There's plenty of good things to come from it: Hobbs didn't get injured when he went over the advertising. Hobbs didn't get sent off for a second yellow card. Barmby didn't get sent to the stands and a touchline ban for his reaction to Evans saying Hobbs should have been sent off. We won't have any extra games to pick up injuries and suspensions. If Brighton go out later on we won't have a ridiculous gap between weekend fixtures followed by a massive rush of games to close the season out. (Brighton 18th Feb - FAC 5th Round day, Cardiff 25th Feb - postponed already for League Cup.)
I don't think I can ever remember having the feeling I did today after they scored...... for ****s sake lets not score to make it a draw, and then need a replay. Well done Crawley.
All you saying you're glad we lost are an embarrassment to sport. Yes you can applaud Crawley for deservedly winning but tell me this, can our players say they gave 100% today? if not they are a disgrace. A replay WOULD have been better than losing, at least the very same players who didn't show enough ambition today could have pardoned themselves.
Get real. We are not deluded enough to think we are going to win the cup. Yes of course was hoping we'd go through, but the cup IS generally a distraction. A replay would have been the worst possible outcome. Already we are likely to have a ridiculous gap in February, with one, poss two games to cram in. A replay and then progress to teh next round, we could then be looking at four extra games! Only negative really is the loss of further revenue, though in reality bet the drop in income of playing rearranged games midweek rather than a Saturday would offset this.
Not going to start the shooting debate again but I agree with the other bit. He plays with his back to goal nowadays like a big target man but without the strength.
A cup run is distracting, we can focus on the real reason of our season. Tuesday will show a better side and perhaps a convincing 3 points.
And if he continues to do that, surely Mclean is better in that role? You can't deny he used to make good runs and score goals, the facts are there, however i can't deny that Mclean is better at play with his back to goal. Comparing them is hard as they are very different types. However whoever was upfront would of struggled with the lack of supply.
I can't deny he used to score goals no, but his finishing was still very poor in technique and missed a hell of a lot of chances even when he was scoring. That was what annoyed me at first and I'm sure once he gets over this weird phase he's going through now of not even getting in the positions, he'll score again but he'll probably still miss plenty of others. I'd rather have McLean up front as everyone knows, but I thought the sub today was wrong, Brady was doing okay and we missed him second half.
We found out our squad isn't quite strong enough! They may be in a couple of years but not right now. On today's showing we need back-up defender, midfielder and striker as East needs time, Cairney is a lazy bar steward and Cullen is... ...Well Cullen is just ****! For a professional footballer he had a turning circle like the Titanic and the first touch of a rapist!
Can somebody tell me why Jay Simpson wasn't brought on? If Cullen isn't good enough to play at Bradford or Bury what makes him good enough to play for us? I know this is daft now; but I think we needed to have a punt on Billy Sharp, a proven goalscorer at this level, not Josh King who wasn't very good really. Get rid of Atkinson (already done), Devitt and Cullen ASAP and we can reinvest somehow if we get enough money. Hopefully Tuesday will be better. Not looking forward to the stick from the Leicester fans at uni on Monday though!
I actually thought Cullen looked ok when he came on, but would have liked to have seen Simpson come on. Need a reaction on Tuesday!
Cullen did OK when he came on but he's one of those players - like Adebola and Gulacsi - people have already made their minds up. If Fryatt is offside 5 times coming back for a pass it goes unnoticed, but Cullen is 'always offside'...
Fryatt needs a boot up the back side at the moment for sure! As much as I think he's a good striker he's not in good form at all; I like Adebola but he hasn't got the legs anymore. Against Forest when he came on he looked brilliant! Why not stick Adebola on the bench on tuesday with Simpson, Carson, Dawson (because I still think Dudgeon should be in the team instead) and Cairney? Least we might have a plan B then.
I agree with you to be honest, if it wasn't for this ****ing stupid 5 subs rule we could have different options on the bench. Though I suspect NB doesn't rate big Dele anyway. In a way we're like a Championship Arsenal; we insist on playing one way and only one way, and when a team who can defend reasonably well shows up it's a massive ordeal for us.
it does mean less fixture congestion. we may get a proper striker in now, and we have seen how cooper, east and cullen perform in the first team. sounds like mr evans was living up to his negative hype in the sending off fiasco. we all know (including papa) that the fa cup was never anything we would win, and surely it is better to concentrate on just the one competition (which we do have a chance of a play-off spot), and not spread our resources too thinly. Will be interesting to see who Crawley get in the FA cup
I agree now that we are out of the cup but, it shows why most managers feel the same way about it. You have hit their nail on the head, also most supporters of teams with a chance of promotion would feel the same. The cup has certainly lost its attraction for me. NOW!
Even though this was the FA cup, and it would have been nice to progress, and even though NB said that he was not taking this tie lightly. I get the feeling that the younger players used, was his way of finding out in a real match situation whether they can hack it at this level or not. I agree with a few of you, why play East & Cullen when you had better players on the bench available. I maybe wrong, but it might be that this was NB way of assessing these players, and time will tell if we now see them moving on or being farmed out on loan.