Richie Wellens reacts to victory over Boreham Wood in the FA

You have to take Richie’s post match comments with a huge pinch of salt.

just seen Sweeney 2nd yellow. That in no way can It be described as petty.  Blatant and a yellow all day long.  For a player already on a yellow stupidity just doesn’t do it justice. I can think of more appropriate ways to describe it!

But it’s symptomatic of the lack of discipline that’s been rife at the club far too long.

Our indiscipline bites us in the backside. I can understand booking during play. Poor tackles, robust challenges, the so called professional foul.  But when I see players getting booked for blatant time wasting, gobbing off, kicking the ball away I find it infuriating. It’s almost like they don’t know this stuff gets punished more. And rightly so in my opinion.

The dark arts as they are now known have been alive and well certainly in my 60 odd years of watching the game. Even over Hackney Marshes. Nothing new and certainly not a Wellens feature. These days it’s perhaps a little more sophisticated and called game management rather than time wasting. With 34 yellows, league, we are amongst the worst offenders.

Referees have been clamping down on it and rightly so. Teams need to be clever when the ball is in play, that will never be punished because opponents have the chance to challenge for the ball.  The issue is usually when the ball is dead. Excessive time taking a throw or kick, obstructing a fast opponents free kick, kicking the ball away. Yellow card definitely.  Context comes into play, referees look at the situation and can offer leeway when the game is drifting to a conclusion. There is absolutely no leeway when one team is chasing and Sweeney does what he did.  Yellow all day long and RW calling it petty is just wrong.

Any chance Clare might be fit enough to return with James moving to LB?

Add fallen arches and ingrowing toenail to that lot!👍😆 

Tbh doh, DJ looked rather heavy and short on fitness during his brief spell on the pitch @ Boreham Wood. He badly needs game time if he’s going to make much of an impact I’d say.

Personally I think they need to put the player out of his misery and retire him. Share the insurance money he will be entitled to if they have insured him I hope and Os cut their losses.

Play too high a line and we are likely to face the ball over the top, then if it's a pace race, I would worry about our defence.

Exactly. I remember Tommy Taylor trying something along those lines when he put Mark Warren, Matt Joseph & Roger Joseph in as our back three. We could outrun almost anybody but lost everything in the air! There has to be balance.