Great write Col, I agree with most of it to. I said on another thread that I thought that was Ferdinand's best game ever for us as well. I'd rate everyone down about a point though, we didn't win!
Superb Col, very much the way I saw it too, and your ratings are nailed on right for me. But can we, not only you (9 out of 10 on here), get Ryan NelsE!!!n's name right? It's the least he deserves after the two performances he's put in against City and Chelsea. I'm actually much happier after this years 0-0 draw than last years 1-0 win. This time around we made our own luck and at least deserved a point out of it, compared to last seasons lucky win against 9 men.
Prefer 3 points to one myself; goals scored over no goals scored; attacking, creative, exciting football, over focus on stopping the opposition playing; and last but not least, good luck over bad luck.
Didn't say I didn't prefer 3 points. Said I was HAPPIER this time compared to last time when we were taken for a ride by nine men and looked like mugs. And there was nothing attacking, creative or exciting by our perfromance against them last year, just luck. Stop defending the indensible (NW's PL record).
Can't agree, Thor. We beat them fair and square last year because they bottled it and got their players sent off. We deserved it.
They bottled it with eleven and ten men but took us for a ride with nine, with us hanging on for dear life. Had it lasted another five mins we would have lost. Deserved it?? Oh the short memories, handy when you need them
Your premise is that they deserve more credit and us less because they had 9 men. It was their foolishness that got them sent off in the first place! If they gave us a game with three men it wouldn't make any difference. If you get sent off, its your own fault. No sympathy.
Prefer -- Happier? Same--Same I wasn't thinking of those 2 Managers comparitive records. But seeing as you mention it! With us Colin's record is better than that of MH, and of course MH has had 2 transfer windows, and compared to Colin, massive funding to improve on it - which he hasn't yet. But he may well, just hope it don't take too much longer. But I don't like his over-cautious approach anyway.
Hughes game plan was perfect, keep it tight and then unleash Taarabt and/or Hoillet for the last 20/30 mins. 3 injuries is something you can never plan for. Of course he could have gone attacking and lost like we did against Man City. I prefer 1 point to 0 myself.
That might have something to do with the fact NW had half the season plus the easy teams which we all lost to while Hughes had a difficult run in and a very hard start. A fairer option would be to see where we are on the date NW was sacked.
No problem with that, you make your own luck I suppose and we get what we deserve. I don't have the energy to argue about it, just my opinion. Not at all mate, not by a million miles. It makes a big difference to how I feel and what I expect in the near future. Now I'm quietly confident ahead of the Spurs game, but if we had played like last year I would be ****ing bricks this coming week!
Fair point but it will still be unbalanced. Warnock had chuff all to spend, Hughes has more or less bought in who he wanted and could get with better wage offers. It should still be interesting though. January the 10th?
We were 17th then? Id be pretty confident that we are above that or Hughes probably wont be here to be judged.
I prefer Colin's aggression over MH's cautiousness any day Nines, but I really hope this is a contest MH wins by a long distance on points, and not just funding and player considerations. Otherwise we'll be well in the relegation frame!
Another good point flyer, and again I can only agree with you. Me too Oslo, maybe Hughes will get a little more adventurous when the side continues to be more stable at the back. I can't wait until we break the opposition down when they're attacking and we do that three pass sweeping counter - attack and the ball is in the back of their net before they can blink.
Great report Col. I know I only watched it from home but that puts into words exactly how I saw it (and couldn't state clearly myself). I agree re. the flair players but at least our "percentage" players are as classy as we could hope for and give us an outside chance of creating something when we play conservatively against bigger teams. I thought Cisse looked sharper even though he was restricted by a necessarily late appearance.
Thanks for the report Col. It is a good read and a very fair assessment of the match and the individual performances of the players. I was well pleased with our perfirmance. On another day and with a little bit of luck, we could have beaten them. We thoroughly deserved our point.
Good report Col and exactly as i saw it. Your point about us not using the flair players is also spot on i think. MAtbe 1 of them in the last 20 mins could have made the diffrence, but i was more than happy with our performance... There were some glum and worried looking Chelski fans around us in Brisbane......!!
