Harrogate Town opinion: Squandering a two-goal lead twice in four days borders on negligence

I’ve been looking forward to this trip since the last trip over the Pennines to neighbouring Oldham.

So, having dropped my wife off at the grandparents’ in Halifax, my daughter and I set off on the short journey past the dramatic Baitings Reservoir and over the pylon-lined, rain-lashed Pennines.

Rochdale being the birthplace of the modern Co-Operative Movement, it’s perhaps no surprise that the local football club has 300 shareholders, mostly fans, and has always been majority fan-owned since formation in 1907.

They’re a club that’s lived inside their means, mostly unspectacularly nestling in the Fourth Division/League Two, whilst avoiding the calamities seen at nearby Bury, Bolton and Oldham.

The board and fans saw off a hostile bid for the club in the close season and are now being taken to court. This only serves to remind us that the wolf is never far from the door in this part of the country.

It’s a nice set-up and a tidy ground, much changed from my previous visit 34 years ago. Attendances are fairly modest and today visiting Town fans make up over a tenth of the crowd.

At £36 admission cost for my 16-year-old daughter and I, it’s probably no surprise in these times of the rising cost of living. The game had better be good.

Town get off to a quick start. A poor home clearance is picked off, Brahima Diarra flicks a quick pass and a vicious Alex Pattison drive sends the 260 Town fans into raptures.

Any hopes of romping away with this one dissipate, however, as Rochdale start to play some lovely football. Our goal lives a charmed life and it’s no surprise when they equalise.

Just as I’m pondering the mystery as to why our hosts are so low in the table, calamitous defending gifts Town a penalty. Mystery solved. The bigger mystery though, is how on earth we manage to go in at half-time 2-1 up instead of 4-2 down. We’ve been defending far too deep, sitting back and inviting pressure onto the defence. It needs to change.

And change it does, as we storm out of the blocks early second half, pressing higher up the pitch and into a two-goal lead. Town songs are echoing round the ground and it looks like it’s going to be a good afternoon. We spurn good chances to extend our lead and the referee pulls play back for a Town free-kick when Luke Armstrong’s through one-on-one.

Then Warren Burrell’s too easily shrugged off the ball, a rare mistake for such a dependable player, and it’s 3-2. We hold out until the 87th minute when the inevitable happens and Rochdale equalise in front of their ecstatic fans. It turns out we can’t defend either.

It’s at times like this that us football supporters can get over critical and too analytical, seeking to apportion blame to individual players or the tactics. I’m not going to do this here.

Sometimes a game is just so gung-ho, with both teams going all out to score and both defences going all out to concede, that you just have to stand back and admire it for what it is: a six-goal thriller. And, at £6 a goal, slightly better value than when we entered.

If I’d made the long journey down to Exeter on Tuesday night, I don’t think I’d have found myself in the same easy-going mood. To let a 3-1 lead slip once is perhaps forgivable, to do so for a second time in four days is borderline negligent.

If the players were on a learning curve after Saturday, we’re still on the downward slope. It felt like complete deja-vu with Town storming into an early lead and missing chances to make it four before a home comeback to break our hearts. We even had the obligatory refereeing howler.

The only differences this time was that we conceded a fourth and lost the game, and the journey home for the brave few that travelled was a little more than a short jaunt over the Pennines.

Whether it’s a mental thing, or just plain slack defending, we just can’t seem to hold a lead for love nor money. Whilst not being a tactical genius, I’m going to offer a couple of observations.

I spent much of the first half at Rochdale screaming at the players to defend five yards higher up the pitch and to get out quickly when clearing the ball. My normal vantage point in the Kop doesn’t afford me the view I had at Spotland and it was as clear as day.

Defending as deep as we did gave our opponents room to play in front of us, confined the play to our defensive third and almost encouraged a siege mentality. It did improve after the break, so I’m hopeful it was spotted.

Since the heavy defeats at Newport and Luton, we’ve adopted the knee jerk reaction of pulling everyone back for corners, even the fastest player on the pitch in Jack Diamond. We also have a goalkeeper who chooses not to come for crosses.

Exeter cottoned on to these facts quite quickly and swung nearly every corner towards the six yard box, putting intense pressure on the central defence. If the corner wasn’t headed clear for another corner, it was headed out to no one in particular.

So, I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face: if you can’t defend crosses, your best option is not to invite the opposition to fling the ball back into the penalty area, unopposed.