Last night's game was dissipointing but we should still be keeping our expectations on the ground. If you said 7th after 3 games before the season started I would of said thank you very much. 43 games to go, hope everyone is strappped in for this rollercoaster ride that is the championship.
He is on his way Sparkey but not in time for the next few games. If we can't beat teams like Brighton we must learn how to stop them winning! And guts and dertimination can get across that line. But at home you go for the win, and doing that against an organised side seems to show up the flaws in our team all too easily. Not overly bothered by this loss, we all know we need more incoming, and more gametime. I think holding anywhere near our present position for the next few games would be good, then we can try and improve on what we have.
Last night was a funny game (not ha ha funny but strange funny). I think the scoreline was kind of flattering on Brighton but if you had to plump for a side who deserved to win it then it would have been them. We were definitely getting on top when McNuggets needlesly gave the ball away for their opener, who knows what would have happened had we scored when in the ascendancy?? All credit to Brighton who were very organised, very incisinve with their passing and worked tirelessly to the end. I honestly think it was a pretty even game and we were undone by our own errors more than anything. Mackail-Smith was a pain all night and boy did he have some pace and the work ethic to go with it , Hudson was well and truly "done" for the penalty. With their pace we were always going to be prone to the counter attack and that proved to be the case for their 3rd when we were pushing forward as much as possible. Not too many teams will cause us as many problems as Brighton did i still feel the season will be a good (though not likely great) one.. On another note, how good was it to see the team applauded off after the defeat? I think due to the fact we kept going and in all truth we didn't play badly was recognised by the majority.. long may it continue!
There was nothing flattering, Brighton were much the better team, and the general concencus of opinion was that was the worst performance we had seen for 4 years, i know the team needs to gel, but we were truely awful
"the worst performance we had seen for 4 years" I can't agree with that, remember last year Cardiff 0 Middlesbrough 3.
Great minds, or drunken thoughts? Serious though for 25 mins before we gifted the 1st goal we were the better side, things could have been different last night. Against Borough we did not turn up.
I think they were just sizing us up Rhondda. I'm a big admirer of Poyet - he's a great "real-time" reader of the game from the touchline. The problem I see from your observation is that if we go behind after 25 minutes, and it will happen again, how do we get back? We had no answer last night. Always a lot of talk about having a "Plan B" and the apparent lack of it through the DJ era. To do that Malky needs the players at his disposal. The squad we have at the moment somehow seems to have a lot of similarities. We need something different as well.
Far from the worst performance. Just the most recent in a long line of disappointments! Brighton will do a similar job on better teams than us this season. Just hope Malky can take this negative and pull as much positive out as possible. More signings required, better concentration from players etc etc Funny how some people saw us as being terrible whilst others thought we were unlucky. All down to expectation levels I suppose. For what its worth I thought Brighton were always the better side whilst we nearly but never quite, got ourselves into it enough. In the circumstances I'm happy with our development but want more!
We were poor but not the worst in 4 years - Boro, Reading, Barnsley 2 seasons ago, and others I can't be bothered to think about? So short of any pace in midfield or out wide. Conway is not a winger in the Burkie mould. What I would have given for him last night to tear the Jack ba$tard of a full back a new ar$ehole. Mason looks a great prospect but seems to do (or be allowed to do) all his good work in the middle third where it doesn't really count. However, plenty of time for him to get his rewards in the final third. Of the current squad, the one we missed the most was the Gunnar. Okay we might have sacrificed a bit of creativity but would have had a lot more bite to stop them coming forward and given our back 4 more cover. What we had on the bench (Gunnar, Kiss and McPhail excepted) shows just how thin our squad is. Strange selection though, going from a keeper, one defender and 3 forwards on Sunday, to a keeper one forward and 3 defenders last night. When it all started going against us we only had Rudy to bring on to change things. He did okay I thought and at least we started to win balls in the air. He will get better. Now the bad news. I have this from a source one step removed from within the club (no names, no pack drill so don't ask) but Bellers is definitely NOT coming. The club now have a manageable financial structure in place (just about) and to bring in Bellers on last year's £25k per week is not on so the £35k per week I had previously heard we offered is out of the window. The club are not prepared to break the structure in place so unless the owners decide to put their hands in their own pockets again, I'm afraid Craig will not be with us. Pity as he would have made such a difference last night.
Agreed Sparkey, my observation was that we were not as bad last night than the Borough game. My opinion is that we need a player similar to Rambo, who can spot the openings up front and has the ability to thread the ball through to Miller & Earnie. I still hope that Macca can do this job when fully fit.
Correct Rhondda, we were nowhere near as bad as that Boro game - just not quite good enough on the night to counter a well organised Brighton set up. I'm sure that will come as long as Malky is given the tools. Sorry to keep banging on about this "work ethic" thing, it's certainly was something that needed instilling into the side after last season's ultimate failure. Unfortunately, it is only something that will ensure survival in this division rather than get us out of it - we need something else as well. It may be all about money, but we need a couple of marquee signings who can change a game to go with the "work ethic" approach to get us there.
Seeing the goals on sky I understood why we lost. First goal: Outside the penalty area with two defenders standing off, a shot along the ground not that hard and Marshall down but fails to save. The penalty: Hudson beaten outside the area but defender and Marshall still had cover, why the push in the back there was no need. Third goal: Across the face of goal, Marshall down and again fails to make the save. We cannot expect the players to put in the same performance every game and before last night they all had praise for previous efforts. It is one game lost and as we did not think we would win every game then best to get that out of the way. Win at Burnley and we will all be smiling again. 3 points off top is not bad.
My cousin works near the Vale and said Bellamy was training there yesterday. A friend of his knows him and said things are 'very positive' with regards to a City return. If he does arrive, Doncaster will be opposition again for his second debut at CCS on Sep 10!
Really suprised by that stat. It 'felt' like they controlled possession alot better than that. Maybe I'm being overly harsh on last nights performance but I just thought Brighton looked a lot more threatening, regardless of how they ended up scoring their goals (from distance, defensive mistakes) If Brighton keep that team fit they'll be alot nearer the top of the table than the bottom next may imo. I certainly would have taken 6 points from the opening 9, it'll be interesting to see the response this weekend and I see MM has gone public today on the need to improve the overall squad depth.
We had a run last season where we had two wins in ten games and Jones had to win against Leeds and we did. It is when we get those kind of results we need to worry. Win at Burnley would be three wins out of four that is championship winning form.
Yes i think it was worse than the Boro result last year, as atleast we created clear cut chances in that game. I have to say the Jury is out on Miller, i thought Earnie would be an impact player and i believe he will be during the season, Conway cannot beat a man and has no real pace, but can cross the ball, midfield was lightweight, we need Bellers back that is for sure plus a decent centre forward, i would rather have seen Parkin on the field and that is saying something.
