Sorry for the long post. but this supporter summed up yesterday brilliantly
Danny Cunningham is one of the more technically gifted players at this level, but his talent is, sadly, allied with a suspect temperament that has resulted in a poor disciplinary record. Today 45 minutes into the match he simply imploded, and, presumably, will not be seen in a Leiston shirt again. All this unraveled about 5 yards from where I was standing. Having collided accidentally with the referee Cunningham launched into a foul mouth tirade against the official which continued way beyond the point at which a wiser footballer may have shut up and taken a yellow card. Red cad was fully justified. What happened next was much, much worse. An elderly supporter mildly reproofed Cunningham for his language, at which the player, instead of going down the tunnel, started to head into the crowd to front up the Leiston fan. Boardley saw this and ran to intercept him and was then subjected to a tirade of threats with Cunningham repeatedly shouting 'Don't touch me' into Boardley's face from a distance of about 6 inches, while jabbing his finger at Boardley's face. Rossis and another member of the bench hurried over and eventually managed to shepherd Cunningham down the tunnel. An utter disgrace.
As for the match, Finch was injured so Winter played up front supported by a clearly unfit Heath. Leiston were dire-not a single attempt on goal in the first half and only a brilliant Jones save from a ball thumped towards the top corner kept the scores level. There seemed to be no aim to the play, precious little midfield support (again) for the lone striker, and a ragged back line who seemed unable to keep their defensive shape.The second half saw more purpose but only a couple of chances and a sterling rearguard action was only undone in the last couple of minutes when Wingate's skillful wing play saw Patch turned inside out (though he missed a chance to clean out man and ball) and the low hit cross to the near post turned past Jones. There are two schools of thought regarding the team at the moment-the first is that we are just in a minor slump and the second is that we have played poorly all season and now the luck has run out. I subscribe to the latter view, especially as the players don't seem able to take tactical instruction from either Jones behind them or Wilkins from the bench. If you play one up front the midfield need to support, if you press the ball, everyone has to, if you want to hold a defensive line, all 4 defenders have to be in the same line. The players seem unaware, or unable, to understand this most basic of tactical necessities. Until they do, we will continue to struggle.
