a midfielder's supposed to look like, and this is what you're asking me to work with" exhibition, or maybe he's hoping that there'll be an incident like one of those clichéd personality-swap movies, and Tam and Bil will clash heads and we can pack Tam-with-Bil's-brain back to Millwall and nobody will be any of wiser. If it's not either of those two, then I don't get it. Abysmal performance, and one that was so utterly predictable. Still, at least he did this -
If Reeves was fit, why on earth wasn't he on the pitch earlier than he was? He came on and drove Crewe backwards with some clever movement, and ultimately gave us an attacking option, something which Hurst sadly failed to do all afternoon. Britt and Tomlin toiled with what little they were given, and Tomlin especially looked like he frightened Crewe's defensive line on more than one occasion. Corr came on and offered another dimension, especially as by that time we'd resorted to lumping it forward, but the game was already lost and Crewe could defend deeper, nullifying Corr's flick-ons. I'd like to see Corr and Tomlin given every possible chance of forging a partnership for the rest of the season.
Eastwood did alright when he eventually came on, but again it was too late to make any kind of impact. Crewe defended deep having already capitalised on our **** poor organisation. Brown's attempts to salvage anything from the game where all too little, too late.
Smith - 7 - Smart saves. Can't be blamed for the shambles in front of him.
Barker - 5 - Wasn't ready.
Cresswell - 5.5 - Didn't look to have much of an idea what was going on, but that's not his fault.
Prosser - 6 - The pick of our defensive line probably. Made some committed and important challenges.
Clohessy - 5 - Poor from him really, but again that's everything to do with the tactics.
Straker - 4 - Less said the better really.
Mohsni - 3 - Laters, Bil.
Mkandawire - 6 - What Bil should've been.
Hurst - 5 - Fairly anonymous.
Assombalonga - 5 - Worked hard, but didn't have any impact.
Tomlin - 7 - Worked hard, did have an impact.
Reeves - 6 - Tried to change things, but by then the game was lost.
Corr - 6 - As above.
Eastwood - 6 - And again.
All in all, what was supposed to be a day to remember was spoiled by an utterly shambolic performance, with only a few fleeting spells of football. Those who campaigned for Sturrock's departure have had their wish, and now they'll have to accept the consequences. I'm more than willing to give Brown every chance to succeed here, but yesterday was frighteningly poor. Anything resembling organisation or cohesion was painfully absent, replaced with utter confusion.
