Tired. Uninspiring. Lacklustre. All three words sum up tonights performance against Danny Wilson's Bristol City.
Dario opted for the same team which started at the weekend away in Blackpool, which again consisted of four central-defenders making up the back four in this re-arranged fixture. Steve Jones made a welcome return to the bench along with Ben Rix who continued his re-habilitation from that nasty injury away at Brentford.
The game started pretty evenly, with Bristol forward Christian Roberts having two long range efforts at Clayton Ince's Gresty Road end goal. Little did we know what destruction he could cause with his right foot.
The early Alex play was centred on Dave Brammer, Kenny Lunt and the lively Rodney Jack. Rodney, whose contract talks are still at a deadlock, made a fool of City left-back Mickey Bell, and this battle led to the opening goal. After some neat build-up play (which is a blur to me at this moment in time), Rodney found himself with only Bell to beat, but the angle was acute. Jack looked up and cut inside, and Bell almost rugby tackled the little Carribean to the floor, and it was a penalty. Bell was not even cautioned. Usual penalty-taker Brammer let Kenny Lunt have a go, and he placed the ball majesticly past Phillips in the City goal.
The Alex really found their feet after the goal, and David Vaughan, celebrating yet another Welsh under-21's cap, was at the forefront of the majority of the atacking play. He strode through tackle after tackle, and with the help of Lunt, Brammer and the (yet again) impressive Sorvel, i tlooked like only a matter of time before we would add another one or two to the scoresheet. Somehow the disciplined City back four (minus Bell who was struggling to cope with Rodney, replaced by Hill) contained us. On the one time we did breach their grasp, Deano screwed a simple shot wide, only for it to be offside.
The game began to lose some of it's edge as half-time drew nearer. Bristol forced a glut of corners, but Clayton Ince was up to the job of holding on to virtually every cross, free-kick or corner. On the one time he was caught out, Vaughan was at hand to clear a Burnell header of the line.
The second-half was maybe the most toothless display of football I have witnessed from the Alex since the last time we played Bristol.
It was obvious that Dario had told the team to defend, defend and defend. We were playing with a virtual lone striker in the form of Rodney, who faded desperately as the game wore on. Walton and Walker, who came in for so much stick during March coped with the two hefty Bristol attackers very well.
Three-quarters of the back line were absolutely superb tonight. Doorman, Foz and Walts were dominant in the air and blocked nearly everthing. Walton even kept pace with the deceptively pacey Roberts! On the other hand, Sodje looked out of place (which strictly speaking he was). His attacking play was woeful, and always looked a little shaky when defending.
His 'hero' status with Alex fans is quickly evaporating. Quite why he has adopted such an iconic persona beats me. He was a highlight last season, but I can't help thinking it is because he wears a bandana and has a funny beard. I am the first to leap to his defence when Dario treats him like dirt (which has been a regular occurence over the past eighteen months), but tonight proved that his worth to the club is minimal.
Anyway, back to the game. The Alex defence began to drop further and further back, inviting Bristol pressure, and the midfield did them no favours. Too often Brammer was caught out when he should have been guarding Walts and Doorman. Sorvel was doing the best he could, but he found it hard to cover the ground that the likes of Doherty and Murray could.
You could feel a goal coming, and on 62 minutes Roberts obliged. A clearance from Walker was picked by Brammer eighteen yards out from Ince's goal. Brammer tried to flick it over the oncming Roberts, but failed, and Roberts blasted an unstoppable drive right into the bottom corner. Ince saw it late, and was blameless (Of course DG didn't see it like that). What a cruel twist of irony that a Cardiff-born player has condemned us to such a depressing result.
The Alex looked for goal, but it was just never going to come. DG threw Hulsey on for Lunt, who was losing energy fast, reverting to a 4-3-3ish formation, with Rodney roaming. Deano looked as lethargic as ever. He didn't chase one ball, and didn't make one meaningful contribution. Sods law I assume - after a few weeks of working magic, he has a stinker of a game tonight. I don't blame him though, he was feeding off scraps throughout. Stefan Oakes added little when he replaced Vaughan with ten minutes to go, and the same applied to Jones, who replaced Deano on 82.
There was always a threat that City would snatch a late one on the counter-attack, but the defence and especially Sorvel made sure that it was only a threat.
It ended 1-1 in front of a crowd of 7901 ( made up largely of daytrippers it must be said). One thing is for sure, our home form has been in stark contrast to our scintillating away performances this season, and the likes of Deano and Lunt are not performing anywhere near their best at home. We miss our full-backs. Wrighty is almost certainly out for the season, smae goes for Macca. DG also said that Tierney is looking doubtful.
Sorry if this has been too negative, automatic promotion is still on, and this could have been a lot more worse, as quite frankly, we were second-best tonight.
Dario opted for the same team which started at the weekend away in Blackpool, which again consisted of four central-defenders making up the back four in this re-arranged fixture. Steve Jones made a welcome return to the bench along with Ben Rix who continued his re-habilitation from that nasty injury away at Brentford.
The game started pretty evenly, with Bristol forward Christian Roberts having two long range efforts at Clayton Ince's Gresty Road end goal. Little did we know what destruction he could cause with his right foot.
The early Alex play was centred on Dave Brammer, Kenny Lunt and the lively Rodney Jack. Rodney, whose contract talks are still at a deadlock, made a fool of City left-back Mickey Bell, and this battle led to the opening goal. After some neat build-up play (which is a blur to me at this moment in time), Rodney found himself with only Bell to beat, but the angle was acute. Jack looked up and cut inside, and Bell almost rugby tackled the little Carribean to the floor, and it was a penalty. Bell was not even cautioned. Usual penalty-taker Brammer let Kenny Lunt have a go, and he placed the ball majesticly past Phillips in the City goal.
The Alex really found their feet after the goal, and David Vaughan, celebrating yet another Welsh under-21's cap, was at the forefront of the majority of the atacking play. He strode through tackle after tackle, and with the help of Lunt, Brammer and the (yet again) impressive Sorvel, i tlooked like only a matter of time before we would add another one or two to the scoresheet. Somehow the disciplined City back four (minus Bell who was struggling to cope with Rodney, replaced by Hill) contained us. On the one time we did breach their grasp, Deano screwed a simple shot wide, only for it to be offside.
The game began to lose some of it's edge as half-time drew nearer. Bristol forced a glut of corners, but Clayton Ince was up to the job of holding on to virtually every cross, free-kick or corner. On the one time he was caught out, Vaughan was at hand to clear a Burnell header of the line.
The second-half was maybe the most toothless display of football I have witnessed from the Alex since the last time we played Bristol.
It was obvious that Dario had told the team to defend, defend and defend. We were playing with a virtual lone striker in the form of Rodney, who faded desperately as the game wore on. Walton and Walker, who came in for so much stick during March coped with the two hefty Bristol attackers very well.
Three-quarters of the back line were absolutely superb tonight. Doorman, Foz and Walts were dominant in the air and blocked nearly everthing. Walton even kept pace with the deceptively pacey Roberts! On the other hand, Sodje looked out of place (which strictly speaking he was). His attacking play was woeful, and always looked a little shaky when defending.
His 'hero' status with Alex fans is quickly evaporating. Quite why he has adopted such an iconic persona beats me. He was a highlight last season, but I can't help thinking it is because he wears a bandana and has a funny beard. I am the first to leap to his defence when Dario treats him like dirt (which has been a regular occurence over the past eighteen months), but tonight proved that his worth to the club is minimal.
Anyway, back to the game. The Alex defence began to drop further and further back, inviting Bristol pressure, and the midfield did them no favours. Too often Brammer was caught out when he should have been guarding Walts and Doorman. Sorvel was doing the best he could, but he found it hard to cover the ground that the likes of Doherty and Murray could.
You could feel a goal coming, and on 62 minutes Roberts obliged. A clearance from Walker was picked by Brammer eighteen yards out from Ince's goal. Brammer tried to flick it over the oncming Roberts, but failed, and Roberts blasted an unstoppable drive right into the bottom corner. Ince saw it late, and was blameless (Of course DG didn't see it like that). What a cruel twist of irony that a Cardiff-born player has condemned us to such a depressing result.
The Alex looked for goal, but it was just never going to come. DG threw Hulsey on for Lunt, who was losing energy fast, reverting to a 4-3-3ish formation, with Rodney roaming. Deano looked as lethargic as ever. He didn't chase one ball, and didn't make one meaningful contribution. Sods law I assume - after a few weeks of working magic, he has a stinker of a game tonight. I don't blame him though, he was feeding off scraps throughout. Stefan Oakes added little when he replaced Vaughan with ten minutes to go, and the same applied to Jones, who replaced Deano on 82.
There was always a threat that City would snatch a late one on the counter-attack, but the defence and especially Sorvel made sure that it was only a threat.
It ended 1-1 in front of a crowd of 7901 ( made up largely of daytrippers it must be said). One thing is for sure, our home form has been in stark contrast to our scintillating away performances this season, and the likes of Deano and Lunt are not performing anywhere near their best at home. We miss our full-backs. Wrighty is almost certainly out for the season, smae goes for Macca. DG also said that Tierney is looking doubtful.
Sorry if this has been too negative, automatic promotion is still on, and this could have been a lot more worse, as quite frankly, we were second-best tonight.