So let's open up with a statement of fact here. We weren't great on the night (we were a long way off that to tell the truth) and the non leaguers deserved their win. In a close run game they were brighter, braver & more inventive, while crucially when THEIR opportunities came along they took them. We ain't the first team this season to be the victims of a cup shock, not even the first to be on the wrong end of one against this particular team, it happens & it'll happen again. No point in blubbing over spilt oatmilk, we've got to take it on the chin, in the bollocks or wherever is most appropriate, and put it right sharpish.
Anybody though who thinks that getting beat here won't have deeply hurt the players and staff is totally wrong in my opinion. Should Dagenham draw a big team away in the third round, I should think everyone at the club will be feeling lower than a dachshunds ballbag. That won't just be the players & staff either, the moneymen & women at Plough Lane will be going all Jim Bowen, "Let's look at what you could have won".
So where did it start to all go wrong? I should think about three weeks ago when the TV people told us we were playing at 7.15 on a Saturday night. Judging by the scores of Daggers fans in the pubs in Wimbledon all afternoon, they had a great day, got right behind their players and their whole squad seemed to feed off the energy.
By contrast we (the players AND fans) were sluggish & never really got going. The referee going off injured (seriously you couldn't make this shite up) seemed to lull us even further into a slumber, it was no surprise when they took the lead.
Now I know lots of fans are on the case of the goalkeeper for both goals. I'm sure the young fella will feel he might have done better for both, but my disappointment in him is probably different to most peoples. I'm mostly disappointed that after BOTH goals he's not going absolutely mental with the defence. Yes he might have got the first, but Sheesh we let the lad carry it 20 yards unchallenged then have a free shot from 25 yards. It hits the inside of the post so it's no howler, but OG not going berserk with those in front of him afterwards? THAT'S a howler. And the second, a crowd scene on the edge of the six yard box. I think a centre half has to attack it & head it clear. I'm sorry, that's what I'd be looking for if I'm the goalie or the manager. Then once OG pats it down, we MUST win that & clear it. Yes the goalie should do better, but no way is it a one man horror show. And the young fella is doing nobody any favours being on his haunches feeling like he's let us down when it gets bundled in, he should be all over his defenders.
Aside from that, we had (in my eyes) a slightly "overcoached" look about us. Our play was a bit joyless, football by numbers stuff. Side to side to side (in the case of young Isaac Ogundere side to side to backwards). We looked as though we were always more fearful of making a mistake than we were excited about making a positive impact on the football match.
A little bugbear of mine at the moment is the rigidity & predictability of our play. I think our centre halves are ALL good enough players to be much braver on the football. When teams drop off and only half press, they should travel in posession. It doesn't HAVE to be hit on the diagonal every time, carry the ball then when you are eventually closed down, release it and open the game up. Our midfielders are ALL good enough to play one touch, one-twos, little ones around the corner and the like to open teams up. They are ALL athletic enough to get ahead of the play but still get back. I know we aren't telling the players NOT to do this stuff, but they (to me) have the look of lads who are overly concerned with technicalities, video analysis, whiteboards and the like. Football is a GAME, sometimes in order to flourish you have to have the "What was HE doing in THERE?" questions while you're celebrating a goal.
Dagenham played the match like it WAS a GAME of football. They committed men forward when they had the chance, they took risks in posession, they "went for it". In short, they were the braver team and by quite a distance. Fortunately for them & painfully for us, the gap between their bravery & ours was big enough to wipe out our obvious superiority in ability. That's the cup upset recipe right there.
Passion too. They had that. If we'd have matched in our game what Skivvers showed after the final whistle in the face of the departed Paul Kalambayi (Who in fairness was excellent) it might have been a different story.
We didn't though, it was the Daggers who progress. Fair play, their fans were brilliant all day, they deserved to win and I wish them well.
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