Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:48 pm
Posts: 4813
Location: In the Armchair.
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THE MELTDOWN – CHARLTON ATHLETICI said in my preview, we can’t afford to lose tonight, and we did, meaning that unwanted scenario of facing Burton on the last day to determine our status for next season looms closer and closer, it is now a real possibility, and it almost feels like when we predicted that last game shootout with Mansfield a few seasons back, sadly the stakes are much higher this time round.
It hasn’t come as a shock, or it shouldn’t have done, I’ve been bleating about it for weeks, others longer. We did look for a while like we might just rescue ourselves having added a few points here and there and that we just might pull ourselves clear of danger and be allowed the luxury of a last day survival party, and it might still come, we have the points on the board and they have to overtake us, but you have to say we haven’t really helped ourselves in the last two games.
If you had walked into SMK tonight as a neutral and I told you one of these teams is fighting for its League 1 life, you would have been hard pressed to say with any confidence which team it was, so poor was the majority of our play, and possibly one of the low points in Jacko’s tenure.
Although we sort of started ok it was nothing like what was needed. Charlton after their 6-0 drubbing at the weekend were obviously keen not to concede too much ground but in my opinion we set up not to lose and were far too cagey, ok you cant win a game in the first 20 minutes but we were far too cautious, to the degree of being negative with just Leko showing anything like what was needed, with surging runs one of which resulted in a shot tipped round the post by the Charlton keeper.
I felt again in the second half we started ok, we showed a bit more inclination and desire to get forward and this was typified by an amazing driving run by Jules who seemed to steam roller through player after player and kept coming away with the ball, and with players in his wake he crossed to Mo who did well to connect so sweetly but Maynard-Brewer in the Charlton goal was equal to it and pushed it round the post, but that was about as good as it got for us.
From this corner and the many more that followed we never beat the first man once with the delivery, not once, it was and is a bloody disgrace that we can’t get the ball in the box from dead kicks, and that goes for the two freekicks outside the box, with both hitting the wall….absolute garbage.
Not long after Charlton got a foothold in the game and started passing it about and we couldn’t lay a glove on them. Charlton had their first shot on target just before the hour and once having a taste for it scored 4 minutes later and that effectively was that.
We then got educated, we couldn’t play out 7 minutes against Cheltenham, but they made this thirty minutes plus look like child’s play as they frustrated, delayed and just kept us at arm’s length, and not only that they kept our defence and Cumming occupied with two or three shots that Cumming had to be on his guard against.
When Leko went off and Grigg came on Jacko might as well have stood on the touchline waving a big white flag in surrender. Leko was still getting forward and beating players, I just couldn’t see the logic, and bringing Grigg on just negated us even more.
I left on 82 minutes, which was still 2 minutes longer than some….you know who you are….I’d had enough, and the thought of getting out of the carpark in 20 seconds rather than the usual 20 minutes plus was just too much for me to turn down, so I left and listened to Luke & Wozza on the way home and it was just outside Olney when the final whistle blew and the boos echoed around SMK and came across loud and clear on 3CR.
Three games left then, and you still have to think we haven’t got enough points yet. I estimated weeks ago we needed at least 15 points from the remaining games, and if my maths and memory still function correctly, we have 13 points, and even that 15 points I predicted doesn’t look like it’s enough.
Once we get the weekend’s games out of the way, we will have another look at the league table and see what possible scenario’s come out of it, but besides playing in a “Survival Sunday” fixture with Burton on the last day I’ve just thought of something else, has anyone considered the prospect of Liam Manning’s Oxford winning that last game and condemning us to League 2, I doubt that’s been done before, a sacked manager joining another club and relegating his former bosses….I wonder if Pete will see the irony in all that.
It would certainly attract the attention of sports writers amongst the tabloids, and it does sit nicely with all those little stories that seem to crop up on the last day, just like the winner of the National always seem to have a unique story……I’ll try and think of a witty headline ahead of the game, I’ll report back as the best I can come up with is “Gone for a Burton”, and I want to weave Manning in there somewhere…..I’ll get back to you, but I am open to suggestions.
Anyone know the best way to Sutton United, asking for a friend.
Take Care  WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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