27th December 2003: Worried? In
short, yes. If you take out the Carling Cup games, we've only won
two out of seven and we've only played well for about 15 minutes against
Forest (which was all that was required) and about twenty minutes
against Crewe. The annoying thing is that we've shown how well we
can play in the Carling Cup games - the cup run was supposed to improve
confidence, but our league form has been, if not poor, then surely
well below what a promotion-chasing team should be producing.
A bumper Boxing Day crowd was the ideal opportunity to show Albion
supporters that the team can play and is worthy of promotion. OK,
the conditions were abysmal, but they were embarrassed by an average
Derby side who, if they could finish, would've been three or four
up at half time with no complaints from Albion. The second half was
end-to-end stuff, but most of Albion's attacking came from mistakes
from Derby rather than the home side picking up the tempo. Albion
were lucky to get a point, but perhpas should've won it at the death
as goal-machine Gaardsoe had another glorious chance in the dying
seconds.
Enough is enough. If we lose at Wimbledon, the promotion train will
be well and truly off the rails and only a win will really be good
enough. I know this side is good enough to walk this division, but
they aren't doing it - I don't know the answer why, but the squad
is big enough to give the current miscreants food for thought. Surely
the Chambers twins deserve a chance, or maybe Lee Marshall if Megson
will deign to speak to him.
And though he is undoubtedly our most talented player, Koumas is not
worthy of a starting place from his last few performances. Sakiri
should start, although a 4-4-2 may suit him best. Megson worked so
hard to get him, it's time to play him from the beginning and, in
my opinion, Koumas should drop to the bench for him. I'd put Adam
Chambers in for O'Connor, Volmer for Gilchrist and Clement for Robinson.
But then I'm not the manager...
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