Here we go again.
Once more into the breach.
After the light aperitif of a tasty cup game in glamorous Grimsby, it's time for the stodgy main course - the slog, the route march, the steady and relentless uphill trek that is league football.
If Mick from Barnsley hadn't inadvertently spawned multiple million gifs to the contrary, I'd confidently state that "It (the start of the season), can't get any worse (than last year)" but we all know what Mick from Barnsley said about being positive.
I AM cautiously optimistic though. I don't think we'll smash the league playing non stop champagne football but I just don't think we'll be adrift at the bottom playing football that tastes like a pint of drip tray slop with a few old fag butts floating round in it.
I just want to feel like we've gone forward in comparison to the backsliding of the past 4 years. I think there's some reasons for this optimism. We've signed more thoughtfully, we've certainly trained more professionally and preseason has shown glimpses of a potentially fitter, engaged Josh Bowler.
There are plenty of questions as always:
Is Dale Taylor just something you see out of the corner of your eye every now and again but can't be certain that he's real?
Has Evo accidentally written a 352 formation on the whiteboard in the dressing room in permanent marker pen and doesn't want to have to own up to it if he picks a back 4?
Have we got a plan for when some League 1 teams scandalously and selfishly *don't* play like Barcelona?
Nothing will be decided today, but perhaps a tone will be set. Songs often starts with a solo melody or tempo. Last season was a dirge from the first note, each note that joined more out of key, further out of time, as the sound multiplied, I just hope this year we can start in tune with each other on and off the pitch - because if we do, it could grow into something special.
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Then the team sheet is out. Up front we have a lad who hasn't played a league for us in more than 2 years and another lad who is more likely to play full back than centre forward. I don't really know what to do with this frankly comical information other than have an extra pint and grit my teeth in anticipation.
We play 'ok' in the first half - things I like include: Karoy Anderson's existence on earth, us getting Bowler into the game, Williams looking like he knows what he's doing, us passing it like we've actually practised passing and receiving and moving about a bit. I particularly liked the move at the end of the first half that ended with a rasping effort from Ashworth and the snapshot from Bowler that forced a sharp stop somewhere in the middle. Going forward we're a little bit laboured at times but generally, our use of the ball is a lot better and the players seem to understand how each of them relates to the next. I know that's the basics and Evatt has been here for a while now - but such things weren't a given last year and our season was basically ruined before autumn was over because we didn't do those basics.
Things I don't like in the first half - George Honeyman runs about gamely but his touch in tight spaces isn't great, the Sunday league haveagohero frontline does indeed have a go, but it's not really very dangerous. CJ has some nice runs but the problem comes when he has do something at the end of it, Kylian mixes the odd silky touch on or pass with some decisions which aren't very good. I also obviously don't like the couple of half decent stops from the Wycombe keeper that deny Bowler and the ball in the face (I think that's what it was) that sees Jordan Brown go down and then totter unsteadily round until firmly pointed down the tunnel by Evo (it turns out Brown was ill and in retrospect he very much looked it.) I don't like that referee turns down a penalty appeal as Bowler surges into the box (I've no idea, it was miles away - but the ref was a bit of a random decision generator all game, so there's every chance it was)
Things I really don't like - The flimsy, piss weak goal we concede after dominating the opening however long it was. They get a corner and just score a goal like it's no effort at all. It's *that fucking goal we keep conceding yet again* - nor do I like the time, after we've just had a good 5 minute spell of dominating possession but not really doing anything with it, Wycombe get up the pitch and force a save with 2 or 3 passes.
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If you won games on some kind of style sheet with a Strictly Come Tikitaka judging panel we'd be 3-1 up. That's not football though. We've held the ball and moved it about nicely but on chances it's probably even enough even though Wycombe have done very little and of course, by the actual scoreline, we're losing the game.
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I'm slightly surprised we don't make further changes at half time. To use an analogy, if we were a missile, then it looks like we've done an ok job putting the rocket together but we've got no explosive in the nose cone. We do have two actual strikers on the bench but we carry on with what finished the first have for a good 15 minutes.
That said, we play well - we seem to be pressing higher and what we did well in the first half we do well this, but a little bit quicker. Our football is good, but chances aren't coming. For the first time in what seems like forever, we have control of a game - but I can hear the ghost of Neil Critchley in my ear saying 'quality in both boxes' and give a shudder. Control is fine and we're definitely nullifying Wycombe effectively and probing - but there's limited sense that we're actually going to *score a goal*
Eventually we get Bloxham and soon after that, Dion. The game definitely opens up at this point. Charles impresses me with the aggression of his running, he's always looking to unsettle, running hard into channels, disrupting the defenders rhythm by seeking contact as he drags them about but then also dropping off into space and tempting defenders to go with him creating the chance for others to run beyond.
Bloxham also impresses. His ability has never been in doubt, but there's been a share of games where his mindset or stamina have - today he looks really lively and hungry. He's also seeking to put himself about (and if he ever learns to really, properly do that with consistency, we've got a proper player) and pulling out to the right and again, creating space.
We're really aggressively pressing now which feels like it might bring rewards - but of course, it also creates greater risk - the higher up you commit to confronting the opposition, the worse it looks if they beat you - Once or twice in the initial period after the subs Wycombe do just that. I'm glad to see it though, because it is a willingness to make a game a bit more chaotic that will break down stubborn opponents and Wycombe are just about the epitome of a 'well organised' league 1 side - if you don't take risks, you'll never beat such teams.
It goes back and forth for while but again, we gain control. Albie is on fine form, conducting from deep, spinning it this way and that, revelling in having adventurous wing backs, turning, checking, going back the other way, spreading it left, laying it right, driving up the middle, head up and scanning for space. It took him a little while to get to the speed of the game, but once he does, we look a much more serious proposition and I'm reminded how much a fit Morgan could bring to the season.
There's a chance from the right for Bloxham which is screwed across goal. There's a frankly gorgeous ball from CJ (now at wing back) which Charles puts wide. We look much more incisive, we're actually putting a period of pressure together. There's some belief in the way we're playing and that's transmitted to the stands. We take off Coulson and bring on Munroe. We withdraw Honeyman and put on Clarkson - We've committed everyone we can to going forward and that's what we do.
Karoy scoops it down the line. There's a bizarre moment where everyone stops and acts as if it's going to roll out of play but then Bloxham realises quickest that it isn't and races after it, he gets there, he's tight to the goal line, he thinks about driving into the box but then pushes it firmly across goal, Dion meets it and I've barely got time to bemoan the resulting block before I realise that Finlay Munroe is charging in and the loose ball is there to be hit and hit he does, he fairly takes the leather of the thing and it rockets, unstoppable, into the roof of the net...
It's a deserved goal and there's real joy in the moment. The question is, can we go and win this?
At moments, the answer seems to be yes - I'm ready to celebrate a goal for the ages as we explode from back to front and Clarkson finds Bowler who ghosts past the last defender like he's made of liquid flowing round a rock, and then crashes it towards the top corner. It flies just over and Josh lies prone on the turf on his back. It was beautiful even if it didn't go in, a teaser for what may yet be to come.
Another moment of lovely football sees Bloxham again pulled right out to the right and skillfully getting the ball across, Charles takes it first time, it's a difficult chance but I'm glad we're thinking like this. Teams that have success get the best out of each other and there's more ambitious attacking link play in this last 30 minutes than we saw over several games put together last season.
We run out of time in the end. The game ends with Williams crashing a shot well wide when, if he'd just taken a look, there was a simple ball to lay Bowler through with a direct run in on goal. He's a right back though and he's had a good game so lets not be too harsh on the lad.
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Was a tone set? I'd say, yeah, up to a point - there was plenty of effort, there was a sense that we collectively knew what we were doing. In the latter part of the game there was some real attacking intent and some actual quality at times.
There's no question that starting your 5th and 6th choice strikers blunted us but once we introduced a cutting edge then we made quite a lot of sense.
A draw at home to Wycombe certainly isn't something to be overjoyed with. There are better teams and there are teams that aren't better than them, but will bring a more extreme version of the pragmatic approach they brought. There was a reasonable amount to like though in the general approach and the formation wasn't the millstone I feared it could have been.
On balance, though it's irritating to concede another shit goal, I did like that all of the new players have fitted in well, I like that we've found a way to get Bowler properly involved and that he looks fitter than he has done for a long time, including that rubbish loan spell when we got relegated. I like that he's tracking back (to the best of his ability) and that he's demanding the ball and linking play, not just standing there waiting to have a run. I like that each sub improved us and all of them looked sharp because that gives optimism that a) we might start something stronger next time and b) if we ever have something approaching a full compliment of players, we might be able to generate the relentless intensity you only get when you've got 18 or 19 players straining for a shirt.
We need a little bit more in.
I like both Ashworth and Casey - I thought Ashworth had a really good game today, being willing to get forward and gamble (which I want from my centre backs because this sort of football only really works if you will commit everyone forward when you need to) but the combination of them worries me against the most physical sides and there's no real back up. Today, we more or less moved to a back four as the game went on and Bowler got higher (in fact, as Munroe also went higher, we became an actual back 3) and it concerns me that Andy Lyons is all that is left should someone go down.
We're clearly at least one striker short for a while. CJ isn't a striker, Kylian is a plan B option for the last 15 minutes if we need to punt it forward (for the lack of anyone better) - that's not a forward line we can seriously imagine relying on until Taylor and Ennis return. We need to be able to rotate our forward options to maintain the kind of explosive movement and pressing intensity we managed in the latter part of the game and few players could play like that for 90 minutes twice a week so options are needed. If only we knew where there was an out of favour striker who has a reputation for running himself into the ground for the cause...
I think we *could* also upgrade a little on particular positions - but I think other business is probably predicated on someone going out to get someone in. There's a lot of ifs (when is there not?) but IF Morgan can get a proper run, we look a lot more composed and creative. IF Bowler can keep playing as he has for the first two games, we've got the most talented player in the division who should be approaching his prime years and absolutely motivated to prove he's not a one season flash in the pan. IF we can add at the front and the back then we get both more ability to take a risk and more rewards when we do.
All in all, I was more encouraged than discouraged. It wasn't a vintage performance, we need to get better, and we need players back/players in - but there was a team who played football, looked unified, (the players that weren't injured) appeared fit and as Evatt rightly pointed out, didn't crumble at going behind, but got back into the game and finished it very much on top. We all want to immediately jump to the top of the division and stay there and keep winning till the world is just tangerine - but ultimately, against how we've started the last two seasons (the aimless shambles of Steveball part 2 and the toothless and flimsy rigidity of Critch's final few games) then a broadly encouraging draw was progress - and that's what's written on our badge.
Onward!
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