What was the red card for? I'm at work and missing most of the match, thankfully if the score is a reflection of the match.
Not good enough mate, we don't have anyone who can play football other than Sears and Fraser (who won't be here next season)
Right, can we sign/bring in a bit of quality now please? It'll be absolutely gutting to see us lose pace in the second half of the season again. We've lost Parr and Oar, both technically good footballers with big reputations in their career, so let's replace them with some talent. And by talent, I don't mean Kevin 'Effing' Foley! Let's show a bit of optimism and bring in a right-back, a bit of creativity in the middle, and some support up-field. Cut out the deadwood, and after that embarrassing defeat against Portsmouth in midweek, some of the 'deadwood' should be easily identifiable.
Trouble is Nuggets we've been cutting out deadwood and replacing it with more of the same for as long as MM's been here.The extension to his contract will only make him more bigheaded and complacent.
I agree with that, to an extent. The likes of Malarczyk, Tabb, Coke, Toure, and Pitman all strike me as deadwood, and four of those we signed this season! Having said that, I believe the budget given to Mick has restricted him from buying the quality he probably desires, and so we've had to settle for the scraps that other clubs don't want. I'll stress that we're only a point off the play-offs, and, for all intents and purposes, we're a squad that is seemingly punching above its weight. Upon reflection, we've had a good couple of months, in terms of results (if you excuse the last couple of games) and we've shown some much-needed consistency. Last year, I thought we got too complacent, failed to build on solid foundations, and we dropped down the table, making it into the play-offs by the skin of our teeth. Incidentally, we spent a bit on Sears and he was a revelation in that last half. I hope the board can see the need for investment, if we are to keep the pace with our promotion rivals and, now that we've signed Mick on a longer contract, give him some much needed funds and that show of confidence for him to push us onto the next level. To do that, we're going to need to bring in better players and, to do that, we're going to need to spend a bit of cash in this crazy market.
Very even game really, up until they scored. Red Card looked extremely harsh to me and certainly no worse than some of their challenges on Fraser. Replays may show studs were up or something but I was very surprised the Red came straight out. Second half we were getting the ball to Fraser and Freddie far more effectively, but decent balls in were few and far between and the extra man really began to take effect and we suffered for it. Weak bench meant we had no one to change the game - Pitman may score goals with some regularity but the fact that our chase the game strategy was a srike force that couldn't break down Portsmouth was very depressing.
Out of interest, how did Chambers and Knudsen play down the flanks and did Hyam look good when he came on? Genuinely hope that lad can step into the team and make a position his own. Yet the prospect of a midfield duopoly of Skuse and Hyam doesn't exactly fill me with much excitement. Too defensive and static perhaps?
Knudsen and Chambers were OK but the way both sides played the game meant they were never really challenged. Debatable whether moving the ball forward better was down to hyam but as I said our overall play in 2nd half was better. I don't have many concerns with Hyam stepping in for Douglas for a minimum of 3 games
Oh well, first league defeat for a while and always looked like it'd be one of those days when Douglas got sent off. I just want to forget this one and move on to the next. Looks to me like we have some winnable fixtures coming up. Just hope that Pompey performance didn't create too much of a negative feel around the place.
For Christs sake ITFC buy some quality not just other Clubs cast offs that come cheap but are no better than we already have, that's if we want challenge the top Clubs in the division.
