i think it's all been said in previous posts, but figured i'd add my two penny worth.
one word sums it up for me - disappointing. it was like watching the AFC Wimbledon match all over again. Started reasonably well, but we really need to score when we create early (half) chances, as the longer the game went on, the more desperate we looked. The two cheltenham centre backs looked pretty shaky, and were clearly going to struggle with Rene, but we lost out attacking momentum when he went off. He does the lone striker role so well, but Tai doesn't. 99% of the balls that went to Tai invariably resulted in Cheltenham winning the ball back. He just cannot hold the ball up and protect it well enough - not a direct criticism, he tried, but he's not the same type of player as Rene. If we are without Rene, i'd much prefer us to play two up front. We lost our width, all too often Jarvis came in field and we had nothing down the right. I thought Jarvis played pretty well all things considered, but maybe he should have gone up top with Tai out right. Despite some recent poor performances, i honestly think we missed Danny.
cheltenham had done their homework, and exploited Nico's lack of pace. Nico worked hard as he always does, but he had very little help with their right winger. Maybe having LRT on the left from the start to help him out would've been an option. Our centre midfield was poor. Manse gave his usual hard working performance, but all three of them were guilty of poor passing and giving the ball away far too much.
Saah played well again, and Ellis was largely ok, but at times we left big gaps for their forwards, typified by their second goal. Bobby had little to do, other than picking the ball out of the net twice - neither of which he could do much about.
my heart says we can still do it, but my head says we won't beat them by three goals. I think we'll beat them, but not by three. even if we sneak extra time, i don't think we've got the legs to see it through. Easy to say now, but maybe it would have been best to leave Rene out yesterday in the hope he'd be ok for thursday, because losing him definitely disrupted us yesterday, and my guess is he won't play at all on thursday now.
so, disappointing, but hugely proud of the players, the management and the club for a "much better than expected" season, which isn't over yet, but if it ends on Thursday, it's still been a great effort.
