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| Wembley: Theatre of boredom. |
I was going to write a blog post about the England - Wales game but it was uninspiring and frankly pretty rubbish so I didn't have the will to do it before the Solihull game rolled around. This game was also an appalling display of "football" and so I thought "why not dump these two together into one
really depressing blog post?" So now the scene is set here is what happened...
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| 1,700 odd Welsh fans. |
England took on Wales at Wembley in the hopes of securing a win and a foot in the door of Euro qualification. Anyone who watched the game will have seen what can only be described as a "professional" showing from an England team who so often lack the creativity needed to excite. England went 1-0 up through a neat Ashley Young goal but had a lucky escape when Earnshaw missed an open goal from a couple of yards out deep into the second half. It would be fair to say that the only ones drawing any inspiration from the drab and boring Wembley surroundings were the Welsh players and their meagre 1,700 or so fans. With the turnout at 77,000 the question surrounding the return of home internationals seems academic, there just isn't the interest from the public. The evening was marred by the sad
death of a Wales fan before the game.
Coincidentally the first leg of
England - Wales fell on the same day as Solihull's last league win, against Boston on the 27th of March. Since then Solihull had gone 17 games without a win, only managing two draws in the process. Boston have been playing some rubbish football, if you can call it that, recently and also have some sort of psychological issue with playing against teams who wear pink as matches against
Nuneaton and
Harrogate have shown. With Solihull's poor run of form it was inevitable that United would mess up the chance to claim three points and that was exactly what happened.
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| Pink: United's bogey colour. |
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The York St Mickey Mouse
Show. |
The home team started with Stones and Suarez up front while Newsham was pushed onto the wing in place of Holsgrove, so we're going for pace then. Despite the ponderous front line the Pilgrims started the stronger and with only a few minutes gone it looked like Moors might be on the end of a right drubbing. There were a couple of chances for Stones but when he did get to the ball his headers were either weak, off-target or saved by the impressive Singh in the Solihull goal. Suarez was also unable to hit the target and put a difficult chance wide. That was about it for United.
Solihull came into the game and made the Pilgrims look lacklustre and mediocre at best. Much like England, Boston suffered from a chronic lack of creativity and there was seemingly no plan B. As soon as the high ball into the box option had been sussed by the Solihull back-line, United were out of ideas. Only Moors' profligacy saved Boston's blushes before the break and the home team walked off with boos ringing in their ears.
The second half saw more of the same dull rubbish from United. This time Solihull were more accurate, Bastock flapped at a cross, the defence failed completely in their attempted clearances and
Thompson-Brown slotted home his second chance of the half. Holsgrove and Milnes were thrown on for Stones and Hall to chase the game but the reaction was toothless. United had the odd chance, Semple heading on target from a difficult position while Milnes and Holsgrove shot wide, but the Pilgrims scarcely looked like troubling the Solihull defence who deservedly claimed their first points of the season.
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| Head in hands time for United. |
As for United, something needs to change and fast; this game saw the first instance I've seen of fans calling for the managers to resign. The attendance was 1,117 and with performances and results like that it won't stay above 1,000 for long so things really need to pick-up and quick. Any pace up front, even if it came from the right back Jordan Fairclough, would be appreciated as a back-up plan at the very least. At the moment the United game-plan is very, very predictable.
Next up: Boston United vs
Hinckley at York St.
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