TASTE OF THE TERRACE: Takeover news lessened impact of unacceptable display

The brief announcement a couple of hours before kick-off regarding the likely completion of a takeover of Crawley Town somehow lessened the impact of the match. Not that our performance against The Stags did much to refocus the crowd.

Adequate financing for a League Two campaign was seen as the most important requirement.

Cash-strapped Reds had to register 41-year-old goalkeeping coach Andy Little as a player as another week passed without a regular keeper being persuaded to throw in his lot at Broadfield, if only for the rest of the season.

That could understandably be due to a fear of being left exposed by an unreliable defence as again happened against Mansfield. It was telling that the award of man of the match to Callum Preston was the highlight of the afternoon.

Concerned supporters are hoping for improvement but they are most definitely looking for change. On the field there was no sign of any. Who was supposed to be marking Mansfield’s scorer Chris Beardsley? Ross Jenkins belatedly chased him as he ran into space but somebody was asleep.

The midfield was impotent with Luke Rooney left to cool his heels on the bench. And why do we continually pump balls forward when our strikers, whatever their qualities, are not gifted with pace?

Tactically we are way off the mark but Bobson Bawling seized the opportunity of a rare start and earned plaudits by showing some enthusiasm and getting stuck in. Shades of Sergio Torres but Bobson doesn’t have his nous and invariably overdid things.

Mansfield were classier all round than our recent opponents but we should still have been able to hold them and we should have had seven points from the past three games. We have ended up with zilch.

As I said last week it is simply not good enough.

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