It was interesting to watch the game from behind the goal - something I haven't done for ages and gave a very refreshing perspective.
I'll start with the areas that need to be worked on. The lack of pace or a hold up man up top really hampers us as we have no really obvious out ball or target when we are looking to build or counter attack. As a result we probably go squarer or backwards a lot more than we want to. However it is better to do that and probe, rather than needlessly give the ball away.
Until the pace/hold up issues are resolved we need to move the ball considerably crisper and more accurately than we do at times.
It was also noticeable that we are so light weight physically in midfield and struggled to keep the ball or dispossess the Wednesday players in those areas and that caused multiple problems with their players running onto the back four at will on occasions.
Oh yes, we definitely need somebody who can get onto the end of stuff in the box and finish.
However there is no obvious reason why the pace, hold up and striker issues cannot be resolved in January. The passing and tempo will need a lot of hard work between now and then to compensate for the aforementioned deficiencies.
The biggest worry for me is how light weight the midfield is and with the personnel available I can't see that being addressed without a formation change to get an extra body in there to at least fill the space and get a foot in from time to time. I suspect MA isn't minded to do that as a short term fix though.
On the plus side it is very clear we have an identity, style of play, character and commitment. It was good to see some lung busting runs off the ball, put in from virtually the whole side. Usually the pass never came (disappointing, was it a confidence or vision issue?) but the point is the players persevered without recrimination. It would have been very easy for them to stop making the runs and full credit to the players for buying into the system and determinedly trying to get it to click, as MA alluded to in his match preview.
When you compare us with Wednesday you can see that our players know what they are striving to do and with some tweaks, hard work and re-enforcements; how they can get where they want to be.
Wednesday on the other hand struck me as a slightly more effective version of Charlton. They didn't really seem to have a cohesive or identifiable pattern or tactics so it is hard to envisage what they are working towards. To be frank, they really only had one effective option which was to rely on two physically strong and hard running central midfielders and it was from that they scored their goal.
It looked like two mid table sides out there today, but Wednesday are a mish mash of parts swilling about fairly aimlessly and ours looked like a side that are working towards something in a structured and disciplined (even if currently misfiring) way.
There is lots to be done, worked on, changed and added to, but I would say given a solid January transfer window there is no reason why we cannot have a season that gets better as it goes on. The route map is visible and identifiable and from that we should take heart.
As for the match, a point away from home is always a great feeling. Thought we had a great first half and should have been ahead, and then early in the second, we seemed to be waiting for the penno that never came when our lad, sorry no idea who it was got right to the byline before getting caught but the ball rolled right across the goal with the Wednesday defenders static. After that we allowed Wednesday to come back in it and inevitably they scored a soft goal. It looked like we had run out of steam until Montsma grabbed a great equaliser very much against the run of play. After that it was all us but with no end product. Nice to see a debut for Draper too. What a place to do it. Overall, a top away day. UTI
