I’VE got something to say. I don’t think it will be popular, but it feels important.
After Tuesday, we need to do better, and it’s not the team I’m referring to. We need to make the Racecourse intimidating again.
Since returning from the international break we’ve struggled. The team needs us.
Derby was not an easy watch and Tuesday was one of those days which affects your mood until the next game rolls around.
Conceding two late goals after leading with 11 minutes left is deflating. Aune Heggebø was offside when he scored the winner as well, just to make it all even more galling.
It was the overall feeling throughout the game which was the most concerning thing, though.
Please don’t get me wrong: Wrexham certainly weren’t fluent. I’m not about to claim we were robbed.
However, West Brom couldn’t have complained if we’d seen the game out. After all, they didn’t really trouble Anthony Patterson, who had no chance with the goals.
It should be remembered that we’ve run headlong into an injury crisis. Eight players were unavailable at Derby, and only Callum Doyle was able to return three days later.
Doyle and Max Cleworth were sorely missed. The centre backs who came in for them didn’t do anything wrong, but ever since Phil Parkinson took the reins we’ve been characterised by a three at the back which relied on our wide centre backs coming forwards to help create opportunities.
Cleworth and Doyle are key to that. Lacking one, or both, of them hurts us.
Consider the players we’ve missed this week. Apart from Doyle and Cleworth at the back, Liberato Cacace and George Thomason aren’t available on the left and there’s a big chunk of quality and experience missing in the middle of the pitch in Matty James, Ben Sheaf, Josh Windass and Nathan Broadhead.
In both matches we’ve clearly seen the effect of those absences, and not only in our struggle for rhythm.
Phil Parkinson has looked to make changes, but there hasn’t been the usual depth on the bench to allow him to do so.
Underperformance was understandable, if not welcome, in the circumstances, but it’s a long season. Injured players will return, and it’s important to try to keep things ticking over through the difficult periods.
Ollie Rathbone’s late equaliser meant we did exactly that at Pride Park, scrapping to get a point from a difficult game.
As I said earlier, we got within 11 minutes of making it four points from six without reaching our usual levels on Tuesday, which would have represented a real achievement.
Looking at it that way, the atmosphere at the game was disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong: this wasn’t the sort of toxic mood which surrounded games at times in the National League.
However, it was a far cry from the amazing relationship between the players and crowd which was a constant feature of our rise up the divisions.
There was no doubt that everybody was in it together then, a quality football fans relish. We’re all suckers for a social media campaign along the lines of #TogetherStronger aren’t we?
Yet that unwavering sense of support was absent on Tuesday. Throughout the last few seasons, the Racecourse crowd has dug deep alongside the team, roaring them on when behind and never losing faith in our ability to eke out a result, one way or another.
How many late goals have we scored, driven forwards by our incredible support?
That spirit wasn’t present on Tuesday. When the game was goalless the crowd got fractious.
Even after Kieffer Moore’s incredible goal, there was a relatively flat atmosphere.
Somehow, we need to find a way to restore that remarkable chemistry and rekindle the noise.
Recognising the need to do that is the easy part. Working out how to do it is less simple.
It’s not as if the nature of the crowd has changed. After all, nearly two-thirds of the attendance every match is made up from season tickets holders. That’s a remarkably high proportion of the people in the stadium.
Sometimes teams need to press the reset button and go back to the underpinning qualities and principles which brought them success in the first place.
Perhaps as fans we can do the same. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture: this club has never experienced anything like this; we’re feeling disappointment because we’re not fulfilling an expectation to challenge for promotion to the Premier League. We played a huge part of our rise to that position, and we can do it again.
Before the game, Parkinson made a point of raising the importance of the crowd. He knew his squad was stretched, and the wholehearted support of the crowd would help them get through the challenge.
We weren’t able to provide that, and arguing the team didn’t give us anything to cheer isn’t an excuse.
We’ve always backed Parkinson’s teams with heart and fire: we need to find that spirit in ourselves again and roar like we did before.
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