THE MELTDOWN - SUTTON UNITED
Another strange one, and again I’m not so sure we can take anything away from that game and take it as gospel, but I know some are going to be concerned that even though we are scoring plenty, we are conceding in almost equal measures…personally I’m hoping it’s just a question that we have taken our foot of the gas a bit, and tried to make sure we remain injury free….but I guess we will find out next Monday as Crawley will try and take a decent advantage back to SMK.
Whilst that is no doubt concerning, we are not alone with those fears of a fragile defence as the same can be said of the other three playoff contenders….Doncaster GF 73, GA 68, Crewe GF 69, GA 65, and Crawley GF 73, GA 67, like I said, we are not alone.
You could argue that MW shuffling the pack in changing the lineup during the game didn’t help matters as those that came on didn’t exactly cover themselves with any glory or elevate their chance of a start in the playoffs, and we shouldn’t forget that Sutton had nothing to lose, it was a case really of do or die.
One thing is for sure that next Monday you won’t see MW subbing off the likes of Gilbey, Dean and Tommo on the hour.
Again our main men got on the scoresheet or in the case of Max Dean provided two assists, and Kelly made a few decent saves. A few decent goals as well and I was particularly pleased that Harrison had the confidence to round the keeper to score, but yes that leaking defence is a concern.
I can’t see the lineup changing much for the playoffs, in fact I have to say I was surprised there weren’t more changes to the starting lineup, personally I would prefer Norman in for Lofty, and Kemp replace Wearne, but I doubt MW will make that call.
Well as predicted our playoff rivals changed a few times throughout the afternoon and it was only a 91st minute goal that changed our destination from Crewe to Crawley, I wasn’t really bothered who it was, well I say that I didn’t want to go to Barrow, too bloody far, so in the case of logistics and taking a good following to Crawley it’s probably just about the most favoured option.
Talking of Barrow, how must they be feeling today, having been contenders for months, they finally dropped out of the playoff places on the last day after failing to win any of their 7 games in April…that must be gutting….still it gives them plenty of time to sort out that quagmire of a pitch, which you could argue scuppered their chances as they tried to catch up with their backlog of fixtures.
Crawley Town it is then….I don’t think there is much between the teams, with both teams winning at home in the regular season, but I will of course have a more indepth look in the match preview later in the week.
That’s it really, nothing much else to say other than commiserations to Sutton, and good luck bouncing straight back.
We now have to gear ourselves up, pack out the away end at Crawley and do the same at SMK despite the efforts of the Board to upset everyone and close the West Stand.
I’ll see you soon for the playoffs preview.
WD#DonYourWhite