September 26 2005

Iain Dowie

We managed to scrape a point from today's 1-1 draw at home to Preston NE (Sept 24). But Jamesey is in that limbo land between loyalty and anger...

Well, after our recent home excellent league run we are down to earth, with two away defeats and a scrambled home draw at Selhurst.

I found little to be happy about today, in common with most of the supporters around me, although we tried to keep applauding and supporting our team, as one should.

I am not, as I have always admitted, a football tactics expert, and have rarely dwelt long on that aspect.

But I have to say that against Preston we looked awful... one striker, Clinton Morrison (at home!) and in the first half, he seemed to be told to stay on the left.

So who was he supposed to pass it to - Jobi McAnuff or Michael Hughes in midfield?

Gary Borrowdale consistently passed the ball to Preston and was unable to cope at left-back while Gabor Kiraly's insane rush from his line to collide with everybody and concede a goal seemed totally out of character.

We have a manager and his brother Bob, an assistant manager and a fitness supremo... plus Kit Symons and all sorts of other factotums. What do they all do?

All our corner kicks and free-kicks held no threat at all and, although Preston were a physical side, quite frankly they looked better than us for most of the game. And, of course, like all away goalkeepers at Selhurst, especially ex-Palace ones, Carlo Nash pulled off a couple of unbelievable saves. Par for the course.

OK, I will be there on Tuesday night (Sept 27) to see another northern club with a noble history, Sheffield Wednesday.

And then to Samos for ilios, thalassa and ammoudia (sun, sea and sand... and possibly a little retsina too) for a couple of weeks and I hope to be in a better mood when I return.

Just a quick after thought. The two Preston red cards, whether you think they were right or not, from my vantage point looked fully justified, Thanks, Steve Tanner, despite all your other whistlings and posturings.

Mr Tanner, as you were so quick to stop the game for trivialities, how could you allow the entire Preston team to surround you and appear to intimidate you and even repreatedly push your chest after both sending-offs?

You should have yellow-carded each lout one by one but I suppose that decision would have been too controversial?

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index