The visitors score quite early on and then we see plenty of huffing and puffing, plenty of corners and free kicks around the box and, for about seventy minutes at least, not a sign of a goal or even a shot on target! We could have been watching Cardiff City’s 2004/05 model last night as, once they had gone behind, you knew in the back of your mind that there was probably no way back for the team.
Mind you, although the 0-1 outcome was a repeat of what was just about the most common score at Ninian Park last season, the differences in style between us this year and last year were still all too apparent last night. Whereas last years team were always able to see plenty of the ball, the slow, plodding nature of their build up play meant that they were never able to make much of all their possession - in contrast, last night saw us, yet again, come second in the midfield battle with the result that we struggled to string more than three passes together. Under such circumstances, I suppose it’s reasonable to opt for a lot of route one stuff and didn’t we just do that as we launched the ball time and again towards our largely ineffective strikers - the end result though was much the same as last season, boring and unsuccessful football!
We were forced to break up our first choice starting eleven against Luton and suffered our only defeat in twelve matches and last night offered further evidence that our squad is not big enough or has sufficient quality to maintain a play off challenge - we have been lucky with injuries and suspensions so far, but it surely cannot last and, if we are serious about going for it this season, then at least three new players (a full back, central midfielder and striker in my view) have to arrive in January even if gates do not pick up before then.
All three players brought in last night did little or nothing to enhance their prospects of a starting place on Saturday. I have only seen the goal the once so, maybe, I am being over critical, but it struck me that Margetson could have done more to stop it, whilst Lee and Parry just showed why they are on the bench most weeks as opposed to being out there when the game starts - that may sound flippant, but, in Lee’s case in particular, it’s not meant to be because last night he offered further evidence to justify a feeling I have had for the last few weeks now that he offers more coming off the bench as an impact player than he does when he is in from the start.
Just a few other things, the Leicester keeper did very well last night when we finally gave him some work to do, Koumas was a lucky boy to stay on the pitch after his foul in front of the dug outs (he should not have been booked in the first place though) and the only two candidates for Man of the Match I could come up with at the end were Purse and Barker. I think Barker has been back to his form of last season in the last two games and so just edged Purse as best player for me.