I'm not usually one to pick at a manager's lineup, but I can't get my head around that one tonight. Palmer always seems to be highly rated, always on the periphery of the team but never seems to have a good game when he plays. I suppose the thinking was that they'd let us have a lot of the ball and Palmer would help us unlock the defence, but if that was the thinking then Drameh on the wing seems even more weird - he is one of the worst players we've got in possession and asking him to do it higher up, often with his back to goal, was a really tough watch. He was hopeless there.
First goal was horrendous. It was so preventable. We won the header but then Drameh just didn't seem up for the challenge at all, waved a leg at it and then let their guy shoot in a crowded area. Absolutely no way he should've been able to get that shot off from there. Good finish though.
Pandur obviously didn't see the second one, I'm not going to crucify him for that. But his kicking caused us a huge problem tonight, particularly in the first half. It was so easy for them to press us into awkward areas, particularly when Pandur had the ball, and the second goal came from that. He has to improve on this but I don't know if he can. Reminded me of the Portsmouth game last season where we just couldn't get out of our half after half time.
The first half in general was one of the worst we've had in years. I often think people are over the top about how bad we play, but that really was absolutely ****e.
When we finally got a corner in the first half someone behind me said "watch this hit the first man". I agreed it was almost guaranteed to happen and sure enough it did. We've all seen that script enough times before haven't we, seems to be pretty much law that when you're playing like **** and desperate for something, a rare corner will always hit the first man.
The energy that the subs added, as well as Joseph with a few little runs early on, gave everyone a lift and then obviously the goal came at a brilliant time. I thought it was funny that their defender seemed so scared of McBurnie receiving the ball from Giles that he got himself into a wrestle that he ended up losing and falling over, leaving Oli free to take all the time he needed to control it and score. From behind the North stand goal it was nice to watch him do that with complete confidence, only waiting to see which part of the net he would hit. With a lot of City players over recent years I'd have been thinking "I wonder how he'll miss this". That linkup between him and Giles is so fun to watch. Giles gets the ball and straight away you look to see where McBurnie is. For the second one I noticed him point where he wanted it, which seemed ambitious from where he was, but Giles put it there and as promised he got there. It's brilliant to watch them make goalscoring look so simple.