Away Day Blues... again

I won't be doing match reports of games I don't go to, however by all accounts last night's performance came close to being our worst of the season. Or at least on a par (with Oxford). We are absolutely toothless away from Huish Park, our goal tally of 5 scored in November is just not good enough for a side in mid-table and on reflection last night probably was a bit of a home banker, it was just the optimist in me that's been largely bought out in everyone around Huish Park recently that was predicting us to get a draw AND score a goal last night.

Our preferred formation of 4-4-1-1 presents problems away from HP in my opinion. Quite often that formation leaves your striker isolated if you're under pressure, and judging by the statistics from last night it certainly looks as if Obika, once again, wasn't terribly effective whilst leading the line on his own. Once Williams came on it looks as if we started to cause a few more problems, but playing two up front means shoving Mason out to the right or we surrender all width, and as we all know Mason is twice the attacking midfielder than winger. If we are going to play with one up front I believe that, certainly away from home, Williams needs to play up front until Bowditch is fit as he holds the ball up far better than Obika, wins fouls and generally upsets big central defenders. He's getting stronger and stronger as he learns what's needed in the league and gives us a threat from set pieces, both by winning them and being useful in the air. I don't think it's a coincidence that both goals in our sole away win (and our only away goals since August) came from set pieces won by Williams. He chases lost causes and puts himself about, and you need that away from home. Obika doesn't. That said, our chance creation last night was not very good at all judging from writeups and the radio broadcast, with Murray and Welsh again having poor games, so perhaps we need to look a little further back as to why we're not scoring away from home.

My other concern at the moment is the form of Kalala. He was immense straight after he joined, looked hungry for football, but I think in the last few weeks he's become prone to stupid bookings, has already had a suspension, and now has another one for what really was a stupid challenge that got him sent off last night. I personally thought he was weak against Charlton and Southend, diving into challenges he shouldn't, misplacing one too many short passes and basically huffing and puffing with little end product. I think he is essential to our team for breaking up play and he does this effectively 90% of the time, it's just the pettiness (shown perfectly by the gesture to Gills fans on the way off the pitch last night) and his lack of composure on the ball, as well as the fact that I've noticed he cannot play on his left peg at all, that's worrying me.

That's enough moaning for the moment though, we're still far better placed at this juncture than we could possibly have imagined at the beginning of August. We have an absolute monster of a goalkeeper and centreback, Alex and Steven are proving week after week that they're just absolute class, Alex saved it from being a cricket score last night. I still am completely confident of survival. Beat Walsall next week, and everything's rosy for the time being again.

I just worry this problem of scoring goals is going to rear it's head again before the season's out.