This time last Friday we were struggling to find goals anywhere but we were in the midst of a 34 game unbeaten home run. A little over eight days later and we are no longer unbeaten at home but we have scored six goals in our last two outings.
After late fight backs and stunning victories helped us maintain such an impressive unbeaten home record it was Scunthorpe United, winless and bottom of the league, that would be the side to finally break down our resilience in the most anti climatic of fashions. A one goal defeat in an otherwise forgettable encounter ended 18 months of dominance on home soil. But lets not dwell, the pressure is off now and despite the fact that we are no longer unbeaten we have still only lost one game at home in 36 and we should just look at it as a blip.
Which thankfully appears to be the case. Coventry were next to visit the Meadow three days after we had been upset by Alan Knill’s men. Like Scunthorpe they had yet to win a game this season and five minutes into the game it was easy to see why. They were awful. A goalkeeper error allowed us to take the lead inside the opening few minutes and we never looked back from there, smashing four past them during the game and only conceding one to a questionable penalty.
So we had restored our confidence following our defeat and things were looking up for us as we made the long journey north to Hartlepool this weekend. Much like us The Pools had had an inconsistent start to the season and were coming into the game with something to prove following their midweek stuffing at the hands of Preston North End.
One of our biggest problems this campaign has been our strikers inability to score. Despite creating numerous chances in the games we have played we have been unable to get the results we deserve due to this. On the back of being gifted a goal in the week against Coventry Marvin Morgan appears to finally be stepping up his game. The striker netted a brace against Hartlepool and had it not been for a great save towards the end of the contest he would have had a much deserved hattrick. Morgan’s efforts were cancelled out late on following a 90th minute equaliser from Hartlepool but there were many positives that could be taken from the game.
A week’s a long time in football, 8 days ago we hadn’t lost at home and our strikers couldn’t find the net, we have now surrendered our home record but finally Morgan looks as though as he could have found his scoring boots. A striker is still needed to improve the squad but our form is definitely improving.
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