Forest 3 - 4 Blackpool (4 - 6 agg.)
13/05/10 11:17 Category: Championship | Play-offs
We didn’t learn anything from the first leg and in typical Forest fashion fell apart in spectacular style. Having got ourselves level twice through MOTM Earnshaw, we contrived to conceded 3 quick goals as our challenge fell apart in the second half.
It was pretty obvious that McKenna and Cohen would struggle to last the 90 mins and it was too much to expect Majewski to deal with their midfield on his own. As with Saturday, the longer the game continued the greater the influence of the Blackpool midfield. It’s a sign of the recent progress made by Moussi that his absence affected us more than anything over the two legs.
Perch defensive failings were there for all to see on Saturday and bizarrely, we decided to make things even harder for him by exposing him at left back. As we’ve been preparing for the play-offs for weeks then surely it would have made sense to give him some games in this position beforehand. Yet again found out when it mattered with mistakes that cost us dearly.
Tyson’s recent performances have been poor and today was no exception. His preference to Anderson was another selection that didn’t make much sense. Yet again, Boyd wasn’t given the opportunity to put his obvious talents to any use and his loan spell ended up being a massive disappointment.
Other things went against us, with a couple of close offside calls, a crucial deflection for their second and Camp’s one error of the season for the opener. All that would detract from Blackpool’s all action performance that we had no answer to.
However, it’s been obvious for a while now that the likes of Tyson, Perch and Adebola just aren’t good enough to be part of a squad challenging in this league. McGugan and McGoldrick have also struggled to make any impression whilst Garner, McCleary and Lynch have generally been unable to get on the bench.
The chairman has indicated that up to three new faces were likely to arrive but realistically it should be up to double that to add both quality and depth to the squad. We were lucky with injuries until the closing stages and it would be unrealistic to expect the same next time around.
We also have to find a massive improvement on our travels. Four wins from 23 games is a pitiful return and one that has been masked by the incredible home form. Getting the most from the obvious talents of Earnshaw and Majewksi whilst retaining enough steel in midfield would be a start.
There's still plenty to be positive after a season that exceeded everyone's expectations. There are so many memorable moments to take away and with some minor improvements there’s no reason that we can’t enjoy a similar run next time around.
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