Sloppy decision-making, from both the players and the referee, costs Daggers their unbeaten run22/5/2021 VNL#42 - Chesterfield 2 Daggers 1
From the moment team news was released with the notable omissions of Balanta and Vilhete, this had the making of a frustrating day, and so it proved with our unbeaten run coming to an unceremonious end at the hands of a remarkably incompetent referee who, as manager Daryl McMahon declared, simply couldn't handle a crowd. Pinning the result entirely on him, though, would be neglecting a poor performance on our part. It's difficult to be too harsh on a team that have been absolutely flawless for a sustained period now, but today we fell vastly short of the expectations we'd set. There was no fluidity in attacking positions, no composure in the middle of the pitch, and the outcome was probably a fair one. That it happened due to a series of...interesting decisions from the referee, however, makes it hard to take. He seemed to lack the autonomy to make his own decisions, enabling both the crowd and home players to influence what happened. The inexplicable overlooking of the foul on Weston, the Jones red card, the penalty at the other end - three crucial moments that just happened to go the way of the team that had 3,000 supporters in attendance. Individually and as a collective, it simply wasn't good enough. There were a few exceptions: Gordon was outstanding, Wright played well, Khan was busy. Largely, though, there wasn't much intensity out there. In Balanta we were missing the glue that holds the team together, and this clearly affected McCallum too. The striker may have been in red hot form but he played like a man on a 30-game goal draught. It's was no surprise to hear McMahon announce that he was playing with an injury. He was taken off at half-time, and another player who would leave the action early is Joey Jones. From the outset here, he was a disaster waiting to happen. With the red card, although the referee buckled amidst pressure from the home players who were surrounding him, that doesn't alter the fact that it was justified. Chesterfield would have probably been disappointed to see him trudge off the pitch because he was was the primary instigator of most of their attacks. As soon as it happened, though, a late winner felt inevitable. With how we were playing, it felt like a case of when rather than if we could cave. Unfortunately that was exactly what transpired, but the defeat doesn't undermine what has been a superb few weeks for the club. We'll no doubt be looking to make amends next Saturday, when we have the opportunity to influence a referee ourselves. Fingers crossed for one as weak-minded and spineless as today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WRITERArchives
May 2024
|