Waited a day to post anything and to have a more measured post than if I posted last night. Just some general comments.
How do fans expect players react to pulling on the red and white? They either ignore the managers game plan, don't play out from the back and risk a MA bollocking/ get dropped from the team OR they play out from the back and get jeered by large sections of the Co-op. Who on earth would want to play in front of us at the moment. Last night was embarrassing and showed we have quickly morphed into a standard football crowd- intolerant (unless winning), fickle, embarrassing and counter productive.
The pitch is a dog's dinner (I guess from the flooding) and is not conducive to how we want to play.
Last night was two teams, in the lower half of L1, showing why they are in the lower half of L1. Some good passages of play and some periods which felt very frenetic and unstructured and some general lower levels of quality.
Another game where we have NOT conceded from open play but from a set-piece. Shows a strong resilient defence to restrict goals from open play but we need to work on giving away free kicks in the final third ( or rather not giving them away).
Great Bridcutt goal (interesting how he celebrated on the opposite side to the Co-op- don't really blame him) and two great opportunities to score but which we didn't convert.
We played deep last night- much deeper than against the Millers. Seemed to be a game plan (as they played out from the back, playing deep prevents them from creating opportunities between our back four and midfield). Again, the crowd just didn't understand this was part of the game plan and became edgy and agitated.
Crowd reaction influences players- MA mentioned it in his post match. We are about to have our highest league finish since 1984 (from my calculations- someone tell me differently please if I'm wrong) after a season where
We have lost our manager six league games into the season
A new manager has inherited a team which does not have the ability to play to the managers style
We are £2.24 million pound in the red for 18/19 and therefore £3 million+ in the red by the time the January transfer window arrives
We have had to offload high earning players and replace them with younger, most cost effective players
Everyone has a right to an opinion but everyone needs to decide if the voicing of that opinion is more important than supporting the club in a transitional year. Last night show how selfish we are as a crowd and put our own subjective vocal views ahead of the team needs as they learn.
Carry on and we'll become less attractive as a loan club and less appealing to players to come in. Our choice, our future. Win together, lose together, stay together. If not, then we'll be back at Moss Rose, Abbey Stadium and Blunders park before you can shake a stick.