Hopefully anyone unfortunate enough to have followed the Poppies down to St Ives on Boxing Day will have shook off the after-effects of that pathetic performance by now. Or drowned it in booze and chocolate. It was one of the few times I have ever watched the Poppies where I could point at the players and definitely say that they had given up. Not one of them could leave that pitch with even a smidgen of self-respect and say they had earned their money. Were the Poppies not existing on a hand-to-mouth basis it was the sort of game where supporters would be offered refunds of their admittance fee from club coffers.
Sharpe was singled out for his utterly abject performance, where every touch he had either led to a St Ives goal or, at best, a near miss. And then he followed this up by being pulled-up by the referee for a foul throw. Cue much gallows humour at the thought of what he was now good for if not to take throw-ins....? He still had the fight in him to argue with some fans when he had finally, mercifully been substituted, but that passion came too late to be of any practical use. But, Rhys wasn't alone. We had a couple of new players flitting around the edge of the game to absolutely no effect as the St. Ives players played straight through them. The midfield of Dawson, White (!), Scott and Jarvis contributed NOTHING in an attacking or defensive sense for the full 95 minutes we had to endure. Probably they did nothing of note during the warm up too, which I missed, being in a lovely pub that to my dying day I wished I'd never left. Bennett was in his oh-so-useful full "arms thrown up in the air mode" and the defence managed to easily ship 6 goals, and the fact it wasn't well into double figures represented the full extent of our good fortune.
Look back over the 15 years this blog has been running and you will struggle to find another article when we have named and shamed players. Partly because it does no-one any good and partly because players generally give it their best, no matter how moderate their best is. Not so on Boxing Day. St Ives looked like a Championship team tearing a bunch of amateurs to shreds, threatening to score with every attack, while their goalkeeper continued to stretch, jog and chat to bemused Poppies fans to remain active. There is no way on earth a neutral who had the good fortune to pick this game would have believed these two teams were a single place apart in the league table. Or in the same league come to that. Having watched St Ives three times this season I've no idea why they aren't challenging for the play-offs. Perhaps it's just us they turn it on against. Does Michael Richens hate us THAT much?
New Year's Day fixture against Stratford now assumes enormous importance. It may tell us whether St Ives was a blip and, he types in frantic optimism, the final flushing out of Andy Leese's influence, or whether these players simply don't have the balls or ability for this level of football. Without Stohrer and Lewthwaite for God-knows how long, one wonders where the heart and goals will come from to prevent us remaining in the bottom four until the end of the season.
Yet another home defeat and it will be difficult to see how we come back as a team or support. The team's limitations are there for all to see. But the supporters have been nothing short of magnificent this season. We have put up with almost nothing but dross and continued to turn up in far better number than the performances have warranted. But, the tipping point when we wonder why we are bothering when the team isn't is not just approaching. It's here. Stratford is likely to be the breaking point. Not just for occasional fans either. Hardcore supporters are starting to fear the worst and are also voting with their feet. In the past Patgod would have attempted to take a contrary stance but, presently, it's difficult to find a compelling argument when a fellow supporter considers non-attendance.
This is the point in the article where we usually throw in a positive couple of lines so you go away with a slight lift in your step, but we have nothing for you this time. What can we say? That our players will grow a f**king backbone or feel a sense of shame at the living they are stealing at the moment? What's the point? They'll either step up to the plate or they'll continue to serve up the current sh*t until we're back playing the likes of North Greenford and Chalfont St Peters again. There's bugger all we can do about it other than watch and hope.
Still, here's another nice sunset photograph from the Halesowen game, the last time the team flattered to deceive.
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