Brammer’s Blog

I know it’s a cliche, but Saturday’s game at Hillsborough really was a game of two halves – or as Brian Laws succinctly put it “We (Wednesday) were like Real Madrid in the first half and a real pain in the a**e in the second!”

The first period certainly had a feeling of deja vu about it with effectively the same side we fielded last term illustrating the same shortcomings – poor goals conceded at one end and golden opportunities missed at the other.

Jon Macken said that Simon Davey gave the players a ‘rollocking’ at half time and it certainly seemed to have the desired effect with the Reds going on to dominate large periods of the second half and scoring two very well taken goals. Butterfield showed great composure with his finish and Macken deserves credit for keeping his head up despite missing a couple of great opportunities earlier in the game.

Although the goalscorers will deservedly get the headlines, the key man for me was Anderson De Silva who performed well for the full 90 minutes. He was a class apart and at the heart of almost every attacking move we had – his performance underlined how critical it was we retained his services over the summer.

The other positive to come out of the game was the attitude of the players. To come back from 2-0 down is a big achievement – especially in a local derby game at a ground we have historically struggled at. Perhaps the lack of transfer activity has had a constructive side-effect in that we have a very settled squad which appears to have developed a strong team spirit.

It is also apparent that whatever we as fans think of Simon Davey, the players clearly support and respect him. He just needs to convert his good work on the training ground into results on the pitch and then I’m sure he will begin to win over the doubters. Incredibly some fans were already calling for his head after 45 minutes of the season. Give the man a chance – lets judge him after he has made the signings he wants to and can field his strongest side.

The game at Hillsborough further emphasised how critical it is for the gaffer to get new faces in. Firstly there is the left back spot. Rob Kozluk is trying his best but clearly isn’t comfortable on that flank – if he can’t contain 35 year old winger Michael Gray then he is going to be further exposed against more mobile players. I’d be tempted to give the naturally left sided Luke Potter a chance after his strong displays in pre-season.

The other problem evident against Wednesday was the lack of width – you could probably count on one hand how many crosses we got into the box. In fact the only decent delivery we had resulted in Butterfield’s goal. Hopefully the signing of Adam Hammill – and a return to form by JCR – will go a long way to rectifying that issue.

Hammill should also bolster our set pieces. It defies belief that direct free kicks around the edge of the box are having to be taken by Bobby Hassell. That’s no disrespect to Bobby, who is a fine player, but 7 goals in nearly 350 appearances does not suggest he is a dead ball specialist. From what I’ve seen of Emile Hallfredsson he could take up that mantle if he signs on loan – it looks like his left boot could match the power of Dominik Werling’s!

And if you add Andy Gray into the mix then we are beginning to assemble a decent Championship squad which should have enough quality and experience to banish fears of relegation.

What is important now is that we keep the momentum of pre-season going. If we can do a professional job at Lincoln then we can head into our first home fixture high on confidence.