I think that we played quite well in the first half and had overall control of midfield where we were clearly playing five in a "W" formation leaving Terry playing alone up front. Whilst I fully advocate having control in midfield, one or two of the midfield players have to be more prepared to get forward and make the 'second (or third) man' up top when we are attacking. Terry is not the type of 'lone target man up front' player especially against two big 'bruisers' like Creswell and Taylor. Terry is clearly more of a 'foil' to play off a big old fashioned centre forward.
Nobody has mentioned this but I think that we conceded midfield when Seamus Coneely was substituted. For me, he was our key player for the fist hour with most of our play going through him. He has become the 'hub' around which our team 'ticks' and I would have subbed others instead of him. Our defence, apart from the goal obviously, was strong against very difficult opponents. Northampton are a robust side physically and Richards and Potter up front got away with quite a lot of pushing as did Taylor in their defence. Our boys have got to learn how to cope with this by running into spaces in order to collect the ball, free of an opponent, instead of standing next to opponents and battling for the ball against players who are adept at commanding that space.....go and find space is the key!
Richards has been a super player and one who you would rather have in your team than on your opponents list! He took his goal superbly but I think that our keeper should have continued his rush out of goal and dived across the onrushing Richards and then he could have smothered the ball or deflected it away for a corner. Jason changed his mind half way out which gave Richards just a brief moment to loft the ball which he did, as superbly as any Andy Murray 'lob' that I have ever seen. Must give credit to Richards here! Apart from that I agree that Jason played really well and kept us in the match later on.
Clearly we still need someone who has that 'killer instinct' in front of goal but we also need our midfield boys to step up and score some goals too.
People will talk about team formations and how we started 4-5-1 and then changed to 4-4-2 but it is not that simple. Football is a fluid game and although a team will have a basic shape in a 'formation', all players have to be up and down the field and across the field depending on the state of the play at the time. For example a "4-4-2" formation becomes something more of a 2-4-4 when you are attacking and 6-3-1 when defending! When we have an attacking corner and our big lads from the back go up then it can become a 1-3-6.
Buxton had another good game and he ran himself into cramp again! Davies was strong and steady. Deano had a couple of ' Deano' moments but has built up a pretty good understand with Davies and Pearson too. Pierro, Josh and Sean Mac were a bit hit and miss though. Sean had the best chance when he beautifully cut in from the wing beating about three players but scuffed his shot finding the wrong side of the post...(killer instinct needed?)
Yes we should have been 'well clear' by half time but having gone behind to a strong outfit we did well to come back and get the draw.
ON STANLEY ON