Reaching breaking point?

After not updating the blog after the Tonbridge game, due to frustration at not getting the three points City deserved, this is now a update of the moment the wheels seem to have fallen off.

Against Tonbridge the stripes played some good football, attacked at will and generally did enough to win the game, Tonbridge had two shots all game, one in the first minute and one 89 minutes later, and they scored from both. So a draw was snatched from the jaws of victory, and the Romans had every right to feel hard done by. This was compounded on the Tuesday when another 89^th minute goal sunk City (there was also time for an unfairly disallowed goal that would have given City a deserved, or so I am told, draw) So after taking 1 from 6, that should have been 4 from 6, City welcomed stuttering Dover Athletic to Twerton Park.

Dover Athletic are perennial promotion challengers, but arrived at Twerton on the back of a four game losing streak, surely giving City the confidence to right the wrongs of the last week. Somehow though, you just knew it wasn’t going to happen and in conversations with other stripes there was a sense of foreboding about the game, with the prevailing feeling being “Dover are due, and we never seem to beat them” with that being the feeling, I genuinely considered not turning up, and I like the other City fans in the 551 crowd wish I didn’t.

City were clueless, completely and utterly devoid of ideas, invention, ability and even, more damningly desire. The few bright points were Jason Mellor, who manfully kept the score down (that you can lose 2-0 and the keeper still gets MOTM says a lot) Dave Pratt who bless him battles and fights despite being often the only man within 30 yards of the opposition goal, and Ross Stearn who again provided a few highlights with runs and a general narky demeanour which a la Hogg means he does get stuck in.

Other than that there is nothing I can say good about City’s performance, the whole ground was silent as time after time Dover sliced the stripes open, the game could have easily ended 5 or 6 nil to Dover, and City in the few moments they did touch the ball in the first half were utterly pathetic when coming to use it. I honestly cannot put into words how awful City played, while it is harsh to single out any one player, Ben Adelsbury continued his quest to not impress me, I don’t get what he offers that Keats doesn’t, and would rather have played Allen who would have tried to close the gaping chasm between the midfield and the attackers, with Allen offering a bit of subtlety and craft that Connolly, Keats and Adelsbury don’t.

Things did improve in the second half, but not really by anywhere near enough and it was a sweet relief when the referee did bring proceedings to a close. There was a smattering of boos, but mainly everyone drifted away feeling fed up and annoyed with how things went. With the FA Cup game next Saturday against Gosport Borough (potentially the least inspiring cup tie we could have got) now taking on massive importance, for financial and prestige reasons I have so little faith that we’ll be able to do anything that I am genuinely for the first time in years considering not going to a home game, we will see how the mood takes me, but I cannot face another 90 minutes of that dirge.