Ian, I am not sure I spotted the host of chances we had today, so I am guessing that Andy Doyle has been flexing his imagination again ?! This was dismal fayre from Rovers.
We set up in a strange, narrow 4-3-3 formation with GTF as the lone striker and Norwood and Tomlinson out wide. While this made us relatively solid defensively, it meant that we had virtually no creativity. GTF was too isolated, neither linking up with the midfield or troubling their centre backs. As a result, and despite the three man midfield, we played very little decent football. If previous games have at least been lightened by some decent passing moves, there was precious little of that in evidence today. In addition, as the formation was so narrow we had no threat wide, other than some good forays from Vaughan at right back in the second half.
It was a bizarre set up, and even when Harris went off injured and Mekki came on he operated in the centre of midfield rather than out wide. I think this was all about self preservation for GB, trying to make us solid to avoid a repeat of Tuesday night, but it made for a dire spectacle. We only seriously threatened in the last fifteen minutes of the second half when Norwood and Mangan had a couple of chances. The best opportunity came to the former, who set himself up well but shot straight at the keeper from fifteen yards. The chants of 'we've had a shot on target' from the Rovers fans on 80 minutes were an echo of the York debacle last season.
At the other end, Boreham Wood had several set plays but showed little quality themselves. A nil nil scoreline might look decent on paper, and I suppose it is in our present circumstances, but they were a poor side who should be able to beat comfortably. In general I thought the display from Rovers was shapeless, with no clear pattern of play and emphasised that confidence levels are at rock bottom at present. Yes, we kept a clean sheet, but the standard of our football was far worse than in the previous two or three games and there was nothing in this display to suggest we have turned a corner and give hope for the rest of the season.
Several individual displays were so lacklustre I got the impression a number of players are not playing for the manager. Norwood and Mekki worked hard and looked pretty sharp, and McNulty was composed at the back. Vaughan was very positive, got forward well and looks a decent player. Nobody else comes out with any credit. Jennings was awful, and did not play a forward pass all afternoon. Hill was skinned on several occasions by their right winger, and should probably be replaced by Ridehalgh on this display. Tomlinson contributed nothing: I have not seen him do anything worthwhile since he arrived at the club and you have to wonder why he is even here.
Remarkably, we are still only six points off the play offs, but I did not see anything today to suggest we will breaking into the top five any time soon.