I think the frailties, which had threatened – at times – to be exposed over the Christmas period finally were, to the maximum extent, at Watford yesterday when we kicked of a New Year with a heavy defeat.
Yep, we were – and continually will be – light where options are concerned although we had enough to compete better than we did and Steve Cotterill was not prepared to use the lack of numbers as an excuse: ‘we had 11 players that took the field. Correct me if I’m wrong but Watford had 11 as well.
‘For sure they did have more options but I don’t want to make any excuses for our team’s performance. We had 11 players out there.’
Nobody can say that Watford did not deserve the win, as they did, Cotterill knows this but did think that we were in the game until the first goal just before half time, which changed the game. Although even that was mainly down to our own doing – again he conceded as much really: ‘they deserved the three points for sure. It looked like a couple of times this season where we’ve had games and a lot of the team haven’t played well on the day.
‘Just up until half-time, we felt as though we were okay. We were well in the game, I thought we dominated the ball, certainly for the early part of the first half, but goals change games and often change mindsets.’
As said numbers are light, and sometimes square pegs in round holes is not ideal although – and as Cotterill said – too many did not turn up. When this is the case if all 11 do not perform then the outcome will be much the same as it was at Watford.
This is where we MUST have players that will stand up and be counted!
On a plus note it was good to see Tom Kilbey get on for a debut, even if it was by ‘default’ as Cotterill puts it.
I wonder if he will become another that is ‘not good enough’, which he has said is the case about virtually every other youngster at the club, who are not in his plans in the slightest as his mind is already made up…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
