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Izzy Gonna Be The Difference?
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Every McLeod...
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By:
Eric Hitchmo
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14/12/2010
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More On Accrington Stanley
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Is this what we've been crying out for? Someone who can make something out of nothing? Quite possibly. I did say a few months ago that signing Izale McLeod could make or break our season. On Saturday's evidence this could well be the case.
Izale McLeod was the difference between Barnet and Accrington on Saturday. In a game where we really struggled to make any sort of inroad into the shaky visiting defence, he was given two chances in the first half and took them both. Both of them were finely taken goals, particularly the second and put us into a half time position that we were not justified to be in as Stanley had enjoyed plenty of possession and territorial advantage. However, they were unable to really test Jake Cole and paid the price when they gave McLeod the slightest sniff of the South Stand goal. He even outshone the workhorse Steve Kabba who had a pretty quiet game by his standards.
In the main part it was a lacklustre game of football played in front of a decent crowd, far higher than expected. The South Stand was pretty full in what appeared to be a big old ticket giveaway, and the entire East Terrace was opened up to home supporters owing to the low visiting support who as usual, outshouted the home crowd. It's going to take more than just this to get Underhill buzzing again, but if you're looking for a starting point then I guess a win with a clean sheet is a good place to do it.
Accrington were as physical as ever and made it hard for us to create anything of note. Marshall was quiet on the left as was Holmes on the right. Sam Cox came into the middle which I thought was strange, I still don't know what Rossi Jarvis has done so wrong to not warrant an inclusion in the starting XI. Perhaps his passing is too accurate for Stimson's game. That's not to say Cox played badly, but in Jarvis we have a very good option which is not being utilised. A reshuffled backline were able in the large part to keep the visitors away from Jake Cole. George Francomb dropped to right back and in another strange move, Joe Devera moved to left back. The latter continues to have a disappointing season, with distribution being a key area of weakness, so I am left questioning why you would put him on the opposite side of defence where you would be relying on his weaker foot. Perhaps our management knows something I don't.
The important thing at this stage is the three points however. Picking wins up at home is going to hold further importance as we show no sign of breaking the away duck any time soon. At the moment I'm not bothered whether they're pretty or not, we just need to win and keep in touch with the similar level of dross just above us. There are lots of poor teams in League Two this year and we are one of them. Fortunately we are just about keeping up with them as Hereford begin to slip away, but we'll also need to be keeping the heat on the Lincoln's, Stockport's and Southend's of this world. In fact it is so tight that a couple of defeats could see a team topple from the higher echelons of mid-table all the way down to where we reside. On the same tact, a couple of wins could see us concentrating more on the playoffs, but then I did just see a pig just flying around outside my window. Look what a couple of away wins have done for Gillingham though. We've got The Chavs away soon, that would be a lovely place to start, failing Southend on Boxing Day that is.
There's a long way to go yet, but with the signs that Izale has shown so far, the road could be made a little less treacherous with his priceless goalscoring touch. It's Port Vale next which is something of a tough assignment, travelling to second place in the table 'n all. Not much suggests that we're going to be able to get a result, but with someone lethal to take chances you just never know. I'm not sure many will go, at all, I still can't be persuaded into enduring a league away game again and I'm certain that many others are in the same boat. Unless it's The Chavs, we'll definitely take a few there...
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