He’s grown on me. I wasn’t a fan at all. But there came a time where you had to accept he was doing a decent job. A few weeks ago I held up my hands and accepted his results were excellent. They still are. However, the accusation that we have no plan b doesn’t go away, and I really hope he accepts culpability for the drop in performance second half. His substitution set the tone - we were fifteen yards deeper instantaneously. He’s earnt a poor game as a coach with the run of results we’ve been on. He can’t get things right all the time. But he certainly got it wrong tonight. His chronicle comments I’ve just read are concerning. “Fantastic performance”. If he thinks we were good for 80-85 minutes he needs to watch it back.
I agree with every word he said in the video clip the club released. He saw the same game I saw. We can all talk about tactics but they’ve caught us napping from a free kick & a bit of nerves for us & a nothing to lose attitude from them & what happened, happened. I thought the subs did ok. O’Keeffe did well, Grant fine, Cotter not really on long enough to make an impact & it was a tough game for Cosgrove up against their big lad. I can see why he didn’t get longer. I just wish we had a pacy option off the bench tonight. If Watters was on form or Jalo was fit I they’d have been a good option ahead of Cosgrove.
We haven’t learnt by the 2 games over Xmas 5-0 up on aggregate and ends 5-4 with dropping points. Peterborough away 2 up dropped points Port vale away 3 up (ends 3-2) We have a problem with not being able to see games out when we’re in control and Collins is to blame for this there’s no Plan B and the game management is very poor and we’re not learning!
For me, his substitutions weren't the issue, but the timing of them was. I said shortly after they scored their first that both Cole and Phillips appeared to be running on empty. That was the time to bring Cotter and Cosgrove on for me. Neither were pressing any more, and that invited more and more pressure onto us. Phillips looked like he was conserving energy; when they had the ball, he was standing off, but the making runs down the right when we were in possession.
