TALKING POINTS
Rob Dand
Rob discusses the game at Park View Road
THE RED CARD
If I were asked to describe Ross Marshall to an alien, there would be a few words before ‘footballer’ on my list. Given more opportunities than he has deserved, out of necessity, the walking argument let everyone down yet again this weekend with an outrageous lunge.
The sheer idiocy of making that challenge is unfathomable. Right in front of the referee, twenty minutes into the game, with an attacker fully 30 yards+ from goal, our Ross launches himself like he’s taking a bullet for the President in a 90s action movie.
Hopefully we never see him in yellow (or blue) again. I fear we might have to.
THE GOAL
The red card forced us into an early change, and Archer was unlucky to have to make way for Ollie Tomlinson. He didn’t look massively thrilled about it either. Moments later, Aaron Downes was forced into a second change, with Brett McGavin coming on for the stricken Dawson.
You can’t help but feel that Dawson would have at least put more pressure on the Welling scorer than the sauntering McGavin, who so frequently shirks his defensive duties. Presumably Downes expected a physical game, and left Brett out for this very reason.
Add to that Halstead’s attempt at a save, which was woeful. A wheelie bin rolling in the breeze would have stopped that shot, but Halstead’s connection only served to take the sting out of the effort, before allowing to bounce agonisingly into the net.
A Welling fan cheekily shouted that they hoped that wasn’t the arm he pleasured himself with – there is certainly no pleasure to be had around Torquay United at the moment.
THE FINAL THIRD
We set up pretty defensively, with a clear plan to play Archer and Will Jenkins Davies into the game off Big Duane. I would guess that Brad Ash was another one deemed not to be enough of a presence for this expectedly robust encounter.
Unfortunately the plan was curtailed following the red card, but Duane remained the target man. For a man who is 10ft tall and built like a small tree, he offers surprisingly little with his hold up play. He doesn’t seem to win many headers either, and when he does he doesn’t seem to be in control of them. He also had one chance that he made look like a half-chance. A trier, but a very limited footballer.
We offered little else in the final third, and most of our possession was restricted to a comfortable distance from the Welling goal.
WIDTH
We did enjoy spells of possession throughout the game, and it was pleasing to see Stobbs and Jude-Boyd linking up well on the right. Their partnership seems to be developing, and offering width to our game.
The problem is the end product, which is frequently a lofted Stobbs cross aimed vaguely towards the location you might reasonably expect a striker to be.
Archer’s unfortunate removal meant we never really had a natural outlet down the left.
AWAY BLUES
I foolishly attended this game feeling like it had to be a turning point. At some stage, the players need to shake off these blues and win a game in a stadium that isn’t Plainmoor. But it wasn’t to be.
In truth, it was a reasonably eventful game that had 0-0 written all over it, but for Halstead’s weak shotstopping.
Approaching the last few games of this dreadful season, we are in the sad position of relying on our away form to change, and fast. But how likely is that?
With games against the teams around us, we remain in a favourable position on paper. But with most of those games being away from home, I’m not sure I back us to pick up anything other than a win against Havant on the last day of the season. I hope I am proved wrong.
COYY – ROB
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