Wycombe Away - Player ratings

A tactical disaster area and a defensive shambles.

What a difference it makes when we try and attack, but when you try to defend and you rely on players of the calibre of our goalkeeper and defenders, you’re asking to be beaten frankly.

The first half was more of the same horrible Curle-ball we’ve witnessed for the past few weeks now. Get eight men behind the ball, ask the opposition on to you then try and exploit the pace of Twardek behind the opposition with use of the hopeful long ball. In fairness, this approach brought us two opportunities which neither Twardek nor Stockton could exploit – yet thanks to some pub level defending and sub-schoolboy standard goalkeeping we were two down and looked out of the game.

Then came the epiphany. We put Hill out of his misery, reverted to a back four with Grainger (mercifully) vacating midfield and the effect was stunning and instantaneous. Do we ever bother to watch the opposition? Apparently Dykes had watched Wycombe at Luton, he needn’t have bothered. It took Curle (as it too often does) to half time to realise the formation he should’ve been employing from the start – this is not good enough, it is unprofessional and is yet more evidence of our failure to prepare properly for games.

Anyway, Wycombe couldn’t cope with the tempo and passing JCR brought to the fray and with the impact Twardek had, when supported by a team with a more attacking outlook, our quality increased so much we suddenly looked the better side. Indeed, we had Wycombe on the ropes, Devitt missed a really easy chance before scoring and when Stockton gave us the lead (against ten men) there looked like only one side who could win the game.

However, we inexplicably took our foot off the gas, began to waste time and revert to the negativity of Curle-ball. Instead of going for the kill when we were in the ascendancy – we chose to try and kill the game, subbed our best player, and decided to stop playing the football which had brought us three goals and run the clock down. You reap what you sow and the defeat was all we deserved. It seems like we have the attacking players to score freely at this level, but our tactical approach is a massive handicap – a more educated outlook from our technical area is needed. More football, less Curle-ball.

Bonham – 0 – Really poor effort for the first (incredibly slow to react) and the third (badly misjudged a weak header) he conceded, embarrassing effort for the second and was predictably nowhere for the fourth. Yes he saved the penalty – but he also needlessly gave the penalty away with another moment of craziness. I can’t remember watching a worse performance from a professional goalkeeper, ever, anywhere. His distribution is awful, and effectively it wouldn’t have made any difference if he hadn’t been on the pitch at all. In fact, there’s no reason to keep him at the club now Gray’s here. Needs to go back to Brentford reserves, and quickly.

Brown – 3 – Decent cross to create Stockton’s goal and looked a lot more comfortable when we switched to four at the back – however, as right-back – against ten men, he really has no excuse for not preventing the cross for the third goal we conceded.

Grainger – 2 – Had has hexagonal boots on again, his passing, crossing, movement and defending were dubious – at best. I even think he mis-kicked the penalty he scored. Blatantly not a midfielder and barely a left-back. For me it’s inexplicable why we didn’t sign a left-back in the transfer window.

Liddle – 3 – Didn’t do a lot wrong, didn’t do a lot right, muddled through and looked numb and on his heels in the penalty area too often.

Hill – 0 – Nonsense. I don’t care if he was on the losing side against Manchester City once, has visited Wembley and is a legend at Ibrox – what difference does any of that make to the price of chips? He’s a slow, old man who made 35 year old Adebayo Akinfenwa look like a 21 year old Eusebio. I’m afraid Clint, it’s time to retire, performances like this are totally unacceptable – reputations count for diddly squat.

Parkes – 3 - Should’ve done better with the third we conceded, but he wasn’t the only one. A fitter Parkes might’ve been able to challenge for the ball more effectively. The rest of his game was relatively solid, if not up to his recent standards.

Joyce – 1 – Ineffective and couldn’t wait to get off the pitch. Maybe he’s injured, but we didn’t look any worse when Etuhu came on.

Jones – 3 – Lots of effort, but again maximum is not optimum. Needs to take an extra second on the ball and be less frantic.

Devitt – 1 – His passing is awful, he can’t dribble, his movement off the ball is appalling… But it’s two goals in two games. Despite this, however, his all round contribution for ninety minutes was incredibly poor and way below standard. He took his goal well, in fairness, but the rest of his performance was way short of where it should be.

Twardek – 6* – Ran his socks off chasing lost causes, inexplicable decision from Curle to replace him with Hope, what on Earth was he thinking? With less to worry about defensively, Wycombe were able to press forward more confidently. Anyway, again Twardek’s best work came on the wings. Wycombe’s defence couldn’t cope with him all afternoon

Stockton – 5 – Slowly coming to life. One or two decent touches and a really classy finish for his goal. Still looks a bit off the pace however and needs to sharpen up. Fluffed a great opportunity in the first half but looks like he might be threat in the penalty area, given the service.

Subs

Etuhu – 3 – Floats like a butterfly, stings like a butterfly. Should be hard as nails but is actually soft as sugar. In fairness, he wasn’t any worse than Joyce.

Campbell-Ryce – 6 – Tempting to give him star man as probably made more successful passes in 45 minutes than the rest of our midfielders have made all season. Has the ability to control (and trap) the ball, then pass it to a Carlisle player – he actually has a brain, which in our squad is quite a novelty. Worry not, we’ll soon coach him to smash the ball aimlessly forward as quickly as possible like the rest of the team…

Hope – 0 – Zero influence, zero point. Why did we bother to sign the bloke from Fleetwood, is he here merely to make Curle's tea?