Will Neal 'the bus' Trotman be wearing this at SMS again ?
Exeter City at home in the traditional Boxing Day fixture where a larger than usual proportion of the crowd were nursing a hangover. Personally, I love the Boxing Day fixture as it gets me out of the house and away from setting up and playing games with my kids who by this stage, have driven me nuts and kicked my ass on whatever game we’ve been playing. Mario Kart… Jesus Christ!!! Anyhow…
Following our defeat last week by Leeds I read that someone with a calculator had decreed that we needed to win 14 out of our remaining 22 matches to have a chance of the playoffs. With our current form, it doesn’t sound too far fetched to imagine us getting that but one of the 14 really had to come today, against an Exeter side who were just about keeping their heads above water in their first season in League 1. You’ve got to admire a side that has won two successive promotions from Blue Square to League 1 and done it playing decent football under the guidance of former Saints reserve-who-never-really-made-it, Paul Tisdale.
In the build-up, Pards had made mention of the Colchester away game in two days time and that some players wouldn’t be able to manage two games in three days. My suspicion that he was talking about Jaidi was confirmed when Trotman lined up alongside Perry in defence. Schneiderlin made a welcome return in midfield in place of Thomas with James going to right back and the interchangeable Waigo and Antonio were interchanged again with Antonio starting.
For the first 10 minutes it’s Exeter with all the pretty football and Saints trying to win the ugly battle and making sure Exeter didn’t get anything early. At the forefront of this effort was Neal Trotman. I have a theory that Trotman may be blind or have some sort of spatial awareness problem because if a forward gets in his way, he just smashes through them. When he gets it right it’s fantastic as he clears the ball and the opposition player is left limping and wondering who threw a bus at him. Bart came for a cross at one point and Trotters predictably ignored him and headed it straight up in the air and we were fortunate that the ball ended up looping wide from the resulting confusion.
On 13 minutes, Saints got the ball down and played for the first time and James got forward from right back and picked up a ball from Antonio and cut in, onto his left foot before hitting a daisy cutter which took a deflection off a back-pedalling defender and settled in the corner of the net where the keeper wasn’t. Ok, a lucky goal but he won’t give a toss as it was his first for the club and we didn’t give a toss either as we were 1-0 up.
Suddenly it looked like there were many goals there for the taking with Exeter looking particularly weak when defending set pieces. From a short corner, James whipped in a good cross for Connolly to steal in front of the keeper and back-header onto the bar and out to a startled looking defender who nearly plonked his header back in his own goal – which would have been hilarious. It was a temporary reprieve for Exeter though as on 26 minutes, from a James free kick on the right, Trotman rose above a very weak flappy challenge from the keeper and thumped in a header for 2-0.
Hammond and Schneiderlin were finally taking control of the midfield area and frustration seemed to get the better of Troy Archibald-Henville-Fortesque-Smyth-Biggles who went in late and high on Schneiderlin and after the ensuing melee which Lallana had no need to get involved in, got shown a staright red. Having watched the incident again, I don’t really think the red was for the tackle but for grabbing Lallana by the throat afterwards. He had to go really but would he have been sent off if Lallana had not got in his face? Anyway, a red card for having a stupid name is a three game ban and Exeter were really looking down the barrel now, or they should have been at least.
Half time , two nil, more please.
The start of the second half was fairly subdued and it took me ten minutes or so to realise that we were just trying to play the game out and nothing much was happening. It took another 10 minutes for me to realise that we aren’t good enough to just play the game out and look forward to the next game in two days time. Lallana was subbed and worryingly disappeared straight down the tunnel. Joseph Mills came onto the left hand side and immediately had a decent run and shot over the bar. The service into Lambert and Connolly was poor though with many crosses from James, Antonio and Mills ending up behind the goal or as catching practice for the keeper.
Lambert, who looked bored throughout the 2nd half, tried his luck with a free kick from so far out it was practically in Ocean Village which predictably went wide. Slumbers were interrupted though when from a corner a Saints defender (couldn’t see who but I suspect Lambert) got caught under the ball and Taylor had a free header at the back stick to make it 2-1. the game was now officially on and it really shouldn’t have been.
Following the Exeter goal it was obvious that we weren’t going to be able to just play the game out and so Pards brought on Wotton and showed his ruthless side by substituting the substitute with Mills making way. I bet Mills was really pissed off and if I’d have been him, I’d have limped off but to me, it just showed that Pards is really unafraid to make the unpopular and difficult decision. Waigo also replaced the largely ineffective Connolly up front.
The changes took immediate effect as Wotton assumed his usual ‘destructive’ role and bagan snapping into tackles in that Neanderthal way of his. The other substitution was more noticeably effective as Saints broke and the ball was poked through by Lambert to Waigo who had managed to stay onside. He cut in from 40 yards out on the left, drew the keeper and slotted it past him and into the corner for 3-1. I never had a seconds doubt that he would score and I really can’t explain that. I can however make a comparison with our offside-ically challenged player of yesteryear, Bradley Wanker-Phillips who used to regularly get himself one on one with the keeper and regularly find new ways to miss. When BWP got through, I never even used to stand up in anticipation because I just knew it wasn’t hitting the onion bag.
As an encore, Waigo produced a comical offside when he looked across the line, saw he was 5 yards off and then made no effort to get back onside before chasing a through ball. I’ll forgive him this one…
With the last move of the match, Lambert hit the bar with a right foot curler before Antonio drilled the rebound straight at the keeper and the referee ended what was an odd sort of match. The upcoming Colchester match had certainly had an effect on this game both with the team selection and the 2nd half lethargy and while Exeter had tried to play some decent stuff, more than us for much of the game, they were a bit lacking up front and at the back and never really threatened to turn it around. I felt like if we’d had to win 4-0 then we could have done. The Exeter fans filed away and returned to their tractors for the drive home – I hope they stay up, I really do as they try and play the right way.
Finally, I have to mention the crowd which at 30,890 is quite staggering for a League 1 fixture. Whilst I don’t expect us to get that many for every match, it would be nice if we could get up to around the 25,000 mark for the rest of what is promising to be quite an exciting second half of the season. It’ll be more exciting than Pompey’s anyway.
Following our defeat last week by Leeds I read that someone with a calculator had decreed that we needed to win 14 out of our remaining 22 matches to have a chance of the playoffs. With our current form, it doesn’t sound too far fetched to imagine us getting that but one of the 14 really had to come today, against an Exeter side who were just about keeping their heads above water in their first season in League 1. You’ve got to admire a side that has won two successive promotions from Blue Square to League 1 and done it playing decent football under the guidance of former Saints reserve-who-never-really-made-it, Paul Tisdale.
In the build-up, Pards had made mention of the Colchester away game in two days time and that some players wouldn’t be able to manage two games in three days. My suspicion that he was talking about Jaidi was confirmed when Trotman lined up alongside Perry in defence. Schneiderlin made a welcome return in midfield in place of Thomas with James going to right back and the interchangeable Waigo and Antonio were interchanged again with Antonio starting.
For the first 10 minutes it’s Exeter with all the pretty football and Saints trying to win the ugly battle and making sure Exeter didn’t get anything early. At the forefront of this effort was Neal Trotman. I have a theory that Trotman may be blind or have some sort of spatial awareness problem because if a forward gets in his way, he just smashes through them. When he gets it right it’s fantastic as he clears the ball and the opposition player is left limping and wondering who threw a bus at him. Bart came for a cross at one point and Trotters predictably ignored him and headed it straight up in the air and we were fortunate that the ball ended up looping wide from the resulting confusion.
On 13 minutes, Saints got the ball down and played for the first time and James got forward from right back and picked up a ball from Antonio and cut in, onto his left foot before hitting a daisy cutter which took a deflection off a back-pedalling defender and settled in the corner of the net where the keeper wasn’t. Ok, a lucky goal but he won’t give a toss as it was his first for the club and we didn’t give a toss either as we were 1-0 up.
Suddenly it looked like there were many goals there for the taking with Exeter looking particularly weak when defending set pieces. From a short corner, James whipped in a good cross for Connolly to steal in front of the keeper and back-header onto the bar and out to a startled looking defender who nearly plonked his header back in his own goal – which would have been hilarious. It was a temporary reprieve for Exeter though as on 26 minutes, from a James free kick on the right, Trotman rose above a very weak flappy challenge from the keeper and thumped in a header for 2-0.
Hammond and Schneiderlin were finally taking control of the midfield area and frustration seemed to get the better of Troy Archibald-Henville-Fortesque-Smyth-Biggles who went in late and high on Schneiderlin and after the ensuing melee which Lallana had no need to get involved in, got shown a staright red. Having watched the incident again, I don’t really think the red was for the tackle but for grabbing Lallana by the throat afterwards. He had to go really but would he have been sent off if Lallana had not got in his face? Anyway, a red card for having a stupid name is a three game ban and Exeter were really looking down the barrel now, or they should have been at least.
Half time , two nil, more please.
The start of the second half was fairly subdued and it took me ten minutes or so to realise that we were just trying to play the game out and nothing much was happening. It took another 10 minutes for me to realise that we aren’t good enough to just play the game out and look forward to the next game in two days time. Lallana was subbed and worryingly disappeared straight down the tunnel. Joseph Mills came onto the left hand side and immediately had a decent run and shot over the bar. The service into Lambert and Connolly was poor though with many crosses from James, Antonio and Mills ending up behind the goal or as catching practice for the keeper.
Lambert, who looked bored throughout the 2nd half, tried his luck with a free kick from so far out it was practically in Ocean Village which predictably went wide. Slumbers were interrupted though when from a corner a Saints defender (couldn’t see who but I suspect Lambert) got caught under the ball and Taylor had a free header at the back stick to make it 2-1. the game was now officially on and it really shouldn’t have been.
Following the Exeter goal it was obvious that we weren’t going to be able to just play the game out and so Pards brought on Wotton and showed his ruthless side by substituting the substitute with Mills making way. I bet Mills was really pissed off and if I’d have been him, I’d have limped off but to me, it just showed that Pards is really unafraid to make the unpopular and difficult decision. Waigo also replaced the largely ineffective Connolly up front.
The changes took immediate effect as Wotton assumed his usual ‘destructive’ role and bagan snapping into tackles in that Neanderthal way of his. The other substitution was more noticeably effective as Saints broke and the ball was poked through by Lambert to Waigo who had managed to stay onside. He cut in from 40 yards out on the left, drew the keeper and slotted it past him and into the corner for 3-1. I never had a seconds doubt that he would score and I really can’t explain that. I can however make a comparison with our offside-ically challenged player of yesteryear, Bradley Wanker-Phillips who used to regularly get himself one on one with the keeper and regularly find new ways to miss. When BWP got through, I never even used to stand up in anticipation because I just knew it wasn’t hitting the onion bag.
As an encore, Waigo produced a comical offside when he looked across the line, saw he was 5 yards off and then made no effort to get back onside before chasing a through ball. I’ll forgive him this one…
With the last move of the match, Lambert hit the bar with a right foot curler before Antonio drilled the rebound straight at the keeper and the referee ended what was an odd sort of match. The upcoming Colchester match had certainly had an effect on this game both with the team selection and the 2nd half lethargy and while Exeter had tried to play some decent stuff, more than us for much of the game, they were a bit lacking up front and at the back and never really threatened to turn it around. I felt like if we’d had to win 4-0 then we could have done. The Exeter fans filed away and returned to their tractors for the drive home – I hope they stay up, I really do as they try and play the right way.
Finally, I have to mention the crowd which at 30,890 is quite staggering for a League 1 fixture. Whilst I don’t expect us to get that many for every match, it would be nice if we could get up to around the 25,000 mark for the rest of what is promising to be quite an exciting second half of the season. It’ll be more exciting than Pompey’s anyway.
And finally, again, I have to mention that this may well be the last home game for Neal Trotman who seems to be returning to his parent club, Preston, on New Years Day. If this comes to pass, it was a nice way for him to finish, scoring in his last game. He's had a lot of decent games for us and has been the butt of many of my jokes so I appreciate his contribution if indeed, that's the end of it. The goal at Southend when he booted the keeper in the net will live long in the memory, as will the own goal at Leyton Orient. Personally, I feel that he would be ok at Championship level, he has a great attitude, infectious enthusiasm and commitment and there is potential for improvement, learning from Jaidi and Perry. As it stands, he would get found out against quicker, more intelligent forwards but we are in League 1 and they are not found below Premiership level. Personally, I think he's worth signing especially with Jaidi and Perry being of pensionable age. Maybe we can take advantage of Preston's financial woes and put in a cheeky bid. The irony of us taking advantage of others financial woes is not lost on me.
If you're reading Neal, which I'm sure you're not, thanks for your performances for the mighty Saints and good luck with whatever comes next...
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