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The players we have are not bad for this level but our success in the earlier part of the season was achieved through teamwork rather than individual brilliance for the most part and there were some excellent flowing moves and team goals - we don't really have anyone who can dance through the defence or slot a screamer into the top bins on a regular basis so we have to do it the hard way i.e. passing through teams.
I don't buy this "lack of fight" thing because they were certainly putting in the effort, especially second half yesterday but what was missing was the quality going forward we have seen in the past.
Some of the passing was laughable and the players failed to spot the movement ahead and around them time and time again - they played like strangers at times.
Unless we play like a team and bring the quality required, we'll continue to struggle - and that isn't helped by Santos daydreaming at the back and punting aimless balls forward in the hope that CJ or JDB can hold it up or playing poor passes to hand them possession time and time again - which is something most players were guilty of.
Dempsey was bright and energetic when he came on, and Collins etc tried really hard throughout albeit with little end product, but huffing and puffing alone isn't enough unless the team is cohesive and brings the quality that has been missing for a while apart from the Oxford game.
I don't like Evatt using our extensive injury list as an excuse - and citing George Johnston's preseason injury in his post match interview was just ridiculous - and undermines the confidence of the players who have stepped in to replace those injured. It is a squad game and he's repeatedly told us that we have the strength in depth so why imply we don't?
There is a team in there somewhere and right now I'll bet they're deflated and disappointed so Evatt has a job in hand to fire them up again and start playing with the quality they had before. Perhaps the sooner they accept that automatic promotion is out of reach, the sooner that is likely to happen as the pressure will be off for the time being.
Evatt needs to change his narrative for the benefit of the team and the fans and instead of saying promotion is "expected" and "the automatics are still on" he should be saying "now we're in this situation we've nothing to lose so we might as well give it a go and see what happens" i.e. focus on the quality of the football rather than the result. Do that and the results will look after themselves.
I don't buy this "lack of fight" thing because they were certainly putting in the effort, especially second half yesterday but what was missing was the quality going forward we have seen in the past.
Some of the passing was laughable and the players failed to spot the movement ahead and around them time and time again - they played like strangers at times.
Unless we play like a team and bring the quality required, we'll continue to struggle - and that isn't helped by Santos daydreaming at the back and punting aimless balls forward in the hope that CJ or JDB can hold it up or playing poor passes to hand them possession time and time again - which is something most players were guilty of.
Dempsey was bright and energetic when he came on, and Collins etc tried really hard throughout albeit with little end product, but huffing and puffing alone isn't enough unless the team is cohesive and brings the quality that has been missing for a while apart from the Oxford game.
I don't like Evatt using our extensive injury list as an excuse - and citing George Johnston's preseason injury in his post match interview was just ridiculous - and undermines the confidence of the players who have stepped in to replace those injured. It is a squad game and he's repeatedly told us that we have the strength in depth so why imply we don't?
There is a team in there somewhere and right now I'll bet they're deflated and disappointed so Evatt has a job in hand to fire them up again and start playing with the quality they had before. Perhaps the sooner they accept that automatic promotion is out of reach, the sooner that is likely to happen as the pressure will be off for the time being.
Evatt needs to change his narrative for the benefit of the team and the fans and instead of saying promotion is "expected" and "the automatics are still on" he should be saying "now we're in this situation we've nothing to lose so we might as well give it a go and see what happens" i.e. focus on the quality of the football rather than the result. Do that and the results will look after themselves.
