Corby Town 1 Thame United 3 - Five Things We Learned

So, what did we learn?

No excuses, this was poor. Really poor.

I am still trying to work out where this performance came from. By all accounts, despite their defeat at Peterborough Sports it sounded like the Steelmen still turned in a decent display. But this was well below-par given what they have done in the early part of the season. Corby simply didn’t come out of the blocks and never really got going all afternoon. There will have been plenty of criticism coming their way after this one and it would be hard to argue against it.

Crowds are coming in and they expect and deserve better.

Having started the season with crowds in the 300s, the Steelmen are now attracting 400-plus attendances to Steel Park. Those bigger crowds are fully deserved for the way Steve Kinniburgh’s team have started the campaign. They’ve earned that slight increase in attendances. But, if they want people to keep coming, they have to give them more than they did at the weekend. Corby are one of the big clubs in the Evo-Stik League South Division One Central and can boast one of the highest average attendances. It could be argued that, given the size of the town, the numbers should be even higher than they are. But fans want to see their team giving their all, throwing everything they have at each and every game. Unfortunately, Corby didn’t deliver on those on this occasion.

Things were far too easy for Thame.

No team at this level can ever be at their very best week in, week out and it’s unreasonable to expect it from part-time footballers. But, even if you are having an off-day, it’s still important to make it as hard as possible for your opponents. Unfortunately, things were all a bit too easy for Thame. Certainly the second and third goals were entirely preventable. The second came after a simple ball over the top of a static Corby defence and the third was a free header at the far post. The defending was something that seemed to seriously annoy and concern manager Steve Kinniburgh when he was speaking after the game. He was right to be annoyed.

There were those who did all they could.

This was a day on which the Steelmen were collectively pretty poor. But there were those who could still be happy with what they produced. One that stood out was Sam Warburton. The left-back has become a real favourite of the Steel Park faithful. He’s usually very reliable from a defensive point of view but it’s his driving runs down the left side that really make him stand out. And while the overall performance was pretty flat, Warburton did all he could to get things going with a couple of those trademark drives into opposition territory. His cross led to the own-goal that gave Corby a lifeline and he remained one of their biggest threats for most of the afternoon.

The Steelmen must now find a positive reaction.

Corby went into this game looking to bounce back after their defeat at Peterborough Sports and the positive reaction never materialised. It really needs to when they take on Aylesbury United at Steel Park on Saturday. This is only a 38-game season and these two losses have seen Corby drop off the pace slightly. In such a short season, the room for error is marginal and the Steelmen certainly can’t afford to slip up on home soil again this weekend. This team has shown what it is capable of during that impressive unbeaten run in the opening 10 games. They’ve had a couple of setbacks and now they must react.