Stevenage wrap – Oxford United 1 Stevenage 1

One thing psychologists increasingly believe is that punishment doesn’t work. John Lundstram’s red card against Stevenage will see him miss Wembley, but that doesn’t teach him to tackle properly. In fact, it just breeds contempt and anxiety, his frustrations at missing the game could outlast the punishment, the fear of consequences from producing another bad tackle at a crucial time could leave him a lesser player.

But surely a bad tackle can’t be left unpunished? Well, no, but look at the consequences of the challenge. He was sent off and we struggled to scrape together a point, where we could and should have comfortably gained three. Everyone around us won putting pressure on future games.

So there were consequences of Lundstram’s challenge, but to keep punishing him, and particularly ban him from a trip to Wembley, seems pointlessly harsh.

His replacement next week is likely to be Josh Ruffels, which has its advantages. For one, Barnsley won’t know him, but also Ruffels’ game is more compact. Wembley offers Lundstram a perfect opportunity to use the full range of his passing, but if that’s stopped, we’d struggle. Ruffels playing percentages may force a more counter-attacking style which could work well with the pace of Roofe, power of Bowery and unpredictability of Hylton.  

The Stevenage game felt like going to work without a belt on. Slightly awkward and uncomfortable, but not in a way that anyone outside would really notice.

Lundstram’s challenge looked very suspect on first viewing although with the benefit of slow motion it doesn’t look quite as bad. Any appeal is likely to hinge on whether the referee is considered to have made a reasonable judgement; which he did, or whether he made precisely the correct decision, which, maybe, he didn’t.

In addition, it was a lot to ask Mullins at right-back to bomb up and down the flank as Baldock or Kenny might. It all left us a bit toothless upfront rather than vulnerable at the back.

In addition, the foul for the penalty was so ludicrous, it was like the referee couldn’t bring himself to issue a red card for risk of devaluing the whole idea of sending someone off. It was, however, clearly a goalscoring opportunity and a should have been a straight red.

Once again, Roofe got into a spat with another player. Previously it was Chris Maguire against Orient, on Saturday it was Sercombe for the penalty. What’s driving this? It can’t have helped Sercombe’s preparation for the penalty. Perhaps Roofe has got an eye on John Aldridge’s goalscoring record and has lost a little bit of focus on the bigger picture, maybe he’s become a little bit too starry, maybe he knew that with 10 men, playing with one up front, his chances would be at a premium. Whatever the reason, it’s got to stop if it’s not going to cause wider problems.