Matthew - Sky Sports Expert

Turn the clocks forward!

Things have taken a turn for the worse, says FanZoner Matt Gray

Posted: 25th November 2009 09:11

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Turn the clocks forward!

Hooper: escapes criticism

Is there any point in attempting to contain a side for 90 minutes if those tactics severely limit the chance to score goals yourself?

Scunthorpe FanZoner Matthew Gray
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Suddenly, things are looking bleak. Shorter days and longer nights seem to have coincided with Scunthorpe's form. We haven't won any league matches since the clocks went back, that remarkable victory over Newcastle thirty-four days ago.

Who would have thought the hangover would last this long? Six hours of football later, one goal scored, 12 conceded and zero points won. The slide to relegation is well and truly on.

The match on Saturday away at Watford was truly abysmal. All three goals were from defensive errors rather than any great attacking play, though Watford were worthy of more if they had really wanted to push the utter humiliation button.

The way the Scunthorpe players went about their business you'd have been forgiven for thinking relegation had already been confirmed; such was the alarming lack of passion and evident negative body language. Only Gary Hooper put in an energetic shift, willingly chasing down any loose ball that made its way into Watford's last third.

No such chasing necessary for the Watford players, who simply stroked the ball around and between the Iron statuettes, like they were nothing more than ghosts of the Vicarage Road turf. Malkay Mackay couldn't have wished for an easier restart to the league after the international break.

I didn't think I'd ever see loan players coming into the squad that are actually much worse than the players we already have in those positions. Both George Friend and Bondz N'Gala looked completely out of their depth at this level, both at fault for at least two of the Watford goals.

Containing

I do think we're suffering from rotating team selection at the minute, because the players don't seem to be able to grasp what their individual roles are. Somewhere along the line, the message seems to have become confused as no longer do we play as the unit which was so effective against both Sheffield and Newcastle United.

Is there any point in attempting to contain a side for 90 minutes if those tactics severely limit the chance to score goals yourself? Isn't this even more of a problem when you're depending on your defence keeping a clean sheet, when in 17 league matches, only one game registered no goals against?

Finally, I enjoyed reading the Blackpool commentator's blog discussing the merits of Scunthorpe's performance at Bloomfield Road the other week. Very kind words, altthough I must say it's easy to be generous when you've just trounced the opposition 4-1!

Nigel Adkins is indeed a rising star amongst British league managers and will certainly leave for a bigger club sooner rather than later. This week will be one of his biggest tests of management yet, because a response against Leicester is desperately needed.

Up the Iron!

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