One of those afternoons.
We actually created better opportunities in open play than Crawley and played decent football for long periods of the game. However, after gifting them two goals from set plays so early in the match, we gave ourselves an almost impossible task against a team in such strong form. Our finishing was not as clinical as it has been in recent weeks either.
I think the substitutions were all enforced by injury and actually made sense. Walker clearly was not able to play a full ninety minutes, and I thought McAlear actually did pretty well when he came on. Wood was injured and Merrie has deputised at left back many times before. I don't think Saunders was fit enough to be involved. Either way, I think it was the mad first ten minutes that cost us the game rather than the performances of the substitutes.
More generally, I am still not convinced by Yarney but thought Turnbull was man of the match, despite the concession of the three goals.
The play offs were never a realistic proposition, and if I had to choose between winning this game and the victory at Wrexham last week, I would have opted for the latter every time.