My son suggested that I should put as much effort into my report as the players did today and leave it blank with one word 'shit!' I have decided however to do a bit more than that but it is not easy. I would pay Bridcutt and Silvestri half their wages - Bridcutt put himself about and Silvestri made the one save that he had to but his kicking was wayward and I do not know why he insisted on rolling the ball out to Bamba all the time. The rest of them should get nothing. They were all dreadful (I will exempt Coyle who was not on long enough) for the whole 90mins. We had no shots all game worthy of the name and certainly none on target - the only one a Taylor free kick that hit the post. It was indicative of the game that our goal came from a MKDons defender under no pressure. The ball taking an age to trickle in off the post. Even that did not stir us into any sort of action. From the first minute to the last we were lackadaisical and sloppy -Bamba gave the ball away twice in the first 5 minutes when under no pressure at all. To do justice to how bad it was I would need a Thesaurus to find alternatives to slow, uninterested, lethargic and rubbish. We had no idea and nothing worked. Given that we knew Wood was likely to be out why did Evans not work out a system that would suit the players we had. Time and again Doukara drifted out wide and showed that he is not a number 9.We rode our luck early on when Taylor, so impressive this season, was beaten at the byline and made a rash tackle - a definite nailed on penalty - everyone in the ground saw it except the two who count. He did the same a few minutes later with a similar result although this time I think the winger took a bit of a dive. They were no great shakes and they only managed two shots all game - the goal and a shot from inside the box that Silvestri saved well.We had a few chances but they really were few and far between. Byram nipped in between the defender and the keeper early on but fluffed it - £5m , rip their hand off. Then later on our other great hope, Cooke, was clean through on goal, just inside their half but his lack of confidence in front of goal showed and he chose to square it instead of going for goal. I can remember our old non-scoring midfielder (Batty) in a similar situation once v Notts County but he carried on with the ball and put it in. Cook just showed a lack of belief. After the optimism of the Derby and Forest games this brought us old down to earth with a bump it was very poor fare and they were booed off at half and full time, and deservedly so. There was nothing at all to take from this match, nothing to cheer us up or give us hope etc. I have been going for over 40 years, week after week and this was probably as poor a performance as I have experienced. Yes, it really was that bad. As for Evans - he picked the wrong team in the absence of Wood , but I suppose he deserves some credit for trying to change it, and in good time, bringing on Antenucci and then Erwin before the hour mark. A special mention to Erwin - 30minutes on the pitch and his only touch was to carry the ball back to the centre circle after the own goal ! A happy new year to one and all, one thing is for sure in 2016 - the only way is up, at least in terms of performance, effort, skill and entertainment because it cannot be any worse than today. We stole an undeserved point Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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