by Richard O. Smith
Relax, stay rational and don't ever jettison your sense of humour. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not necessarily an oncoming train.
Admittedly there have been times when our forward line have looked as lively and motivated as dozing sombrero wearing. Mexicans after a twenty tequilas lunch hour. And on occasions Kerr's positional tactics have rendered him to be as unpredictable as a lemon squirt.
Frequently players like Gamble
and Rawcliffe have looked like subbuteo players in that whenever the ball
goes to them, it rebounds straight off. And yet - and FBYF is not in existence
to serve unconstructive, counterproductive criticism on players - as we
will elaborate on elsewhere,; several players are not without ability,
but this placing of individuals in unaccustomed positions appears to be
a favourite tactic of Kerr’s - Hardy in the forward line and McClaughlin
in deepest midfield epitomise this.
There is no pleasure, or help in troubled times, to be gained from adopting
an I-told-you-so attitude, and occasionally this positional rearrangement
does bear fruit as in Warren Ward's midfield renaissance (before he was
inexplicably sacked), but way back in time under a younger sun when Issue
One appeared, we warned of this ability to rearrange the deckchairs on
the Titanic that Kerr does seam to possess.
Maybe, just maybe, it was obvious too all that Boston would suffer this ‘before a ball was kicked’(famous football clichés of our time), as Paul Wilson’s untimely departure signalled. Leaving Rawcliffe or Gamble to fill Wilson's boots is doomed to failure? Although he may well be a talented midfield, Rawcliffe is definitely NOT a centre-forward; he is a little, small man and when he goes up for a header with the opposition's 6ft+ centre-half, it looks like a tiny Yorkshire Terrier jumping up at his master's shins.
Obviously the failure to find, or rather pay, for an adequate replacement for Wilson meant that the club ought to have been signalling a "mayday" message as we prepared to go down. Yes, one player really can make that amount of difference, and the fact that we would indeed struggle this season was about as predictable as leaves falling in autumn.
Without wishing to become
too dutifully muzzled by diplomacy, FBYP does not readily criticise players
or management (except as a prop for a joke), but it is becoming increasingly
obvious, and not just because a proportion of this season has been spent
in 22nd; position, that some of the current players, and managerial decisions,
are perhaps substandard.
Given that Gamble or whoever do not miss chances on purpose, and it may
well not be Kerr's fault in being unable to strengthen the team if those
in power at the club have decreed that no profit is available for players;
but FBYP does not want become a guard dog with rubber teeth, and so we
have stated, hopefully constructively or facetiously, personal opinion
in these pages.
Hopefully when we allow ourselves to review Kerr, it is either done through
a filter of humour. Everyone must be entitled to an opinion, but a rationalised
articulated statement is far more productive than some of the "Farmer
Dan" types who shout obscenities throughout the entire duration of
matches (the Barnet game, and the congregation outside the dressing room
window after the Kidderminster match ) are sited as two shameful examples.
There is a time and place for vulgarity (nowhere and never).
Still, hopefully Kerr can see his own reflection in the fans' teardrops.