I had hoped we might see a change, but maybe DF felt that CJ would be better starting against Fulham.
Fulham were very good, they will be up there this season. That, is a very good point earned away from home. Hopefully Pinto and Nelson start the next match.
I can see why he would want the strength and work-rate of Jerome and Watkins away at a good team, but you need a finisher in there.
Just took a sneaky peek at PNE line up:- 22 Maxwell in goal, 1 Rudd on the bench! AN carries on where he left off!
Urgh, no. Ipsh*t won. Decent result for them. We are below them in the table! Push the panic button!!!
On SkySportsNews, Dowie just said "...and Johnny Howson was poor, and you never see him play poor, but he was very poor today"
Cottee just said about the Norwich game, that it was a blatant Pen to Norwich. He also said we need to sort out our strikers.
Yes, Sunderland scrape a draw, Boro lose and QPR beat Reading. It's going to be a funny season and as has been said, let's hope the fact the 1p5wich are in the play-off places is only temporary!!
My player ratings: Gunn: 7 - very solid, encouraging. Liked his distribution and put in a couple of decent saves. Couldn't do anything for the goal. Martin: 5 - will get a lot of unfair stick for the own goal, which wasn't really his fault, but his communication and organisation was awful. Much better in the last 20 mins and v unlucky not to win a clear penalty. Zimmerman: 6.5 - the best of our back three, comfortable on the ball and intercepting well. Looked classy. Franke: 5 - struggled with the tempo, positioning and communication with Husband. Needs to get used to Championship pace and strikers fast. Wildschut: 6.5 - very lively going forward, made the Fulham defence look very slow, but his final ball either wasn't there or was awful. It felt like a strange substitution when he was taken off, but in retrospect Murphy showed a bit more with the final ball. Husband: 4.5 - had a torrid first 60 mins trying to cope with Fredericks' (admittedly almost competitive athletics standard) pace, but not helped by his wayward positioning and poor communication with Franke. Improved his attacking play in the last third as his opponents tired. Reed: 5.5 - anonymous. Vrancic: 5 - first half he looked like he was League Two standard on the ball. Couldn't find a man, dawdled too much and passing wayward. His finishing was also highly suspect. Significantly improved second half with some nice deliveries and sharper passing. He also defended reasonably well. Maddison: 6 - looked like he was really struggling in the first half, slow on the ball and not doing what he wanted. He at least tried though. Also improved in the latter stages of the second half, though Hoolahan's appearance showed Maddison he's nowhere near that standard of creativity (yet?) Watkins: 4.5 - got himself in some useful positions and moved well but my god does he need to work on his finishing. Didn't look a patch on Naismith (!) Jerome: 6 - took a lot of stick from the commentary team for not getting much of the ball, but when has he ever? Worked hard and made lots of space. Wayward finishing as ever though and rightly substituted. Subs: Murphy: 6.5 - shanked a great chance, but looked very lively and willing to actually deliver a good ball. Worked hard and was instrumental in turning Fulham onto the back foot. Oliveira: 8 - monstrous performance of the bench. Caused all sorts of trouble upfront against a tired Fulham defence (credit due to Jerome for this, though it won't be given). Lovely touches and very comfortable on the ball. Excellent control on the Lib to give himself space to finish tidily. Hoolahan: 7.5 - showed the team how to unlock a packed defence. Excellent cameo for a player that still has something to give (though please don't start him often!) Farke: 6.5 - a fascinating debut. He clearly realised he hasn't quite got the back three system how he likes it yet, and struggled to work out what to do about it. However, his substitutions (aided by a strong bench) proved inspired. Particularly the surprise of taking of Wildschut when he been our best player, but it actually turned the tables (though that might also have been the Fulham double substitution a fraction later). Still an open verdict. He will be massively helped when the likes of Klose, Pritchard and (dare I say it) Naismith are available. Referees: 4 - I thought they had a real shocker tbh. Not just the pen (for which the angle of the rebound should have been enough for them to realise it was a clear penalty), they consistently made poor calls on tackles throughout. For both teams. Match: 6.5 - for a 1-1, I though this was a good game to watch. Bags of chances for both teams and plenty of controversial moments. I agree Fulham look very threatening, though I didn't think much of their defence. A good point for us.
Were you watching the game with the White and Yellow men!? I'd pretty much agree with that. If I would have rated players that low, I'd have been called Negative!
I did say as much in my earlier post and I'm willing to give CJ a clean slate (for the first few games at least). From the comments, it does seem that both Watkins and CJ need shooting practice. I see from the stats that we'd 5 shots on target, but several of them were easy saves for their keeper.
Good result. We looked a decent side today. Defensively we were always going to suspect. We looked well drilled with the ball, the players know where teammates are going to be. Wildschut could be a force to be reckoned with as the season goes on. The big negative was missing too many chances. I think Farke will become impatient with us blowing chances. Stupid yellow card for Nelson.
