[Prodigal Dragon]

Originally Posted by Phils-an-alki

Can't agree. Some players badly let the manager down, in fact nearly all of them did.
Giving the ball away so often in our own half has little to do with formation.
Conceding from a corner has nothing to do with formation.
Not marking players has nothing to do with formation.

Too easy to blame the manager and not the players.
Akil Wright constantly emptied the midfield, I doubt he was told to.
Roberts was just dreadful all round.
Lawlor and Kennedy were all over the place especially in the first half hour or so.
Lainton's kicking was poor again, putting the team under pressure.
The Strikers had nothing to work with apart from hoofed long balls.

From my point of view I place the blame with the players. The defence was all over the place and it was still a back four as it has been all season, an experience one at that.

We don't know that he didn't try to set them up defensively either. Maybe he did and they didn't carry out his instructions? Plus as Bux said he had little to choose from, being severely short of players for centre mid kinda forced his hand.

Add into all of that the players we had missing and bingo it was the perfect storm

We agree. IMHO, if we want to reduce it to just one, main reason for why it all went pear-shaped, I would say our midfield combination of Young and Wright was non-existent on the night. But, as you have identified, we were so, so poor at the basics it was almost laughable - but in a very unfunny way!

PS Storm GARETH!