Where’s Duffy when you need him?

Two penalty misses on Saturday paired with poor finishing saw us lose at home again. The team were booed off the pitch by the majority of the fans and Holdworth was left bewildered as to how we didn’t get something out of the game. Had Rob Duffy been on the pitch we would have won the game 2-1, but he was sat in the stands with a dead leg. Just our luck right now.

I must’ve been watching a different game to all these fans booing. I thought we played well and dominated the game for large parts but just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. Something that has proved very costly for us recently. We had been pushing all game long and I thought we had left it too late but then we were awarded the first penalty you kind of expect it to go in. Mills, Perry and Speight were fighting for the ball, Speight ended up with the ball one way or another and stepped up and missed. At that point everybody thought game over and people started to leave.

Two minutes later Silk got cropped right on the edge of the area but a penalty was awarded. Again several players were fighting for the ball, I can’t make my mind up whether this is a good or bad thing. Either way, Perry won the ball this time and stepped up. I was thinking to myself surely the only thing to do here is hit it straight down the middle? But no, Perry decided to go the opposite corner to what Speight did and the keeper pulled off another great save.

Then the barrage of abuse came from the stands. ‘What a load of rubbish’ was chanted for some bizarre reason. Kyle Nix reacted by looking gob smacked at the West Stand and swung his arms around as if to say get behind us. I expected everybody to get up and go but they all stopped until the final whistle to hurl even more abuse towards Holdsworth and the team. Holdsworth clapped the fans which was met by a few shouts of ‘Holdsworth out’ and even more shouts of ‘What a load of rubbish’.

The majority of the fans seem to be against Holdsworth now, many of them want him gone and want somebody fresh to be in place for next season. I’m still behind him. We just need to tweak the team a little with 3 or 4 quality signings in the summer and we will have a good squad for the 10/11 campaign. What he does need to do is work out his best 11 and stick with them. The revolving door policy clearly does not work. Stevenage, Oxford, Luton, York and Rushden all play the same 11 week in week out. DH has a job on his hands now that the fans are against him but I have faith that he can turn it around next season.

I’ve uploaded the videos of the penalties incase anybody wants to watch them again.

Speight Penalty.

Perry Penalty.