Roland Gent’s column: John Sheridan has to ‘carry the can’ for ‘bizarre’ line-up against Barrow

These were the words of John Sheridan after the crazy 2-2 draw with Barrow.

At least he’s being honest but he has to carry the can for team selection and can’t ever pick such a bizarre line-up again.

Most people in the stadium were playing ‘guess who is playing where’ when the team sheet was read out. Sadly all of our players were doing that for the first-half as well.

The main things to say about a first-half where, to be charitable, it was like watching a bad pub side, is that it’s probably better selecting players in their correct positions rather than putting at least three players in the wrong position and also including squad members who aren’t good enough in the starting line-up.

David Buchanan must wonder what he’s come to after being asked to play centre midfield. He’s a 33-year-old experienced footballer who has ben promoted with both Preston and Northampton Town, amazingly when switched to his natural position of left back, he looked really good in the second-half.

Jay Sheridan must be having nightmares after the first-half being asked to play left back. Has a professional player ever been subbed by his dad the manager? Did Alex Ferguson ever drag Darren off the pitch for playing badly? Or did Brian Clough ditch Nigel after a poor performance, regardless of statistics that’s got to hurt any young player.

Why was Will Evans, last season’s Player of the Year asked to be right back, when he’s clearly a centre half?

One thing that we’ve learnt is that the only decent central midfielder at the club is Jonathan Smith, mind you, we could all see that last season when he virtually carried the side under Martin Allen being the only guy who could score a goal for a month or so mid-season.

Some of the opportunities offered to Barrow were saved by Shwan Jalal, others seemed easier to score than to miss. At one point three Barrow players were queueing up to put the ball in the net and failed to do so.

So at the time of writing we are still in the bottom four of the National League, wins simply have to come soon, but bizarrely we only look one midfielder away from having a decent side, providing the team is lined up properly.