I am not one for ranting, but the time has to come to get up on that soapbox and get a few things off my chest. The majority of this was in my subconscious mind whilst I slept after the disappointing result from Dundee had come through. Obviously I have to rethink a certain part of it after an event which broke just a matter of a few minutes ago; but the rest of remains intact. Time to be rarely outspoken, whether you agree or not is entirely down to you....I don't expect everyone out there to nod their heads and say you're right Mark - 100 per cent.
1. Danny Bois
This is the part I've had to rethink as the aforementioned forward has been released as G tries to arrest the slump in form. To be honest, number 51 didn't really pull any trees up since his arrival in November as a replacement for the desperately unlucky Pascal Morency. His dèbut in Braehead was as inauspicious as his actual stay. We thought we had signed a policeman, one who would use his planned strength and previous record of being a bit of a glove dropper to good effect. We got the actual opposite. Apart his two goal game against Hull just before Christmas, he did nothing to impress the faithful. No hard hits to report of sorts and his fight card; save for the Fitzgerald encounter; very much negligible. I am not surprised that he has been gassed, he had to improve or the axe was gonna come. Tonight, the latter happened.
2. Penalty Shots and Shootouts themselves
I will stand up and admit I don't like them one iota. Never liked them as a football supporter, and as a hockey fan I hate them more. We seemingly are incapable of winning a game on them, save for the win this season in Fife. Whoever takes them seemingly falls in the same trap, that being over fancy with the set up and then running out of space when applying the killer touch. Just close in slowly on the netminder when taking one, get him to commit and then snipe one either top shelf or five hole if he leaves his pads wide open. We do practice them, don't we?
3. The Case For The Defence (is there one?)
One of the issues that has caused this alarming dip in form is the defence, or lack of it in front of Frank Doyle. Many times now we have left our number 1 wide open facing an odd man rush and expecting him to bail us out. He can't be expected to do this every single time for Christ's sake! The issue is that the defence is too offensive orientated, and even Cullen Eddy and Gord Baldwin (both signed apparently as shut down defencemen) are all too keen to join the rush and leave us exposed at the back. This is not a slight on both men, far from it, but it's a problem which teams like Nottingham and Cardiff will exploit all too easily. We need a recognised shut down defenceman, someone like a Munner but am I just being pedantic? You watch the same games as me, what do you think?
4. The league title
Face facts folks, the chance of winning our first title since 2011 has almost evaporated into nothing but a pipe dream. The results since Boxing Day have taken care of that, 5 points out of possible 16 on offer. If the league started then, we'd both probably be struggling near the bottom. Our record in our own conference is shambolic, 19 points from 18 games played, which means we've been actually been better on the road than we have in our own building although recent statistics tell a different story. We should be thankful that there's a gap of 12 points between us and Fife in 6th; but one can only wonder where the next win is gonna come from? We seem rudderless at present with no obvious direction.
5. Have Nottingham got our number?
Categorically, hell yeah! We do not seem to be able to work those down the road out whatsoever. What plan G thinks will work against them, Neilson (for all his faults and inflated ego) just seems to find something extra that trumps him. Farmer and Boxill are a couple of irritants that never give up, and in Modig they have found someone to replace K-Wall when the sausage fancier decides to leave the Lace City for once and for all. They might not be the Panthers that had David Ling and stormed with panache to a treble (no, it wasn't a Grand Slam) in 2013, but they have a will to win which knocks us down with one shot just like Craig Cescon did to Dougie Clarkson last night. It pains me to say the above, but it's true.
Well that's me off my soapbox, and giving us just 5 reasons (I'm sure there are more) why this season is now hurling downhill faster than you can say Konrad Bartelski and World Skiing Champion in the same sentence (by the way, Bartelski never won a world title - it's just an analogy). I'll be back again next week, enjoy Saturday's game which I'm missing as I'm back in Sunderland for the day.
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