Same old feeling

Well, it's not the Tuesday after the Saturday before, and I'm only now getting to full terms with the Shrewsbury horror show. Again, having not been to the game it's incredibly hard to write a justified opinion, but from what I've seen of the goals and the reports, County were quite simply, awful. The whole performance was summed up by Shrewsbury's second goal - a woeful back pass from midfield, a feeble (if that) attempt to beat the Shrewsbury forward to the ball, a lack of determination to make up for the mistake (Swailes, on both occasions) and a less than convincing effort to save the final shot - all resulted in a gift of a goal to (admittedly) superior opponents.

I mentioned previously about some players needing a big performance to win over the County faithful. Suffice to say that the impressions made by some players were certainly far from positive. Swailes by all accounts had an appalling day (new dad syndrome?); Assoumani - up to now a solid looking defender,simply wasn't at the races;  Lynch struggled, the midfield was once again over-run (despite the extra man) and no support whatsoever was given to Donnelly up front. Conlon when he came on was anonymous, while the less said about Proctor the better.  

In the end it was 4-0 and in the words of one wag, County were probably lucky to get nil. Paul Simpson summed it up perfectly in his post-match interview - defending that would shame a Sunday League team coupled with a chronic lack of confidence is really hurting the team (and supporters) at the moment. Quite simply, at the moment, County have to score first to stand a chance of getting something out of any game. The problem is however, scoring that goal....

There has however been a slightly more positive development today (Tuesday). Although it's never nice to see people leave (unless their name is Jamie Proctor), County have announced that Gianluca Havern, Sam Hare and Ritchie Partridge have left the club by mutual consent. To be fair, none of them really made that much of an impact - Havern & Hare as youngsters never really broke into the first team picture, while Partridge simply didn't make any impact - a pretty damning statement for a senior player in an otherwise inexperienced squad. What probably also didn't help was his rumoured wages - one of the top earners at the club thanks to the Administrators offering him a new contract over the summer without the consent of the new owners or manager.

So how is 3 players leaving good news? Well for starers it give Simpson a bit more of the wage structure to play with; so much so that Robbie Williams (the footballer) has been signed up permanently. When fit - Williams is a excellent player, and his presence can only be of benefit to the team (he hasn't lost yet in a County shirt - mind you, he hasn't won either). It also means Simpson can look elsewhere - loans, free-agents - to try and bolster a squad crying out for additional bodies. If they happen to be a tough tackling midfielder, all the better.....