By Alan
January 31 2005

Even though we secured a rather thrilling victory on Saturday there is still no hiding from the fact that there are major problems that must be addressed. After the euphoria of Saturdays thrilling victory the adrenaline has now subsided and grim reality has started to appear. As Stu on the message board has commented, we were a defensive shambles.

The facts speak for themselves. In just under 120 minutes of football we have conceded 8 (eight – this is just like the teleprinter on Grandstand) goals. The 3 we conceded on Saturday against Huddersfield were absolutely atrocious. I don’t think I would see such poor defending over Beacon Park on a Sunday morning.

It has been said time and time again that we must improve our overall defensive abilities and that we can’t legislate for individual mistakes. The time has now come for action to be taken in addressing this issue instead of giving it lip service.

I think the majority of fans readily accept that our so called full backs aren’t the most reliable in their defensive duties. What is more worrying is the lack of cohesion at the heart of the defence.

I do not believe that Emblen is a quality centre half. He has balls and determination but the big man himself has been cruelly exposed even at this level on far too many occasions. His partner (in the footballing not sexual sense) young Julian Bennett, I believe, will one day make the grade at a much higher level. Unfortunately his performances are being undermined by simple costly mistakes. It is time for Jules to be given a small breather from the front line but with only Roper as an alternative Merson doesn’t have too many options.

It is true to say that we won’t be able to outscore all of our opponents in the manner that we did on Saturday. Therefore the defensive issues need to be addressed pretty sharpish. Even if it isn’t done this year it must, without fail, be attended to during the close season.

I also have another concern now that reality has kicked in.

Would we have been able to stage such a comeback had Huddersfield played with wingers in a standard 442 formation? I don’t think we would have done. If Huddersfield employed wingers our frailties in the full back slots would have been exposed and our midfield trio would have been pulled out of opposition and rendered as useless as they have been for the majority of the season.

Fortunately for us they employed 3 in the middle which allowed our midfield to play around them (and indeed made us look like we were a good team). Also, with no wingers in front of them our fullbacks were able to do to them what other teams usually do to us. Mark Wright in particular looked a constant threat when attacking down the flanks.

I hope I have got this terribly wrong but there are still major issues that need urgent attention.