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CP Gull wrote:Some perspective needed by some on here, hugely disappointing though the performance (2nd half) and result was on Saturday though.

Having taken the time to have a look back at the goals, it's clear that individual errors were to blame for all three of the goals scored on Saturday.

While, like quite a few on here have suggested, I came away from Plainmoor on Saturday thinking that young O 'Connor had a decent enough game, the reality is that for all the good qualities he showed, he was turned far too easily for the first goal, gave away the free kick that led to the second and then lost his man at a corner kick giving their centre half a free header and Jarvis a simple tap in.

Despite his vastly improved performances on the whole this season I think Martin Rice will be disappointed with the second goal which looked like a routine tip over to me and not only that but given the sort of form he has been in this season you might have expected him to get a block on the header that led to the third goal too.

Neither Bodin nor Lathrope reacted quickly enough to the throw in that led to the cross for the first goal either.

Despite the disappointing nature of Saturday's performance, it may well be the events of the next few days that will shape the rest of our season rather than a one off defeat such as we witnessed against York. We can only hope that the news on Downes and Pearce is as positive as it can be as without doubt they are two of our better players and hugely important for our success (or otherwise) this season. Likewise we shouldn't underestimate the importance of getting Harding back ASAP as his performances have shown gradual improvement in recent games in my opinion. Does anyone know how far away Michael Poke is from a return as it's all gone rather quiet on that front and yet it's clear (from the interview given by AK on RD) that Alan Knill still very much regards Poke as his first choice keeper.

Knill has been hugely unlucky to lose not only Downes and Pearce, his first choice centre halves, but we shouldn't forget that he has also lost young McKenzie to his problems with diabetes too. For any L2 manager to lose three centre halves, let alone at a club as small as ours, it is always likely to have a massive impact. We should also not forget that we did have young Jack Deaman on trial for the best part of a couple of months and it was only a combination of bad luck (he suffered an injury in pre season), indifferent performances in a couple of reserve games and a lack of money that meant he wasn't kept on ... it is surely obvious to anyone that Knill would not choose to go into a new season with such a lack of cover in such an important position. In my opinion, it was a huge shame that we couldn't somehow find the money to sign Shaun Cooper as someone like him could have proved invaluable to a small club like ours with a small budget and by necessity a small squad, with his ability to cover three or four positions in the squad. Such versatility would have been great for a team like ours.

With a fully fit squad, and one or two quality additions through the loan market, I still think we have enough to steer ourselves to safety ... but clearly, if we get bad news on the injury front this week, we could well be in for a season long struggle.

Given the injury situation and the fact that we are only ten games into a new season, I think it is far too early to call for a change of Manager. Not only that but, as others have pointed out, we are simply not in a position (financially) to go chopping and changing our Manager every time we hit a sticky patch. I also think that we shouldn't forget that we should perhaps only truly judge Alan Knill on his ability to create a winning squad at this level after next summer as he will then, and only then, be truly able to say that this is HIS squad. Let's not forget that he "inherited" quite a large number of the current squad from his predecessor and it will be interesting to see how many from the likes of Poke, McKenzie, Nicholson, Lathrope, Mansell, Craig, Thompson, Bodin, Sullivan and Hutchings will be retained in the summer ... all of these players were already contracted when Knill was appointed. I suspect quite a few of that lot won't be with us next season, in all honesty.

Worrying times, for sure, but we all need to stick together and try and get behind both the Manager and the team.

Behind-the-Gulls wrote: