Orient

[MikeSB]

There's no doubt that Offord was partially responsible but facing his own goal and with the forward on his back, the situation demanded that Richards take command. However, it could be argued that Offord, knowing how dodgy Richards is, should have taken charge and simply hoofed it away to the side stands. So yes, in the context Offord should have taken more responsibility. In the end though Richards is always a disaster waiting to happen.
As a footnote, and running the risk of inviting an 'intervention', if the retreating player had been McDonald rather than Offord, the calamity wouldn't have happened. I say this as Rod is a more 'instinctive' player whereas Offord seems to be rather bound by 'the book'.
The first goal was also affected by other defensive errors. Mellor misjudged the roll of the ball and should have, again, hoofed it into the stands. As it turned out the ball didn't have the legs to reach the dead ball line and so Mellor's attempt to shield failed and their player was able to get to the ball and cross it.
However, as their player was crossing from right on the dead ball line, there was no way Richards should have been standing on his line. He should have been at least a yard off to affect the angles. He would then have easily been able to collect what was an underhit cross.
So, yes I agree that the defence should share some of the blame but cannot accept a 50/50 share. Richards was unable to follow basic principles and so, once again, let the side down.
Hopefully we won't see him again in a Crewe shirt.

Hoof it into the Stands is what they used to do as you know but academies and coaches want you to stand there, hold the ball, look around to pass the ball sideways and backwards and never forward as that may create a chance on goal....see how many chances we have these days and so get beat easily by mediocre teams...Training and coaching by manuals never work and our player scoring all those goals via penalties, shows that pure ability wins the day, not the coaching manual and even LB acknowledges that...

Offord has been here what 14 years since he was a boy and still can't play this game at a Pro level sadly and that is a lot of money to be spent on not so great talent don't you think? A million pounds footballer talent was what our academy was supposed to be for..Not for footballers who struggle at the bottom of the lowest league..