Well you buggers sure have been getting up to things behind my back on the TFF over the last week or so
, what a wonderful surprise to be presented with such generous gifts that were guaranteed to get old Dave’s eyes swelling up and all because you wanted to show your appreciation for the work I put into the forum, I will do a thread later this evening to thank you all properly.
I posted a few weeks ago saying we should all make sure we enjoy the good times while they are here because they won’t last forever and sadly the honeymoon is over I’m afraid and Paul Buckle needs to find a way fast to get the team back playing like it did for the first four games of this season or else we are going to start sliding down the table very quickly.
Apart from the first ten minutes when it looked like this game was going to be a stroll in the park and one we would win handsomely, we were so poor and ended up getting beaten by a team who came here expecting a hiding and could not believe how easy we were to beat and believe me Macclesfield were a very poor team that grew in confidence not because they were playing well, but because we played so badly and you have to ask what has changed from us being a team that looked unbeatable to one that rolled over and let a very inferior team beat them.
After what Bucks said about Senda still needing a few more game before he was ready to play in the first team I was surprised to see him starting the match. My first thoughts were how slight a figure he looked and my concern was how strong he would be on the ball. During the first ten minutes I was starting to like him and he got forward well and played some very neat passes on the floor. But then he gave the ball away for their first goal and I don’t think he really recovered after making that mistake.
I don’t think we can put any blame on him for this defeat as the whole defence looked out of sorts and never looked in full control or really on top of their game; maybe it would have been better just to have had on Charnock or the injured Ellis as that would not have upset the balance to much.
I would not have liked to have been the person choosing our man of the match as I don’t think anyone of them fully deserved to win any award and while OKane (who was the sponsors man of the match) played a few good balls, he also gave the ball away far to many times when we were in their half of the pitch.
Benyon and Zebs worked hard enough without really doing anything to special and Danny never looked like he wanted to go past anyone always looking to just knock the ball inside or backwards.
We started off the game passing the ball on the floor and tired to play just one touch football that looked good until a pass went astray and we gave away procession far to cheaply. We nearly got a very lucky goal from a Nico throw-in; the ball somehow went over the heads of the Macclesfield defenders and hit Zebs on the knee who was standing in the middle of the goal mouth, the ball ended up going past the right hand post.
We did get one great passing move right and the final ball was passed to Zebs and he just had to score and I could not believe when his shot hit the post. This was followed by another good move that saw a shot from Wroe deflected out for a corner. The ball had been played up to Benyon who headed it down to Stevens’s feet and he played in Wroe for the shot.
Senda then went on a good run and played a great ball to Zebs who was bursting into the Macclesfield box, the angle was a bit tight and Zebs went for the near post making the save much easier for the Macclesfield keeper.
Then we went and gave a very soft goal away that resulted in the Macclesfield players starting to believe in themselves and looking the team more up for the fight and the team more likely to win the match.
Bevan rolled the ball out to Robertson who looked to play a short pass to Senda who quickly had two men onto him, he did well to turn inside one player and then played a square pass to nobody and the ball was picked up by Bencherif who hit his shot from 30 yards.
Our fans were stunned and so were our players and we started to look a very ragged and disjointed side. The last ten minutes of the first half we did improve but the ball was always up in the air in their box and if he had scored it looked like it was going to be a scrappy sort of goal.
We did get the ball into the net only for it to be chalked off and the ref seemed to be indicating someone had been pulled back in the box. I felt then if we were going to score we would have to get the ball back on the floor and pass it around better when we got near their goal and that’s just what we did to get our one and only goal. After a number of passes the ball was played to OKane who was in the right hand side of the box, he could have taken a shot but laid the ball to Benyon who was in the middle of the goal, Rob told me he felt Benyon was offside, but Benyon mishit the ball and that mishit took it past their keeper.
I had hoped we would improve in the second half but we got worse I’m afraid and looked to always hit the ball long and the result was the ball kept coming back at us as they were winning all the headers.
I expect some may blame Scott for their second goal, he tried to get over the top of a Macclesfield player to punch the ball clear and only managed to get the ball to the edge of the box where it was volleyed first time into the roof off the net. It was very well taken as were all their other goals.
Their third goal came after we took a corner and the ball was headed clear, one pass to Ross Draper who ran nearly the whole length of the pitch to shoot from the edge of our box right into the corner of the goal giving Bevan no chance at all to make a save.
What I found strange was we only had Ellis not fit for this game and our bench has looked good in other games with players on it you felt could come on and do a good job, the bench looked much weaker to me somehow and I never felt the changes when they came would have any real impact on the game or the result.
The ref had a very poor game and our singers when they sang were just fine and never once sang anything really offensive so well done to them, well at least they did not end up ruining my match experience that was left to our players I’m afraid.
Bucks will need to the players heads up and start getting them to believe again or else we are going to get beaten again on Tuesday I fear.
