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The FA Cup first round is not the same as the third round, but it still conjures up blind optimism of a trip to Wembley or at least a few big scalps along the way.
We were definitely the underdogs against the Railwaymen from Crewe as they had already beaten us twice this season and came from the far-off territory of League One.
Ian Evatt was forced to bring in Liam Gordon for Harry Brockbank, whose serious injury is a blow for him and the club as he was beginning to establish himself in the first team, something we desperately need a few others to do.
It was a typical cup match, in which we went through the full range of emotions from hope to despair several times.
In the first half, we rode our luck and avoided being buried, to reach half-time level after a superb equaliser from Nathan Delfouneso.
In the second half, we started the better team but then fell behind to two individual errors, although we managed to peg one back and extra-time did not look out of the question. In the end we lost a match that we were expected to lose.
We are simply still at the early stage of our redevelopment.
We have had the first throw of the dice with the players brought in so far, under continuing financial restraint and the transfer embargo.
Naturally, not all of them will make it. It is a significantly more difficult task to bring players in and expect them to adopt to the manager’s way of playing, compared to the manager finding a way to get the best out of the players he has got.
You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ears. There will be casualties, of which Muhammadu Faal is the first after his move to Barnet.
Evatt and captain Antoni Sarcevic have both been challenging the players to prove that they are good enough as a precursor to the second throw of the dice in the January window.
We will have to clear some players out to bring other players in.
Evatt is publicly changing his tune to bring a bit of reality to our situation, conceding that he will need a couple more transfer windows to get the squad he feels necessary to build for a major assault on promotion next season.
This season is all about stopping the slide.
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We were definitely the underdogs against the Railwaymen from Crewe as they had already beaten us twice this season and came from the far-off territory of League One.
Ian Evatt was forced to bring in Liam Gordon for Harry Brockbank, whose serious injury is a blow for him and the club as he was beginning to establish himself in the first team, something we desperately need a few others to do.
It was a typical cup match, in which we went through the full range of emotions from hope to despair several times.
In the first half, we rode our luck and avoided being buried, to reach half-time level after a superb equaliser from Nathan Delfouneso.
In the second half, we started the better team but then fell behind to two individual errors, although we managed to peg one back and extra-time did not look out of the question. In the end we lost a match that we were expected to lose.
We are simply still at the early stage of our redevelopment.
We have had the first throw of the dice with the players brought in so far, under continuing financial restraint and the transfer embargo.
Naturally, not all of them will make it. It is a significantly more difficult task to bring players in and expect them to adopt to the manager’s way of playing, compared to the manager finding a way to get the best out of the players he has got.
You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ears. There will be casualties, of which Muhammadu Faal is the first after his move to Barnet.
Evatt and captain Antoni Sarcevic have both been challenging the players to prove that they are good enough as a precursor to the second throw of the dice in the January window.
We will have to clear some players out to bring other players in.
Evatt is publicly changing his tune to bring a bit of reality to our situation, conceding that he will need a couple more transfer windows to get the squad he feels necessary to build for a major assault on promotion next season.
This season is all about stopping the slide.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
