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Report | Oldham Athletic v Salford City Your Report added at 13:47:27
QPR 1 HUDDERSFIELD 1
Well what a difference three bloody games makes! I hereby demote us from playoff definites and automatic promotion real possibilities to mid table number maker uppers, fodder for those aiming for the heady heights and those in desperate need of points. And for the rest, like Huddersfield, we represent a quiet day at the office.
This was one of those going through the motions exercises that took me back to days gone by. No real ambition, no real bite, no real Charlie Austin. And of course, that’s the main reason for this really disappointing blip. Charlie tweaked a hamstring before the Bristol City away game.
I didn’t travel to either Bristol City (1-1) or Ipswich (2-1) so rely on faithful reports from friends and Loft For Words.
It seems like we could have won both. Hoilet’s continued resurgence bagged him a goal at Ashton Gate and although City pressed hard afterwards it was felt we could and should have held out.
At Portman Road, the good form continued but we somehow managed to turn a 1-0 lead after 70 mins into a 2-1 defeat with the last kick of the game. OK, so the trend was still upwards performance-wise even if the results weren’t coming.
Unfortunately, the game against Huddersfield yesterday represented a real step backwards.
Consider the team. Philips up front with Fer in behind. Well we’re all pretty sure by now that one doesn’t work. Swap Faurlin for Toszer and things unravel a little more. Onuoha continuing to deputise at right back for Perch brings Clint Hill back into the fold and suddenly the spine just feels a little hunched.
To cover my arse, I did say that if we could stay relatively injury free, this would be the key to real points progress. That hasn’t happened and look how we’ve tumbled. three points from 12 when I would have expected seven or eight and secretly hoped for 10.
But it was the manner of this bore draw yesterday that was a worry. It was tepid stuff. Not exactly down to a lack of application. More a lack of ideas and confidence and good old fashioned chutzpah.
Our reliance on Faurlin is clear. Without him we were left with a competent but ultimately lacklustre Toszer. He’s OK. Mid table championship OK. Maybe he can do a job of keeping us up next year. Faurlin just makes things tick a lot better, a lot smoother. He gets things going much quicker when we haven’t got the ball and when we have. Faurlin and Sandro look awesome. Toszer and Sandro look bang average.
Philips up front is just really shameful. As a club, how we managed to get ourselves into a position where we didn’t have any adequate cover whatsoever should Charlie get sold or get injured is an embarrassment. A shocking state of affairs and one that Sir Les - a man close to losing his knighthood Jimmy Saville style - and the rest of the board need to take complete responsibility for. It’s nothing short of a joke. Philips is a good Championship winger. He gets his head down and runs and occasionally if the ball bobbles just right, he will score a decent goal. He is not and will never be a centre forward. He doesn’t have that kind of movement of that kind of eye for space or the ball. His miss in the second half when the ball was handed on a plate 6 yards out, my grandmother could have scored it had anyone placed her ashes somewhere close by for the ball to bounce off the urn. Philips hesitated, panicked and banged it straight into the goalkeeper.
Not that this would have given us a lead we thoroughly deserved. We wouldn't have. but Polter did give us the lead anyway. He spun and banged the ball in from close range after a bit of a tangle. That was late on and I guess everyone thought like I did, that we had completely nicked that one. But Huddersfield came to life finally, kickstarted by the injustice of it all. A free kick given away needlessly by toszer 25 yards out was very neatly despatched beyond the flailing dive of Green. He didn’t have much to do all game. Except stop that. Time for Smithies to get a run? I wouldn’t mind seeing him.
Other lowlights? The abuse from the same morons as Fer came off. Granted Fer isn’t firing on all cylinders. But he still represents the closest thing we have to a top class international player. He thrives on confidence and he’s lacking some right now. So what do the morons do? Let out all the frustrations of their shitty week on him. It used to be Henry. Then Ramsey. now it’s Fer. Who next for these idiots? They embarrass the rest of us greatly.
I wasn’t at all sure what position Henry was playing. He didn’t have a bad game in right midfield but was less successful playing in the hole behind Philips (!). Sandro gave his all but Toszer’s lack of bite didn’t help his cause. Hall still looks classy and Hill provided his usual sterling effort, although it’s noticeable he now gives attackers about five yards grace if they are running at him.
Chery made a late appearance and I wondered why he wasn’t getting a start, maybe at the expense of Henry? Luongo hasn’t done much wrong this season but hasn’t got a look in either. JET came on late too but couldn’t influence the game. Something tells me one of these three should have been starting. I don’t know why that’s not happening. And that’s about it really. Nothing much to report except a ball bobbling around aimlessly between 22 pins.
I turned to my boy at the end of this and warned him that from next season, this could well be what football is like for us for the next 15 years or so. He didn’t look delighted by the prospect. But that’s what’s in store. If we don’t get promotion, we lose Charlie and we lose the finances to get another Charlie (half a Charlie would do just fine). And when we lose that we lose all hope of winning matches. These last three games have proved that beyond all doubt.
So the answer is to get Charlie back as soon as, and don’t rest any of our best players. We know what our best team is. It’s clear. Wrap them in cotton wool and hope for the best, or football purgatory awaits.
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