[shakermaker]

To say I was frustrated after the game yesterday would be an understatement and I must apologise to anyone who was within earshot of my expletives between Accrington and the journey home to Salford.

Put simply, everything went wrong. We started brightly and then petered out into a shameful mess.

Team selection - Laurence Wilson does not have a right foot yet was played at right back and was subsequently annihilated time and time again. Beattie was a dead weight, embarrassingly trudging around in a ten yard square, winning about 10% of the balls put to him and failing to hold it up when he did. We seem to be making a lot of people unhappy and making our own team worse in order to make space in the team for him.

Shape - I don't know what the instructions were for the left flank but needless to say it was a horror show. Boco started on the left but kept drifting inwards to a centre forward position, which meant him and Podge were going for the same passes - this meant our wide options were minimised. Not only was Podge doing the running for the oil tanker that is Beattie but was also covering Boco as he showed the positional sense of a bluebottle. Amond's injury meant that Boco was pushed up front which allowed him the free role in which he is best applied.
On the right, Lindfield seemed to be played as an inside forward but spent most of his time tracking back to help out the hapless Wilson. Lindfield worked hard but lost the ball often due to having no outlet.
When the ball was in the opposition's defending third we failed to close the ball down with any tenacity. Look at how the other team act when we have the ball on the edge of our box compared to how we do - we sit and wait for the ball to be played. This is criminal.
Neither Miller or Joyce imposed themselves on the game which meant we were overrun. When Dixon came on - stampeding through the middle and causing the Daggers all manner of problems - this difference was highlighted.

Individual errors - our marking was horrific at set-pieces, gifting free headers to the opposition with a cringing regularity.

Application - there was no hunger, fight or desire to win the game from any player on the park. That fact is the most disappointing as it is the only thing Stanley fans demand from their team. The only positive comment I have on this subject is the way Dixon and Clark played like they want to be in the team, well done you two.

Yesterday was a reality check. We did not turn the proverbial corner we all hoped we did on New Year's Day. We shouldn't need the petulance of a former manager returning to the ground in order to stir up some desire. If we play like this again, we're well on the way to getting relegated. Get another gate like that and I don't want to say where we'll be.

I feel for Leam as he has inherited a team with hardly any experience in it but he's going to have to pull something out of the bag this month.