Rob Davies
Football is a sport which can bring the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in double quick time and sometimes it can make you question the reason you devote so much of your life to what is effectively an expensive and emotionally draining hobby.
If anything was to pose that question it would be Michael Duff football. Seven games in and quite frankly it’s the worst I’ve witnessed since Kenny Jackett was on the ropes against Scunthorpe and Oldham in League One.
Not even Bob Bradley or Paul Clement “keep it to nil” could compare to the dirge that has been served in this seven game start to the season which shows absolutely no sign of encouragement.
The fact that tonight’s affair against a side largely regarded as the worst in the division (for a variety of reasons, Ainsworth, lack of funds etc) ended in a scruffy draw tells you everything about where Duff and this team is right now.
Indeed the second half was attack vs defence with the R’s consistently probing a leveller after Josh Ginnelly’s fortuitous early opener. Things were only worsened in stoppage time after Lyndon Dykes’ equaliser when Ollie Cooper saw red.
All in a day’s work for Captain Duff and his merry band of men that have managed to take Russell Martin’s weaknesses and make them worse and also destroy the strengths that this side had. Bravo!
In what was seen as a positive change there was a move to four at the back instead of the five that had preceded. This despite Duff reiterating that he would not sacrifice his principles.
Rushworth
Key – Cabango – Wood – Humphreys
Fulton – Grimes – Paterson
Lowe – Cullen – Ginnelly
And despite the end result it all started quite positively as Lowe interchanged passes on the right before whipping a ball in which experienced goalkeeper Begovic made a hash of, allowing Ginnelly to head in.
Being balanced the first fifteen minutes was okay at least in respect of what we’ve seen so far this season with some possession football on show. Paterson should have made it 2-0 but skewed his effort as per his form over the past 18 months.
From then on it was just a case of QPR easing themselves into the game with the Swans content on holding the lead and venturing forward on the odd counter attack.
That is always a dangerous approach even against a team that’s won one game at home in eleven months although for some time it worked. But my goodness it was dire.
The slow patient football of years gone by has been replaced by headless chicken, hot potato football with players looking shadows of their former selves. Whatever goes on in training is an absolute mystery.
After the interval the biggest question was who played where as Josh Key was replaced earlier by Josh Tymon. It looked a jumbled mess when surely Humphreys to right and Tymon on the left would make sense.
Not in Duff’s World. Even Ginnelly did a stint back there at one point but the less said about that the better.
The game soon found the pattern we all feared it would as attack after attack came from the wasteful hosts who didnt really look like they would score all night. Missing a goalscorer badly one would think and in need of something special.
That’s what came as Duff had thrown all his substitution dices to no avail as Dykes netted a superb header in injury time to send those already weary and fed up Swans fans home miserable.
Going into the detail of this game is pointless when you could look to any of the previous six before it and it would be carbon copy in terms of the performance. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as Cardiff but it wasn’t far away. This has become the norm.
And undoubtedly it’s clear there is a big decision to make. It’s not just a question of whether Duff is right for the club, it’s a bigger concern around us being drawn into a completely unnecessary relegation battle.
Because right now despite what is a decent squad that is where we are heading. I don’t want to hear about Duff’s great starts at clubs elsewhere – it’s apparent that this is not and will not work.
It’s just when, not if?
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It was handball, you obviously didnโt want to print it , but you can always watch the replay, blatant handball, your a joker