What Morecambe tells us...

The 4-1 romp at Morecambe has had Charlton fans and Dean Holden in raptures and wondering just how short we might be from a team capable of challenging for Promotion. I really don't want to burst anyone's bubble but some perspective and realism is needed here.

Morecambe are one of the smallest clubs in League One and they have been struggling all season. The chances are that they will return to League Two in May. They were very poor on Tuesday and the early goal encouraged us to push on. The second goal came early enough to really settle us whilst Morecambe presented virtually no attacking threat. The game was over at half-time and even after we managed to concede in the second-half we added another and might have had more.

It was a decent display and you can understand the positivity but we should also reflect on why we have only managed a handful of performances like that all season. It's hard to get away from the fact that this team should have more points that we have and probably be close to or in a play-off position. On our day, we can be very competitive in this league. We showed that against Plymouth and Ipswich at home. 

The trouble is, too many of the players we have simply don't give the effort, concentration and personal motivation needed to win games. Too often they have seemed content at one-nil to sit back and try to defend but haven't managed to do that as a team and eventually conceded. Too often we have gone one down and simply not made the effort required to get back into games. The focus has often been on the manager and rightly so, but it's become clear to me that Johnnie Jackson, Ben Garner and Dean Holden haven't been able to force changes in behaviour to any extent to make a prolonged difference. 

The threat of being dropped or actually being dropped doesn't seem any sort of incentive or disincentive to most of this squad. That is a major problem. At the most successful clubs being dropped is a major risk. You might not get back into the side. Being dropped twice puts your career at risk and after a third time, typically you are on your way out. I don't just mean at Manchester City or Liverpool. They don't settle for it at Millwall or Sheffield United and we shouldn't either. 

It hard to overcome when it's become the culture. Playing a large squad and making rotation part of the game can encourage players to see spells out of the side as less significant than they should. 

Sadly, that means we need a clear-out and it needs to be big enough to change the culture amongst the playing staff. We need far more 'winners' in our team. Players who expect to play every week and who don't take easily to being dropped. We need this almost as much as we do better quality players in most positions. I have said this in previous close seasons but we seem to prioritise playing potential and cost over capability, mental strength and value for money. That's why we need more investment and ambition than we have seen seen since Kevin Cash took a punt on Chris Powell's judgement 12 years ago.

This means we need to be ruthless in our clearout and not fall into the trap of keeping and playing players who don't fit the bill. Even if they are still contracted we have to find a way not to rely on them. 

I don't know if the Speigel takeover will succeed or if they will have the necessary muscle or ambition, but it looks like they will get much closer to a deal than Charlie Boy and we have to hope that it succeeds and our luck finally changes.