Source: Northern_Echo
Todd bewildered by lack of defensive authority
FRUSTRATED Darlington manager Colin Todd has reiterated his desire to strengthen the defence after watching his side suffer another loss.
Quakers went down 2-1 at Accrington Stanley on Friday so remain bottom of the table with only one point from seven games, but the manner of defeat was of equal cause for concern.
Only during a short period following Kevin Gall’s second half equaliser did Todd’s side appear anything other than destined for a deserved defeat during a performance as disappointing as the previous week’s loss at Lincoln.
The manager, who last week hoped to sign two new full back son loan only for the deals to fall through, did little to hide his disappointment, particularly with the defence, saying: “In the second half at times we started to come into the game, there were little glimpses, but the defending was alarming.
“I’d always felt there was more to come from us in an attacking sense.
“After the goal we started to believe in ourselves a lot more. But we can’t afford defending like that.
“We got an equaliser, but then for their winner one pass has travelled 60 or 70 yards and we haven’t dealt with it – and that happened a lot, balls played from deep put us on the back foot.
“It doesn’t matter what we do, we can’t seem to defend balls into our box. We had the same at Lincoln where we conceded goals like that and two more on Friday.
“Defenders must be ball watching and not seeing people they should be marking so I would still like to bring in two full-backs to try and make things tighter at the back.”
Accrington were backed by an attendance of 3,228 – their highest crowd for two and a half years – as fans rallied behind the club who are facing administration unless they can raise over £300,000 to pay a tax bill.
Stanley took the lead midway through the first half after Quakers’ keeper David Knight spilled a shot that Andrew Procter tucked home before Gall equalised in the 59th minute with an impressive lob.
But Accrington got a winner with six minutes to go when sub Robert Keys headed home after receiving a right-wing cross in acres of space in Darlington’s penalty area.
It was an incident that left Todd, a regular in the England defence during his playing days, flabbergasted.
Matt Plummer replaced the dropped Steve Foster at centreback with Rikki Bains starting at right-back but the changes clearly did not have the desired affect.
And with Mark Bower limping off with an injury, replaced at leftback by winger Jeff Smith, the need for fresh blood is evident.
With the resources at Todd’s disposal limited, the manager says his current crop of players must change their ways.
“They’re going to have to learn very quickly,” he said.
“I can’t make decisions for players, we have a way of playing but on the pitch it’s the players that have got to make correct decisions.
“Defending should be simple.
When marking in the box you’re meant to be with a man and you anticipate any danger, but we aren’t anticipating.
“You have to stop crosses coming in, but you can’t always do that. But you cannot mark space in the box, you have to mark, but we didn’t. You cannot win games of football if you mark space.
“The second was an absolutely shocking goal to give away, especially when we’d earned the right to get back into the game. He had a free header in the box, we never have a free header in the box.
“Towards the end we put a cross in and one of their defenders put his neck on the line to win the header. We don’t do that, we don’t anticipate.
“We obviously haven’t got leaders out there. The easiest thing in the world is to defend a ball coming into the box. At a corner, for example, you should always be able to defend that unless the ball played in is real quality. But the goals we have conceded have not been quality, it’s bad defending.
“I am trying to get the right formation and I left the skipper (Steve Foster) out. But they are going to have to learn quickly.’’ Nathan Porritt’s loan spell is over and the winger has been sent back to Middlesbrough.
■ Former Darlington keeper David Stockdale made his Premier League debut for Fulham in their 2-1 win over Everton yesterday.
First-choice Mark Schwarzer had a neck problem so Stockdale was called on for his first start.
