We are often advised in various pop songs and those little desk calendars that if we know what's good for us then we shouldn't look back, but the other day I decided to ignore the warnings and instead peeked inside my copy of Rothmans to stir up the harrowing memories of last season. There were of course unforgettable high points, but unfortunately these were mirrored by shocking low moments and if you had plotted a graph of our league position over the season, it would have turned out looking like one of those stock market crashes you sometimes see on the news. In fact the wallchart given away free with Match magazine last year did include such a graph on it, but I was forced to give up halfway through when the progress line fell off the chart and I started writing on the walls. 'Progress' was a strange word that I heard Ray Graydon say on the radio as we battled to exit Bournemouth's club car park last Saturday. Having just seen us lose our fourth game on the trot after being so alarmingly unravelled in the first fifteen minutes, I don't think that would have been the word I'd have chosen. My delve into Rothmans revealed that last weekend was almost exactly a year since the landmark horror-show at Kidderminster, which saw us descend to uncharted new depths in team performance and left us lying in 19th place in the table. A year on, and whilst we were watching a completely new set of players, there we were again down in 19th but this time two points worse off than under Gerry Francis. Mind you, there is a big difference in the size of the squad from last year and Graydon's team ended the match at Dean Court with only two defenders on the pitch, while Gerry seemed to be playing about eight in most games, judging by the level of attacking threat we posed to opponents back then. Adrian Coote did pretty well when he converted to centre-back at half-time on Saturday, after Kevin Austin had pulled up again, and with Simon Bryant trying his best on the left, that left only Boxall and Barrett playing in their natural positions. I have to agree with Geoff Twentyman's comment in last week's Green Un when he said he would always pick another defender to play back there in a foreign role, rather than a midfielder, mainly because he possesses a defender's natural instinct for positioning and tackling. Right-back Neil Arndale was stuck out on the wing the other week, and I personally think he would have been a better option for the full-back slot. Other gripes I must get off my chest include the lack of a left-footed player on the left flank and also a notable lack of pace - without Uddin at Bournemouth we were struggling, and we appear to be stretched in central midfield too. A lot of people have noticed a distinct failure to get stuck in with tackles recently (apart from Lewis Hogg that is) and subsequently this has sparked a few terrace murmurs about Mr Graydon's 'reign of terror' when it comes to bookings. Perhaps the manager needs to come out and tell us if there is such a hard line within the club, or if this is all just a myth and people are being stupid. The dropping of Grazioli to the bench has also been debated as to whether he is being punished for his handballing against Orient (which almost got him sent off) or if he is just carrying a knock. We football fans are sometimes not the most perceptive of people, and perhaps we need things spelt out in black and white from time to time just so that we understand what's going on a bit better. © Chris Chappell - Friday 8th November 2002 Back to Index