Just back, so gut reaction before watching replays. Green - 8. Solid when called upon (once), and came for crosses when needed. One mistake when under pressure putting the ball out. Hill - 7. Solid defensively, could have, and perhaps should have, done more from attacking corners. Onuoha - 8. Solid at the back, not sure we could have asked for more. Not up against brilliant opposition and not overly tested. Dunne - 7. I think he could really grow into a star for us. Was ever present, but made two mistakes which could have been serious and could have led to goals. Simpson - 8. Great defensively. Much needed pace with Dunne at the back. Good going forwards as well, again, could be a star this year. Hoilett - 7. Looked promising, obviously scared the opposition and made some fantastic runs. Probably needs to work on his decision making, could sometimes release the ball earlier. Barton - 8. A real captains performance. Committed, really working hard and kept the ball moving. Won some important challenges and never rose to the rough tackles that went in on him. Also put him some very good corners. Henry - 7. A similar performance to that of Barton, they work well together, but with a little less talent. SWP - 8. I thought SWP played really well today - made some excellent runs and put some good balls in too. Zamora - 5. I feel really sorry for the guy. He's clearly not fully over that long-term injury and as far as I'm aware, he never had that op. He really can't move very well. Austin - 6. He missed an absolute sitter, and whilst the service wasn't exactly brilliant today, he could have done more when it was there. It was great to see him coming back and getting involved in the build up play however - he may have been somewhat curtailed by playing next to a striker who really couldn't move! Subs: O'Neil - 9. MOM for me. He was brilliant. Excellent dummies, great passing, wonderful flicks. Kept the ball moving quickly, and was an excellent substitution. I feared we would lose our spark when Hoilett went off, but boy oh boy was O'Neil good. What a quality player we might have on our hands! Far too good for this level. Hitchcock - I know he got the goal, but I can't give him a rating as he wasn't on for long enough to do anything else! So it's either a 10 or a no-rating. Your call! Before the game, my old man turned round to me and said, "We've got a lot of youth team players on the bench, isn't our squad a little thin? I'm worried.", to which I replied, "Isn't it great to have some young blood on the bench to keep the senior players competing for their places? It's a good thing." I was right Huge congrats to Hitchcock on his goal. Jenas - Not on for long enough to rate. The opposition - 4. I thought Ipswich looked really poor. They were committed, and threw themselves in front of the ball. You would expect nothing less of a Mick McCarthy side, but they were one of the least incisive sides to have played against us in years! They were lucky that we didn't score one of many chances that we had before the goal. In reality it should have been two or three nil. I expect them to struggle this year on the evidence of today. Things are looking good for the R's - we could and should have scored more today. O'Neil looked utterly brilliant and must start next week. Especially if Hoilett is out which would be a great shame. Would be wonderful for SWP to get some confidence back. Can see our defence being very solid indeed this year. Edit/PS - They did start time wasting at 75 minutes, so was great to get the late goal and time waste a bit ourselves. Served them right.
Thanks for that. It seems pretty much like the Huddersfield game. Again we seem to have been reasonably solid and in little danger of ever losing. However it's clear that we are not firing up front yet. 3 goals is a very poor return from the 31 attempts in the last two games. Hopefully the reports will be a bit more accurate this week as according to almost every neutral and Huddersfield fan who saw the game last week a draw was the right result and, until we equalised, according to their commentator Huddersfield fully deserved to be in front!!!! Still early days. Points in the bag and we can work on our shooting.
Cheers Raving.....great to get the view of someone there...it's a bit void of any info during game apart from text updates on bbc website, so we try to pick up any snippets from anywhere to keep up with what is happening.....
So O'Neill should be a starter next week then? I have a funny feeling at least one of Zamora and Henry will start.
Interesting to hear a rave (ahem) review of O'Neill, I must say he's never really appeared under my radar before but by the sounds of it a good bit of business by Arry there (sure he won't get any praise for it though).
Have a feeling you might be right about Zamora and Henry, my money would be on both if Ali and AJ aren't fit).
O'Neil should definitely be a starter! Especially as I suspect Hoilett will be out. Henry did a job today, and not badly, so will not be sad to see him starting. Don't forget, it's often a players experience that can be just as vital as his skill in ensuring the rest of the team stay working 100% until the end. Zamora needs to have that op! But who will replace him up top?!
Cheers Raving. Bit concerned about Zamora's performance, we desperately need Johnson back. Seems like we struggled in the creativity dept in first half, it took nearly 25mins for us to have a shot on target. We are still very weak up front. Hopefully Hoilett is not a serious injury, but sounds like O'Neil is a great replacement. If Hitchcock hadn't grabbed a last gasp winner, we would be kicking ourselves on two dropped points against a fairly mediocre opposition. Let's hope the performances improve and the results keep coming.
Shame could be out for a few weeks....at least that might stop Hughes taking him to Stoke.....every cloud etc
Flyer I am buying you 8oz of Moroccan Black and setting you up with two Russian porn stars ... We need to help you ... QPR just saw score and then onto here ... It's three points doesn't matter how we get them and thanks for report Raving ... Good skills
Cheers Raven Said in the O'Neil thread when he signed that he would surprise a lot of our fans on here. Didn't take him long Another piece of astute business by Harry, expect one or two more solid signings to arrive before the deadline.
It doesn't matter who replaces him, he offers nothing as he is so crippled that he can't even win a battle now so is useless. Hitchcock scores in seven mins, Zamora won't even score in seven games. I feel sorry for him trying to play in such a bad state.
