Just buying tix, row B, F block says restricted view... Any ideas how restricted? Haven't been in SAR for several years
I won't reiterate lots as mostly all been said. 12th man - 11th man after 40 mins - was immense and I feel helped the lads on. My voice will be a bit rough tomorrow! Warbs subs clearly inspired as two linked up for the winner. Massive credit to MW. Pity we couldn't shut that drummer up sooner! Good banter with small group of diehard fans singing their songs in the tube station so we started a rendition of 'we only need ten men'! These are the games we live - and die - for!! Thirteen to go. Enjoy the ride!
Looked like a lot of long ball wellied up to the front. I didn’t call for the false nine, I had a feeling we might try it, given our rather pedestrian ‘real’ 9s.
Yeah, I know. The first half tactics were bizarre. No number 9, but we'll hit long balls up there as if we do. Willock and Chair never getting a look in. Then taking Willock off and trying to sit back and hold out for 1-0 with 10 men never looked like it could work. And it didn't, but we somehow nicked a winner.
It was Luke Amos's birthday today. Happy Birthday Luke. I hope he scored the winner, and it wasn't an og
Just got back and... WHAT A WIN Much needed and well deserved! I think the performance was almost as important as the result today. We seemed to have lost our way in recent weeks and looked a bit complacent in the last few fixtures, almost as if our place in the playoffs was cemented already. We needed to get back to the same level of desire that we showed in the early stages of the season, pressing higher up the pitch, creating options for the man on the ball, and when needed, hoofing the ball into dangerous areas of the pitch where we had players ready and waiting to at least challenge for the ball. From the start, I liked how we set ourselves out. With Dykes unavailable, and Austin and Gray out of form, it was an inspired decision by Mark to start without any obvious or natural striker on the pitch. Our actual strikers have struggled to hold up the ball in recent weeks and failed to bring others into the game in dangerous areas of the pitch, and so a change of approach was very much needed in my opinion. We've been crying out for more movement and options in the final third and I couldn't personally see a solution to that, but I thought todays line up was a masterstroke by Warburton. Willock and Chair took it in turns to operate furthest up the field, creating uncertainty amongst their defence, and often dragging them out of position. This allowed our attacking players to find more space on the ball and created more space for our midfield to operate in. We seemed to be controlling the game up until the 40th minute, when a moment of naivety / stupidity from Sanderson changed the game and put us on the back foot. Even at his age he should've known better than that, because if he's going to react to challenges like that then that won't be the last time he leaves the field prematurely. He's lucky that we got the win in the end after what could've been such a costly moment of frustration. Even after we went down to 10 men, we closed them down well, kept pressing and restricted their chances to speculative efforts. Being critical, their goal should've been prevented after we failed to clear the ball which could've averted such a nervy end to the game. But that's where the criticism starts and finishes today, and without the failed clearance we wouldn't have had that moment of euphoria when Amos slotted home right at the end. Big performances from everyone today. The desire to play for the manager, for each other and for the fans was clear to see and it was summed up in the reaction and relief felt by all following the final whistle. The substitutions were also spot on, giving us some fresh legs to replace the tiring ones that had been running around thanklessly to cover the space left by the sending off. Ball seemed like a solid option at centre back, although much of their play was down the opposite flank with Bowler, and Amos & Thomas added energy and fresh legs to a tiring midfield and allowed us to continue to press until the very end. Dunne, Hendrick, Odubajo and Field were outstanding today, dominating the centre of the park and winning a lot of their aerial challenges. I also noticed a big difference in our desire to win the first and second balls today. We wanted to get to the ball first, and more often than not, we did. A season can hinge on a result like that...
Wow, you saw it very differently to me. I thought we were awful in the first half and that the no number 9 tactic failed badly. Still, we did show great spirit when we went down to 10 men and nicked an unlikely win.
The beauty of football I suppose Thought it worked well for the first 20/30 minutes at least and then impossible to tell following the sending off. It was definitely an improvement on recent weeks and the right time to try something new in my opinion as our strikers haven't exactly been scoring for fun recently. They've also not been contributing as much to the build up play as they were earlier in the season either and so I didn't think we lost much from our game by them not playing today. We've needed more options further up the pitch and the movement that Willock and Chair made in dangerous areas afforded us more space higher up the pitch. Unfortunately movement doesn't seem to be the greatest asset of any of our strikers. Dykes wins headers and hurries defenders. Austin knows where to be and knows where the goal is. And Gray, well I'm still working that one out...
Great big column that covers the goal mouth at the School End. That apart, great view of the Loftus Road End. Good atmosphere in SAR stand.
