Boiling frog syndrome.

Quite a few are falling out of love with football. I remember thinking during that Norwich game recently - “ If football had have been like this when I was a kid would I have got interested in watching and then playing ? “ Possibly not. The boring possession based tactics, play acting and diving, the crazy wages, games on at stupid times, the death of the FA Cup etc etc. I speak to guys at the Rugby League that I played with and against who were football daft back then. They haven’t been to a football match in years.

I’ll probably be dead.

That went through my mind at the time.

I was never a fan. Too many times I was left thinking “ how did that end up in the back of the net ? “ However he was like a Gordon Banks tribute act in one game at the dingledome when we lost 1-0. It was Fred v Burnley as the rest of the team had a real off night. He was only beaten by a disputed penalty, and he got a hand to that. A real 10/10 performance. Yes, he was an England “ B “ international.

Even Fred Else had the odd stunning performance.

They seemed to be trying to get control of the ball instead of just booting it up the pitch.

If only we had wealthy owners, that would never happen then ! Oh, I forgot, we have.

This “ starting slowly “ has come back to haunt us again recently. We let Norwich get their feet under the table last week.

Just when you think football can’t get any crazier. Maybe he’s being brought in as an example of what not to do as a goalkeeper.

And somebody else gets the Derby job and that chance has gone.

There is a god after all.

That’s exactly what happened yesterday. We got turned over by a route one team. Nothing new there.

From what it showed on the tv they were mostly kids who don’t know any better.

I watched the second half of the Forest v City game today. City looked really ordinary.

We came out after half time really early. I thought “ They’ve all been told their fortunes, there’ll be a big improvement now “ . Not a bit of it, no urgency, we were still seconded to nearly every ball, Derby players were stumbling through two or three challenges and still coming out with the ball. We were playing like we were 2-1 up not 2-1 down. Not once did we put them under sustained pressure. All the more galling as they were obviously bottom of the league for a reason.

Whenever we get a corner or a free kick out wide I never expect us to score. The balls are just floated in and are easy to defend against. Bang them in with some pace on the ball for once !

When we had Brad in goal it felt like we already had a goal start. With Pears you feel we’ll have get at least two goals because he’ll throw one in at some point.

I wouldn’t exactly describe that chance as a “ sitter “ . He was in on an angle and he hit the target. On another day that would have slipped in between the keepers legs, which it very nearly did.

Kargbo reminds me of Harry Chapman. More pace than brains.

We’ve gone back to being out enthused in games again.

It’s like in any other walk of life - there should be consequences for people who keep fucking up. Give Toth a game at Stoke, we’ve nothing to play for now.

We got worked over by a pub team today. Every time a Derby player got the ball it started crying. Playing out from the back ? Not on your life, lash it up the park and see where it falls. Not our game at all and Eustace knew that. We don’t like ale house football. We don’t like it up us. We don’t do rolling our sleeves up and meeting fire with fire. The last thing Ismael would have said before they ran out was - “ Don’t let them get an early goal, quieten the crowd “. What do we do - gift them two ! Pears was shocking for the first goal. He was more concerned with avoiding a collision with the Derby player than he was getting to the ball. If I was Ismael I’d drop him just to set an example to the rest. We started off like we’d had to walk to Derby. No sense of urgency, no tempo to our game, no real enthusiasm, no obvious pattern of play. It was like a practice drill were every out field player has to touch the ball at least once before you’re allowed a shot at goal. I thought going three at the back got us into the game before half time. Having said that I wonder would we have made that change if the lad hadn’t have got injured so early on. Anyway Ismael got that right in my mind. We then get back into the game by scoring a well worked goal. Instead of playing in front of them, we got in up the side and turned them around for Gueye to smash one in. So at half time I’m thinking we can get something here. They’ve had the hard word I suspect. We come out really early, stand about in groups. And nothing happens. It reminded me of an end of season game were one team is safe in mid table and the other is scrapping to stay up. We huffed and puffed, made changes, had all the ball. But did nothing with it. Their keeper had nothing to do. We wouldn’t have scored again if we’d have played for another hour. Everything we did was predictable and obvious. I can’t escape the feeling that the players are unhappy and have given up for the season. Pears 4 I’m done. Ritchie Smallwood did better in goal and he was an outfield player Brittain 5 Saved his worst game of the season for today. Carter 6 The pick of the back 4/5. Hyam 5 Not happy on the left hand side. Ribeiro 5 Didn’t get forward enough once we went to 3 at the back. Dolan 5 Usual Dolan, lots of things wrong, did well for our goal. Tronstad 5 Not at his best today. Travis 6 At least he showed a bit of fight. One of the few not to be bullied. Kargbo - Not on long enough. I hope he’s not another one of those players who has pace but doesn’t know when to use it and when not to. Ohashi 6 Did his best, did well to pull the ball back for our goal. Could maybe have done better with his chance. He hit the target. On another day the ball goes between the keepers legs. Gueye 6 Worked hard, took his goal well on the one time we actually gave him a shooting chance. Subs. Sanderson 5 Did OK but nearly gave them a chance to make it 3-0. Cantwell 6 Tried to make things work but was playing way too deep. Woodrow 5, Poor, his close control lets him down. ACD 5 Poor, why did we let Markanday go and sign this lad ? There’s no difference. Every decision he made was wrong. In summing up - Ismael could have made a name for ihimself second half but nothing he did influenced the game. We need Baath back asap.

Nor really.

Well that’s this season over. Where are people going for their holidays ? Anywhere interesting ?