I don't know if you follow rugby (I don't), but from the little I know about it it's perfectly possible for the twinkle toed winger to have a great game even if the rest of the team is rubbish. Similarly in cricket, the tricky little off-break twirler can have a great game even when the rest of the bowling attack is having a horrendous off day. In that same rugby team though, the hooker can't play great if the props aren't at it. The bloke at number four in the Oxford boat can't excell if his hyphenated teammates aren't doing the business. Some areas of sport are like that, you work as a unit, a collective, not as an individual.
So it is with football team defences. All well oiled machines need a carburetor (what IS that thing?), they all need pumps, spark plugs, that kind of jazz. Even a two hundred grand Ferrari needs those bits, take one of them out & you've got a pretty red car with funky cream leather seats that doesn't actually go anywhere.
And let's be clear here, we've got an absolute Ferrari of a defence. All the lads in it have been brilliant this season, those that were here were brilliant last season too. Our defence is the envy of the EFL, committed, skilled and organized in equal measure, we barely concede shots never mind goals.
So what went wrong yesterday then? Oh I don't know. Something somewhere though sent it out of whack, caused it to misfire. Whether a nervousness crept in as a result of Nathan Bishop not been given a foul for the first goal (I don't think it IS a foul, but in modern football it's given nine out of ten times) or whether big Joe Lewis wasn't totally 100% and got beat in a one on one for the first time since he was eleven threw us a bit I can only speculate. Something somewhere though caused the well oiled machine that is our back line to have a very uncharacteristic splutter. Much like in the Ferrari, you can't "run it off" when it comes to collective defensive splutters, I'm afraid a visit to "Terry the garage" is the only way to put it right. A tweak here & there and all will be dandy again.
It's such a shame because apart from that we were bloody brilliant.
Matty Stevens led the line like a tooled up and armed to the teeth SAS scout, setting off explosions and laying booby traps behind enemy lines left right and centre. Marcus Browne had his best game in a Wimbledon shirt & could easily have had another goal AND an assist to go with the cracker he did get. All over the pitch we were great, it was just at the back where we didn't click.
I'm not going to criticize ANY of those lads back there though
They've been brilliant, fantastic for us week in and week out. It won't be "Terry the garage" who'll sort us out, it'll be "Terry the training ground" and we'll be watertight again before you know it.
Last thing, it was a bloody great game of football, AND this time we had a proper go in the last ten minutes 👏.
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