As the dust settles on last night’s ‘performance’, or lack of it, at Pride Park and our abysmal run of form at the moment, it’s time to get some more blurb off my chest. I haven’t posted much of late because there’s not been a huge amount to shout about – the current form table for all divisions down to National League North/South makes for dismal reading, City lying in 164th out of 164.

After Saturday’s utterly frustrating efforts at home to Wigan where silly mistakes cost us again and we did everything but get the ball in the back of the net, I was hoping that the players would be up for putting things right at Pride Park last night. How wrong I was.

Yesterday marked a year to the day since Gary Caldwell took the reigns at SJP. For the most part, we’ve played some good stuff, and GC has really bought in to what our club is about. However, the form towards the end of last season (although we were virtually safe at that point) of 6 losses in a row and the current run of form of 7 losses out of the last 8 makes for concerning reading. What frustrates me the most is that the players are more than capable of playing in an established L1 side, yet they show no sign of this on a matchday, running down blind alleys, passing sideways and backwards casually when we’re chasing the game and struggling to hit the target full stop.

I know we’ve had issues with injuries in recent weeks, but players are starting to return to the ranks and still the situation isn’t changing. I know Ilmari Niskanen and Dion Rankine are both still out, but even without them the squad should be more than capable. Another issue is of course our lack of firepower up top. Admiral Muskwe has come in and so far since returning from injury hasn’t offered a lot in my opinion. Whether he’s fully fit yet is a question I’m starting to ask, same with James Scott who also had an injury at the start of the season. Losing Sam Nombe was of course a big blow, and if rumours are to be believed we had a deal or two fall through at the final hurdle on Transfer Deadline Day. Based on that, it’s important to ensure that we have some Plan B options in the pipeline going forward to not leave us up the creek without a paddle.

I wasn’t at the Northampton game but heard that Sonny Cox got booed, which to be honest I don’t think is right. He’s still a young player learning his trade and was thrown in at the deep end out of necessity. Hopefully now he’s gone on loan to Yeovil Town, he’ll get a decent amount of game time there and boost his confidence so that he’s ready to challenge for a place when he returns to SJP.

GC keeps mentioning in interviews that we need to keep doing what we’re doing – sorry, but keeping on doing what we’re doing at present is getting us nowhere. Last night’s efforts were not what I expect to see from a side representing our club, and some need to ask themselves whether they’re fit to wear the shirt in my opinion. If GC had come out and said it wasn’t good enough and apologised to the fans on behalf of himself, the staff and the players, I would have given him credit for that.

Instead, it was left to Pierce Sweeney to give a frank, honest interview after the game. He stated that he wanted to put himself forward to be interviewed to stop players saying things they may regret, and I admire him for putting his head above the parapet on that front. He stated that the first half especially wasn’t good enough, and that high standards need to be met. Being the club’s longest-serving player, I believe he cares about ECFC as much as us fans do, and you need someone in the camp that’s willing to take the bull by the horns and say it as it is.

On the plus side, we’re only 14 games into the season with 16 points on the board. 50 points is usually enough to stay in the division, which means 34 more points are needed for expected safety. So from 12 games, 11 wins and a draw would get us to that total, which would take us to 26 games. That leaves a 20-game buffer for the rest of the season, and is why the issues need to be ironed out sooner rather than later.

Managerless Lincoln City are the visitors to SJP on Saturday, and they’ll be in high spirits after their 3-1 win over Charlton last night. It’s now become a must-win game for us, and I strongly believe that once we score again, the confidence will come flooding back. Of course after that we have a break from the bread and butter of the league with the sell-out Carabao Cup tie against Middlesbrough and a reaquaintance with last Saturday’s opponents Wigan in the FA Cup. With both games at home, a win and a decent performance against Lincoln on Saturday should give the team and fans a huge boost going into those two games. Middlesbrough of course are a side we have never played in a competitive fixture, and with their current good form it will be a tough test – as for Wigan, well we need to put right what happened last Saturday.

One thing that does concern me is that if things don’t change soon whether it will become a chore to go to SJP again, as it was during the years of poor home form under Tisdale. This will mean less bums on seats of course, and if GC and the team want to ensure that we get regular sell-outs again, then we need to make sure that we are playing entertaining, attacking football and getting points on the board, instead of being risk-averse and casual whilst we’re chasing a game.

I hope that in my next article we’ll be talking about an upturn in form and have lots of positives to shout about. I still believe in this management and squad, but they need to be miles better.

Hopefully soon the penny will drop, but whatever happens, I’m City til I die. UTC.