Preston Home Lost 0 – 2 – Well Will Has Gone
The shambles at Blackburn had an immediate effect on team selection for the home game with Preston as Welington was suspended and Charles has joined Jelert and Stewart on the long-term injured list. With Downes available to replace Charles, that wasn’t disastrous and there was a decent start with Scienza prompting promising positions and himself forcing Iverson into a full length save. The hosts on top in a goal-less game wasn’t enough for some to start calling for Sports Republic to cut their losses, although there were no suggestions about who might replace them. The negative chanting at the Northam end had just started when Preston took the lead with a messy goal by Dobbin who was allowed what seemed several attempts (it was three) to force the ball home, and Edwards might have been doing more to stop him. That’s all a beleaguered team (and their coach) needed and of course it did nothing for the atmosphere around the ground. North End are no great shakes really, and nor should any of our opponents be against the sort of player Southampton possesses; those players aren’t necessarily in the right positions, though, as we tried to replace Ramsdale from within while trusting to Stewart’s fitness at the other end. Only Hull of the teams above us have conceded more goals than our 19 (most very preventable I think) while thirteen goals from as many matches doesn’t quite cut it, and certainly not when you let in so many. That’s the cause of the discontent and by the stage of the season we’re now at, something to cheer, even a fluke, was desperately needed; the football gods look at that as a challenge so Jander’s excellent goal-bound shot was turned onto the bar by Iverson. It wasn’t as though Mr. Still did nothing about the situation, bringing on Fellows and Robinson for Azaz and Edwards at the break, and then Downs for Downes and even teenager Oyekunie appeared before the end. All we got was another goal conceded, this one from a counter attack towards the end of added time when someone called Frøjœr-Jansen converted Thórdarson’s cross.
I always thought Project Still would require two years to bear fruit, given his age and total inexperience of the EFL. You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that he was unlikely to be given that time, either by fans or Sports Republic – SR at least had the grace to wait until after All Saints’ Day before giving Will Still his cards. I get that there was little evidence of any progress being made, but a mistake, I believe. Another mistake! I wonder what Ralph’s doing now…
LSSC Man of the Match shouldn’t be a difficult choice but at least here are three candidates to choose from:
3. Ryan Manning, always available when going forward.
4. Flynn Downes. Just doesn’t look like a Downes and Charles partnership would work.
13. Léo Scienza. It’s always Léo Scienza.
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