Well that sure was bad.

Wael Wael where are you? After another poor performance it seems to reflect the lack of leadership both on and off the pitch. from my position it was impossible to tell if our owner was there yesterday and in truth whether he was or not the silence at this football club is now affecting the performances which we ,as supporters, are having to put up with. I don't know how much of the Summer activity was down to DC and how much to the rumours going around that his funding was cut but we are now seeing the effect as despite a terrible performance at Gillingham last week I agreed with the team being unchanged as I think that it is the best team we can put out based on what we have available. The formation and the way we play  is far from ideal as it is based on being over defensive to protect what we have but IMO we lack the pace in the side to break from it and we are so predictable that even poor sides like Doncaster can pick us apart and make use of the space they are given. It seems that if we take the lead then it can work but if we go a goal down the confidence drains from the side and we look totally disorganised. the performance yesterday was marginally better than at Gillingham but unless the Owners provide the funds for 4-5 players of quality to come in then I really do fear that it will be a long hard battle to retain League 1 status. That is based on what I have seen so far this season. We look, other than a handful of performances, like a club that is represented by the ram shackle ground and a clear lack of financial backing to the position we now find ourselves in where week by week the comments from our Manager indicate to me that all is not well. January will for me tell me if any or all of the rumours are true but on to the performances yesterday.

Smith 5  Had hardly anything to do and did nothing wrong other than one very poor kick. Came to the edge of his box a couple of times to clear up well.


Leadbitter 4.5  Couple of shocking errors controlling the ball and despite some good attacking his crossing let him down and was the best of a poor back four.
Lockyer 3.5  Sorry but I would take the money and run if we do by some miracle get an offer for him in January. If we do I would try to get two centre halves in who can challenge in the air and actually mark players and do what defenders should do. His passing yesterday was ridiculously poor rarely finding a comrade and for me he should be immediately replaced as captain as he has no leadership skills. The amazing thing is that despite the defenders poor performances we only conceded one!
Sweeney 3  A mere shaky of his former self and if we can send him back in January I would do in a flash.Terribly weak penalty to give away and although I think the opponent dived like the penalty last week against Partington he gave the referee an easy decision.
Brown 4  Seemed to be half asleep which was pretty well on par with the rest of the defence. Good free kick but little else in a generally poor display but fortunately at the moment he has no real competition based on the displays of Bola in the last games he played.


Partington 5.5  Did ok without shining. Looks slow at times but won a fair share of the ball and at the moment is the best we have in the position but I am not sure if he is the answer to the problem in defensive midfield but he is a leader and should be captain at the moment although I question whether long term he is a League 1 standard player.
Sinclair 4  For me and it is my opinion he is not a League 1 standard player. cannot fault his effort and commitment but beyond that for me he is a squad player only and needs replacing in January. Ollie Clarke is even worse so the decision to play Sincs at the moment is the right one as the alternatives are no better.
Sercombe 5  Not his best game as like most of his colleagues he struggled at times to get involved but I think his problem is where he is being selected in this team which is set up to defend at home as well as away and yesterday despite his efforts to get the attacking side of the team going he just looked out of position and as a unit it was a very disorganised performance and for me that was the difference in the teams yesterday,one was poor but organised and the other was poor and disorganised and unfortunately we were the latter.


Bodin 3  Is it already agreed that he will move on? Certainly looked that way yesterday in a performance that looked like a player protecting his physical condition by making sure he didn't get involved too much. Surely he was only kept on the pitch for the hope that he would break out of his shell and produce a stunning goal? It didn't happen and he went missing for the entire game.
Gaffney 6.5  Why oh why was he substituted when he looked the most likely player to score a goal? That decision alone made me fear what could happen if we lose DC and then take the cheap option. he was unlucky not to score on at least two occasions and gave his all despite the service to our forwards not being great.
Harrison 7 mom  For his all round performance rather than his attacking prowess. I would not be surprised if he left in January as at the moment he is our best all round player and probably his defensive ability out weighs his attacking which is sad but is reflective of how this team is set up to play. He was on the spot for the disallowed goal but should have done better when he was gifted the ball


Subs: Lines NOLE  One great run when he came on but other than that nothing to note.
Nichols on too long  Nothing whatsoever - did he even come on?
Telford NOLE  tried but to no avail.


Crowd 8  Good attendance for the traditional Black Saturday against lack lustre opponents but they were dished up a poor entertainment which looked as sick as the Manager!
Ref 5  I have given him a 5 because I don't like blaming the referee when we lose and I am not sure whether his key decisions really affected the result as the penalty although probably a soft one was possibly and likely right and the disallowed goal could have been out and was made by the lineman but from his position it could only have been a guess. The referee was fussy and allowed whining opponents to run the game for him at times. 
Doncaster 5 A horrible side to watch and typical Darren Ferguson but were the better of two poor sides  neither of which looked anything but a team having a relegation fight on their hands this season unless something drastic is done in January. I think they managed to give as many bad passes overall as us and therefore maybe the pitch had a say in this.


So where do we go from here? Based on our away results since 2016 and most of our recent performances an ordinary Manager would surely have been sacked but DC is NOT an ordinary Manager- he is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and deserves the chance to change things in January based on the amazing job he has done to get us where we are but the question is will he given the financial backing necessary? The supporters are now starting to question the owners in bigger numbers. Looking around the Evolution is starting to look; even now to somebody like me who welcomed their take over and really believed we were going somewhere; like an excuse to cover up the failure to provide the new Stadium. yes things have improved but as yet have the owners spent ANY of their own money as the value of the Ground would surely just about cover the value of their "investment" since taking over. The success on the pitch has been down to the Manager but IMO he has taken us as far as he can without some financial clout from above.


We can't do anything before January so in my mind we have to keep the same team again for the next two games and hope that we will see a "Southend" performance rather than a Gills or a Doncaster! UTG