News

Banking on Experience

|
Image for Banking on Experience

After increasingly poor results, Peter Taylor somehow remains in charge to take his team to Macclesfield in what is becoming an ever increasingly important game. A month ago, after back to back wins against Lincoln and Bury, sitting 3 points from the play offs, no one could have envisaged the scenario City now find themselves in. 1 point from 18 has seen them slip from 10th to 18th and facing the real possibility of relegation rather than promotion.

Mark Lawn recently admitted that Martin Allen offered to do the job for free in his interview with Boy from Brazil here and one can`t help but wonder what would`ve happened had Taylor not been appointed on the back of his 5 previous promotions. On first look, that is impressive, but delving deeper into his managerial history reveals as many failures as it does successes at teams such as Palace, Southend and Stevenage. Perhaps the appointment wasn`t as clear cut as it appeared to be. Hindsight, a wonderful thing.

Following the dismal run City have endured, they travel to Macclesfield fifth bottom of the form table, seen here . Take out the two wins at the start of January and City are bottom. Macclesfield are, however, one of the few teams below City in the form table and haven`t won a game since their trip to Valley Parade in the middle of November. They have only picked up two points since and have conceded four in their last two games. If ever there was a time for City to be facing the Silkmen, it is now.

Macclesfield are a part of the furniture in League Two, having served in the same division since the 1999-2000 season and have flirted with relegation more than they have promotion. The Silkmen have struggled to come by and success since Brian Horton lead them to the play off semi finals in 2005/2006.

Peter Taylor has rarely played the same team in succession this season and this does not appear to be changing for the forthcoming matches as the pressure sees him turning to the experienced pros who have rarely featured this season. Talking to the Telegraph and Argus Taylor said “We need the reliable players; the ones we can trust to get us out of this problem. I just hope that we can get them fit. Some of the people we are talking about are not up to 90 minutes and we might have to make changes through the game. But we know it`s a massive game because of the league table and it might be the time to go down the experienced route.”

Expect Jon McLaughlin to remain in between the sticks following his mistake free return to action in the last few weeks.

The defence is probably the hardest area of the team to predict. Simon Ramsden could come back in at right back, while he could also slot into the middle. Expect a back four of Ramsden, Shane Duff, Luke Oliver and Luke O`Brien.

The midfield three could see Michael Flynn return to a starting berth alongside Tom Adeyemi and Dave Syers.

The midfield could turn into a four, however, with the introduction of loanee Scott Dobie with Gareth Evans playing in the left wing role with Dobie accompanying James Hanson up front, Hanson seemingly rediscovering his scoring touch in the last few games.

Share this article

A bit better than mediocre