THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

THE MELTDOWN – CRAWLEY TOWN
I promised myself I wasn’t going to do this, but here I sit at midnight trying to make sense of what happened. And a warning I’m liable to lurch violently writing this as things jump into my head, so my apologies if it all appears somewhat jumbled.

Come on then be honest….you’re not entirely surprised are you by that scoreline or performance, after all, you know as well as me we are entirely capable of that utter shit show, we’ve seen it times this season, what still astonishes me is we managed to drag ourselves into 4th place which just shows you how bloody awful League 2 is.

I said in the build up to this game we cannot fall into the trap of trying to adapt our game to counteract their plan, how many examples do we have to have before MW realises we cannot do it, but again he tries it, and it fails spectacularly.

The Crawley back room team must have been pissing themselves laughing as like mugs we played right into their hands and let them dictate the whole game, it was like watching the Wycombe playoff game all over again….and what the fuck was that all about letting their keeper just stroll up to the halfway line unchallenged ….we as fans can see it….but oh no our touchline team are unmoved by the whole situation, it is frankly a bloody joke and I’m sorry MW is tactically naïve as were some of his post-match comments.

He said we dictated play in the second half…..there’s no fooling a fool ….well it appears you can because he fails to realise we are losing 2-0 and Crawley know we are going to come at them, so they just stood off, kept their shape and discipline and frankly we produced bugger all of any note…surely he knows that right, or is he that bloody stupid.

In honesty 3-0 flatters us it should have been more, as the gap between the two teams was a yawning chasm, yes it could have been different if Dean had scored early on, but I still don’t think we would have held on or even drawn.

The eternal optimists will think we still have a chance, but our hopes are slim at best as they will dive, waste time, feign injury, anything just to take the heat out of the game…..but even though I don’t believe it….never say never. If they get out of this Netflix should make a film about it, nobody will ever believe it though or we could have a remake of the Great Escape.

Of course the biggest question is, how many will return their tickets for a refund, and you can forget a surge of ticket sales from those waiting to see the score in the 1st Leg, that scenario is long gone.

So if you can be arsed to get to SMK on Saturday you can say your goodbyes to Max Dean and a few others as the team will be asset stripped ahead of the next season…and perhaps even a “We don’t want to stand in their way” video, which is of course slang for “we cashed in”.

I just about decided not to go Saturday, but then I thought, do I really want to miss out on a CazBar cheeseburger, I can always leave early and get back home for Eurovision and watch the UK pull an MK and score nil points.

Finally it’s the fans I feel sorry for, if this team and indeed the club put as much effort in as us fans we would be a bloody lot higher up the Football League, they are letting us all down.

Some of you will say poor old Pete, he has poured heart and soul into this club, but the fact of the matter is it’s going nowhere fast, it lacks ambition, desire, and more importantly investment, and if we want to go up that’s what it needs, and I’m afraid he can’t, or won’t do that.

By the way, how’s the training ground coming on, or the wall in Lewington’s ….and people still believe every word of it, still we have Take That to look forward to in the summer and isn’t that the reason the club exists.

Oh and by the way…..has anyone seen our midfield.

Until next time.

WD

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

Only thing I will say on pressing the goalkeeper, and even then I'm being really generous to Mike and his team, is that if we're really going to put serious pressure on him to make a mistake then we'd need two to run at him. One to win the ball, another to receive it if won. That's two players leaving an unmarked man in the midfield leaving us easy to play through.
Again, I'm being generous. I don't necessarily agree, but I'd imagine that's their thinking.

The reason I find it hard to agree with it is he 'wasted (for want of a better phrase) 30 secs each time. Which he and his gaffer would be delighted over. A passage of play unchallenged, and by the end of it he got to do what he wanted by putting a quick direct ball to the front men who got on quickly playing in our third whilst we're at sixes and sevens. So we can't even, once or twice, go for it and out him under pressure, and let him get his eventual plan up and away after 30 seconds anyway?

We crumbled. The mentality is horse shit. Dan Harvie (who albeit, I thought was our best defender today) loves to spend time waving his arms about to gee the fans up. I wonder how much he does that to his team mates?
O'Hora is a busted flush and I won't care a jot when he goes.
Tucker isn't good enough, never has been and never will be. 2x relegation and a leaky defence made worse since he come back.
Kelly is not good enough, and probably never was. Anything was better than Marschall but let's have it right, the honeymoon period was just that. "Anything but Marschall." If we hadn't had Marschall at all, we'd be calling him out a lot more than I've seen. He made a few decent saves today but for every decent save recently there's another goal that he could've done better at. He is looking like exactly what he was when we signed him. A reserve goalkeeper at this level, and if we're serious, he needs to be that or nothing here next season.

I can forgive Max's poor display, he's a kid and might have buckled under pressure. But it wasn't a good display and he looked a million miles from his usual self.

Wearne offered nothing for me, headless chicken.

I can't be arsed going on.. it was shit, very fucking shit and I feel like I've wasted my time. I let them know as much at full time. It's within my right to do so, as it's within anyone else's right to clap. I think that's bizarre, equally you'll think I'm bizarre for effing and jeffing. That's football.

This isn't a quick fix. A whole new defence, a whole raft of changes in the overall squad is surely to come. It'll likely not be in League One, and we've got to endure another year in this pony League that we've contributed to as pony.

I'll be there Saturday. Don Your White if you go too, and let's try to make a big performance from the depths of adversity. I'm expecting nothing. I don't think we'll leave the ground remotely uplifted. But if travelling down to Sussex twice in a day isn't enough, maybe showing up again may well do.

_________________
"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

My take was that Crawley had a clear strategy from the keeper and that was to aim towards our RCB. I wonder if MW had this plan to allow it to happen with the hope we could break away from it as all their midfield and even defence pushed forward. I believe that is what led to Dean's early chance. But like with you, I'm probably being generous and overthinking it, especially as I can't imagine we'd be relying on Tucker to win the header then start a counter. I'd be intrigued as to whether the keeper has been making similar passes throughout the season though

Dean got through by the defender letting it bounce over his head. There was no skill involved by any of our players. The fact they were aiming for tucker shows how little they think of him.

How the fuck you can blame kelky is beyond me for any of the goals. 2 deflections and a free kick tucker fell asleep on and lost his man. He kept it semi respectable with two good saves and a block he knew nothing about really. He was by default our motm by the others being so dire. We should have lost by at least 5 and we didn't cause of Kelly and nobody else.

We have been terrible in defence since tucker came back in the side. He is hopeless and has the strength of character of a small child when we are under pressure. As I said in the match thread , if we wanted to just play long ball as we did last night we would have been better in January sticking with the likes of Tommy smith in defence who at least does the basics of heading, marking and blocking. The defence needs a rebuild next season with tucker, o hora and I would add harvie out of the building.

The manager has a lot to answer for. Our defending has been laughable for weeks- 4 against Sutton , 3 against Harrogate, 3 against notts, 5 against Stockport, 4 against Mansfield- ridiculous. The first two people thought were a good laugh but you could see us being ripped to bits by Sutton and Harrogate so it is no surprise a good side like Crawley beat us u.

As for the second leg- I do see us scoring 3 goals but frankly I don’t see us not conceding 3 goals again so the tie is over. All the managers nonsense about losing ‘ our way’ can fuck off .

Elliis did have a golden chance, but was faced by our play off curse and the goalie / centre foward were targeeting our LCB, Dan Harvie. Why MW didn't put Max in front of him, beggars belief.

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

Thanks - you have answered my question about the Cazbar being open for evening matches!

If u allow the keeper that much space why did we defend just outside our 18yard box. Amateur gave them all the advantages. The 1st goal was really poor defending Bate could have and should have slid in instead of hanging a foot out. The second goal us Tuckers fault he's as weak as p..s
The third goal we just stood off again. We have no chance Saturday so as I normally sit in the corner and saw this coming a mile off I won't be giving pw my cash

_________________
Life is like a hot bath. It feels good while you’re in it, but the longer you stay in, the more wrinkled you get.

Much too long. A simple 'Utterly Embarrassing Sh*te' would have done.

_________________
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment