I'll admit that I didn't mind LJ, the football was some of the best we've seen for quite a while but no one can deny we had a serious soft underbelly that came with it. I think AN has rectified that and hopefully now he can get the balance right going forward
Spot on with LJ, earlier in the season when teams hadn't sussed us out we were fantastic. Then a combination of the players losing a bit of confidence (only when teams got at them still looked great if teams sat off and worried about us) after the Portsmouth result was the end of it all for him. Teams realised we had a young team that were fantastic and would steam roll most teams if they were given the respect of being scared of them attacking but if the opposition got stuck into them and attacked we would crumble and in most cases be on the head of a big loss. LJ either didn't know how to overcome that or the players weren't with him. Either way AN has went someway to making us a bit stringer and if he can implement the attacking side to go with it to even a small amount of early season we wil be in with a shout of going up
Alex Neil on victory over Fleetwood: "It feels like back to drawing board for me after that, I don't want to put a dampener on a win, but I'm not taking massive satisfaction from that at all to be honest. "I've been saying over the last few weeks, what we have to do is separate performances from results. The result was excellent; the performance was extremely poor." #SAFC
i figured the first was for repeated niggly fouls and his mouthing off...still no idea why he got the second if honest, looked a coming together that maybe deserved a foul but i never saw anything to make it a card offence, maybe i missed something...don't think it altered the game really as they had done little in the second half anyway.
I was even more shocked when it was his second yellow, I know its not meant to be but there tends to be a case of give it for a 1st yellow but not for a 2nd with refs.
I am going to get shot down here. Let me start by saying clearly winning is key. I want to be entertained though. I want to watch football that is beautiful. I want to see things that make me smile and gasp in awe. In life I value beauty - I love art, literature, theatre. Football can be in that category. Many many teams have shown how the " beautiful game' can look. I always go back to Brazil 82 and when I watch them I am emotional. Other teams have produced the same reaction. Man City now are marvellous. I was at a grassroots league decider on Sunday for a local U13 team. They scored a goal of real beauty, must have been 20 passes before they passed it into the bottom corner. I smiled for an hour. There have been times in the last 12 months I have glimpsed that from us. Dan Neil at times was a real footballing artist for us. I really want us playing the sort of passing game you see from the absolute cream. I think it is possible. I felt we were constructing a team with this in mind. We still might, and some of the Charlton game again showed what good looks like. Would I be happy to have played beautiful football but lost? Tough when it is your team and promotion is so key. I do value beauty though so aspire to both and no I wouldnt enjoy a full season of pragmatic percentage football.
We've played some excellent periods of football but that doesn't always work against teams in L1. After seeing Fleetwood last night I'd be happy to see them go down and keep going. Don't give me the 'plucky little club playing the only way they can and who can blame them' routine. What they were doing was cheating and it wasn't just players in the heat of the moment, no it was orchestrated tomewasting 'injuries' and substitutions agreed and practiced before the game. Playing the ball between each other, keeping the ball in the corners, etc, takes a modicum of football skill. Sitting back down, uninjured, as you're about to be subbed is cheating. I found the time, during my final whistle pint, to look at their players and
There can't be a black puffa jacket left in stock in the North West ... ... good angle for our goals though.
I honestly couldn't believe that was a tactic they had clearly discussed and practiced. I mean it disrupts play for a minute or two if that is it really worth getting subbed in the 1st half after just scoring? What kind of player wants to go off after scoring? I'm still shaking my head at the absurdity of it!
if i was stood next to some kernt like him at the match...it would have to be a sharp elbow to the sneck like, kept thinking his gob was going to open right up and swallow his head.
to be fair to the kid, he's put together a cracking little vlog there, respect to him and the 65 ? others who made the trip.
**** performance, but we showed great character and in the end it was a good win. On to Crewe, vital 3 points needed.
