The day started well, a Beres followed by a pint in the Hillsborough Tap does that most weeks. But just as my friend's white t-shirt was dampened with a rather unfortunately shaped wet patch from his spilt pint as he hustled and bustled his way through the crowd to our seats, my positivity took a similar dampening as the team news was released just before 2pm.
I found the lineup choice quite odd.
Davis Keillor-Dunn seemingly played on the right ahead of Morrison, who I think had done enough to warrant a start, Jamal Lowe moved out left, which seemed an odd choice considering he remains our leading goalscorer, whilst Gray took the bench. Burstow started in the middle, and I remained cautiously optimistic that, despite the lack of width the natural wingers could have provided, the middle three had enough quality to pick out the three attacking players who could get in behind Stockport. That wasn't the plan either.
Henrik's 'plan' seemed to focus on what could be called verticality, hoofing the ball from Lumley to the top three, losing possession, then rinse and repeat. I genuinely believe we have one of the strongest midfields in the division, so why we choose to eliminate them through a long-ball tactic was baffling.
Losing Louie Barry, who is clearly an exceptional influence on the left, is tough, and getting him back before Christmas will give us a boost, but for now I think Gray deserves a run, especially after Saturday. No disrespect to Keillor-Dunn, Jamal Lowe or Callum Slattery, but playing them out of position when we have more natural options is unfair and ineffective. I heard many moans and groans about Keillor-Dunn, "he's shit, he's useless" he's really not, he's a number 10, and he's being played out of position in a system that doesn't suit him. That's on Henrik.
The midfield almost doesn't deserve a mention.
It was a clumsy performance again, with too many stray passes and long balls that found the stands instead of the feet of the front three. There were flashes of quality and real tenacity, but effort can't outweigh bad tactics. I'd like to see Mitchell picking up the sole CDM role, with Slattery as CAM and Keillor-Dunn in the natural number 10 role behind Lowe, this is where they've performed their best work for most of their careers, and shoehorning Bannan in disrupts that. Bannan is an exceptional talent and a servant to the club, but he'd be more effective off the bench when the game has been stretched, and we can capitalise on that talent and vision that we know he still possesses.
We've now got three weeks to figure out a more effective game plan, away at Huddersfield Town on 10 October, then home to AFC Wimbledon a week later, and we still sit in second place, which is a fantastic start, but clearly the performances on the pitch don't reflect a promotion-winning team right now. This league is poor, and we need to capitalise on that opportunity.
Strong at the back
Two games and two clean sheets. That's a real positive we can take from Saturday. Reece James continues to impress, Santos looks steady, although I would like to see a little more hustle from him on the ball, he seems almost too composed at times. I thought Cooper was outstanding. Valery had been carrying a knock and I'm not convinced he's 100%. I'm grateful for the three-week break ahead of the trip to Huddersfield, as clearly fitness, injuries and hopefully tactics should all improve between now and then.
Stockport have been fairly prolific in front of goal, the league's leading goalscorers registered 18 shots and only 2 on target. Wednesday had just 6 shots and 2 on target. Nothing really threatening from either side; there's an argument it was two solid defensive displays, but for me we offered very little going forward before Gray and Morrison were introduced on 56 and 65 minutes respectively. Gray is showing signs of a really good player, super positive and forward thinking, and his efforts down the left made an immediate impact. We looked the most likely to convert one of the few chances created.
For those of you who headed straight for a beverage at half time, you would have missed the half time show, by show I mean watching ten people try to lay out a large wolf competitions flag on the centre circle whilst getting pelted by the sprinklers, only to realise they'd laid it upside down and had to turn it over and start again. This may have seemed more entertaining against the contrasting dull as f£%! first half.
My day ended at Envers, with a load of meat, alcohol and good times with a fantastic bunch of people. A brilliant day, only let down by the football. I for one will only have a limited amount of patience with Pedersen if his choices continue to ruin my Saturday