Listening to Gentleman Jim for much of the game.... The first half was slow. Go behind 3 times and equalise within minutes each time - working for the point. Looking to hear from anyone who went. Roll on Friday!!!!
The average age of our line up was a smidgen over 22 so fair play to the lads for battling back. 3 points on Friday and the managerial situation should be finalised.
Will have to go with Gentleman Jim’s assessment that we didn’t play well but showed great spirit and character to come back and so quickly - as you say Fred, three times. That has to be an enormous boost to everyone’s confidence. please log in to view this image A bit worrying though that we let in three soft goals in the first place; albeit the first had a touch of offside (apparently) about it and the third was a Bodurov own goal. That said, , given how things were at the beginning of the season, to battle our way to a point away from home on a bitter Tuesday night against an in form side has to be a bonus.
Great to see a bit of fight come back into the team, to come back 3 times and whats even better is that we've scored very quickly after conceding so no sign of heads dropping when going behind. They never gave up and kept going til the end. No matter the result on Friday, I think Kit has shown he deserves his chance.
Across the forums I have seen mainly positive comments about coming back a three times and showing great character but quite a few neagative ones about not playing well and slightly more worrinying a trend of long ball football. Firstly in football win most your home games and draw most your away and you will be challenging at he right end tonight's result will be deemed good or bad by Fridays result. Win at home Friday and 7 points from 3 games in the space of a week us a great return, lose Friday and 4 points from 3 games including 2 at home is average. Secondly I haven't got to watch us under Kit but will be there on Friday so hope we play some good stuff, long ball is required every now and again but not to often I hope!
I'd have been happy with a point beforehand so I can't complain about the result. Three of the five changes saw kids coming in for experienced players, and away at Rotherham on a Tuesday was never going to be easy. I only heard the first half and then the website went down so like Bidley I resorted to Twitter. It sounds like we didn't play that well again, but 4 points from 2 poor performances isn't bad. If we beat Charlton and finally climb out of the bottom three it'll have been a very good week indeed. The fact that 10 points from 6 under Kit hasn't lifted us to safety already just underlines what a complete mess Magath left behind!
I followed the first half and both teams were slow... Going behind on a goal that had a hint of offside was not the best for the morale of the team. But they came back. For me it is a great result for a young team. Looking at the statistics we had a lot of efforts and quite a few on target. There is an upward trajectory regarding our form. One experienced midfielder to share the load with Parker and will be sorted...
It sounds like a performance to build on - lacking in quality, but not lacking at all in character. We've got enough good players that the quality will be there another day; the character is the thing that's hard to add if it's not already there, so we've got lots to be optimistic about. A win on Friday will make everything look a whole lot better in terms of our league position. I was interested to see that Pat Roberts didn't get any time last night. I can understand not bringing him on when we're defending a narrow lead, as against Norwich, but when we're looking for an equaliser or even a winning goal, I would have thought he would have been a good option. Does anyone have any insight into why he's not getting more gametime?
Character to come back and pick yourselves up is something that would never have happened under Magath. The experience of this result will be ingrained on those younger players and will stand them in good stead for the future. Grinding out results when you're not playing well is the sign of a good team in my eyes. The boys gave committed themselves to the cause and to Kit and that for me is fantastic. COYW
Captain I found Roberts' behaviour at the game against Bolton slightly annoying. Yes he is a good player, yes he has tonnes of potential, yes he takes people on and get us on our feet but he needs to be a team player and learn that he is not alone. Example was a shot by Staf and Roberts complaining or not passing when he needs to. If Kit is trying to teach him a lesson that there are other players there that can do stuff like Williams...
I know Roberts can be a little selfish at times , but agree with you captain he can take on the opposition which in itself brings a new dimension to the game.
Don’t think it’s so much Pat Roberts not getting game time but more where we are in the game. Last night for instance Eisfeld was anonymous and Zverotic was struggling, so Kit moved McCormack to midfield. He then had a choice of Dembele or Roberts as a replacement and chose Moussa, I think, because the Rotherham back were rather large bruisers. Yes, Pat’s full of dribbles but he can overdo it and this wasn’t the time or the place for him. I think the more pertinent question – as put by Gentleman Jim – why did Dembele come on instead of Matt Smith? GJ’s commentary may have been slightly slanted as a result but from what I heard Moussa was very poor and his ball control zilch
George Williams was my MOTM for Fulham and their No10 was the man who caused us all the problems. It was blowing a gail outside, but in their small ground it didn't seem as bad. The Ref gave them so many freekicks near our penalty area yet hardly gave us anything, barring the penalty which was down the other end, it looked as if it was and the ref was closer. Still not sure how someone jumping over the ball in an offside position isn't interfering with play, but their offside player ran away claiming the goal!!! Our Second goal came from a really good build-up, but their 2nd goal came from one of their numerous long throws into the box we again failed to clear properly and their 3rd goal came from a breakaway after we had a corner. Luckily Burn finally got his head on a corner and we came away with a draw, I'd have been disappointed if we had come away defeated It was topsy tervy game, both sides having loads of chances, both defenses were poor and how their player missed near the end with a open header!!! Still with a pint costing just £1.95 we had a great overnight stay.
Thanks SuperBri. Sounds as though you had a good night despite the weather. Here's the video clip of the goals; what a corker for our second and yes, their first does look offside - [video=youtube;tpEou7lXtRI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tpEou7lXtRI[/video]
Woodrow's was a belter! Got to love Gentleman Jim though, "... and they can 'ave their 'who are ya', that didn't last long!". Classic.
Pause the video at 7 seconds and you'll see the lad was onside or if it was off it was a matter of inches and the benefit has to go to the attacker so no complaints about that goal.
Yes, I can't see who it was (might have been Burn) but they were playing him onside. Apparently even Kit said it was on, having seen a replay (can't find the quote now though!).
Burn might have been playing him on but I think even more so Christensen is. He just steps up a fraction late.
I don't think Dembele's made the step up to senior level yet. He's snatched at chances that he would have buried for the U18s/U21s. Perhaps the thinking was that Woodrow/Dembele is a better combination than Woodrow/Smith.
