While I agree with many that 11 men should win against 9, I would be happy if we had drawn. But we lost the game in the first minute.
While nobody can begrudge Randall an excellent (second) goal, the first one came from our sheer inexperience and lack of clarity on "who does what and when" in a high line setup. If we still lose goals, because of that, heading into fourth round, clearly this is not good enough.
If we were not 1:2 down, but at say a 1:1 draw, I think the last 15 minutes would have played out the same. A-FC would play the same way because the objective would be not to lose the game.
If we were leading 1:0 at that time, I do not think A-FC would have parked the bus; they would try to even the score (since attacking in order to even the score would in that scenario be worth the risk of losing 2:0 at that point).
So in my books it all boils down to the defensive error in the first minute. And unless this is ironed out, this repetitive mistake alone can cost us the season, even more than the injuries.
While nobody can begrudge Randall an excellent (second) goal, the first one came from our sheer inexperience and lack of clarity on "who does what and when" in a high line setup. If we still lose goals, because of that, heading into fourth round, clearly this is not good enough.
If we were not 1:2 down, but at say a 1:1 draw, I think the last 15 minutes would have played out the same. A-FC would play the same way because the objective would be not to lose the game.
If we were leading 1:0 at that time, I do not think A-FC would have parked the bus; they would try to even the score (since attacking in order to even the score would in that scenario be worth the risk of losing 2:0 at that point).
So in my books it all boils down to the defensive error in the first minute. And unless this is ironed out, this repetitive mistake alone can cost us the season, even more than the injuries.