NORTHAMPTON

Other than a few flashes (The James Roberts goal at Plymouth etc.) the only good thing about our 2014/15 league campaign is that we are not going to get relegated. And the only reason this is good is because the alternative is just too bad to contemplate.

Tuesday’s game against Northampton was another in a long line of abject sleep inducing home performances, yet even by the standards we have set, from an attacking perspective, we seem to have plumbed even lower depths. It was that bad.

We again had zero creativity in the centre of midfield where the pairing of Josh Ruffels and Michael Collins once more left us underwhelmed. We hardly ever got the ball to the wide men Callum O’Dowda and Kemar Roofe. The threat we posed was no greater than that which Carl Froch would have felt if Alan Carr had given him the “you and me, outside now.”

Ruffels had a particularly poor game but give him credit for not hiding. I’m hearing more and more people say he’s not good enough and that is hard to disagree with on current form. I thought Collins was much improved in the second half and wrongly removed. But he’s certainly no better than when he arrived. Why is it we get pretty good players and seem to make them worse? COD looked more like the player I was seeing at the start of the season when I declared that I couldn’t envisage him having a lengthy career in the football league, than the Premiership player Michael Duberry sees. (I’ll ignore the fact that Dubes’s view was probably just something he thought people might like to read in the Mail)

It’s as if a stupor has managed to worm its way into our DNA. We seemed to have no game plan, were incredibly easy to read and even our better players were making mistakes. Nothing seemed to come off. There were quite a few times though when I could see what we were trying to do. It was just that we didn’t do it very well. Angled balls hit an opponent because they weren’t angled quite right and passes that would have been good if they had the right pace were either under or over hit.

And even when we did get near the opposition’s goal we demonstrated further ineptitude by on two occasions failing to deliver the glaringly obvious ball to a colleague who had found their way into a position where they had a much much better scoring opportunity than the man in possession. The two guilty parties were Roofe and Danny Hylton. Much as I rate Hylton this had me yelling at him big time.

It has to be said that by the time of Danny’s misdemeanour we were playing rather better. For me the improvement started around the hour mark when Danny Rose replaced O’Dowda. Rose wasn’t great and gave the ball away a couple of times but he introduced a tad of creativity and slightly more inclination to pass forwards than we had seen previously.

But it was the introduction of Alex MacDonald that gave us the real boost that eventually salvaged a point. I’ve heard many people say we’d not seen anything from him yet. I’ve disagreed with that view and on this occasion he brought a spark and vitality that had shamefully been missing. Others began to play too and Kemar Roofe, who I thought was one of our better players throughout, began to show his pace.

That we were only the one goal down on 90 minutes after such a below par performance was down to the defence largely doing their job and Northampton not being able to convert any of their many half chances.

They were much the better team, especially in the first half. Boring boring Chris Wilder is it? Exciting football playing by Appleton teams? Myths and legends. Truth and lies. Fact and fiction. I’ll leave it to the individual to sort out.

But like of old, a Chris Wilder team, whether instructed to or not, dropped deep late on and invited pressure which we were able to take advantage of.

For me this just brought a bit of relief nothing more. It could not mask the usual dire home fare.

What does the gate of just 4836, of which just 4226 were home fans for a fixture against a team not far down the road managed by an ex tell you? Fans are staying away in their droves. Those that disappeared under Wilder have not returned. And the absentees will not come back with Appleton delivering such poor results at the Kassam and football which is largely devoid of entertainment.

And of course it says that there were no free tickets doled out for this one.

Strangely though, we could have won this match. The goal we conceded was eminently preventable. The player on the end of the wall broke away as the free kick was taken. If he had not done so he would have blocked the kick. Even so Jamie Ashdown should have stopped it but went down too early and the bounce made him look rather daft. That said, other than a couple of bits of dodgy distribution he looked solid.

It’s not just the football that merits a good old moan though is it? The late evening sun highlighted what an awful state the pitch is in. The vast array of tiny shadows showed up our pitch to be nothing more than a conglomeration of divots. I wasn’t the only one to spot this. And then there was the embarrassment of the holes where the rugby (spit, curse etc.) posts are inserted whenever London Welsh rock up to be summarily humiliated, posing a health and safety issue and causing a delay whilst this was addressed.

But hey, we’re unbeaten in five and are not bottom. Some biased or bizarrely optimistic individuals will spin this into success of sorts. Not me. Appleton out. Yes, I know he’ll be here next season but I just felt the need to say it again.
So to Prenton Park on Saturday. They’ll have a lot more to play for than us. Could be interesting. Will we be up for the battle? We should be anyway but additionally we have something to prove after the FA Cup as far as I’m concerned.

TRANMERE

Rovers are in a mess. Coming into this game with just three to go they were bottom. The maximum number of points they could now accumulate being just 48. Cambridge, in 19th position, are already on that number and have a vastly superior goal difference.

To entice more fans to come along and get behind their team in this desperate bid to stay up Tranmere dropped the price for home fans to just a tenner. (An offer not extended to away supporters but I can’t be arsed to take issue with this. £15 for a seat in a stand so steep that the view is excellent represented some of the best vfm this season in possibly the best ground in this division).

The ground holds about 16,500 and with the reduced entrance fee I was expecting there to be about 10,000 Birkenheaders in attendance in this hour of need with a rollicking good atmosphere driving their team on. But not a bit of it. The gate was just 5,777 with a sizeable following supporting the Yellows. More than was logical given that we are safe.

Furthermore the home fans didn’t get behind their team and with the stadium just a third full it didn’t bring much togetherness to their cause. I only heard genuine encouragement for a brief period at the start of the second half but it was a moaning and a groaning that more characterised the mood in the home stands. It was as if they had given up the ghost even before kick-off. But they know their team much better than us. Research shows that they had picked up just five points from the last 36 and had not scored in the last three games.

As they fell behind their fans began to leave in ever increasing numbers with the occasional outburst of frustration against the management. Outside afterwards the comments about Micky Adams were not complimentary. His record suggests that he isn’t this bad. He’s had a promotion in 2000/01 with Brighton and got Port Vale out of League Two in difficult circumstances in 2012/13. On Sunday there was a parting of the ways between him and Tranmere.

I feel for their followers. They are now about 6/1 on to go down. They were in League One last season and their two remaining games are away at Plymouth and at home to Bury. I thought the chants of “going down, going down, going down” and “that’s why you’re going down” sung by our noisy followers were not really on. I’ve got nothing against Tranmere. But that’s what football supporters do, I guess. Rub it in. Kick a man when he is down. (Not literally, I hasten to add).

When we fell into the Conference the fans rallied round and got behind the club and to a great extent continued to do so until we returned. I didn’t get the feeling that the same will be happening at Tranmere, but things can change pretty quickly in football. Win a few and who knows.

But forgive me for dwelling on them and not us in what was an impressive display.

There were many aspects of this performance to take comfort from. Not least the defence, again. This was the third clean sheet in four games and this comes with changes having been made to the back line.

Jamie Ashdown looks to be a solid reliable keeper and obviously has experience of playing at a higher level. I’d have no problems with him being our keeper other than that I’ve got no problems with Ryan Clarke. If I was Clarke I wouldn’t be happy at the moment. If the management are not intending Ashdown to be here longer term then what is the point in playing him? I’m wondering if this is a way of engineering the departure of our long time custodian.

This was the second game Sam Long deputised at right back for the injured George Baldock and he had a competent mature game in a position that he’s not come through the ranks playing. He grows by the game and if, as seems likely, our MK loanee is not with us next season we could see Long’s name appearing much more regularly in the starting line up.

Chey Dunkley for Johnny Mullins was the change from the previous game. It would be fair to say that Dunkley had not impressed in the few times we’d seen him previously and the first minute or two it was a bit of same again. There were two poor headers and a lack of assurance on the floor too. But that was it; thereafter he had a good game got in decent challenges and was a presence in the opposition box from set pieces. Perhaps he is a decent player who just needs time. Football is a squad game but Mullins in my view did not deserve to be dropped.

We did our pre-match drinking in a rather more salubrious suburb than Prenton, and it was whilst walking to the ground from the Oxton Bar and Kitchen that the team news came through. I tried to work out if we were likely to score goals. As ever there was no big good in the air tall powerful striker on the team sheet. (Of course not. We have not got one). And without Patrick Hoban no genuine hold up player; not that this style has brought us an abundance of goals.
But with Hylton, Roofe, Rose and MacDonald I thought there was potential for playing it around on the ground with good intelligent attacking movement. For that to happen we needed some space within which to operate and a good playing surface. I was expecting Rovers to have to commit men forward thus leaving gaps at the back and from the cup game I remember the playing surface having a smoothness unfortunately lacking at the Kassam. I was therefore reasonably optimistic.

Not a lot happened in the first half and it was not a great surprise that there were no goals when the interval arrived. Tranmere showed fleeting spirit and on a couple of occasions had players willing to progress forward with the ball but they weren’t together as an effective unit and we coped with them fairly well.

A pivotal moment in the game may have been when we scrambled the ball off the goal line just before half time. If that had gone in Tranmere would have been buoyed up and beginning to believe again with their fragility somewhat strengthened. It shouldn’t be forgotten that there are other woeful teams down the bottom too.

The standout moment of the first half however was produced by Roofe. On 36 minutes he got the ball just outside our penalty area. Instead of clearing the ball as expected he knocked it past his opponent and with the pace he has, got away. It was probably nowhere near as risky as I thought at the time he’s that quick. Then he just kept going and a few seconds later was getting a shot away at the other end. Marvellous stuff, but very much out of keeping, up to that point, with the game in general.

The second half was very different. We ended up three goals to the good and deservedly so, being vastly superior when it came to playing football.

By the time the second half was just seven minutes old we had scored two goals. The first contained numerous patient passes down the right wing. Whilst there was no undue rushing it was obvious we were looking to get the ball in the danger zone and when the opportunity arose Long sent in a quality cross that Roofe headed into the back of the net. Although the Tranmere marking may have been poor it was a really good finish and one I wasn’t aware he had in his locker. (If Roofe is just another of these here today gone tomorrow loan signings I’ll be well pissed off and will be asking what is the point of anything).

Goal number two was a more immediate incisive passing move that saw Ruffels, MacDonald and Hylton involved in setting up Rose who finished well. It was again really good football. I really rate MacDonald. Even when we had not grabbed the game in the first half his tracking back and defensive efforts were of the highest order. His is a permanent signing that I am well happy with.

A quarter of an hour later it was game over. Hylton won a high ball hit into the box from a free kick and Roofe sliced through the ball to send it arrowing past Fon Williams.

And we could have had more. Roberts hit a post. I’ve previously commented that I really think this youngster is a little bit special but thought on this showing he lacked pace. Never mind we now seem to have young ‘uns a plenty. Aidan Hawtin was the latest to get a minute or two of game time. I’ve no idea if he is any good.

There’s no denying that we are now moving in the right direction; just two defeats in 13 games and 12 points from the last 18. That’s promotion form and possibly the form of champions. But it is all rather late in the season and we’ve no idea what the team will be at the start of the 2015/16 slog. Plus it is easy to get carried away after a delightful away day. The form and entertainment at home still needs cracking and we have been way off doing this. After all it was this that did for CW with the fans. This season we will end up with the fewest points since we’ve returned to the Football League. Any optimism I’ve got has the brakes firmly holding it back but after another decent away performance my anti-Appletonitus looks misplaced. But on Saturday 25 April there is a game at the Kassam Stadium. That could be so very different. Home and away. Chalk and cheese?