We drew with Weymouth, yet again, and we probably shouldn’t have. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from a game of two halves at Huish Park last night.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz,.
The first half performance was bad. We were disjointed and looked like a group who hasn’t played together before. Our dynamism up front against Wrexham and Woking just wasn’t there. We knew we’d feel the absence of Tom Knowles, but maybe not THAT much. W*ymouth controlled possession nicely and seemed to have an answer for whatever we threw at them. The first half was littered with misplaced passes, one of which put us on the backfoot in the fourth minute, loose touches and Darren Sarll reacted at half time.
Our second half performance suggests we may actually have a Plan B. The half time introduction of Reuben Reid and a switch to 4-4-2 changed our fortunes, and allowed us to unlock our wide areas a bit. I thought Reid improved us and the switch allowed us to see more of Charlie Wakefield and Jordan Barnett. It took Weymouth a bit of time to adapt and we managed to grab a fortuitous equaliser before they did. With Knowles back, I think we’d all prefer to see the exciting front three including him Wakefield and Sonny, but if we need to change it up, we do have an option of a 4-4-2.
It was great to see Lawson D’Ath back. I don’t think we can overstate the quality of Lawson D’Ath. But for his injuries, he’d be an EFL player for sure. His composure, his technique and his vision are supreme at this level. His cameo in midfield didn’t help us to victory, but he managed to remind us of what he’s capable of and with some more games under his belt, he has the opportunity to make an impact in our midfield.
Adi Yussuf should have scored that chance at the death. He could have scored just after W*ymouth’s opener. I think we did enough in the second half to deserve the win but as has been the case on sixteen times this season, we could only score one goal when he needed more. Is Adi Yussuf the man to do it? It feels increasingly likely that he is not. Yussuf is a marmite player. Wealey was very complimentary of him during commentary, and he’s far more qualified to pass judgement than I am, but I thought he was poor. He didn’t hold the ball up, I felt he struggled to influence when he had the ball. Even his shot for the goal was diverted in. He does run around though, and cause defenders problems by being a nuisance. I suppose it depends if we want a striker who impacts games in that way, rather then putting the ball in the net.
Give Charlie Wakefield a new contract, please! The highlight of the night was the ‘Star Man’ on the right. (I can’t think of a player ever having two great chants). His running, his desire and effort for the cause is unparalled in this team. The hope and expectation when he picks up the ball vibrates around Huish Park and more often then not he beats more than one player to find a cross, get a shot away or do something impressive. In my view, he’s been our signing of the season. For a player who had a patchy injury record and struggled to cement a place at Wealdstone and Bromley, truthfully I didn’t expect a great deal from him. He’s f*cking dynamite, though.