Throughout the last 23 months, I have sat and watched every single game since we went top after a good performance against Swindon Town. Since then, my enthusiasm for watching the Imps completely disappeared. Peter Jackson came along and boosted it again for a brief time but now it's getting to the point where I am realising that this club is going no-where fast.
One thing that really worried me on Saturday afternoon was that it was platently obvious to everyone that City needed to bring someone on, yet Jacko does nothing. It was the same against Dagenham. Dagenham, much like Morecambe, were piss poor at Sincil Bank and yet got something because Jacko failed to react in time. It's becoming a worrying trend.
To say we dominated the first half against Morecambe is an understatement, over 70% posession in the first half shows that, but we're lacking the killer instinct and defensive stability in order to climb above our current lower midtable position. If Morecambe had played like that against any other side in this division, they would have been destroyed, but then again it didn't help that City's players looked largely uninterested after conceding a very sloppy equaliser.
One part of the problem is that we have still yet to replace most of the players who left during the summer of 2005. Many have come and gone since then but that team would have walked this division easily in recent seasons. Since then we have slowly been getting rid of our more technically gifted players and bringing in players of half the skill. It says it all that Lee Beevers is the only surviving regular first team member of the last season in which we made the Playoff Final.
That's not to say that this squad isn't good on their day, but that's the thing, on their day they are one of the best sides in the division, but the sign of a good side is that they still get results when they are not "on their day" and City lack that. Yeah, we can beat a team like Barnet, but it's hard not to beat a side who don't manage a single shot on goal during an entire game. This team don't know how to perform on a regular basis.
I know people will come up to me and say that we've only lost one in the last five League games, but three of those have been draws. Ask yourself, would you rather play five, winning 2 and losing 3, or win 1, draw 3 and lose the other, either way it doesn't matter. Look at 2005/6 for example, City gained a club record about of draws in that season, most of our run of only 1 defeat in 19 games was draws, if we'd have won just half of those then we'd have easily gone up in the weakest that this division has been for many a year.
I'm not going to criticise any individual this week, but rather the team as a whole. You guys know that you should have been three or four up before Morecambe somehow managed to equalise, after that you gave up. Yes, we created one or two half chances, but we never really looked like equalising and I'm quickly starting to lose all the faith that Peter Jackson installed in me during pre-season.
Something's got to change soon because as bad as Schofield was, he reached 6 points after just three games, it's taken us eight games to reach the same amount. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes us to reach the 8 points that saw Schofield sacked at the beginning of last season.
I'm starting to ask myself - "Is this squad actually capable of a promotion challenge?" - and the answer is no.
THEIMPS.TK UNOFFICIAL PLAYER RATINGS FOR THE GAME AGAINST BRENTFORD | ||
PLAYER | RATING | COMMENTS |
1 - ROB BURCH | 4 | Should have done far better with the goal, can't recall him making any other shots and I'm starting to notice a pattern, he only doesn't concede against teams that don't have any shots. |
3 - AARON BROWN | 6 | Came on, didn't really do a lot. |
4 - JANOS KOVACS | 5 | The amount of free kicks he concedes is just stupid. Other that hoofing and fouling, he doesn't actually seem to be able to do a lot. |
5 - LEE BEEVERS | 6 | No real complaints about Beevers. He seems strangely at home in the left back position considering he's right footed. |
6 - FRANK SINCLAIR | 6 | Nothing really to say considering he didn't even play half the match. |
8 - LEE FRECKLINGTON | 7 | Great finish to the goal and one of the few who looked threatening going forward. Could we really be seeing the return of 2006/7 Freck? |
11 - SCOTT KERR | 6 | Unspectacular performance from Scott, steady and assured but nothing really noteworthy |
12 - DANY N'GUESSAN | 6 | I don't even know what to say with Dany, it's all been said before. |
14 - LENELL JOHN-LEWIS | 2 | Worst player in a City shirt by quite some way on Saturday. He needs a spell outside of the first team because he hasn't shown anything this season to suggest to deserves to be starting. |
16 - DANIEL HONE | 7.5 | Started a game (finally) and he is showing signs of why he was so popular last season. Excellent defender and one of our star performers. |
19 - SHANE CLARKE | 8 - MOTM | If there is one player who has surprised me in recent games, it's Shane Clarke. He looks a completely different player to last season and has been excellent so far this year. Easily the best player we had on Saturday. |
23 - ADRIAN PATULEA | 6 | Could have scored many times but just not his day. |
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