It’s no wonder I have very little hair left - most of my lovely locks have been pulled out during more than 50 years of following our maddeningly frustrating football team!
Honestly, where do you start when trying to analyse that crazy game against Charlton?
We won it twice, and were leading by two goals after 94 minutes, but astonishingly our brilliant away support trudged away from the Valley absolutely gutted after the home side somehow grabbed a point. It felt like a terrible defeat.
I know, I know - if you take away the emotion, there are positives. Just look at the league table. We’re in such a great position.
Plus, a draw at Charlton after winning at Port Vale in midweek is perfectly acceptable. We all know what Mick McCarthy would be saying.
Yes, spot on - “There’s no such thing as a bad away point.” Sorry to disagree, Mick, but this particular away point stinks.
I just can’t stop doing the “what ifs.” You know - what if we’d held on to win at Sheffield Wednesday? What if we’d got the three points against Charlton? Four more points would see us sitting proudly at the top of the League One pile.
The misery guts in me keeps worrying that, come the final reckoning at the end of this long season, those lost points might be crucial. I really hope not, but...
In the last two games, we’ve lost two goal leads no fewer than three times. Once at Port Vale, when thankfully we found a winner, and twice at Charlton, when we didn’t.
It’s a footballing cliche that 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline for the team which is ahead. Pulling a goal back can be a real momentum changer. But, honestly, we need to manage these situations so much better.
Why does it keep happening? Do we lack self-belief or, conversely, do we get complacent, a little bit arrogant, and lose focus when we think the job is done?
There does seem to be one common theme. The descriptions of the crucial goals all seem to include the phrases “so-and-so didn’t track a run” or “what’s his name lost his man.” Players not doing their jobs properly, in other words.
The other common theme - as Kieran McKenna rightly identified after Saturday’s game - is our apparent inability to deal with high balls swung into our box.
After the Charlton fiasco, many supporters were calling for Cameron Burgess to be reinstated.
He is, of course, the kind of physically commanding type of defender who will relish dealing with the aerial bombardment we will inevitably be subjected to.
Burgess was playing his best football for us when he suffered a pretty horrifying facial injury.
I would be happy to see him introduced, maybe alongside Richard Keogh, who would bring vast experience and calmness to the back four.
That would mean dropping one or maybe two of the established back three of Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson. It would be tough on them, but football is a ruthless business.
During McKenna’s time at Portman Road, success has been based on a solid defence, with a brilliant goalkeeper in Christian Walton. Saturday’s game saw Walton’s first really shaky performance.
He was at fault for one, possibly two, of the goals we conceded.
Everyone has a bad day, and we owe Walton so much over the year or so. Saturday will be an unwanted one-off, I’m sure.
The debate about our strikers continues. One thing is for sure - we do score goals. We are the top scorers in the league, so it’s not a problem.
McKenna keeps rotating the front three on a game-by-game basis. I have to admit I was surprised when Freddie Ladapo didn’t start at the Valley.
Some of us have been bemoaning our lack of a fox in the box, so I was thrilled to see Ladapo score two ugly goals from a combined distance of ten yards at Port Vale.
He got on the end of two low balls into the six yard area, which is something we’ve been missing all season. So I thought it was a bit odd that he was dropped on Saturday. Of course, he came on and scored a terrific goal.
Ladapo is now our top scorer with seven in all competitions. Maybe he is our 20-goal striker? Surely he is worth an extended run as a starter?
We mustn’t let the Charlton frustration dominate everything. There are so many positives.
One of the brightest was the goalscoring performance of Cameron Humphreys at Port Vale.
What a prospect he is - potentially our best homegrown youngster since Kieron Dyer.
So it’s a break from the league now and a televised trip to Bracknell in the FA Cup.
It’s definitely not our priority, but we also don’t want to be on the wrong end of a giant killing on the telly. Remember the pain at Lincoln.
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