Should never have started i have seen his stats and he did nothing. This is what some said on Fantasy Island. "He attempts only 14 passes all games and only 42% of them are accurate, no accurate crosses (2 attempted only), no accurate long passes (1 attempted only), 4 dribbles attempted, none successful, 12 aerial duels attempted, only 3 won, dispossessed once, given away a foul, only 1 interception and one tackle for someone who's only real benefit is supposed to be his pressing and defensive roles".
So were you there then? I was. We should have been out of sight and never ever looked in danger until that goal. It was at the other end but it seemed that Ned lost his man. Smithies did touch the ball once or twice usually goal kicks to the right for Mackie or Polter but I don't recall him having a proper save to make. They played well and on another day might well have had 3 or 4. There was nothing particularly negative about the way we played and nothing particularly wrong about the substitutions made. Mackie was probably our least dangerous forward - he's either rusty, lacking match fitness or not as effective as he was in our last promotion season and it made sense to me at that stage of the game to bring Luongo on. What's negative about that? Similarly, as it seemed we were going to have to settle for one goal and Chery had just missed a sitter, it was understandable that Hall should be brought on for him. In case you've forgotten Clint Hill is getting on a bit (in footballing terms!) and they had just brought on a fresh Jermain Beckford. With the benefit of hindsight they probably did not need to do so as the guy looks as though he's had a few pies more than was good for him over the last few years. However we could not have guessed that from the rapturous reception he got from the home fans. Pessimistic negative tactics? Yes if you like your football played the Kevin Keegan way Most managers would want to ensure they kept the lead and would settle for a counter-attacking game. In fact. as I recall at the start of the season when we were scoring for fun but conceding almost as many, not many were happy with those tactics either. Would you have criticised Ramsey for 'basically spoiling a good game with [optimistic] targets and terrible substitutions'? Many did. As I said before we had all the clear -cut chances especially in the second half. This was my first live game since watching them against Huddersfield on Boxing Day- my first visit to HQ in over 5 years when we were truly awful. There has been a huge amount of progress since then. I saw a team that was well-drilled and committed. It is however still a work in progress and we do need a bit more composure up front and more luck than we had today. I'm encouraged. My criticisms would be reserved for the ref who frankly lost it in the last 20 minutes. Players on both sides were booked for relatively minor fouls but then when Preston players started to square up to ours and pick little feuds resulting in quite a lot argy bargy neither he nor his linesmen did much to cut it out. I'd like to see the professional foul on Chery again on the action replay. My take on it is that he was too far out and had a lot of work still to do to get into the goal scoring opportunity. He had been played through by Faurlin I think and had got ahead of his marker and was then dragged down from behind. However there were a couple of other defenders nearby who might have got across to block or tackle before he could shoot.
In fairness, taking off an attacking midfielder and putting on a defender (who happens to be our player of the season) in the last few minutes, one nil up and away from home, was probably one of his more sensible substitutions. But I know what you're saying, he's made some odd ones. I would say our last three or four managers have all been guilty of making serial bizarre substitutions.
Funny you should say that. It reminded me of Watford, Harrow, and Slough in particular. Are they the Southern dumps then?
YH Beckford been out injured since August therefore will be carrying extra poundage and also thought Clarke was last man but actually thought your guy had handled the ball in the same move.
I thought that the game was spoilt by a very poor ref Erratic decisions (both ways) and seemed to lose control several times Hugely disappointing to let the equaliser in - Luongo 's failure to close down cost us Poor home attendance meant a real lack of atmosphere too Still - at least we aren't Massive Leeds or Doomed Bolton
Gates are a struggle for us about average is 11000 however we are taking 7000 to Blackburn two weeks today might be a decent atmosphere at that one
That is a very decent turnout. Hopefully your team doesn't reserve its poorest away performances for when the away attendances are largest like we do at QPR
I've watched the 1.18 minutes of highlights so I can state with some certainty that Karl Henry was to blame for the fact that we failed to collect three points. He should not have allowed the cross for their equaliser.
I think my having seen the 'highlights' means I have a much better insight than you with your hearsay, Ellers.
He had a decent game so I expect your informant, whether drunk or not, has already made his mind up about Henry in or around August 2014
The BBC stats confirm that Yorkshire. They didn't have a shot on target until the added minutes then had 2, 1 the goal. Sounds like a game we should have won in the 2nd half as JFH said.
The Big German scores. Wunderbar! Wunderbar! Wunderbar!! Did Mackie go off injured? Go on, make my day!
