It could have been worse.
We were, or maybe still are, an out of form side travelling to the league leaders. I was expecting a defeat, and so were a lot of people.
In the end, we managed to get a point, and on another day we may have won. The performance wasn’t perfect, Cambridge probably had a better quality of chance in the first half. We put plenty of good balls across the box, but Nathan Delfouneso’s shot across the box at the end of the half was probably our real big effort before the break.
In the second half, we should have taken the lead, but the offside flag wrongly went up against Harry Brockbank. Maybe we played one pass too many and we should have had a crack there or again, but I suppose it would also be nice if the officials did their job too.
Billy Crellin didn’t have a lot to do, but when he needed to do something it went badly wrong, Jack Iredale’s cross wasn’t dealt with well enough, and the attempt at a punch ended up in the back of our net. I don’t know whether the windy weather may have affected his judgement (probably not), but it’ll only add more fuel to the fire, after a good first few performances he has come under fire in recent weeks, and now, also from his own manager.
Ian Evatt has publicly criticised Crellin in the wake of that, also pinning the first two goals in midweek on him. Whether Crellin does need to be tougher is one thing, but I’m not sure publicly calling out Crellin and telling a 20-year old still learning his trade to man up is the wisest move.
Eoin Doyle also came off with a hamstring strain early in the second half and will probably miss Tuesday’s home game with Bradford.
But Wanderers still managed to fight back and get a point, with a great strike from Antoni Sarcevic which few keepers would have been able to stop. We might have then gone on to take all three points, which would have been a huge boost, but Dimitar Mitov was able to deny Nathan Delfouneso.
While results haven’t been good enough, the optimist could point towards one defeat in five now, now we just need some wins.