What a frustrating game. We drew to Preston today under the lights of the MKM Stadium and I have to say that this was one of the weaker performance at home since Rosenior was appointed as manager. I have no idea why this is happening and after a thrashing at Carrow Road on Tuesday, you would have thought that we would have bounced back. But, we did not and it is another draw. At least it was not a loss; however, the gap between us and sixth place is increasing significantly and each draw is a loss, in some way.
Before the match, they announced that over 17,700 tickets had been sold (including away fans) and they had opened up the stand that, when it was closed off, was causing a lot of trouble between the home and away fans. There used to be a huge gap, which encouraged our fans to run across–when we scored–and try to get past the weak line of stewards. But, it was open today and it worked in some way as our fans did not look like they had any intentions of charging across. I do not understand why they did not keep it open as it would reduce the trouble and the stewards can have more control over us. And, also, we would have more supporters. Nonetheless, we had a great crowd today and that was great to see as it gives the players more momentum.
The line-ups were announced at 2pm and at first glance I was not too pleased to be honest. Aarron Connolly is still out with an injured ankle and Jean Seri did not make the bench–he was a huge miss today–for an unknown reason. Let’s hope that he is back for next week. Rosenior also dropped Regan Slater, Benjamin Tetteh and Ryan Woods meaning that the starting eleven was: Matt Ingram, in goal; Cyrus Christie, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Sean McLoughlin, as the back four; Ozan Tufan, Greg Docherty, Ryan Longman and Xavier Simons, as the middle four and that leaves Óscar Estupiñán and Dimitrios Pelkas, as the front two. It is great to see Simons and Pelkas start; however, I am starting to get a bit fed up with Estupiñán, he is too slow and he can never keep the ball, and I believe that we need to start without him. Also, we need to drop Ingram and start with our new goalkeeper Karl Darlow as Ingram is not at his best at the moment. Nonetheless, it was a new starting eleven and I trust that Rosenior knows what he is doing.
In the opening seconds of the first half, it did not take us long to create a threatening opportunity; the ball was kicked up field and somehow it went through Preston’s defenders and it landed right in front of Pelkas, who was onside. And, all he needed to do was run faster and he would have got to the ball before the goalkeeper did. If he knew the ball was coming earlier, then he would have been prepared. This was a great sign and we started much stronger than we did on Tuesday. After this, we took control and we kept the ball well; however, we did nothing with it. Like every game since the World Cup we just kept pinging the ball from defender to goalkeeper and when the keeper boots the ball up field, it either goes out of play or to the opposition. I do not understand why they keep passing it back to the keeper whenever they are on the attack. It seems that they want him to have some contribution to when we score.
The best chances of the half came from Óscar Estupiñán. His first chance was a scuffed shot inside the box, in the 39th minute, that forced Freddie Woodman to make a decent save and his second chance was annoying to watch; Pelkas played the ball across the box, which floated past the defenders and the keeper, to Estupiñán who was too short of pace to get any connection with the ball. Despite him being our top goalscorer, he is becoming a bit sloppy and frustrating to watch at the moment as he is struggling to finish and he just gets wrestled off the ball easily.
For the rest of the half, it was just us passing the ball around and not having a clue what to do next. Whenever we got to the box we just passed it around and when we did get it in, it either went out of play or to the keeper. At the moment, we are missing a player who can make an effective run or cross into the box and that player is Aarron Connolly, who is out with an injury at the moment. Ever since we lost him, we have been struggling in attack and we have only been able to chalk up one goal. I hope that his injury is not too serious and that we have him back soon. However, we were really good at winning the ball back and we could keep it without being dispossessed, which we could not do in our previous two away games.
To be honest it was not the worst performance, but we could have done a lot better and we could be in front. However, there was something positive to take away from the first half; Xavier Simons was quality and I think he has proven to Rosenior that he is capable of starting every game. He was good at getting the ball back, he did not hesitate when he received the ball and his passing was sublime. Nonetheless, It was a lack of energy and determination that prevented us going into the second half with the advantage.
In the second period, it was like Norwich all over again. We did have an opportunity in the opening minutes; however, Pelkas was unable to put it in. For the whole half we were the ones defending and we could not start an attack because whenever we did we lost the ball or someone made a sloppy mistake that resulted in the ball being handed to the opposition. In every game this season we have been unable to start off strongly and we switch off. I really hope that Liam fixes this as the first half seems to determine what the next half is going to be like. As soon as we come back onto the pitch we should be fighting for the ball and scoring as many goals as possible. We seem to think that either one is enough or if they have not scored one by a certain time, then they feel obliged to sit back and stop fighting. That is not how football works. You should always be going for a goal no matter what the score line is.
Me being the plonker that I am, I thought that booking my season ticket in the East Stand was a smart idea; however, I am starting to realise that It was a stupid mistake as you spend most of the game trying to get away from all the drama that is happening between us and the childish away fans. During today’s game there were a lot of disruptions that meant I was not able to focus on the game properly. I think next season I will move away and I have learnt my lesson.
For the rest of the half, it was back and forth; however, despite having more possession (52%) than them, it felt like we were dominated and that they were very threatening on the ball. Again, we had more shots (15) compared with them. But, it felt like they had a lot of chances, especially towards the last 10 minutes. I do believe that most of our shots came from the first half and most of theirs came from the second. If it were not for that decent first half, it would have been safe to say that they had control over the game. Another thing that I have learned is that Rosenior is not afraid to make substitutions because recently he has been using them all up. This may be because we have a lot of options on the bench; however, in this game they did not have an effective impact. And in the end, neither team was able to score and it ended goalless.
So, that is three poor performances on the bounce and we are lingering in the middle of the table. After this game it made it two wins, two draws and one loss in our previous five league matches, conceding three and scoring five. So, to be honest we are still heading in the right direction; however, we need to start turning these draws into wins if we want any chance at rising higher in the table. We are currently 13th in the league sitting on 42 points and as for Preston, they are one place behind us meaning that these three points were vital for both sides. However, we both chalked up a hard-fought point.
There are 13 games left of the season, with 36 points still up for grabs. So, we still have a slight chance at playoffs; however, have we left it a little too late?