Deserved draw & thought derby wasn’t that good, disastrous defending for their goal walking round 3/4 players & laying it off, we played ok & prefer that formation again Saturday, Smyth & eze have good futures.
Just back, glass of ardbeg warming me up, not that cold really. Point each about right, I guess "not very good is a step up from 'kin useless". We should have had a pen, that attack on Smith would have been a yellow card in rugby. Eze looked good when he came on for Washington, who I had forgot was playing. Smith tried hard but I think the gnomes Steel posted the other day are taller. Play like that and get 3 points on Saturday, I will believe we are safe
I enjoyed the game, it was good and quite open. Smyth was our man of the match and Carson in goal for them who had a great game. As others have mentioned before me, I didn't even realise Washington was playing until just after half time but then the old minces are starting to go and it's difficult to tell who's who when they're up the other end of the pitch from where I sit, especially under the floodlights. Palmer did well to create their goal but felt that if one of our players did what Derby did to us all night which was take him out. Derby were very strong and physical and Craig Forsyth smashed Smyth every time he could get near our little Irish Messi. Fair play to the lad because he just got up and got on with it and didn't let it phase him. The foul on Smith was definitely a penalty and you do wonder what he has to have done to him to get awarded one. I thought it was going to be a case of we plucked away and fought well but lost, when Smyth was fouled just outside the 18 yard box by the goal line. Freeman swung a free kick to the near post and Luongo rose to crash home the header. Beautiful. We deserved that. And even after that, it appeared Holloway was going for the winner. I thought he would've dropped Lynch - who he bought on as a striker in place of Smith -back to plug a hole somewhere in defence in order to try and secure the point. But he left him up top and when Smyth won the ball back as Derby set off to attack Lynch was put through on goal by Freeman who shot straight at Carson. Either side of him and we'd have won 2-1. If that had happened I think Holloway would be declared as a tactical genius but he didn't so we won't
Am reading the post match comments over breakfast and agree with them. My post match reflections are- 1) A more balanced and robust formation 2) Play the youngsters as they are ready 3) Smyth my MOTM for great attacking play and a wonderful attitude 4) Fouls on Smith are incredible. If anybody knows Ian Taylor, I would propose he closely films him for a match and sends the edited fouls and non decisions to the FA. I really feel for him as he is a gentle giant and plays fair. Perhaps that is the problem?
Talking to the relatives from DCFC that went to the game concede that they were in fact just happy to come away with a point as they felt we were by far the better team and a vast improvement on the QPR team that turned up at theirs. They also conceded that they thought they would batter us by a good few goals, but now feel rather stupid and are feeling lucky that they didn’t actually lose and they for once actually gave me ( us ) a well played. All in all a happy Hoop up in Derby today and will greet them with a smile knowing they actually got away with it last night for a change.
Can I add Furlong to the list of those who played well... He is also more than ready. Speedy, good tackler, a GREAT header of the ball, a throw to rival Robbos...even though a couple of them looked marginal foul throws.... The three kids who played last night make me smile for the future...add in Bright Samuel...who I also rate and Lumley (getting rave reviews from Blackpool) perhaps the tide is changing Roll on Saturday...I want to see the kids again Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk
Furlong was our best player at Burton and has hardly been seen since. Sent from my phone not using Tapatalk. What’s tapatalk?
Yes, I was going to say how well Furlong played. As you say, all the youngsters looked good - it's so refreshing to Smyth terrorise defenders by running at them as he does. Unforunately, he'll get kicked a lot playing like that. Eze looks like he could be a bit of a star, too.
I enjoyed the game despite being 20 mins late due to rubberneckers on m4. Anyway great performance from our youngsters and glad we had a back 4 . Furlongs best position is plain old right back. My only gripe was we still lumped the ball up to Smith and we played so narrow he wasnt getting crosses fed to him. we were easy to defend against. Their centre half had the measure of Smith but i have to agree with earlier posts he is getting fouled week in week out and getting nothing. The last 20 odd minutes was a joy to watch and showed what we can do when we use that old fashioned thing called grass to play on..
