Our 2018/19 season is very much like Brexit – you want them both to be over one way or another!
The Saddlers slipped to our seventeenth league defeat of the season last night.
It was a narrow defeat unlike Theresa May’s latest vote but like our political counterparts it was the same mistakes being made as we gifted Portsmouth three goals.
Whatever your views are on Morgan Ferrier you cannot doubt that for a split second last night he lost his head, when up to that point we were giving the game to Portsmouth. Even Dean Keates felt Ferrier’s decision to push Nathan Thompson was costly for the side.
Speaking to Express And Star Keates said
“I saw it and he’s made that decision in that split second. It’s cost us.
“There wasn’t a lot between the two teams before that.”
The blame cannot be left solely at the feet of Ferrier as the Saddlers gifted Pompey two further goals. Dan Scarr who has been superb the last two games lost track of the ball in the whirling wind which allowed Bogle to get behind him and loop the ball over Roberts.
Then the hat-trick of errors put the game to bed as Jon Guthrie dallied on the ball, lost his footing and allowed Pompey to break with Solomon-Otabor finally slipping the ball past Liam Roberts.
At 3-0 down the Saddlers started to play as they did before the penalty. Lets be honest though it was too little too late.
One thing that annoyed me last night was our final ball. Ismail, Ferrier, Leahy and Devlin all got into great positions but their crossing was inconsistent which gave Gordon very little chance of an opening. Funnily enough the best cross of the night came from Gordon who somehow lifted it to the back post, just an inch to far for Ismail.
You felt if we were to get a goal it would come from a set piece. Jon Guthrie who had scored just one goal for the Saddlers before last night, scored two. However it was too little too late as we had left ourselves with a mountain to climb beforehand.
We now drop to 19th in the table just two points clear of the drop. The two sides who can catch us this weekend (Oxford and Shrewsbury) face winnable home games against Bradford and Wycombe respectively….
However we have gone to Sunderland already this season and won so you never know but if we are to have any chance of avoiding that trap door we have got to stop gifting the opposition soft goals.