Perhaps some of our readers of sufficient age and disposition recall when Patgod coined the phrase "Telford Day" as shorthand for a fixture where great anticipation was let down by a world-class under-performance and heavy defeat. We used to experience them quite often. Originally when the team ran the very real risk of accidentally winning the Conference and potentially meaning the the club directors might have to put their hands in their pockets to fund a Football League team. And then, later on, a second variant of the term was used to celebrate classic meltdowns such as our first home league game with a new, upstart outfit hailing from a flood plain near the Nene....
A modern variant of the "Telford Day" is now threatening to become the Omicron for today - Coxy's seemingly-unshakeable belief that throwing Kyle Perry into a finely balanced game will actually achieve anything.
Unlike most Poppies supporters Patgod actually believes that deployment of Perry can be a useful in a very limited number of scenarios. It worked in the Trophy game at Leamington for example, as well as other end-of-match cameos. Basically if you are chasing a game, and ideally the opposition are down to 10-men, by all means throw on the big fellah to mix it up a bit. If you are confident the last few minutes of a game are going to involve nothing but us bombing crosses into the box by all means release the Kraken.
If not, sorry Kyle, but you are as much use on the pitch as any of us on the terraces are.
Telford yesterday was the latest example of Coxy's blind spot when it comes to Perry. With McDonagh limping off with us 2-1 up and 25 minutes to play it was the perfect time to put on Powell or Ofosu, or both. Those not at the game will have no way of imagining just how pitifully awful the Telford back four were yesterday. Every time our attackers had the ball on the floor within 25 yards of their goal the Telford defenders (honest to God) fell over themselves or each other in a mass panic. Powell warming-up, let alone being on the pitch would have made them literally shit themselves.
So, what do we do?
We bring on Perry who spent the remainder of the game moaning, fouling, standing around and then giving the ball away in our box for Telford to equalise. As much as it probably doesn't read it, we're not really blaming Perry. He did what he does. No, the blame has to fall squarely on Coxy's shoulders. Faced with the choice of going for a third, fourth and then fifth goal (yes, Telford's defence was THAT bad) he went for the "safe" option of Perry and hoped to kill the game and hold out. Even when we'd assisted Telford to their equaliser Coxy sat on his hands rather then call on any of our other attacking options (who had stopped warming-up some time earlier). While the Telford bench were throwing on a succession of attackers to chase the draw then chase the win we did nothing other than somehow hope to hold out and perhaps pinch a winner.
We have had very few games in recent seasons where a win had been offered to us so completely by an opposition that could neither defend nor attack. That coming away from the New Bucks Head felt so much like a loss was shown at the final whistle where 90% of Poppies fans turned on their heels and were gone long before a bare handful of players came over to thank us for coming.
Plenty of better teams are going to spank us this season. Badly spank us the way we often fall apart in the last twenty minutes of games. We simply can't afford not gobble up three points when they are so easily placed in front of us, and claim a point gained is anything but an abject failure.
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| Crap day. Pleasant sunset. |
