Views from the Sieve

When will the pain end? Likely not on 7 Oct with 11th place Oldham hosts our 19th place Daggers.

1 point earned in the last 5 matches. Oldham has not lost in the last 5 (3 wins and 2 draws.).

1-0 down after 5 mins.
Currently inhabiting the relegation zone.

Played very well and should have won but that’s the problem, if you play well don’t win and find yourself in the bottom 4 you’re in big big trouble. So frustrating.

That's the best half of football I've seen us produce for many months. We were camped in and around their box for large portions of it, often keeping the ball for sustained periods while Oldham were left chasing shadows. Vincent, Hessenthaler and Rees were exceptional at winning it back too, with the latter scoring a lovely header which didn't look in until it was.

Unfortunately, a disastrous first quarter hour in which we should have been behind by more than just the solitary goal we were, left us chasing. The equaliser was a culmination of relentless pressure - there must have been ten corners alone - but we couldn't harness the momentum to get a second like York did, although Vincent will be kicking himself about not emulating that when he was through in the final seconds, slipping wide.

A good result in isolation but a bad result given that we desperately need wins. 8 games without a win now and sitting in the bottom 4. It’s a pathetic run of form, but it’s what happens when the club doesn’t have a clue about what it’s doing.

With Effiong now back and over the next couple of weeks others returning to fitness, things will hopefully improve, as yesterday away to an in form team was a good result.

len wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 9:47 am With Effiong now back and over the next couple of weeks others returning to fitness, things will hopefully improve, as yesterday away to an in form team was a good result.

One back two out tho . Hill and Travares now join the list

SUSSEX DAGGER wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 10:56 am

len wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 9:47 am With Effiong now back and over the next couple of weeks others returning to fitness, things will hopefully improve, as yesterday away to an in form team was a good result.

One back two out tho . Hill and Travares now join the list

Hopefully not too serious as have been out best two players this season.

len wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 1:29 pm

SUSSEX DAGGER wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 10:56 am

len wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 9:47 am With Effiong now back and over the next couple of weeks others returning to fitness, things will hopefully improve, as yesterday away to an in form team was a good result.

One back two out tho . Hill and Travares now join the list

Hopefully not too serious as have been out best two players this season.

Agree Len but if that dont sum up our luck then nothing does. You got to feel for the gaffer he must have walked under a ladder and tripped over a black cat.

Negatives and posatives.

Start with the posatives.

Could not make it yesterday but it sounds we were again the better side an opinion shared by more then one Oldham fan . Most wrote off our chances after Tuesdays late callapse and Oldham were expected to be a leading force this season. So the fact we have gone there and put on a display and dug out a result after the early setback at least shows we a bit of resilliance.

Just watched the limited highlights but Effiong strength looks a big bonus to our attack, so thats welcome.

Negatives

Another game we dominated but fail to win . Add that to the recent games against Oxford and York and thats 7 points gone for a burden in games we have bossed

As at Oxford we had a chance to win it at the death but fail to take it, a repeated failure to to convert chances like that are costly.

For all our dominance and before the Vincent chance we have to rely on our Keeper to pull off a double save to get the point we deserved , not for the first time it leaves me wondering what mess we would be in if it was not for him and with the takeover at Southend complete will there be talk of a move there as there was in the summer.

The Board really need to stand firm on this one , the bloke in my opinion has won us at least 20 points over the past 18 months and it will not be good " Business sense " to sell probably the most consistant if not the best Keeper in the league.

Very frustrating not to have won it which says a lot considering we were losing for 70 minutes, as above have mentioned having Effiongs presence up top made a big difference with Sears who was shattered by the end running off him. Lawless really impressed in the middle he was turning players and getting us moving forward, Vincent was beating defenders and running into the box really impressively his best performance for us so far and deserved to score that chance at the end. But really we should of made the most of the dominance in possession in second half not to mention the dozen corners we had but failed to score from.

Agree with Sussex that we have been so unlucky with injuries this season that have impacted on games that we would otherwise have got points from. In particular, the last two home games where we lost both that we should of won fairly convincingly. Also agree with his point about how fortunate we are to have an excellent goalkeeper that has won us numerous points with his outstanding performances over a period of time, but having signed another contract with us recently, hopefully this will end any further interest from Southend.
In view of this and that some of our injured players are returning shortly I'm hoping that we will be stronger from now on and start putting some points on the board.
In addition with the reduced budget this season Ben Strevens has had had a lot to contend with and now hoping it can only get easier for all our sakes, time will tell.