From inverted full-backs to false nines, football trends come and go. Some things though stand the test of time, they never change. "Goals change matches" is a cliche that's even older than me, it'll be as true in a hundred years as it was last night. On a cold and clear night under the Plough Lane lights, we rammed home the message.
The first half was tight, I thought we edged it but only just. Driven on by their raucous and strangely angry following Crawley were up for it, but we were better. New striker Josh Kelly was excellent, a real handful and there was much promise in his bustling performance. He had quarter chances himself then served one up on a plate to the other Josh, but somehow we fluffed the finish. I love Josh Davison for his industry but sheesh he has to score that. Then, I've seen punters thrown out of the pub with less force than Omar Bugiel was chucked to the floor from a corner, but we didn't get it. I guess this might have been payback for the Davis Keilor-Dunne one against us that Mansfield didn't get, this was at least as blatant a penalty as that one.
Into the second half and we continued to be the better team, even after young Balmer had gone the way of all our centre halves. Omar won an excellent back post header and Josh again couldn't convert from a couple of yards. I've more sympathy for him him here, the keeper flung himself across the line and the young fella will never make a better save if he plays till he's my age.
Then came the subs, the tweaks and the turning of the tide. Few in the stands would have argued with the substitutions before they were made, the captain and Ronan Curtis at least looked obvious and welcome moves. There is no question though that from that point on, Crawley wrestled the initiative from us and were much the better side. My only criticism of the management team on the night is that we didn't smell their goal coming before it was too late. The stench wasn't hard to pick up, it was completely stinking the place out a good five or six minutes before they scored. By then they were playing through our midfield at will, we should have gotten a message on and changed it up. Maybe to a more solid 4-4-2 without the diamond or even a 4-5-1, something. I'm afraid at that point we began to look a bit head scratchy on the sidelines in our response.
The goal we conceded was a poor one, they always are under these circumstances. The difference of course was that when THEIR chance came, they took it. After that we huffed (I wouldn't go as far as adding a puff) and we were a beaten team long before the final whistle. Crawley were good in the last twenty in fairness to them, but we were getting progressively worse.
As people filed out I heard plenty of "that's the worst I've ever seen us play", what nonsense. What it was was as graphic an illustration as you'll ever see of the importance of scoring a goal. If we take ONE of our chances, we win the game. The trouble is that when you don't, the game can slip through your fingers quicker than sand through a tennis racket.
It hurts, of course it does. We need some operational/tactical tweaks for sure, but we are still a good team. We still have a good manager too, but like footballers they sometimes have an off day. That's what happened here, an off day. The good news is we can change the whole mood on Saturday. COYD
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