It’s now 542 days since the Tigers won away from home. That abysmal record continued in the style we’ve become accustomed to away at Doncaster Rovers. City were dreadful from start to finish; easily as poor as they were at Millwall a fortnight ago. I had wondered if the fact that Nigel Pearson was missing through injury might galvanise our troops and produce a gritty away performance dedicated to our stricken gaffer. Instead, we witnessed more of the utter fecklessness that has probably given NP a lot of sleepless nights in the past month.

Since we beat Swansea comfortably on the opening day, we’ve surrendered at Millwall, fought Watford to a bore draw, lost to League One Brentford and then handed three points to Doncaster. Despite signing Robert Koren and Jay Simpson in that period, we still have a squad that has a losing mentality. We have fragile confidence, if the opposition goes in front, we’re finished. We look like a team of little boys in a man’s league. That isn’t a reflection on kids like Cooper, Cairney and Cullen; it’s a damning reflection on so called senior pros like Kevin Kilbane, Antony Gardner, Nolberto Solano and Matt Duke, Kamil Zayatte. That two of them were sat getting splinters in their arses yesterday (and Solano would have joined them if not for McShane’s injury) says everything about their mentality. We can hardly be surprised, we’ve been a team of losers since the minute Kilbane walked in the door. Perhaps he’s the albatross we need to shoot?

The management team made several changes to the side after Watford, searching for a winning formula (or even a drawing one away from home). It’s difficult to criticise the management because they’ve inherited this bunch of losers and worked hard to bring in some players with quality. One criticism they have to take is the insistence on playing a small striker on his own up front when we obviously lack the quality to play through midfield and take advantage of sprightly strikers. As unfair as it is on Richard Garcia, we need to either play him up front and hit long balls at him or play two proper stikers and hope we can give the opposition something to think about. Doncaster had woeful centre halves as shown when they totally missed a through ball and let Barmby stroll through to equalise. Shelton Martis was a complete joke who rivaled Zayatte for awkwardness and stupid decisions and yet we didn’t pressurize them at all.

We fell behind within a minute and a half. Liam Cooper waiting (and waiting) for Duke to collect a long ball was a sign of things to come. Duke never came and Copper took so long that his clearance became hurried and traveled hardly any distance. The ball was played wide to their right where the wide player had time and space to cross (ala the winning goal at Brentford). His cross found Woods almost 18 yards out and his header looped into the top corner. I’ve no idea where Duke was. Just before he was subbed, Nick Barmby made a similar header, a beauty actually from a difficult cross to control, that Neil Sullivan saved with ease because his position was a million times better than Duke’s. Miscommunication and individual mistakes would light our game throughout. Zayatte headed the ball into a crowd of their players when Duke was 2 feet behind him and screaming for him to leave it. Zayatte conceded a free-kick on the edge of the box after misjudging an aimless ball through and letting Sharp in behind. Dawson conceded a free-kick (and a yellow card) after Ashbee gifted them the ball inside our half.

Every time Donny crossed the half way line, they found acres of space either side of Ashbee because we had no-one else tracking back, they had acres of space out on the right because Koren didn’t get back and they had acres of space between centre halves and full backs because you could have thrown a blanket over Zayatte and Cooper, they were that close together. When we did get the ball, we almost always gave it back to them. We either played a crap ball out of defence which they swept up easily or we actually found an attacking player and they gave the ball away by trying a quick lay off to no-one. The only players who tried to hold on to the ball for more than a second were Koren and Bostock and they were quickly swarmed by Donny shirts and lost possession. When Donny had the ball, anywhere on the pitch, they had 2 or 3 players moving into space. We rarely had anyone. Despite all of that, we were 30 seconds away from escaping into the dressing room level when disaster struck again. A poor cross to the back post would have drifted into touch if Nobby Solano had left it matt Duke, who could see the whole picture, failed to communicate and Solano headed the ball behind. From the corner, Cooper jumped into a challenge with his arm up and the ball hit it. It was all so utterly needless. Billy Sharp knocked in the penalty and we wandered back to the dressing room a beaten team.

The second half followed a similar pattern, though City did manage a couple of short spells of pressure without ever finding the quality of pass to create a chance. Donny played comfortably, passing the ball out of defence and taking advantage of space on the break as we pushed forward. Our ball retention was unbelievably poor at times. We never looked like grabbing an equaliser. The only comfort was that it was still only 2-1 so we might at least fluke something late on. That hope disappeared as the excellent full-back James O’Connor found himself in acres of space on the right for the millionth time. His cross found two of theirs in space. One controlled the ball, took it wide in the penalty area and crossed for the other, Coppinger, to volley in. Game over. City’s play deteriorated for 15 minutes and the traveling fans became incredibly frustrated. Some booed as Liam Cooper played a pair of useless passes out for goal kicks. It was harsh on the young man to take the brunt of the frustration but hopefully he’ll understand that it’s not personally towards him but the entire group. We managed a late rally, a pair of corners and a pair of free-kicks but O’Connor kicking Garcia’s header off the line was the only threat.

It’s hard to believe how quickly the opening day optimism had faded. If I’m honest, the current toil is exactly what I expected back in May but the arrival of Nigel Pearson and some good players, managing to hold on to some players I thought would do well (HA!) and balancing the books to an extent has masked some of the problems. In hindsight, we would have been better off clearing out every one of the gutless losers who led us to relegation. The problem of course is that no one will have them and because of the generosity of our moronic former management team, they are all sitting on cushty contracts.

Ratings:

Duke (4): Absolutely dire yesterday. He made three solid saves but his inability to communicate with those in front of him and his poor positioning absolutely killed us.

Solano (4): He was strong in the tackle and wasn’t caught out to the entent he was at Millwall. His use of the ball, something that is supposed to be his strong point, was diabolically bad. Paul McShane on his worst day is better than this. His experience should be useful around the dressing room but it hasn’t been so far.

Dawson (6): He was a calm performer amongst the complete chaos and was let down by the lack of protection in front of him. When O’Connor pushed forward, Daws was left with an impossible job.

Cooper (4): He needs to be taken out of the team ASAP. He’s not a bad player but he’ll be ruined if he continues to be involved in this mess. Zayatte is incapable of thinking for himself let alone helping a young player through the game. He wasn’t helped by the fact that we had no-one in midfield to help him play the game simply.

Zayatte (3): The guy is abysmal. You can only assume that he just doesn’t want to play for us. Physically, he’s got everything you could want from a centre half. Mentally, he’s weak and he’s very, very unintelligent. Stupid even. His decision making is appalling, his positioning is worse. He gets away with some things because of his pace but the flaws are glaring.

Ashbee (6): He didn’t have a great game but he was the only defensive player we had. He was doing the work of four people. He was utterly outnumbered and let down by everyone around him. Despite that, he was the only thing that kept us going, begging people to try and pick up their performance. He was furious with the decisions being made behind him and he showed it too.

Koren (5): He played wide (ish) on the left and had another poor game. He found himself with the ball and had no-one moving around him. He was forced to play a game that must be alien to him after playing at West Brom with numerous clever ball players. We won’t get anything out of him in such a negative system.

Garcia (5): He looks utterly lost. I feel sorry for him at the moment. He’s taken a battering over the past 15 months. He’s been messed around by Phil Brown and he’s been played out of position by NP. He’s continued to do everything that is ever asked of him and yet he takes more stick from fans than anyone else. It’s not fair. He spent the first half stuck on the right with little service and no support. He didn’t have a great game, true, his touch was poor sometimes and he was a tad slow to react at others. He was though, the only person still driving us forward after Barmby went off. He popped up on both wings to give an option and he held and moved the ball. Late on he hugged the left touch line to provide a pass for Koren. Without looking, Koren slid a ball into where he thought Garcia might be and it rolled out for a goal kick. That was somehow Garcia’s fault. Give the guy a break; he’s one of the few tryers we actually have. If you are one of those people who spout the cliché that you’ll support anyone who gives it 110% then you are a bloody liar.

Barmby (5): A frustrating day for our Nick. He gave it everything as usual but nothing came off. He didn’t have the legs to get back with their midfield though I’m not convinced it was his job to do so. He had to try though because Koren and Bostock didn’t. Shouldn’t have been taken off. He would have been a better option on one leg than some of the others.

Bostock (4): Terrible again. He needs to play the game simply, get others involved and then get into positions where he can try a trick or get a shot in. As it is, he’s trying too much too deep and losing the ball too often. When he gets the ball around the penalty area, he doesn’t look to have any imagination. He’s all image and no substance.

Cullen (5): Guilty of giving the ball away when he had the chance to hold it up but also the only person with a bit of spark and fight in the final third. Caught offside far too many times and even though some looked dubious, he’s got to learn to curb his enthusiasm and make sure. Still better than Simpson so far.

Subs: Cairney for Barmby. Simpson for Bostock.

So we need to move forward. We can’t keep chopping and changing the team but it’s difficult for the management to find a settled team from a squad that is devoid of confidence. We need reinforcements. We need a big brute of a centre forward to hold the ball up. I’d like Steve Howard, as I’ve mentioned a few times, but I’d settle for Jon Parkin at this point. Not so much of a brute but a terrific player with his back to goal is Nile Ranger at Newcastle, he’d be worth a call about. We could also do with a centre half but we need someone with experience. I can’t see the sense in putting another young lad into this environment.

Within the current squad, we desperately need James Harper and Craig Fagan back. Harper will do two jobs, he’ll support Ash defensively but most importantly, he’ll take the ball off the back four and bring players like Koren and Cairney into the game. Fagan will give us some drive and energy and he won’t accept second best form anyone. The Bullard debate might also arise once the deadline passes. There were dueling chants in the corner of the Keepmoat shoe box yesterday. “There’s only one Jimmy Bullard” sang a few. “There’s only one greedy *******” sang a few more. Both are right though, there’s only one of him and if he’s here, he’s surely got to play?

Hi guys, we posted a lot here last year. Like the new site.

Info and request.

Info: Geovanni just joined the MLS San Jose Earthquakes today as their first Designated Player (basically that means they can pay him more).

theshinguardian.com/2010/08/16/geovanni-quaking/

Request: A lot of MLS fans don’t know about Geovanni. Would love if you voiced your opinion of him here (and I’ll cut & paste) or if you contributed your two cents at our site to let folks know.

Thanks!