As our players were applauded and encouraged as they walked off at half-time, I knew that we'd see something different in the second half. We went to 3-5-2 and we were better, but make no mistake about it, it wasn't going to be hard to improve on how we started the game.
The first twenty-five minutes of the game were shambolic. They went forward like we weren't there, we couldn't string three passes together and we were second to everything. It was clear enough to most of us that it was because we were lacking the extra body in midfield, so it was no surprise to see the changes that happened at half-time, I just think they should have come ten minutes into the game.
Did we deserve something on the balance of play? Probably not. Although we were denied a penalty in what will go down as one of the most disgraceful no-calls in our history, we still didn't create anything near what you'd call a clean cut chance. In fact I'd say that for all of our possession in the second half it was still Guiseley who looked more like scoring through quick breaks, and if it wasn't for Stuart Coburn (our MOTM by a country mile) the game would have been out of sight pretty early on.
Damian Reeves looked pissed off at the end and rightly so, must be frustrating being substituted when you're a goal down, but Bowerman was a headless chicken when he came on (he has a right gob on him by the way.) Michael Rankine was certainly our best outfield player, he worked extremely hard. I wasn't even going to mention Jordan Sinnott because I didn't feel like it was needed, but in the interest of addressing this 'scapegoat' topic, the entire midfield had a nightmare in the first half.
Last season we very occasionally got away with a four man midfield because we had a player of Peter Cavanagh's quality. We probably need to bite the bullet early doors and face up to the fact that we haven't adequately replaced him. We need to start packing the midfield with five players and accept that we aren't technically good enough to keep the ball with two central midfielders (especially when Richman is out.)
Hope Luca's injury isn't as bad as it looked when he was helped down the tunnel at half-time.
Get your heads up.
Edit: I should add that I said before the game I'd go with the same team as Saturday. Unhappily proved very wrong on that one.