Karl Robinson (Ed. Page 79 - GONE- Mutual Consent)

In terms of his working environment Mr Robinson has done a job. As per Slade his industry contacts/ experience has allowed the club to trade as a professional football club over the past 12 months

To his credit the players enjoyed the first proper pre-season in years. It was an OK close season in dealing with a number of legacy issues though the final day of the transfer window was lunacy. That one day could have cost us promotion.

Exceptionally he has been the ONLY club spokesman. In large part he has operated in a vacuum. No matter his verbose undisciplined style leaves him as a permanent hostage to fortune his job is to deliver results.

The club is still competing for a play off position. Unless you have an exceptional candidate to replace him, it is enough to allow him the chance to finish the job.

In such terms how many were surprised by the Oxford, Doncaster and Bradford results? Do they not fit into a pattern we have seen through the season?

Once again there are positives on show. We see creativity, we see mobility, we see technical ability, we see hard work. With the ball we have the "potential" to be a very good side but invariably fall short as there is too little end product.

How many clear scoring opportunities do we create week in week out?

The ambition appears to focus on playing attractive, high tempo, passing football on the assumption goals will come. They will not unless you have the right personnel to exploit it to hurt other sides, build confidence and secure consistent results.

We simply do not hurt other sides.

I recall in my youth playing a Penhill Standard team who passed my side off the park. Brilliantly drilled we could not get near the ball for 70% of the game. We won 2-0. We later played a Lucien Masiello (AWOL from his Italian club) coached Catford team. It was the same. We drew 0-0.

Equally as good as you can be with the ball you have to mirror such performance without the ball. It requires balance, discipline, shape, physicality, game management & leadership.

On any given day we are able to produce a team with the technical ability to beat anyone in League 1. We do not have a squad able to do so on a sufficiently consistent basis to secure a promotion. Mr Robinson seems to have built a team not a squad.

Much is made of our injury misfortunes, with KR now "worrying" over Fosu, but no "team" ever wins a promotion. A squad of players competing for their position wins you promotion. Half of this team do not have to compete for their positions.

Amos, Solly, Dasilva, Forster-Caskey, Kashi and Magennis have had no competition for their positions. Only Ahearne-Grant and Aribo have been given half chances to compete. It is not enough. We have competition at Centre Back and in the 3 attacking midfield positions.

We made much about bringing in players to freshen the team. Mavididi, Kaikai, Zyro, Ajose, add to the numbers but other than a last throw of the dice do we use them add to the options and strengthen areas where we are deficient?

As at 31 Jan we had the chance to relaunch a squad for an 18 game season to secure promotion or a play off spot. We have dropped 7pts out of 9.

I am troubled by the frequency of certain players seemingly physically unable to complete a game. It is a built in redundancy which guarantees you automatically have to bring in, often unhelpful, changes.

Why are we always falling away late in games? Is it fatigue? Are the demands of a high tempo, pressing passing game in a physically demanding division simply too much to maintain for 90 minutes? Is the gamble every game to score enough when we are on top and then hang on for grim death?

To keep working to the same pattern with largely the same players and expecting a different end product is the definition of no plan B.

Players get injured. Players lose form. Players become stale. Players become complacent. These are not unique challenges. Every team in every team sport suffers the same issues. You can accept the consequences, shrug your shoulders, and endlessly commiserate with everybody, including yourself, or you can manage them.

We have been unlucky with injuries in central defence but do we adjust the system to protect the spine of the team. Against Oxford we probably played our 7th choice combination in central defence. Did we adjust to protect them?

We lost because it took until late in the game for Oxford to change their pattern of play to truly test the back four. They changed because they were losing and had nothing to lose. Teams do that. We could not respond. We were found out.

I like Forster-Caskey and Kashi. They are compact, mobile, normally industrious and technically able tidy midfielders. Would I employ either to protect the back four? No. If Dasilva is to provide a key attacking threat is either Kashi or Forster Caskey ideally suited to drop into the back four to cover? Both are well able to "put their foot in" which whilst welcome does not a defensive midfielder make. Where is the physicality so badly needed in League 1?

I could ask the same question of the entire squad.

If players offer value but have their challenges you adapt the system to meet those challenges not plough on regardless. If the CB's are not consistently strong enough you bolster their protection. If you do not have natural personnel to do that then you numerically strengthen the spine and shape of the team.

The 4-2-3-1 system as the standard template has to go, not by asking players recruited to play such a system to change but by playing players naturally suited to another pattern of play. We have to play a central defensive midfield player be that Djiksteel or Aribo (or Diarra). Someone has to protect the back four.

We face the physical challenge of two diminutive full backs, both on their day are excellent players but it will be default for opposing sides to seek to isolate them for any aerial threat. I greatly admire Solly but at the moment he has lost a yard and is struggling.

If Pearce is fit Konsa would be my the first choice right back alongside Bauer, Pearce, Dasilva. A central midfield 3 comes from Forster-Caskey, Kashi, Aribo, Dkijsteel, Jackson, (or maybe Diarra)

Marshall, Kaikai, Fosu then compete for a wide midfield position with Mavididi (when fit), Zyro, Magennis, Ajose, Kaikai competing for 2 central striking positions.

Reeves for all his technically ability appears to be a luxury we can ill afford. When he plays he has to hurt the opposition. He doesn't.

We have the players to make a decent fist of it. With the ball we have the makings of a very decent side. Without we do not. We have zero game management and precious few leadership skills.

We and I suggest Robinson still have 15 games left to make something happen. Simply plugging and playing into the same system will not work. The "can't win" substitutions of the last few games have confirmed it.

I liked how Penhill Standard & Catford tried to play. I like how Robinson is trying to play. Will it secure a play off spot and promotion? Unless there is a magic switch for everything to suddenly fall into place the answer is no.

His style is not to my liking and I do not agree with half of his decisions but the job is his to lose. It is his squad. Can he and they be enough? We need him and them to take this opportunity to seize the prize.

Out of respect for the conditions he has worked under I suggest it is beholden on us to support him and his players efforts to do just that. The end results to our season will play into our, their and his future.

There will be time enough, for everybody, to review the next steps at a later stage.