‘This isn’t just down to individual errors’

Here we go again.

Another Saturday, another limp defeat, another poor defensive display. Never mind play-off ambitions, any side looking to stay in our division next season should be beating Wimbledon at home. A side averaging half a goal per game shouldn’t be in with a shot of any win on the road, let alone a comfortable one, scoring three goals in the process.

I’m not sure we had even reached 100 seconds on the clock when the visitors opened the scoring. Granted, the goal was set up with a cheeky backheel that took three defenders out of commission, but the ease in which their goalscorer breezed past Tom Broadbent and tapped past Adam Smith is symptomatic of our continued defensive frailties.

It’s not unfair on Rovers to say that the game could’ve been over not long afterwards. Cody McDonald, Dons’ striker, wouldn’t need to regret a bad miss, but the central defensive pairing need to sorely regret the kind of positioning that allowed a tame through ball to pass between at roughly the rate of knots accrued by a yacht going under a bridge.

The visitors’ second goal was, again, typical of Rovers this season. Instead of, y’know, putting in a tackle, the defender backs away, again and again, until the Wimbledon player has a sight of goal. You can’t really blame Lee Brown for not committing to the tackle, as Wimbledon had a man over, as someone in the Rovers team just completely disregarded their defensive duty. Then, on the hour, came the third: an 80-yard punt, not dealt with by the centre halves.

There were other hairy moments; Smith spilling a low cross in the first half to name but one.

This issue doesn’t come down to budgets, or training facilities, or stadiums. All of these things are, of course, worthy of discussion, but this is down to a manager, his coaching staff, and his players. All three are guilty of failing to adequately organise defensively.

I have immense respect for Darrell Clarke as a manager and as a person, but if I hear the words “individual errors” pass through his mouth again I will turn a shade of purple. It’s not down to individual errors when multiple players aren’t picking up their men, when the defence is split by a mediocre through ball, or when the side isn’t keeping the ball well enough to ease the pressure on the back four.

Individual errors don’t account for an entire team being worse at defending than last season. Clarke’s first choice back four (Brown, Sweeney, Lockyer, Leadbitter) were all here last season. Admittedly, we weren’t exactly Fort Knox last season, but they weren’t this bad.

Broadbent made mistakes on Saturday but while reviewing the game via highlights I noticed that after the slow through ball alluded to earlier, he was communicating with Lockyer, as opposed to the other way around, that they needed to keep it tighter. The player with ten League appearances to his name doing the talking to the one with 200. If you didn’t know the squad you’d have thought Broadbent was the captain as opposed to Lockyer.

Please don’t think I dislike Lockyer: he’s been a key part of our ascent back up from the abyss and has represented the club with distinction. But he needs a break from first-team action. Also, a side that is so disorganised doesn’t tend to be a well-led one on the pitch, so a rest for the Welshman would also give someone else the opportunity to captain the side.

On top of that, we offered very little going forward (despite Ellis Harrison’s continued excellent work rate and the introduction of fit-again Billy Bodin), and lacked width – mainly because the manager started four central midfielders. As a result, we looked beaten after two minutes, really. That’s not just down to individual mistakes, and it’s not down to training grounds or budget talks.

If a goal-shy team of relegation candidates at home was a mountain we couldn’t climb, a visit to Ewood Park, home of Blackburn Rovers, for the first time in 26 years, looks like Everest. The former Premier League champions have put away 9 goals in their last 3 games, and their squad includes players worthy of a top six placing in League One, if not higher.

Ben Gladwin and Peter Whittingham have both played a good load of games in the second tier, and Bradley Dack may have been a tad overrated in his time at Gillingham, with paper talk of a possible Premier League move, but he’s easily good enough to do some damage. While their Swedish striker Marcus Antonsson, on loan from Leeds, is their top scorer, Danny Graham is the one I fear; he’s scored goals at the level above this, and has a point to prove, having been cast asunder by multiple Premier League sides before ending up in Lancashire. He works like an ox and is a decent finisher.

As noted above, Rovers’ last trip to the other Rovers was 26 years ago, in 1991. Back then, just before Christmas, the home side (managed by new boss Kenneth Dalglish) ran out 3-0 winners. Would you put serious money against a repeat?