Another couple of games and two defeats. On New Year’s Day we went to Hillsborough, missed a few chances early on then once again, fell away badly in the second half, conceding two without looking like scoring ourselves.
As a consequence, the pressure on the manager has ramped up a few more notches and we really need to arrest the slide and get some home wins. At least on Saturday, despite going out of the Cup, we gave it a real go in the second half, creating a number of chances and probably deserved at least a replay.
What was a tight defence are now losing cheap goals and that was evident at the Reebok, where both goals were avoidable; the first saw Ngog allowed to turn and run at us without any real challenge. While it was a decent strike, he should have been stopped further out. Similarly, their second goal saw Mackenzie too easily pushed off the ball, leading to a tap in for Beckford.
As we’ve set our stall out to keep things tight, it’s giving us too much to do to recover. At least Barkhuizen scored a great goal to give us some cheer.
Rumours are now going round that Tom Ince is to leave. While he hasn’t been in top form, he remains far and away our most creative player, and he’ll be badly missed without any replacement.
We’ve got the stage where the upcoming games with Middlesbrough, Barnsley and Doncaster are becoming massive in our season. A decent set of results from those three games and we can banish any suspicion of relegation and possibly reinvigorate a playoff push. There is still half a season to play. Onwards and upwards.
STARMEN: Gary Mackenzie (Sheffield); Tom Ince (Bolton)
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