Well, back to the game... for what it is worth.
I'm not that downhearted, just a bit disappointed we didnt do better. We have a team that barely know each other, and were only really assembled 2 weeks before the season started, so on that basis we are still experimenting with what works and what doesnt! For this team we are not yet where we should have been at the end of pre-season.
The big negative was the decision to just book their no 9 after the nasty 2 footed kick on Moshni, which the ref didnt see as Moshni was blocking his view of what happened, but the lino and 4th official must have seen. It was a straight red, no doubt about it, and he was lucky to stay on the pitch. For me, that was a defining moment in the match, and after that the ref was struggling to keep control.
The other difficulty today was the lack of organisation and focus in the defence, which cost us 2 very soft goals, thought the other one was well worked and deserved. Thought we missed Easton, which surprised me a bit as he had been quite anonymous in the previous games I have seen, but I am starting to think that Easton is in the same category that was there with Maher, you didnt notice him till he wasnt on the pitch!!
To their credit, Morcombe were awful, but not as bad as others in this league. They do know how to play in this league, they were all big and strong, and what they lacked in skill they made up for in exploiting our fairly obvious weaknesses, ie our woeful defending, inability to get the ball back when we gave it away and us not playing the ball on the floor, all of which suited them completely and proved to be our undoing.
Morris 5 - some reasonable saves, but not the best performance I have seen. Could be much worse!
Clohessy 6 - pretty good performance considering - didnt do anything terribly wrong
Mohsni 4.5 - Poor defending for all 3 goals, went wandering too often and kept going for the same ball as the rest of the defence. Has potential, but at what cost?
Barker 6.5 - Somehow the defence isnt working together, but Barker was doing his best to try and pull it into some sort of shape.
Gilbert 5 - Struggled a bit, looked a bit off the pace of their winger
Simpson 5 - not a good performance today, expected better.
Grant 7 - started brightly, good goal (again) but seems to be running out of steam in the second half still. Nonetheless, best performance in the team. MOM
Timlin 5 - looks a useful player, but not in that holding role. Easton is far better at this, and needs to get back in the side asap.
Hall 6 - some lovely touches, but struggled against a big physical side
Corr 6 - decent finish, missed a few chances but somehow just not very effective today.
Sturrock 6 - Cant see why he is getting such a hard time. Not a great performance, but not the worst either. I like the way he plays wil intelligence, which is working well with Granty who also plays an intelligent game. Between them they opened up a lot of space that the rest of the team didnt exploit properly. Worst thing is, he isnt a 20 goal a year striker, he's more an an Emile Heskey type of player, which isnt helped by the accident of birth that made him the son of the manager. Get off his case!
Subs - no point, were all ineffective. Have to say that Herd looked as out of his depth today as he did last season, a good reason why he is currently bench-sitting! Despite the rest of the defence being poor, I dont think it wouold be helped by Herd in the back 4 at the moment.
Not overly disappointed with the result, would have preferred a draw at least, but it isnt a disaster if we can learn from it and do better next time. It is early days still, would be more worried if we are still in this postion in January!