That was a bit deflating at the end but overall showed progression of sorts at the back. For the first time in a while I didn’t feel particularly threatened defensively and thought we had it under control for 90 minutes. Until the added time.
Vickers pulled off some very good saves to keep us in it, but nothing more than I’d expect at this level. A solid performance and probably my man of the match.
We have been susceptible defensively to the better quality in this division, or as my brother put it more succinctly “We’ve been shit at the back for a lot of games this season.” That said, Wimbledon weren’t that better quality and it was a soft goal to concede with pretty basic defensive errors. Individually with Shacks, Eardley and Toffs, most would say we have a pretty decent back line, but that is currently delivering less than the sum of it’s parts.
Our goal was a decent effort, nicely worked quickly from back to front with a tidy finish from Payne at the near post. I suspect we’d have faced more resistance from the teams in the top half of the table.
We need to be more savvy in our first third, and like I said, I thought we were in the most part. I’ve no doubt that MApp is addressing the issue and it was generally better.
We could have done with a win, particularly against opposition like today. I hate the cliche the league table doesn’t lie, but there’s no better representation of the truth. We’re still in a massive transitional phase, I can see the incremental improvements in the process and I have full confidence in MApp delivering what’s required this season