When Posh Comes to Shove

[Dr Bob]

Yesterday started so well. For the first time this season the drive down saw no traffic problems. By half time, I was flailing in dark and depressing thoughts of existential angst. We had a goal ruled out and hit the post (surely Bodin's best half of football in a long time). They carved us open twice down our right and led 0-2. Despite our chances, at times they were knocking the ball around so sweetly we were chasing shadows. No point me adding to the reams about our poor recruitment, but if that really was partly their reserves then that shows the squad difference between us and them.

Something that has long bothered me about us is when we give away a lot of free kicks, at frequent intervals. It always seems to me that we only do that when we start to lose the plot. Yesterday I think it was a combination of us losing the plot in the first half compounded by Woolmer not having it in the first place. For me it set the template for everything that was to play out in the second half. When a game demands the ref get control early on, and they fail to do so, it never bodes well. Jumping to the end, I reckoned that the time added on would be the final confirmation as to just how much control Woolmer had. 6 minutes, with multiple substitutions, the ballyhoo around the red card and all of Boro's timewasting, was beyond a joke.

The red card incident should never have happened as the ref should have blown for a free kick to Taylor. Given that he didn't, Taylor should not have raised his hands as high as he did. But having given any ref a decision to make, let alone that ref, the red was not a surprise. My immediate thought was that Taylor pushed Edwards high on the chest, but it does not strike me as, in VAR-speak, a clear and obvious error to be overturned. Then again, with Taylor's poor form recently, maybe an enforced absence and change of personnel up front might be a good thing. Why, though, did it take all of that to really kick the players into top gear? What was said before the match and at half time? It then took a really good block from one of their defenders to stop us from getting a draw.

After Taylor had been sent off and KR got his red card, the ongoing exchanges between KR, Woolmer and the 4th official (Shakespeare?) threw up something that both looked odd and for me raised a further question around Woolmer. Shakespeare was stood between the other two and seemed at one point to shepherd Woolmer (no pun intended) away from KR and back onto the pitch to get the game going again. Shakespeare has never greatly impressed me as a ref, but on that occasion he did something that made me wonder just what he saw going on with Woolmer that led him to make that intervention, rather than backing Woolmer against KRs ongoing remonstrations.

Bottom line, another defeat with two more very difficult games coming up very quickly. The only positive I can see is the possibility that the players will feel sufficiently hard done by that they play from the start as they did yesterday after the red card. Even then, though, Pompey at Fratton Park has to be a much harder proposition than Posh at home.

[Kairdiff Exile]

I was at a different game on Saturday, but I listened to Radio Oxford's post-match analysis and KR's interview, and it was all very gloomy. Blaming referees and injuries may well be fair, but how long will it wash with the Board if results don't pick up? As Dr Bob says, two very tricky away trips now. Starting to feel terminal for KR.