Sorry but that crap about pressure is wrong he played up on his own with nobody near him and hadn’t a hope . We have no creativity in midfield if George is wandering about or marked out of it .
Think if we’d played more football with a bit of pace up front we may have done better. The long ball to Eaves won’t always work.
Honeyman spent most of the game on the wing and was contained. Smallwood and Docherty offered no creativity in the middle and the midfield never linked up with the forwards today. Lots of long balls to an isolated Eaves.
We seemed to be playing deeper somehow, gave them too much time to organise themselves, which they did.
Question for me is, did Shota tweak things (negatively as per your observations which seem similar to mine) or was it more that Preston were just stronger & better drilled than us? Edit: or both.
He was pushing the back line to half way whenever we had the ball in their half and we were caught out on a number of occasions. Average height of Preston’s team - 6ft 3in?
Probably both. It just didn’t work today. I’ve mentioned Doc’s poor performances this season a few weeks ago and most on here didn’t see it. He runs around a lot and puts in a shift but when he gets the ball, he gives the ball away with **** passes or dribbles it into nowhere. Today, his **** passing cost us a goal. I hope he improves, I really do because I like him a lot. But this season he’s been poor.
I know we lost today but I don't think we should be too upset.. we didn't play too badly and I've seen us give up games like that before christmas so onwards and upwards guys.
Back home and thawing out, disappointing that, bit flat throughout, but credit to Preston had a game plan to push us back and completely dominated our midfield today. Few of our main stars of recent weeks were well off the pace, and despite a lot of huffing and puffing we were looking more and more toothless as the game went on. Not sure about the tactic of just throwing forwards on, we needed to somehow wrestle the midfield back, imho. But the right team won today, although I did have to giggle a bit at the end when they were using tactics to run the clock down and the calls of derision from those around me, despite us doing exactly the same at Bournemouth ! Perhaps this will put things into prospective a little, we still have a way to go before we are challenging up top.
A good game actually. Could have gone either way. When this new regime took over, I think we were just looking to avoid relegation and I think we'll achieve that comfortably. I think a draw would have been a fair result today.
We rode our luck first half, Shota shoulda have changed something at half time, strengthening the midfield may have been a start. And trying to get KLP further up the field. Preston where a very good side, when they went 1-0 they where only playing in first gear. Fleming was class. Also will someone tell Eaves to keep his hands down. The amount of fouls he gives away by fondling the opposition is crazy!
Spot on, we have way too many players that are still starting who wouldn't get in any other championship starting 11s. Smallwood, Eaves the main 2. They will be fazed out in summer and it's the right thing to do if we are to progress as a team. Allahyar should've been brought on earlier and the lack of a genuine right wing back is an issue now as Longman does get caught out of position a lot. Fleming being MOTM 2 games in a row shows that difference.
Somewhere in West Yorkshire it’s slashing down but thought we deserved the win good entertainment match report tomorrow
Ah well, it’s only a game. So Shota has now seen the good last week, the bad & ugly this week, will be interesting to see what he has learnt from this defeat and how he reacts and rectifies changes & improvements. Think we’ll see all his new players in next week. Positives; it was only 1-nil, but could have been more, with them hitting the bar/post plus disallowed goal. We didn’t help ourselves though, just not at it, lack of cohesion, misplaced passes, midfield duo Doc and Honeymonster not as influential as previous. Stand out performer for me Brandon Fleming, well done him, after been out in the cold, thought Greaves also continued his good performance from last week. KLP, however, can have no qualms if rested next week. Must have been a bit difficult for Ingram to step back in, but again dependable. So, we lost, but I don’t feel as naffed off as previous losses, still got a feel good factor. UTT, onwards to Derby.
I think this removes the over optimistic babblings that we could secure a play off place. Forget it, it ain't gonna happen. No worries. We need to ensure that relegation won't happen then kick on to become a Championship team that's hard to beat. Then, next season... This is good. This is positive. This is City. UTT.
Not as good as last week, and it looks like PNE had done their homework so neutralised us well. Should have been a 0-0 draw if not for gifting them the goal opportunity. Still a lot to be positive about. Apart from East stand being popular, having to queue to get in and the concourse being *rammed* at half time. Much tutting at that.
