Another draw… that’s 13, another clean sheet… that’s 12… and another 5 conclusions to go alongside.
Gloverscast Ben had his stream beaming into Barrett HQ, here’s how he saw it.
I was fearful of Jamie Reckord’s absence, but the introduction of Edwin Agbaje might rank very high for debut performances for a young loanee.
Just 18 years of age, I thought the borrowed Ipswich man looked assured beyond his years, trying to get forward at every opportunity, linking well with his team mates and not afraid to stick a boot in where it hurt at a vital time.
I’ve said before I wanted a little more in the full back areas and based on that introductory 90 minutes, I’m hopeful we’ve got a good one.
We need to talk about the pitch.
Just seven days on from the original postponement of this game the pitch was an early focal point.
The troublesome Thatchers End goal mouth was primed for sand castle building competition and the rest of it had its moments.
Lawson D’Ath tripped over nothing when trying to defend a through ball, the edge of the 18 yard box made a wonderful tackle on Andrew Oluwabori and if a Wealdstone attacker hadn’t turned his back on Grant Smith early doors, the keeper’s stumble and slip would have left a gaping goal.
There was plenty of misplaced footsteps and wobbles, the football you play is only as good as the surface its played on. Whatever has happened in the past couple weeks has clearly taken its toll on the surface and we could do with looking after it… not training on it to make a point.
The red card of course changed the game.
Firstly, I think it was a red card, not malicious or particularly dangerous, but certainly out of control and certainly worthy of the red circle of doom from Scott Jackson’s back pocket.
I think it forced our hands to make changes we didn’t want, or need to make and it means that our most assured defender will miss three games.
Ben Richards-Everton looked fairly comfortable when he came on, but Staunton is clearly hobbling more and is a warrior to the end.
I’m confident in Hunt, Williams or BRE to fill that gap, but I’d much rather have Bevan for the next few games.
JMD is human after all!!!
Our new star man had his first off day, his Sat Nav hadn’t been configured properly, his radar needs some recalibration.
A couple wayward shots, a few set pieces not quite on their mark and suddenly we’re taking off our new number 10 as the reshuffle followed the red card.
He will turn the machine off and on again and be back again for Saturday.
Finally… time for an unpopular opinion…
I cannot celebrate or even enjoy a home performance in its entirety, when we have 0 shots on target.
Off the back of a very good away win, it was important to back that up with another positive result.
The Wealdstone keeper didn’t have to get muddy (or sandy) at any point.
He was never troubled. Not with 11 Glovers on the pitch, not with 10.
I found myself getting increasingly wound up as the game wore on, I found myself begging players to pull the trigger, to get a shot in on goal that at least wakes the keeper up.
Yes, we are OK at the back, but let’s not pretend we didn’t give up chances, Grant Smith cements his title as the best keeper in the league and a better opposition strike force probably score 2 or 3 with minimal fuss.
If we’re happy with that as a 0-0, wrap the season up, call it a day and let’s try again in August.
We enter February sat in no man’s land (on and off the pitch), and I want to be entertained.
I don’t want to try and win 1-0 but settle for a stalemate, I want to try and win 4-0 but settle for a 3-3.
I’d like us to set our standards higher. Our players our better than they were, the manager is better, the whole club is better than enjoying another 0-0 draw.
Who do we have that is a regular scorer? No one. And we are no threat at set pieces. Easy to knock it around in front of the opposition, but absurd no cutting edge of pattern to our play