Im probably going to get slated for this post and it does pain me to have to write this but....
This league is as open as its ever been since we've been down here and the fact we are still only 2 points of off the top despite finding goals incredibly hard to come by speaks volumes. If we had scored three or four goals extra this season there is no doubt we would be clear at the top by some margin already.
Today Keates set up for a home game against the second bottom team again with an incredibly defensive line up. This is a team who have only scored away twice all season. For me he left our three main attacking assets Reid, Massanka and Wright on the bench and bought Carrington back into the midfield. After reading the team sheet you knew what todays game would be like and it was bar Guisley getting there just deserves for time wasting in the end.
After the Hartlepool game or Torquay Keates was quoted in the leader as saying we were missing a target man upfront to get long balls to stick to. Yet again though it was the same predicable tactics with the same results but even worse as with Boden upfront the ball had even less chance of sticking. The BBC commentary time after time mentioned us pumping long balls upfront to our attack who had little chance of winning the ball against bigger defenders. When we did change and move Kelly central we improved and then Keates took him off!!!! Tactically it was a mess.
Its not this match though its been throughout the last two seasons. We are painful to watch and even painful to listen to on the radio. Our tactics are sucking any enjoyment out of supporting the club. Keates has shown very little willingness to change tactics and frustratingly again today we struggled against a part time team. Looking at the home attendances and speaking to people they are not attracted to come and watch the football we are playing.
As many have stated we are probably two or three players off of being in with a good chance of going for the title. However i have come to the view though that Keates isn't the man to take us forward. I don't think he has the tactical knowledge on the pitch even with Darlington supporting and the mystery striker saga / agent fee he shown that he is also lacking the killer edge in the transfer market. Yes he has done a lot of good things but the end game is to get back into the league and yet again this season we have been shown to be lacking.
Personal view i do believe if we bought someone else in even with what we have squad wise now we would still up there come the Xmas period.
Like i said personal view but even though i couldn't make it today it obvious there are major issues n the pitch which is left unresolved are going to drag us downwards rapidly.
Now im off to the bomb shelter
