Football eh? Even nearly a full week later I am still trying to get my head round what happened at Whaddon Road last Saturday. For the first hour plus of the match against Cheltenham Orient were utterly abysmal. If we thought the performance against Chesterfield in the FA Cup was bad, this was even worse, especially given that the home side had been reduced to ten men from the 18^th minute. Our passing was woeful, the tempo to our play was ponderous at best, and we just made it all too easy for Cheltenham to close ranks and keep us at bay. I lost count of the number of times when instead of really attacking the home side, we opted to turn and pass sideways or backwards. 

The triple substitution just past the hour mark which saw Joe Pigott, Tom James and Ethan Galbraith replace Dan Agyei, Rob Hunt and George Moncur did seem to spark some form of life into our attacking play, but equally fatigue after working so hard for so long with a man down for the home side probably played its part too.

Even then we really didn’t create too much of a threat and when Darren Pratley was adjudged to have fouled Will Ferry in the penalty area, I was utterly convinced that we had just thrown away yet another opportunity to get ourselves back on track in terms of results and points on the board. Sure enough Will Goodwin converted the spot-kick, and I just wondered where our season was going after what was looking like another highly disappointing result.

Shaq Forde replaced Darren Pratley after the penalty and the young Watford loanee set about stretching the defence and creating problems for them that we just hadn’t been able to do up to that point. Then, scarcely believably, with just a minute of the 90 left, Forde’s deflected shot somehow found its way into the back of the net giving us the hope that we had possibly salvaged a point, before Ethan Galbraith’s drive from the edge of the area in added time struck an arm and bobbled into the bottom corner. Did we deserve it? Probably not, but the chaos in the away end showed that none of us actually cared. As Richie and others have said we have played a lot better and lost, and sometimes that is how things work out in football.

The three points were vital to stop our recent run stretching to nine games without a win, but did it fill us with confidence going into what looks like both a tricky and important festive period? I for one remain to be convinced. Since the goalless draw at Burton we seem to have lost our way in how we want to play our football, and in creating and taking meaningful chances.

Of course as Richie has suggested (a bit too readily perhaps?), the loss of Jordan Graham has deprived us of a winger capable of getting crosses into the danger area, but even when he was fit the lively winger mustered 4 assists in 9 league starts, so it wasn’t as if we were a really threatening side before his cruel injury.

For me, the structure of the team looks a little bit confused. While the three-at-the-back approach worked to steady the ship after a tough start, it seems that Richie is committed to getting us to play in the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 shape that he has gone on record as saying he prefers. Question number one is who plays as the central striker in that set-up? Dan Agyei has largely been deployed there when he has been available again recently, so when he is fully match ready I think we can assume he is the first choice. If, heaven forbid, he isn’t available for any period of time, have Joe Pigott, Ruel Sotiriou or Aaron Drinan when he was fit convinced anyone they are able replacements? Is Shaq Forde seen as an impact sub while he develops into senior football, or is he worthy of a starting role, maybe alongside Agyei?

When Graham was available, I always thought we looked more effective with him and Theo operating on their natural flanks, stretching the defence and getting crosses in. When Theo plays on the right with Ruel on the left our attack just seems too narrow, a definite issue up at Cheltenham and possibly also at home to Derby.

If we are going to operate with a number 10, has George Moncur done enough in his season and a half with us to suggest he still has the guile and creativity to open up better organised defences? Personally I remain to be convinced, as I certainly do when Sotiriou plays there. Given the choice I think many of us would like to see Ethan Galbraith given a run in the attacking midfield role, his impact at Cheltenham, especially in the way he upped the tempo as soon as he came on, suggests he has a contribution to make. Equally Max Sanders, despite struggling for fitness for most of the season, showed glimpses of what he might offer when he played there in the abandoned Lincoln game.

Despite Darren Pratley’s much-needed experience, I am convinced that our best two central midfielders are Jordan Brown (when not needed to fill in at right back) and El Miz, but we need to focus on moving the ball up the pitch more quickly and getting it to our forwards before the defence has had time to get set. If we are going to continue to try to play out from the back then our passing needs to be crisper, more accurate and forward-thinking; if we are looking to mix up our approach and try to be more direct when the occasion dictates, then Sol Brynn’s and our defenders’ distribution needs to improve, and we need players capable of holding the ball up.

Of course there is always the possibility that we bring in some reinforcements in the upcoming transfer window if money allows, but we have at least four league games to play before that can happen, starting with the small matter of a trip to Bolton tomorrow. Worried? I am (very!), but as we said at the start of the piece, you never know what can happen in football!

This week Mrs Football Nerd is going to update us on all the fun we had on my (something-something) birthday weekend in Cheltenham, the majority of the match aside of course.

The Missus’ Matchday View

After all the fun of corporate hospitality the previous Saturday, last week we were off on an away weekender to Cheltenham which just happened to happily coincide with the husband’s birthday.

After the usual chaos that seems to surround travelling by train these days: this time the train was cancelled, then reinstated, and then late in departing; we eventually arrived in Cheltenham and took on the half hour walk to the apartment we had booked, via the very nice award winning chip shop, the Chip Shed, which certainly didn’t disappoint with some of the best chips and local speciality malt vinegar that we have ever had.

Once unpacked we decided to venture out in search of the nearest pub, The Cotswold Inn. It seemed to be very nice but was absolutely heaving with racegoers just back from that day’s meeting. With little hope of getting served as swiftly as we hoped, we decamped to Turtle Bay, a Caribbean restaurant with a handy bar that was doing 2-for-1 cocktails just up the road, which was thankfully slightly less busy.

After a few rum punches we made our way to the birthday boy’s birthday treat: the Beefy Boys burger place which we had seen on a Tom Kerridge (the celebrity TV chef) programme a few months back. To be honest after the high expectations we had built after watching the programme, it was slightly underwhelming, but that may have had something to do with the chips and several rum punches I had had before arriving.

The next day we ventured back to the Cotswold Inn for a few pre match pints, thankfully it was a lot quieter, almost deserted, and it turned out to be a great little pub with the promise of live music starting after the races/ match. A little while later we were joined by a couple of our Orient-following friends, Tim (who combines a season ticket in the South Stand with one at Carrow Road) and his dad Ian who is a staunch Norwich fan but is happy to accompany Tim/ drive him home from the odd O’s awayday.

Norwich were away at local rivals Ipswich and while Tim and Ian were glad it wasn’t being shown in the pub in case it was all going horribly wrong, they couldn’t resist keeping their eye on the score on their phones. It was 1-1 when they walked in, but shortly afterwards Norwich took the lead, and while they couldn’t contain their excitement, they then swore not to look at their phones in case they jinxed it. It was actually quite funny watching two football fans reacting as we all would in such a big game.

As the match wore on Gareth was the one to put them out of their misery by informing them that it was now 2 – 2, thankfully for our friends that ended up being the final result, and Tim was happy to inform anyone that he encountered that it was now 14 years since Ipswich had beaten Norwich in “El Tractico”.

It was only a short walk up to the ground from the pub, and although there was no beer sold inside, the bowling club next door had put out a handy bar for away fans. After another pint and a chat with the Picnic Crew we went into the ground. Despite being promised handmade pies by the husband, I was very disappointed to discover that they had no pies at all! Disgraceful!

The game was pretty dismal, and we ended one nil down even though Cheltenham went down to 10 men, that was until Orient scored two very late goals to win the game much to our jubilation.

The ground itself is ok, however there was one steward who seemed to want everyone to sit down and didn’t look like she would be happy until she had thrown someone out, and as a result spent most of the time pacing up and down and pointing at people standing up. Eventually she gave up and disappeared before the wild celebrations started.

Back in the Cotswold Inn with the Cheltenham racegoers going for drunk and falling over, we celebrated with a few beers and a sing song and dance to the live music. A great weekend all in all.

Up the O’s!