Who's responsible? You f**king are.

Somehow, inexplicably, we’re still 4th. It’s not for lack of trying to throw the play offs away, though. This is just what Oldham do now, apparently. They just collapse in the second half of the season.

The starting line-up v Yeovil, like the starting line-up v Woking, was something of an eyebrow-raiser. Garner has hardly played all season, so playing him from the start seemed something of a gamble. What the hell is going on with Lundstram? Why is he in and out of the team like this? If he’s injured, say so. What does Yoganathan have to do to earn a starting place?

One positive was that, having both looked injured at the end of the Woking game, Hobson and Leake were both fit to start. Or were they?

Ten minutes in, the travelling support got the start they were probably half-expecting rather than the one they deserved. Leake stopped tracking his man, thinking the ball had gone out. Play to the whistle, Jake. The ball was played into the box, no-one cut it out, and it was a tap-in for Lo-Everton.

It could have been 2 shortly after, with McGuckin shooting wide. Leake was forced off 21 minutes in, and I’m really starting to wonder whether we’re contributing to our own ‘bad luck’ with injuries. Uchegbulam came on for him, and won us a corner, beating their player down the left, because yes, he can beat a man, and if you’re wondering why he often doesn’t seem to have the confidence to take a man on, then you haven’t been paying attention. Pett’s delivery was just too high unfortunately.

📸 Thomas Lee Stacey

We started the second half as poorly as the first, we failed to deal with a long ball, and McGuckin played in Lo-Everton for another tap-in. It just doesn’t feel like we’re 4th and in with a chance of getting promoted, does it?

We reacted, as we’ve so often had to recently, by bringing on Fondop and Yoganathan for Garner and Rossiter, and I can’t help thinking that would have been the better option to start with.

Caprice had another decent game, making some good runs down the right, and played Conlon in after one of them, but his shot from 30 yards was well over. He did get his reward with a consolation goal from an impressive strike from outside the box.

📸 Thomas Lee Stacey

Alas, it was too little, too late. We sent Hudson up for a corner, but nothing came of it. Another shitty, disheartening display. We may well be in our best league position for years, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.

📸 Thomas Lee Stacey

I’m sure you’ve all seen Mellon’s post-match interview by now. He bemoaned the soft goals we gave away, he praised the supporters for sticking with the players, and he claimed that “I accept all the criticism that comes my way, all of the time.” I’m not sure you do, you tetchy bugger, you quite often complain that no-one listens to you when you tell them how unlucky we’ve been with injuries.

What got everyone’s attention, though, was his bizarre comments about Fondop: “We want more from Michael, we want more, I might as well tell you, we want much more, and he usually gives you that reaction when he comes off the bench, didn’t quite give us what we needed today, but he is going to have to give us more.”

I think this might be the final straw for me. Having been initially released by us last summer, Mikey has led the line nearly all season and is our top scorer. He’s been our best defender at set pieces since Monthe got injured. He didn’t complain when he was getting run into the ground, being played up front on his own, twice a week, when he was clearly knackered and in need of support and we had options on the bench. I'm not sure what more he has left to give.

Mellon has chopped and changed the team and brought in a shed load of players, many of whom he seems to have instantly got bored of. He’s changed the formation, sometimes (e.g. Woking) early on in the first half, and seldom to make us more attacking. He’s brought players back from injury too quickly, and he’s been reluctant to give young, attacking players like Yoganathan and Uchegbulam a chance, when we should be looking to get on the front foot in games and go all out to win convincingly.

But the problem is that Fondop isn’t giving us enough?

The reaction was pretty much immediate, and striking. Suzanne Geldard gets some criticism for not being critical enough of the club (unfairly – she needs to maintain a good relationship with the club to do her job, are people really expecting her to go into pressers like she’s David Frost and Mellon’s Richard Nixon? What would that even achieve?), but she quite rightly highlighted how important Fondop’ contribution has been this season and argued that singling him out for criticism was “folly”. Phill Smith posted a reel of his photos of Fondop’s goals this season, and social media was, for once, pretty unanimous in its verdict.

Fondop, for his part, took to Instagram to thank fans for their support, and to say that “It’s also a good thing this has happened”, before reflecting on the Gospel at Mass last Sunday being about the Passion of Christ.

He then clarified that he simply wanted to thank fans and to share the Word and inspiration of God. He didn’t compare himself to Jesus or Micky Mellon to Pontius Pilate. He would never do something so sacrilegious. Me, on the other hand…

I’m still not convinced that sacking the manager when you’re 4th in the table with 4 games left and (hopefully) a play-off campaign to come is the right thing to do. I’m becoming less convinced that it’s definitely the wrong thing to do, though.

Yes, losing Stones and Clucas was a huge blow. Would it have been better to have not had them in the first place? Were we building the team entirely around a player that we took forever to bring in on loan?

Yes, we’ve been unlucky with injuries, with Monthe in particular being a huge loss. Norwood and Garner both struggling can’t have come as that much of a shock, though. Have Barnet, York and Forest Green been especially lucky with injuries? Have they had the luxury of being able to play their first choice XI all season?

The stark truth is that, with the resources and squad that we’ve got, we should be in a better position than we are. When we got knocked out of the FA Trophy by Stockton – a competition that Mellon “couldn’t care less about” because he wanted to focus solely on promotion – we were 7 points off the top of the league. We are now 26 points off the top of the league, having massively underperformed after Christmas for the second year running.

Speaking of Stockton, they beat Prescot Cables 1-0 last Saturday, and I’m really starting to hate the Teesside bastards. I did tell several of their fans as much after the game, but they were too pissed to care. It was a bumper gate (and definitely a good day for the bar takings), and Cables went viral for how they chose to share the attendance.

I don’t know what the answer is in the short term, but Micky Mellon is not getting us out of this league. Bad luck, injuries, poor referees, whatever. It’s his job to manage that, he’s been dealt a better hand than most managers in this league, he can’t say he hasn’t been backed and given a chance, and where we are isn’t good enough. As I’ve said before, if he’s to blame for how we’ve played this year, then he also deserves credit for how we played up until Christmas. But to underperform so badly in the second half of the season, two years running, is more than bad luck.

It was, sadly, a bad weekend for our teams all round, with the women losing 3-1 at Rochdale. They can be proud of the progress they’ve made as a new team over the course of this season, though, and I look forward to seeing them continue to improve next season.

Things are going considerably better for the Roughyeds, who sit in second place in the Championship after 6 games. I got a season ticket because they did a really good offer for Blue Light Card holders, and Sunday’s game v Featherstone Rovers was the first match I’ve made it to. Featherstone were strong and quick and the Roughyeds weren’t at their best, and it was a mad game. Having been 12-24 down at one point, we pulled it back to 30-28, thanks in large part to Josh Drinkwater’s kicking being a class above. Rovers were awarded a penalty as the hooter went, which would have levelled the score had they kicked it over…but they fucked it. What a great afternoon. If you want entertainment and home wins at Boundary Park, switch sports.

If we’re still 4th in the league at 5pm on Monday, it will be a miracle befitting of Easter. But I would absolutely love it if it turns out that Mellon is our saviour and I am a doubting Thomas. Prove us wrong, Micky. KTMFF.

📸 Thomas Lee Stacey

Written by Arlene Finnigan