THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

I can't see it. If we do reach the playoffs, we have to play three good games in a row.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.

We are a poor team in a very poor league. We have lost 13 games and still find ourselves with a slim chance of automatics. One note tactics are not helping. We play the same home and away, with zero plan B. Look at their 3rd (I think it was) to see how disjointed our defence were defending on nearly the half way line. Our defence to a man is appalling (7 clean sheets), we have a goalkeeper situation that baffles the shit out of me (Kelly would be nowhere near the team if McG was still around) and a strike force that more often than not go missing. I mean when our "top scorer" scored more goals on loan than he did for us speaks volumes.

I said at the beginning of the season we would not go up. I still stand by this, that is why I don't shit the bed. My expectations were low and if they are bettered then brilliant. But let's be honest we would need a massive overhaul to get us competitive in league 1.

I disagree that we're a poor team. I think we are actually a pretty good team and play exceptional football at times, which teams in the leagues above would be envious of. We have some brillaint players at our disposable, that walk into every team in this league.

We have problems though and that is defensively. You've got Williams and Harvie playing key roles in the back 3, neither of which are natural centre backs. While Harvie had been doing well there, his performances have fallen off a cliff. We've been calling for Williams to be dropped for weeks, yet for some reason the manager wants to persist with him over Norman. I don't get it, but there must be a reason.

There is also probably an issue tactically, with us being so desperate to win (evident by our lack of draws), that we leave ourselves wide open, which does not help an already weak defence.

I feel we're way too close to the end of the season to see any significant changes to this and I think our form will continue as is and our problems persisting. As wins gets even more critical, we're going to be even more desperate to push up the field. You just wait until Walsall counter in the 88th minute to snatch a win or draw.

I think we are a poor team actually and that is masked by how appalling this league is. 13 losses and still in with a shout of autos tells you that. Rather unusually, for me at least, we are less than the sum of our parts as we do have some players who really are better than this league. As the galacticos showed though, good players do not always make good teams.

The biggest frustration for me is that this league is well and truly there for the taking. Of the 13 losses not one of those teams has had to do a great deal of anything to win and of the recent batterings we have taken, none of the opposition played remarkably to justify the results they got.

Outside of Payne, Bate, Tomlinson, Lofthouse and maybe Wearne, (3 of which are on loan!) the rest are pretty much bang average L2 level players. To be fair O'Hora is probably better than that but hasnt really shown it so far this season.

A promotion, however achieved will require a significant investment to resume our WABLO status, one I am not remotely convinced is coming.

That all sounds so negative whereas this season has thrown up some real high points. In context though, we are quite shit in a really shit league.

Notwithstanding all of this, we are still in with a chance and thats quite remarkable really. I have said and will continue to stand by the opinion that we most likely wont make the autos and will have to take the lottery of the playoffs and who can possibly know how that will go.

Am I being overly critical of O'Hora to expect him to do better with the first goal on Saturday? He's stationary, whereas he has an opportunity to get back and potentially block the (relatively weak) shot on goal.

No he hasn't. Remember under Alexanders brief reign the amount of mistakes he personally was making. He wanted to leave last summer, but there were no bids for him so he looks like (or how it is perceived to me) he is sulking until his contract was out. You will not see him for dust come June, which is a shame cause until his injury last season I thought he looked tidy and composed and a really good CB. But he is one of many that have had really poor seasons at the back.

I genuinely see us only losing to Mansfield at home. Away, that is a different story altogether. I don't really feel confident we could beat an egg away from home.

Finished watching all the goals back, so further to the first -

2nd goal - Shocking defending by Williams. Absolutely no awareness of Madden running in behind him and instead decides to rush out to the man on the ball.

3rd goal - Once again, horrendous defending from Harvie to not track the run and then dive in to get the ball

4th goal - Williams at fault again as he misjudges the ball down the line, when he should have been able to head it away, then followed by Payne bizarrely stepping over the ball rather than dealing with the danger and then Kelly being beaten straight down the middle.

5th goal - Tomlinson/Gilbey failing to win the head, decent save by Kelly but Harvie has lost his man for a tap in.

5 incredibly poor goals to concede, with all of them being from defensive mistakes.

That's a cracking point. I think we'd need a poacher like Dean up front for that game.

If we lose, we are fried.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.