THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

THE MELTDOWN – FOREST GREEN ROVERS
Where’s all the haters now…. oh come on someone had to say it.

Last weekend I seem to have ruffled few feathers and If I upset anyone, I apologise, that was never my intentions. It was never a dig at anyone personally, I’d just about had enough after watching yet another display of awful football and then reading people saying they could see some positivity and progress in our play, when there clearly was nothing, as the comms team from 3CR put it after the game “It was business as usual”, and trust me if there is anything positive to report I will mention it, nobody is more desperate to see change and improvement, and as I said last week, I have no desire to go to Grimsby or Barrow on a Tuesday night in February.

For the record I am not a hater contrary to popular believe amongst some, I am a realist, if its rubbish I will say it, if its good I will call that as well, what I won’t do is imagine stuff for popular consumption just to please the happy clappers that can see no wrong in anything, I will not be grateful, I’ve done enough of that over the years, and I will not cut any slack to anyone, nobody has ever cut me any, so why should I turn the other cheek.

Yesterday was better, it wasn’t jaw droppingly so, but there were aspects in our game yesterday that made you just think that the penny for some is finally starting to drop, but as I say that there is a lingering thought in my head, I am judging us against Forest Green Rovers, no disrespect to them, but like us they are where they are for a reason, bigger tests are around the corner, and I’m not just talking about Shrewsbury on Tuesday night under the lights at SMK, there are bigger fish to fry or should I say test out our progression against.

I think about now I should praise the ground staff at FGR for getting the game on, even after getting the green light shortly after 10-15am and travelling to the game through freezing fog I was wondering if they had got it right, but despite being bloody freezing the game went ahead. I should also congratulate the 527 that travelled, its not been an easy gig following the lads even if our away record is much better than our home record, nobody can deny we have been served up some dross this season, so to motivate yourself to go in conditions such as these needs to be recognised and applauded. The atmos was better than normal, and I think many of us realised the significance of this game, to lose this would have been a massive blow, thankfully, well hopefully, we can now build on it, conversely FGR have much to think about if they are to survive, but I spy a glimmer of hope for them as I think they may start picking up a few points here and there from what I have seen, they have certainly improved, if its enough to save them could be another matter.

So the game then….well we had a bit of a scare in the warm up, new signing Leko appeared to tweak something behind the back of the knee and was under some pretty intense scrutiny and questioning from the coaching staff who were watching his every step, and I must admit it didn’t look good as he was constantly feeling the affected area, but he was cleared to start, we just hoped it wasn’t foolhardy from him in his eagerness to play.

Just as the players came out we were greeted with the sight of O’Hora hobbling across the pitch on crutches and one of those protective plastic boots, he got a decent cheer from the fans who chanted his name, sadly I don’t think we are going to see him in a while, so we can only hope the club act and get in some replacements, I won’t be holding my breath though.

The game kicked off promptly at 3pm and it wasn’t long before debutant Leko got his first few touches right next to the Dons travelling support. Now I don’t know if it was first night nerves or he was wearing two left boots but he looked awful, two missed controlled dribbles, a misplaced pass and an air kick graced his game in the early stages and I was starting to believe some of the Twitter hype that he might be full of promise but no end product, he did though improve I am pleased to say, and one thing that did catch my eye was he didn’t shirk his defensive duties and on two or three occasions got back and outmuscled his opponent and regained possession, something that has been lacking this season.

To be honest there was little to enthuse about in the first half, it was fairly even with neither side making that much progress until on the half hour a hopeful ball over the top caught out Tucker, Bakayoko got in behind him and was felled by Tucker inside the box and just as I felt the ref was going to point at the spot Peart-Harris hooked the lose ball past Cumming from close range. I’ve watched it back a few times and I think it’s clear Tucker fouled him, so although we were one down we may have dodged a bullet that could have seen us down to ten men.

With people shuffling away to grab a welcoming brew, Leko swapped sides with Eisa and it reaped its rewards. Harvie made his way in from the near touchline, travelled across the midfield and laid it out to Leko on the wing, he took a few touches before hitting a high cross to the back post. Immediately most of us gave it up, the defender appeared to have it under his control and with Mo’s unrivalled ability at high crosses in mind it looked to be a nothing type situation but somehow Mo took control and fired it under the keeper from a tight angle to send the army bonkers.

To be honest it wasn’t much of a spectacle in regards to the first half and I think many would have taken the point right there but early in the second half Mo struck again, and you have to say it was a decent goal. McEachran who it has to be said looked to be more full of life this week, after his mysterious bout of exhaustion against Lincoln last week picked the ball up in midfield following a poor cleared header, strode towards the box and put in a defence splitting pass that Mo hit first time into the back of the net and then taunted the FGR faithful in his celebration.

The rest of the game was largely uneventful barring a smart save from Cumming getting down low to his right to keep one out and then having to hold his breath as the FGR forward dramatically threw himself down to the ground in an attempt to hoodwink ref Anthony Backhouse, but thankfully the long journey down from Cumbria had not tainted his vision and he was unmoved awarding a goal kick.

The final whistle saw some old school Don’s celebrations with players and staff coming across to lap up the adulation, the ever excitable Harvie of course with his “Come On” fist pump, and even Jacko managed a fist pump after encouragement from those that had hung around in the extended injury time minutes, even young Max Dean who had come on for a brief cameo got in on the act and seemed to be beaming, he must think this happens every week, bless him, he will learn.

So, to summarise, yes there was improvement but it’s a job to gauge how much, we will probably have a better idea on Tuesday about 10pm after we have played Shrewsbury Town who come to us fresh after slamming five past Cambridge United. I thought the backline looked better, certainly more organised and that despite Tucker getting wrong sided costing us a goal. I was impressed with Watson especially when we went five at the back, he certainly looked very comfortable as did at times Harvie, he doesn’t always get it 100% right, but you cannot knock his effort and determination.

It’s early days for Leko, he was probably nervous but I felt he got better as the game progressed, hopefully he will settle down and we can see something better from him in the coming weeks, but that nagging feeling I had about him in the first quarter will need some time for me to get it out of the system….the jury is out for me.

We had little time to judge Max Dean, he certainly didn’t look overawed with the situation in fact just the opposite, so time will tell on that one, since we signed him I’ve felt he is one for the future, so hopefully we will find opportunities to blood him further as the remainder of the season plays out.

There you go then, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and we did just that, so its onto the next game with a bit more hope than usual, and yes Aliramone a bit of positivity, and you can report me all you like, I’m past caring.

I would though exercise a degree of caution, we have been here before, we need to string a few results together, and let’s be mindful of our awful home record, and in case you don’t know we have the worst record in League 1, so I think Tuesday is going to be a good indicator.

Finally, I hope everyone got home safe and sound, the driving conditions were awful on the way back and I was certainly relieved to pull onto my driveway shortly after 7pm.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, see you Tuesday.

WD

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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight

I became deeply concerned after just 4 lines....

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

Thanks WD.

Its right not to read too much into a win against the bottom side , BUT 1 point from a possible six against against two teams in the bottom third would have left a very different feeling.

So on to Shrewsbury, which I agree will be much more of a test.

Good read WD as per usual

I can definitely see an improvement, especially at the back, Mo seems to be back in the groove and the wider role seems to suit him.

Bigger tests to come no doubt, but we’ve given ourselves a chance to keep our place in league 1

Thanks. Excellent write-up as ever. Jacko has definitely made a difference. We are better organised, have proper structure to the press, and have a much higher work rate. We have moved to a back four and look fine playing that way. LM recruited with four at the back in mind but couldn't make it work and quickly went back to five at the back with wing backs. Jacko has made the switch in a few games under real pressure to get points and made it work. We are much more solid defensively as a team.

Priority was to get out of the drop zone. We have done that. Next priority is overtake the next 2 or three above us and climb the table. There will be ups and downs for sure, but the key atm is to just keep the points ticking over.

I was expecting a difficult game given that FGR are scrapping to get out of the drop zone as well, it was an away game and the pitch was small. We did what we needed to do to come away all three points. The whole team competed from start to finish. Massive result. We created one or two more other chances going forward without really carving them open and kept them very restricted at the other end. Thought there were some good performances through the whole team including Danny Harvie and Dawson Devoy.

We are a work-in-progress and I doubt we'll see a transformation overnight even with one or two more new recruits in this window.
It will take time to fully come together. As others have said,Shrewsbury will another big test. They seem to be very direct, physical and strong on set plays. No reason why we can't get something out of that game.

And finally I watched the second half again on the os. The commentator felt the need to point out that the subs' shirts looked very dirty before they had even got on the pitch! Made me smile. Others in the commentary area quickly filled him in.

Thanks WD - having been completely out of the loop for the last 36 hours this is a great catch up

Green shoots, fingers crossed - now to tame the Shrews!

I see what you did there... let's hope it isn't much ado about nothing!

or

All's well that ends well.

Or like the season so far, a comedy of errors

Shrewsbury isn't that much of a town. More like a Hamlet.
History suggests a tempestuous game.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment