An honest reflection as bad run continues

Sometimes you can’t calm the storm. You have to take a step back and calm yourself first.

It’s been another reflective weekend and as always it’s started with looking at myself first. If you have watched us this season you will no doubt have made up your own opinions good, bad or indifferent. Mine however always come from a place of truth. And for whatever reason at this moment the boys are a touch low on confidence in certain areas.

Our start to the game typifies this. After making a few changes in the hope of a response, the lads started off in blistering fashion. We score a well worked goal only a few minutes in and I’m thinking to myself, this will hopefully be the catalyst moment that allows us to go and push on. We then create four guilt edged chances and don’t take them this gave the hosts confidence. We stop doing what was working for us and two minutes before half time we concede. It’s then like that sink or swim moment. Instead of simplifying it we go back out with the world on our shoulders. So for everything good we do in the first forty five minutes we come out and see a completely different team.

Tweedmouth deserved it though. I’ve seen managers try to take the pressure off their players, blame certain circumstances even the red card decision that goes against us on Saturday but coming away from this one the boys maybe need to match me in my own self-reflection. The long and short of it is it’s not good enough. In every way. We’ve been on a difficult run granted but I’ve said to them that although I can always accept off days, I’m finding at this moment the DNA in which the team was built is more than a little bit unrecognisable.

You can always talk a really good game. We all do it. You can lead from your experience and all the information you yourself have accumulated over the years. But sometimes you just need to be honest with yourself first and strip it all the way back to its core. I’ve done that this weekend and I’ve asked a few really tough questions of myself.

Listen there are always pressures, especially when taking on your home town team or indeed playing for your home town team. But if you cut through it all it’s simple. It always rests on getting the smaller details right again. As a group we’ve lowered our standards so it’s no doubt up to the full group to fix the predicament we find ourselves in. That’s the only way we can go forward again.