The View From Churchmans

Sometimes nil-nil scorelines mask a surprisingly decent game of football. But on other occasions, like today, they reflect the quality of the match perfectly. The second half was an improvement on the first, but it could hardly have been anything else. The first 45 minutes had been, quite frankly, boring. Town had a ten-minute spell where they played some super pass-and-move football, and another short spell where they lifted their game and showed some real commitment in the face of an increasingly frustrated crowd. Other than that, both teams seemed totally lacking in effort and inspiration. After half time Town generally played some much better football, but none of the four strikers on show were in any way convincing. Although there were chances, the mood around the ground appeared to be no more confident than the display on the pitch. One to forget.

Overall Town performance:
5/10 – Largely untroubled at the back, generally reasonable in midfield, but toothless up front

Opposition quality
3/10 – Very poor, and possibly the most ripe-for-the-taking visitors of the whole season

Referee:
6/10 – Generally OK, but bottled the big decision to penalise the opposition goalkeeper for clearly handling the ball outside the area, maybe because he’d have had to red-card him too, which equally clearly would have been undeserved.

Match excitement:
4/10 – Up and down. Mainly down.

Opposition supporters:
3/10 – Not that many of them, and they were as quiet as any all season.

Player ratings, as ever 1 to 5 for each of effort/achievement…

MURPHY 7 (3/4) had the easiest of home debuts; a cracking one-handed save in the second half though

ROSENIOR 5 (3/2) had plenty of opportunity to contribute, being under very little pressure, but achieved almost nothing of note; McAULEY 7 (4/3) worked really hard throughout; DELANEY 6 (3/3) put in another solid performance; and COLBACK 7 (3/4) played an intelligent game, neutering any possible impact from Danny Haynes by consistently thinking one step ahead of him.

WALTERS 5 (3/2) once again had barely a single noteworthy moment; NORRIS 6 (3/3) and LEADBITTER 6 (3/3) worked hard but their inspirational moments were few and far between; and EDWARDS 5 (3/2) made a few half decent runs but delivered very little.

HEALY 5 (3/2) was ineffective; but MURPHY 4 (2/2) was even more of a disappointment, looking way off the pace both physically and mentally.

From the bench, COUNAGO did his usual ineffective ferreting around in the area, WICKHAM added a bit of presence without achieving much, and GARVAN didn’t really have enough time to get going.