On receipt of the team news I suspect that many fans were surprised and also puzzled as to what formation we would play and who would play where. Three full backs, three central midfielders and two wingers were starting with Lyle Taylor as the sole striker. When the match started it was clear that we were playing 4 2 3 1 with Purches at right back and Cummings at right side centre back. Robinson, surprisingly, was the furthest forward of the central midfielders leaving Marvin and Danny as the holders.
The match got of to an unpleasant start as two County players collided with Ritchie Ravenhill having to be carried off on a stretcher. Hopefully this was only a precaution. Our defence immediately looked unbalanced with Purches and Cummings all at sea on the right hand side, not surprising given their lack of match practice and Cummings playing out of position. Matters were made worse as Marvin did not seem fully fit and as he was the main shield, Danny’s role was playmaker, at least when we had the ball, this was a recipe for disaster.
This disaster took 18 mins to arrive, although there had been a number of close calls before this, when Pearce, theirs not ours, headed a cross home from an unmarked position in the middle of our box. It was not all one way traffic though and when we got the ball we played some neat football with Lyle Taylor working hard alone up front which must have been difficult for an inexperienced player on his full debut. Feeney and Wiggins put efforts wide but it was our defensive woes that were the most obvious part of the match. These were apparent again just before half time when Lee Hughes, the biggest hate figure in our division(?) (but not for this correspondent), held off our Pearce to turn and fire home.
That was not the final disaster of the half though. Thomas Ince (son of Paul) then jinked in from our right causing the retreating Purches so much grief that he eventually got himself into such a mess that he collapsed onto his arse. This allowed a free cross and the only thing that could make matters worse was an own goal……..Cummings duly obliged. 3 0 at half time was not a true reflection of the balance of play but of the comparative defensive capabilities it was (but not as bad as being 3 0 down after 8 mins as we once were at Meadow Lane).
Changes had to be made at half time to avoid total embarrassment, indeed they should have been made after 20 mins! Purches and Cummings were replaced at halftime, probably to their own relief, by Smith and Bradbury. Marvin moved to centre back with Smith on the right. The formation changed to 4 4 2 with Bradders wide(!) right, Feeney wide left and Pugh up front. I felt that putting Bradders up front might have been the better option……..pupil and teacher and all that (if Bradders can remember about when he played up front).
Anyway things were more even in the second half, no doubt County took their foot off the gas as well. Marvin looked fully fit now, perhaps the first half had loosened up whatever stiffness he had (pity that our defence had not had any). We were now looking like our true selves but without a proven goal scorer up front could not open up the County defence. Pugh did have the ball in the net but had been flagged offside. He was replaced by Fletch with 10 mins to go and the big man reduced the defecit 3 mins later by attacking (yes that’s right!) a Wiggins’ cross and heading home. Our frustrations had caused bookings for Bradbury and Bartley i.e. the usual suspects (Hollands had already been booked in the first half).
Scoring late on did add a bit of cheer to a dismal evening (after the Vat and Fiddle anyway). My view is that Eddie got it wrong from the start. Whilst I like 4 2 3 1 as a formation it does require players that are comfortable in their roles especially if it is not your usual playing style. With the starting 11 put out we could have begun with 4 4 2 with Marvin at centre back, Cummings or Wiggins left wing and Pugh or Feeney up front. Perhaps Eddie did not want a Hughes Marvin confrontation but with Marv holding this was always a possibility anyway. By having an imbalanced defence especially weak on our right we shot ourselves in the foot. It seemed as if we did not care about the cup and were just intent on trying a few things out. Our efforts in the second half just showed what a mess the team selection had actually been. As I have already mentioned it was also not corrected early enough. There was no need to deflate Purches or Cummings by substituting them early on (probably Eddie’s concern) as reverting to my suggested 4 4 2 was possible.
When will fans begin to realise that shouting murderer (to be pedantic it was actually manslaughter) at Lee Hughes is totally pointless and actually very boring. It is something that in reality spurs him on and better than the home fans. Hughes puts in a tremendous about of work with selfless runs and closing down.
The crowd of 2,881 was depressingly small but no doubt a sign of the economic times with some fans, from both clubs, giving this one a miss to afford the possible trip to Sunderland in round 3. The only reason that you would want to go there of course! Has anyone else noted that ref Neil Swarbrick’s punishment for delaying the inevitable postponement of the initial match far too long was to get his first premiership match. This evening I thought that he did a good job but a number of fans around me spent much of the match complaining about inconsistent decisions as they saw them. Letting their frustrations about our deficiencies out was more the case no doubt.
My man of the match is Lyle Taylor who willingly ran the channels all evening, laid the ball off well and looked for space to provide outlets for under pressure teammates. The few chances that came his way were rather snatched at but at least he is getting into dangerous positions and once he scores his first many more could follow. Jon Stewart could not be blamed for any of the goals but as Phil Henstridge put it ‘he looks a home keeper!’
All players with knocks were rested and our unused bench makes this plain!!!
AFCB: Stewart, Purches Cummings Pearce Wiggins, Bartley Hollands, Feeney Robinson Pugh, Taylor.
Subs: Bradbury (for Cummings ht) Smith (for Purches ht) and Fletcher (for Pugh 82), Stephenson, Stockley and TINDALL!
Phil Nesbitt, Acocks Green