A lot of people thought we were going to turn up to Accrington yesterday, bring loads of fans and take home three points.
I had a feeling we might get beat. Nobody would have predicted what actually happened. 7-1, our worst third tier defeat, one goal away from equalling our worst ever defeat, and there’s even an argument it could be the single worst result in the club’s history.
It started off really well, with Daryl Murphy now in good scoring form, making it four goals in four league games within the first five minutes, nobody had done that for us since Daniel Sturridge. The game would turn less than 10 minutes later with the controversial moment of the day – Josh Earl was turned and the drag back did warrant a penalty. What was the surprise was Earl then being given a straight red card by referee Anthony Backhouse, was it a clear goalscoring opportunity, that would be debatable. In any case Colby Bishop stepped up, converted the penalty, and then gave it the big one to the travelling support, misunderstanding that anyone knew who he was before then.
Then the floodgates opened. Liam Bridcutt was dropped back to defence, and Wanderers continued to try and play on the front foot, which seemed a mistake and the fact Keith Hill brought on Yoan Zouma for the booked Chris O’Grady shortly before half-time illustrated that. By then, we were 3-1 down, and the second half would see four more Stanley goals, with our lot seemingly incapable of defending balls coming from wide. It’s almost an insult that Offrande Zanzala came off the bench late in the day and became the third man in a red shirt to grab a brace.
After three wins in a row, maybe it’s just a horrendous one off. At least our next game is scheduled to be away to Accringt…oh.