 |
| Summer signings Ryan, Robertson and Barcham |
Iron manager Alan Knill's words after a humbling 5-0 defeat in the final pre-season game against Barcelo.....sorry Barnsley. After an encouraging performance against Rotherham, including probably the best 45 minutes seen from a Knill team, not many people would have expected to see such an abject performance. A 5-0 defeat was hard to swallow. What was worse was the fact that the bad defending of last season reared its ugly head again. Paul Reid was at fault for at least two of the goals and Michael Nelson was beaten far too easily by pacy attackers time after time. After conceding one goal early on the heads dropped, fingers were pointed at each other, confidence drained out of the players by the minute. At times last season our defence was worse than woeful. Reid and Nelson were brought in during January but the results continued to slie. Everyone thought that the defence was the least of our problems this year. Knill, a former defender himself, looked like he had sorted out the calamity performances of the back four, but during this game the same old problems were back. No-one looked comfortable on the ball at the back. The lack of pace from the centre backs was exposed ime and time again by the speed of Barnsleys attacking play. Nelson and Reid were put under pressure and couldn't handle it. Reid gave the ball away too often and the answer from both every time they received the ball was to lump it down the pitch to a non exsistent strike force. I was waiting for the ironic Jamie McCombe style "WHOOSH" to start coming from the crowd. I almost felt sorry for Gavin Gunning and Eddie Nolan. Gunning is trying his best to in himself a move away from Blackburn. Only a few years ago he was rated as a better prospect than new Manchester United signing Phil Jones. Now he's scrapping for a contract with a club in transition, a club struggling to fulfil it's ambitions. I would sign him without doubt. The fact that Andy Hughes has been allowed to leave for pastures new will probably make the deal more likely to happen. Eddie Nolan is looking increasingly more solid at right back. During pre-season both full backs have been given the room to get forward and work with the wingers to build up attacks. At times on saturday the full backs were let down by their defensive colleagues.
 |
| Gavin Gunning |
That's not to say they were alone. Sam Togwell busts his guts every time he plays. He is a player that every team needs. The player who puts a shift in, in every single game. Michael Collins has played most of pre-season alongside Togwell. Last season he struggled, this season could be another struggle for the former Huddersfield man. Another trialist, Kieran Djilali played well against Rotherham, looking sharp going forward. In this game he struggled against a solid Barnsley back line. Later that night he told fans on Twitter he had been let go by the club. Bobby Grant puts in a lot of effort, covering every inch of the pitch. Sadly he looks like hes lacking the cutting edge needed to be the goal scorer that Knill seems to think he can be. Jordan Robertson looks he still needs time to get to match sharpness. Admittedly he is a strong player but he struggles to really make an impact. The club needed a Steve Torpey style target man up front but seems to have found a John Gayle type player. A man who puts his all into the game but is just lacking that goal scoring knack. The only man from the starting line up against Barnsley that really looked anywhere near good enough was Jimmy Ryan. The former Accrington man started out on the right wing, although he is given the freedom to roam the pitch. He looks the kind of player that can pick out a killer pass, score a screamer of a goal and put his foot in for a 50/50 ball when he needs to !
 |
| Jimmy Ryan |
The biggest plus point was the return to action of Michael O'Connor. The Northern Irishman came on with around 15 minutes left, his first minutes since the last game of the previous season. Immediately he put his stamp on the game. Going forward he sprayed a few decent balls around the pitch and showed his skills around the penalty area, whilst he doesn't seem scared to drop deep and pick up the ball from the defence. This season will be dependant on whether he stays with the club and if he can stay fit. As the proven driving force behind the team our season could well rest on his shoulders. Those shoulders have a lot to carry on them. The hopes of the fans rest in his hands, something he seems to relish. Garry Thompson also played more minutes off the bench. The powerful striker looks like our best option for a goal at the minute, he could finally be ready to step up and prove he can be the goal scorer the fans so desperately want him to be. Trialist Dominic Green also looked lively coming off the bench. He had the Iron's best chances of a goal on the day, drawing a couple of good saves from the Barnsley keeper, hopefully he will have done enough to earn himself some sort of deal with the club. You never can tell though what a manager sees in a player, until the contract is signed on the dotted line nothing can be taken for granted. We found that out with the Tutte deal earlier in the summer. Knill thought he had the deal wrapped up but the player changed his mind and turned up at Rochdale instead.
 |
| Michael O'Connor back in action |
One thing that makes the rest of the summer a lot harder is the news that the club has asked head scout Lee Turnbull to step down from that role. Knill apparently wants to use the company "Scout 7" to carry out much of his scouting work. The man who has in the last few years unearthed the likes of Sharp, Paterson, Keogh and Hooper has been asked to step down as a cost cutting measure. It seems a short sighted move for the club to cast aside the former players undoubted talent spotting ability. Club General Manager David Beeby is quoted as saying "Circumstance dictate this". Does this mean that were struggling for finances ? After a few years in which we have received big money transfers for the likes of Sharp and Hooper it seems strange that this move has been taken for these reasons.
Hopefully between now and Saturday's game at Wycombe, Gunning and Green will be signed to deals, the money saved from Andy Hughes' move to Charlton will be used to bring in at least one striker (PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU ALAN) and our defence will learn a few lessons in how to play football again.Don't let me put you off though. Your team needs you to get behind them, sing your heart out and keep on following the Iron. Someone once said, Football is a funny old game, well the next nine months could be a funny old season !
Up the Iron.
No comments:
Post a Comment