One Half Wonders?

AN astonishing show of tactical naivety from the manager and coaches leave City fans booing off a team in a game that was there for the taking. The second half was as bad as the first half was good, but once again, the sky Blues come away with only a point against lowly Bury. There can be no complaints about the result, Bury were worthy of a draw for their second half performance, what can be questioned are the tactics, or lack of, from Andy Thorn. Bury made two changes early in the second half, throwing three up front in an attempt to get a foothold in the game, whilst we just stood back and waited, we waited and we waited some more, until the 70 minute to be exact, before making any changes ourselves, by which time, it was too late and the three points had been snatched away from us.

When the changes did come, they probably weakened our team, with Baker, who had been at the heart of everything good we did in the first half, being replaced by McSheffrey and Cody McDonald being replaced by the totally ineffective Calum ball!
It was obvious that Adam Barton was struggling in the second half, whilst the mostly anonymous Kevin Kilbane was also offering little of a positive influence. He reminded me of Paul McCartney at the Olympic closing ceremony, as someone who used to have a talent, but has long since lost it. He bought little to the party and was more often than not, too slow in both thought and deed.

As for the back four, Reece Brown is certainly not a full back, whilst it was a tossup between him and Hussey as to who provided the worst crosses into the box, when they found themselves in advanced positions. Hussey had little to do in a defensive capacity, but often wasted the chance to put even a half decent ball into the box, whilst Brown looked like a fish out of water at right back! That leaves us with Mr Malaga; he looks like he could do a job at centre back, but his distribution was shocking, whilst his heading ability was nothing short of appalling, with his attempted headed clearance leading directly to the penalty from which the Bury fight back started. He headed the ball straight up into the air, leaving Wood with little option but to challenge for it, whilst inadvertently shoving the centre forward in his effort to attack the ball.

All in all, it was a pretty frustrating game to watch, City offered plenty in the first half to shut the "Thorn Out Brigade" up, but the second half showing was "X rated" stuff and the players were deservedly booed off at the final whistle. It is the manager's job to get the best out of his players, and I am afraid to say that Thorn is only getting that in one half of a game at present. If you compare our results (tipped for promotion by the bookies) with those of Gary Johnson at Yeovil, who were the bookies favourites for relegation, then you could surely only come to one conclusion?