When a golfer says 'it went straight down the middle', you don't seem to be that concerned with what was no doubt a fine shot. But when a football team concedes a goal because of a ball that went straight down the middle, alarm bells start to ring!
Such was the feeling when Millwall scored their equaliser against Bournemouth the other night. It was a free kick that Bournemouth really could have dealt better with and even Jason Tindall had to admit that Millwall's goal wasn't good enough. Lloyd Kelly was well out jumped and there was no cover behind him from Jack Simpson or Steve Cook, with runners getting free of their markers for Matt Smith to score. Solanke ended up the closest to Smith, but he couldn't get the right side of him.
The warnings signs were there in the first half when Woods fed Jed Wallace, who burst through the middle of the defence, skipping over Simpson's lunge and making his way through to take on Begovic. If he had decided to take the ball around the right side of Asmir Begovic he would have scored. As it was, Asmir stood up as best he could and managed to block the shot with his legs.
I have to wonder why the defence is making mistakes? Set-pieces are something that can be practised and while at this stage it is not so important of the odd point is dropped, the team has to be better now. There were several free kicks that saw Begovic have to make a save low down and Lerma cleared me off the line while Zahore hit the post. The walls that Bournemouth put up might as well not be there.
It may be that Tindall decides that he must have an out-and-out centre-back next to Steve Cook and this latest episode could have opened the door for Carmeron Carter-Vickers to come in. He has done the training and we know he can play at this level, so if the trio of Kelly, Simpson and Cook is not working well enough, perhaps Tindall will be bold enough to make the change in the next match against Luton.
In other news, the Daily Mail reports that Jack Wilshere is expected to be offered a contract at AFCB.
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