I thought we made a bright start and dominated the first quarter of the match, in which time we came close to scoring several times, but even during this phase of the game we looked very vulnerable to their swift counter attacks. The opening goal on the half hour came after we'd successfully resisted a spell of sustained pressure, but when the ball fell conveniently for an opponent on the edge of the box he flashed an unstoppable half-volley into the far top corner.
As at Chelmsford, Hamlet responded well with a quick equaliser after half time. Taylor sent a long ball downfield, Mills helped it on with his head, then Yusuff chased through with the last defender caught napping and slid his shot past the advancing keeper. There was an element of misfortune about the second Bath goal as Taylor slipped over on the halfway line, but teammates seemed slow to react and help him out as he tried unsuccessfully to hook the ball away from the nearest opponent from a prone position. Suddenly we were outnumbered at the back as Bath bore down on goal and the extra man was played through for a confident finish. The third goal as we entered stoppage time was largely irrelevant. Bath were a good side, despite apparently missing a number of regulars and having to plug the gaps with loanees. But it looked like we were going to be that sort of side during the early weeks of the season, and now we're realistically just looking to improve on last season's points tally and position despite (presumably) having a top seven playing budget.
Apart from the first half at Chelmsford (when the Chelmsford of last season would have buried us by half-time) all of the performances I've seen since Hungerford have been respectable enough, and none of the results in isolation has been terrible, but that's just four points from the last nine league matches now.
I suspect there will be changes for Carlisle, and possibly a reversion to a back four which if nothing else would help to confound any Carlisle scouting missions.
Despite fielding the same starting XI for the last four matches, and players individually performing well, there seem to be few square pegs in round holes and question marks over the best combinations in a number of areas.
Vose and Chapman are very Gavin type players, but the pair of them together as half-back leaves us short of muscle. (Tajbakhsh is a big loss for me, I felt he made a huge difference in the final quarter of last season.) At the beginning of the season it looked like Ijaha and Smith would be the preferred pairing, which is very different to what we now have. I like Taylor in that role, but he's recently been moved back since Orlu got injured.
The whole 3-5-2 thing is another conundrum. I don't really like it, and whilst it may enable some players to be more effective it negates others or removes their natural role altogether.
Orlu is our best defender for me, so if he's fit he really should be starting. If we revert to 4-4-2 ( or a variation thereof, 4-2-3-1 or whatever) there are plenty of options for wide roles. I think I'd like Orlu with Smith or McCoy at centre back and Taylor as a holding midfielder.
I'm assuming Case is the player sitting on his contract who Gavin wants to move on and that Monakana must be injured, although I suppose it could be the other way around. Monlouis also seems to have fallen from favour. To me he just looks like a less dynamic version of Hunte with less end product, although I still think he's potentially a very good player given a coach who is able to press the right buttons.
