October 2024 (Page 3)

Gloverscast Ben was at the Lamb Ground for the BBC on Tuesday, you might have heard him bleating on about the game on the radio. (Get it? Lamb? Bleat?)

He got back home in the wee small hours much like the couple hundred hardly Glovers fans and here are his Five Conclusions.

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A point gained or two points dropped… or both!?

On the face of it, a point away at Tamworth this season is a really good result, Gateshead didn’t get one, neither did Woking or Sutton for that matter. Plenty of teams will go the Lamb and get nothing other than a good sheering… (Get it? Lamb? Sheering?  – ugh forget it) but it is worth noting we were comfortably the better team – in fact we were the only team actually trying to play football, more on that shortly.

The movement through the defence to the midfield is getting better by the game at the moment, and when we have plenty of the ball, we look like we’re able to make chances almost at will.

Yeah, maybe the final ball wasn’t perfect, maybe we did have a couple of really guilt edged chances that we didn’t take, but this wasn’t a 0-0 that screamed ‘Where is our next goal coming from?’, far from it.

In the context of 90 minutes, it’s ok to be frustrated that we couldn’t find that one moment to claim the win, in the context of the past 72 hours, four points from two tough away games is a cracking return, in the context a whole week, if we can back that up with three big ones at HP on Saturday, a seven-point week is not to be sniffed at.

Tamworth Masters of Dark Arts.

Wow.

During my pre-match prep I noted that Tamworth had already notched up 40 (four-zero, FORTY) Yellow cards this season, 45 if you include non-player cautions for those in the dugout and quite how that didn’t make it up to the half century in this match I do not know.

This is going to sound a bit sour, a bit like I’ve taken the bait without anyone even fishing, but that was one of the most truly anti-football home performances I’ve ever witnessed.

They kick, they push, they trample, that tear shirts off backs, they scrap, they chirp, they play such an ugly game based on long throws and poophousery. 

I mean, fair play, they play to their strengths, and we had to match them at times and that’s fine, but that can’t be fun to watch week in week out? 

…and as for the officials, with Rule One rattling around my head, probably up there with one of the worst performances I’ve seen from the officials ever, at times they were literally guessing. Just pointing flags in random directions and I know Mr Steven Copeland was a late sub for the game as the man in the middle, but it’s not all about you mate, control the game, protect the players. He was Baaaaaad. (Get it? Lamb? Baa? Fine, I’ll stop)

It reminded me of going to some of those smaller sides in the National League South, it was ugly and you just hope to get out unscathed… oh yeah, about that.

Worthington and Williams might be missing a while.

Those bloody 4G pitches.

Both Matt Worthington and home sub Matt Curley look set for spells on the sidelines because of the pitch.

Neither were within any kind of distance of another human when they hit the deck, with ankle problems. Worthington felt something doing a simple jump in the air in the seconds before kick off and then got a bad bounce of the ball early on whilst Curley had the audacity to try and change direction with the ball at his feet – Plastic Pitches won’t allow that sort of woke nonsense.

The sooner these terrible pitches are dealt with and either increased in quality, or banned entirely at professional level, the better.

Right then, the red card.

I’ll be honest, initially my reaction was that it probably WAS a red card.

It wasn’t malicious, it wasn’t overly reckless, it was probably just a bit high and a bit out of control, I can understand why the official immediately thought the same and went to his back pocket.

But, that’s the problem here, he barely finishes blowing for the foul before the card is out. He’s got half a dozen Tamworth players making a song and dance about the tackle and he’s not given himself time to properly take it all in.

In all likelihood, it’s an Orange Card, somewhere between yellow and red. You’ve seen them given, you’d be mad if it’s against you, but probably nodding along if it’s the opposition. 

“Hi, yes, is that Port Vale? Let’s have a chat about James please”

That phone call to Port Vale needs to include questions like, ‘Can we keep him for longer?’ ‘Can we keep him forever?’.

This was my first chance to see James Plant in the flesh and boy, do I like what I see.

He’s a left back, who is also a left winger, who can cut in on his right, he can cross, he can pass, he can handle himself in physical battles, he can keep his whits about him with a (truly ridiculous) yellow card on his name all game. Yes please. We’ll have more of that.

His inclusion means we don’t have to risk or rush Whittle back and actually, when Whittle does come back, there’s arguably room for them both.

Don’t fall in love with loan players, though please… it never ends well.

So, what do we do about Saturday?

Well, we’re going to need a new Right Wing Back with Worthy missing out – that might be Jordan Young, that might be Josh Sims – neither feel like obvious candidates and their abilities are probably suited further forward. Young, Kofi Shaw will likely be used from the bench again and he doesn’t strike me as the defensive type.

Recall Jordan Thomas? Feels unlikely. Sonny to square peg a round hole? Don’t know, tough call to make, but clearly this set up is working, and I think consistency is what we need at the moment, someone will have to fit in.

We have said we’re going to appeal the Morgan Williams (and you might as well) but how often do these things get overturned if there’s even a hint of doubt? Hardly ever, I expect we’ll make plans to not have him.

Wannell was an absolute beast at the back, I like Bernard the more I see of him and for me, FC-D came in and quickly got up to the pace of the game, quickly into the physicality of it, didn’t miss a header, didn’t duck out of a challenge, it makes total sense that he just slots into the three.

A win on Saturday, in front of a home crowd feels like it could really send our season up (another) notch and that will be the motivation, but we may just have to do it without two senior figures in Worthy and Williams.