They Used To Play On Grass........

By Neil Ravenscroft
January 7 2003

Many years ago, Terry Venables (alledgedly) wrote a novel about football called "They Used To Play On Grass". I don't think he had the state of the Bescot pitch in mind at the time, though.

In the last two home performances against Sheffield United and Reading we have hardly had a shot on target (in fact, it might be none, given Wracky hit the bar) and our two most creative players, Corica and Junior, have looked completely lost, as the pitch has prevented them from playing their preferred intricate passing game.

I've seen a lot of comments on the message boards about the fact that United and Reading adapted to the conditions better than we did, but I think that has a lot to do with the tactics. They both use the long diagonal ball into the strikers, who can then use their strength (United) or pace (Reading) to cause problems. The fact that Mr Danson's abject performance on Boxing Day went a long way towards nullifying the threat of Asaba and Allison by blowing for the slightest touch was about the only thing he did to help us on the day and saving us from possibly a worse result.

The squad at the moment lacks the two things we need to be able to play similar tactics, a cosistant 40 yard passer of the ball and a centre forward who can hold it up and bring others into play. It was good to see that Colin Lee seems to recognise this and is prepared to do something about it in the loan market.

The other option is, of course, to use the flanks more. The trouble we have there is it leaves no room for Corica and Matias and Wrack (despite how well he's playing at the moment) probabaly are not good enough at this level in the out and out winger role. This is the reason he Lee was so eager to keep Ainsworth, who certainly is good enough.

Colin Lee obvbiously now has to do something about changing the shape of the squad, otherwise I don't see us getting much at home until the grass starts to grow again.

Lastly, we have all said this season how far we have come in a few years. The one fly in that ointment now seems to be that we have gone from a c**p ground with a superb pitch to a good stadium with one more suitable for allotments!