Expected, but doesn’t mean it’s not a worry
post-match press conference, the whole occasion had the feel of having been treated as just another friendly.
Perhaps that wouldn’t have been the case if two of Town’s planned pre-season games had not been cancelled. But either way, if that is the case, then it would be fairest to judge this outing in the same terms we did those performances against Bradford City and Manchester United, and point out that the result really didn’t matter. Who cares about the Carabao Cup anyway?
But our initial assessment on the game was rather damning despite all that - and we felt necessarily so.
It was not a friendly, after all, and plenty of Town fans will have paid their tenner to watch the game on iFollow even after Corberan outlined his team selection plans and injury issues at his Friday afternoon press conference.
You can add all the caveats you like to this game, but ultimately it was one that Town should have won.
We understand this is a long-term project. But we are too far past the point of giving out praise for mere graft alone – we did plenty of that last year.
Quite simply, we need to start seeing that hard work translate into quality on the pitch, however gradually, otherwise what was even the point of hiring Corberan in the first place? On this evidence, there is a very long way yet to go.
THE promise of a move towards progressive attacking football is an exciting prospect for Town fans, but there are clear areas for improvement that Corberan must address if that approach is to prove at all sensible.
We lost count of the number of times Town would release a wide man in a promising position only for the move to be wasted by a poor final ball. There were crosses over hit out of play for a throw-in on the far side and players cutting inside to shoot only to hit it tamely into the keeper’s arms or high into the stands. And there were passes going just astray enough to kill all momentum.
Josh Koroma and Adama Diakhaby were particular culprits, but there was a bit of it from everyone in the Town front line and midfield.
The most irritating thing was that in among that litany of familiar sins, there were actually a few good balls into the box. Three corners were put onto Harry Toffolo’s head and just needed an accurate header to put away – albeit of varying