Match Report 2001-2002

Tuesday 30 October, 2001, Division One

Wimbledon At Valley Parade

This is a call

When Juanjo puts pen to paper on his two and a half year contract on Wednesday morning Jim Jefferies should have three numbers in his head. Three numbers that will stop the rot and get City back on track.

Four

Four

Two

Juanjo is capable of playing on the right flank, Matthew Etherington adds width on the left so at last City have the players to go back to it, the 3-3 draw with Wimbledon says that City need to go back to it.

City got back into a game that they never looked capable of getting back into once Jim Jefferies had furiously signalled that Eoin Jess, until then playing as support man in a lop sided four man midfield, to go and play opposite Etherington. Results were immediate, Jess snuck up on the far side and poked a ball that was left by all six Wimbledon defenders into the net.

That City were 3-1 down with twenty minutes on the clock was down to the fact that when playing the 433 that delivered early in the season City are the easiest team to beat in the division. Visitors know to put two men down Gunnar Halle's side, they know that we are slow at the back, they exploit it.

So Wimbledon put a couple down the left, got a break as Robert Molenaar struggled and David Connolly smartly finished. City looked like a team who never thought they could get back into the game even at 1-0. Gary Walsh lay on the turf for a long time after the ball had gone in, a long time.

The first goal was a City mistake, the second a blinding finish that put one in mind of Thierry Henry's long range accuracy at VP two years back. Kevin Cooper will never hit a shot as well as the one that took the wind in over Gary Walsh's hand and under his bar.

City came forward in reply, but the lobsided midfield with an ineffectual Gareth Whalley never looked like creating a chance through the middle. Gunnar Halle provided width and Andy Tod a head to get one back. Wimbledon's reaction was to push forward, win a free kick that was swung in by David Connolly. Bleak? Imagine how it looked from Juanjo's seat.

Second half and Jefferies removed Robert Molenaar to go to a 3412 formation, although at times the players wandered lost looking. To be frank one of the biggest selling points of 442 is that every player knows how to play it.

Battling midfielder on top of a solid back line. Full backs passing wingers, wingers cutting in or out, one big man one little man up front. Simplicity and stability, just what City need now. That and to stop conceding silly goals.

Second half and City managed a shut out, despite allowing David Nielsen to round Gary Walsh and see him miss a chance for 4-1. Jefferies finally went to 442, albeit the wingers level with the forward line variety that one plays when 3-1 down, and Jess brought immediate reward. Three minutes later and more good work on the right by Gary Locke resulted in a cross that was powerfully headed by a standing Andy Tod to give City parity.

And then City went close a couple of times but ended 3-3 despite Robbie Blake's shouts for a penalty that looked justified and an Andy Myers pile driver that would have bust the net if it had found it from forty yards but sailed over. Blake's penalty shout was the sum of a wretched game for the forward who should struggle to keep his place with Juanjo arriving and Jess being both able to play up front and capable of scoring.

So Jim Jefferies lives to fight another day and now has an ally, providing the 3-3 experience has not scared Juanjo off. His City team is a strange one. This comeback suggests character in depth and when the formation goes right the team are fairly unbeatable but the required formation changes often and Jim seems to be a step behind. He has claimed that he has not had the players, more and more he is bringing his own faces in.

The question is does he know where to put those faces?

Man of the Match

Andy Tod

Made the vital difference between being a team that had nothing in it's locker and the comeback this game was.

City Team:

Walsh
Halle Molenaar Myers Jacobs
        McCall Whalley Etherington
Jess
Blake Tod

Subs: Makel and Locke for Whalley and Molenaar