A WASTEFUL NIGHT

This was a night of high drama that may come back to haunt us. In an incredibly tight promotion race where every point matters to secure an automatic place, to miss not one but two golden opportunities to beat one of our main rivals was unforgivable.

Having weathered a largely blunt Burnley attack for 85 minutes it appeared the key moment had come when the trickery of Eliezer Mayenda won us a penalty. Given Patrick Roberts' earlier costly miss at Sheffield United, I was relieved to hear not him but Wilson Isidor step up to take the kick as I listened to Barnesy and Gary Bennett on Radio Newcastle. With the Frenchman having had a relatively poor game, however, squandering at least one golden opportunity to win the match, there remained a doubt that he may not be the right person for this key moment. Maybe Jobe, our best and most confident player, was a better option? My fears were justified when a weak penalty was saved following the disgraceful time wasting antics of James Trafford.

Game over I thought, as a let-off-the-hook Burnley pressed for a winner in extra time. Hold on boys I thought, a point is still a decent result. Little did I know there was more drama to come. Then came the second surely decisive moment in almost the last kick of the game when amazingly another penalty was given in the dying seconds of the match. This time I was relieved to see Jobe step up to take the kick. He won’t miss, I thought. He is the man for the moment. Then, to my utter disbelief, Isidor grabbed the ball to take a second penalty. This can’t be happening I thought. Don’t let him do this! Someone step in and stop this! This is too important to take such a reckless risk. Then, after more Trafford antics, the inevitable happened as another weak Isidor attempt was saved. To the fury of his fans and Jobe, Isidor had let his ego run away with itself to the enormous cost of the team. A French love affair was going down in spectacular flames.

How costly this moment of madness and lack of leadership will do to team spirit and our promotion chances in the long run remains to be seen. The recklessness and wastefulness of Isidor casts a major question over his suitably to be our main striker for the remainder of the season and highlights the urgent need to bring in another more dependable option in the transfer window. To his credit, Isidor has issued the necessary apology to his fans and team-mates but the damage may have been done.