Our home starts need to improve
Saturday’s defeat against Bamber Bridge was made even more disappointing because it was such a big game for us. We move on from this loss, but it does make our next game against Salford even more important.
Our problem has been the fact that we have come up short whenever we have a half-decent crowd.
We looked tense early on, starting on the back foot.
This season we have been pretty consistent at home, but in recent weeks we have been starting slowly, whereas in away games we have been straight in the other teams’ faces.
Instead we allowed Bamber Bridge too much space, which is something you can’t afford to do in a game like that.
As I said in my interview after the game, maybe the fact that we played with 10 men for an hour at Farsley, due to Tom Corner’s sending off, took its toll, both physically and mentally.
We have looked at appealing against Tom’s red card, but we know how these things are run and we could end up losing him for an extra game.
The three games against Middlesbrough, Prescot and Darlington will be bad enough, we certainly don’t want to be without him against Northwich as well.
We do have a strong enough squad to cope, but it still wouldn’t be ideal.
If you look at the video of his sending-off in slow-motion then it looks harsh.
Tom followed through with his arm, but the fact that the lads went down like he did didn’t help at all.
For me it was a yellow card at most.
Fortunately for us, Gary Bradshaw is coming back to fitness now ahead of Tom’s ban.
We will also be bringing Joe Lamplough back in from AFC Mansfield, due to the fact that Ben Middleton and Paul Robson are approaching suspensions.
Joe’s games at Mansfield will have done him a world of good as he comes back towards fitness and we hope that he can play a part in a big final few games this season.