Playing for nothing after saturday!

[alexmick]

Correction to my earlier post. It was Ebsfleet who we beat in that 2008 FA Cup first round tie. Less than 2,000 Alex faithful were present at the game today, which I suppose reflects the largely disappointing season that we are having. However, after a largely mediocre display from both teams for an hour, the game did spring to life on the introduction of Ainley and Bowery. For the last 30 minutes of that second half, the Alex did exert some pressure on the visitors and were perhaps unlucky not to take the lead following a superb effort from Kirk. A fantastic save from their keeper kept that effort out. Had we have not missed easy first half chances from Porter and Nicholls, then this tie would have been settled earlier and we would have been in the second round draw. That appears to be the story of our season. Missed chances, often through trying to walk the ball into the net, instead of shooting on sight. It was rather unfortunate that man of the match, Ben Garratt, who had saved a first half penalty, happened to clear the ball in the 90th minute, following a slack back pass and the ball rebounded off Carlisle midfielder, Jamie Devitt, to seal their passage into round two. I thought we were unfortunate to lose today. That is my considered view following today's game.

[gazan]

We were

[gazan]

We were certainly not crap today! The midfield had a decent game as did the defence. Big problem (surprise, surprise!) is upfront. However, I don't know what DA means by putting our chances away as their goalkeeper only had one save to make.
There are clear problems that need to be remedied, some of which I've pointed out before. Why, when a cross comes in - from a set-piece or from open play- do we only occupy the front half of the area?? How many times have we seen crosses clear everybody and then cleared because we have nobody coming around the back? How often do we see clearances from set pieces land just outside the box but dead centre but there's nobody there but opposition defenders? How often have we seen excellent taking crosses from the wing fail to be met by the sole striker to have gone for it and ...there's nobody behind. All these scenarios appeared today and have done frequently before.
Artell talks about Carlisle resorting to long distance pot shots but at least they were taking shots. Last season we had the least shots in all the divisions and it looks like it'll be the same this season.

[out0lunch]

All I can say Gazan is you must have been listening to me at the match or over the past few weeks