No matter the formation, it seemed the problems were always the same: too many hopeful balls, no width, no through balls and one momentary lack of concentration.
Lynch was sleeping as Dunne met a cross at the back post and Asaba tapped in following a great Boaz save. We equalised 9 minutes from time. Woodhouse picked up the ball, played a tremendous pass wide to Dawson, he delivered our only good cross of the match and Burgess thumped a header home from 8 yards. The last 5 minutes had more excitement than the previous 85. In the end, Boaz made another great save to earn us a hard fought point.
Boaz kicked poorly, but saved superbly. Lynch was sloppy. He failed to get forward, kept knocking balls out that he could have left and slept for the goal. France was much better at right back, attacking and brave in the tackle. Dawson did OK, but wasted dead ball scenarios and didn't push on enough. Cort and Delaney did well against the tricky Hayles, no complaints about them defensively. Terribly wasteful in possession though.
Green did some nice things, his best game of the season. Woodhouse was superb, busy, brave, intelligent, and honest. Welsh too, very strong in winning the ball and skillful. They are forging a terrific partnership. They must however, start playing 10 or 15 yards further forward. Both have lovely feet and great passing ability, which makes it frustrating to see them so deep. However, in order for those two to play further forward, the defence has to push up 10 yards, which we can't do because we lack pace. Until we solve it though, we'll achieve nothing, because there is never anyone to pick up drop downs from long balls, and there isn't anyone to supply ammunition for wingers or strikers.
Elliott was shocking, couldn't control, didn't win headers and wasn't at the races. He's starting to look very ordinary. His only decent effort was deflected wide. Barmby faded badly, it's not to difficult to see why he rarely completes 90 minutes. Brown worked hard again, but isn't getting any service. It really looked like having 3 up front would solve that. Burgess was pretty poor, albeit in jumping for hopeful punts, but made up for it with a very fine goal. Fagan gave the game some buzz, but never got out of first gear.
It seems obvious that the lack of a settled side and the huge gap between midfield and the forward line is our Achilles heel right now. Although we've conceded some soft goals, 9 goals in 12 games is a fair record. We must build on that by creating more. McPhee is back soon, and he's a sniffer, but he'll still need good service.
I'd challenge Peter Taylor to go out and pick the same side for the next 10 games, injuries permitting, or at least the majority of it. give us Bo-Lynch-Daws-Leon-DD-France
Ratings: Bo 7, Lynch 5 (France 7), Dawson 6, Delaney 6, Cort 6, Green 6, Woodhouse 8, Welsh 7, Elliott 5 (Burgess 6), Barmby 6, Brown 6 (Fagan).