Agreed! It made my day! “If” we now get good results in the forthcoming home matches then I will be very pleased.
Constructive criticism is fine by me but I'm delighted we got back into it when we looked beaten. The performance obviously can and I both hope and believe will improve and the team certainly will when starting players get match fitness. There are only 44 more games in which to improve. The time when I was deeply critical was under Redknapp when: we squandered a glorious start by settling for 1-0 wins and showboating; we didn't turn up to score at all in the Play Off final until that Bobby Zamora moment; and the following season when Redknapp used to send them out away from home with the sole aim of getting away from the ground without being beaten. I saw the most dire, uninspiring negative attitude I have ever seen from my team . It reminded me of exactly the same pointless attitude under Hughes when I watched game after game hoping to see a single shot and the very occasional bit of adventurous play. Never again.
If I remember it all right, WLS have Beale saying Paal should be ok for Tuesday with Willock ready for some minutes then too. Plus Laird should be available Tuesday! They also have Beale saying Salter, Amos and Richards will be out this month and probably until after the International break. One should be back for next w.e. - my guess is that meant Thomas.
I agree with all of this. However, whenever anyone comments that the team aren't playing well, they're labelled doom and gloom merchants and accused of having no perspective. There's nothing wrong with calling it as it is imo. Yesterday, no one was saying that our season was doomed or that we're always going to be crap. Most agreed that we were poor in the first half; that we were much improved 2nd half after Roberts came on; Chair was really struggling, but won high praise for pulling that free kick out and we all were thrilled with the ending and the point gained. I refuse to be blindly happy clappy, just because one or two on here refuse to see any fault whatsoever, deeming it impatience, which it obviously isn't.
Of course there's nothing wrong with being critical or telling it like it is, and no one's refusing to see any fault. It's just a question of balance.
As I originally said, it showed character. The game was all but over (as thousands left the stadium). I won't gloss over the cracks though. There were plenty of them and the returning players will only improve us....hopefully. it was a bit like the season hasn't really started for us yet. I said at the beginning that I didn't have any expectations this year and having seen that, I haven't changed my mind. It will be a typical championship season, win one, lose one, draw one etc etc.
It's a strange one really, wild scenes and joy that Dieng grabbed an equaliser, made all the stranger by being a keeper. As the bloke infront of me said, we are going crazy cos we sent the keeper up ffs, surely we aren't relying on those tactics.
I will leave people to draw their own conclusions. Football is about opinions, mine is, we burgled the stadium of light and did a runner. Happy with the point, dissapointed with the performance and tactics. Best player for us was Roberts by a country mile.
I agree. I personally find it interesting and instructive to have the critical views of posters who have played the game at a high level. So I read Bob's observations carefully and found them helpful. There was, however, a very apparent underlying current of frustration and exasperation. I think this could be downplayed because we know we're not in a stable place having just changed the manager after failure, and find that our thin squad is even thinner through injury. Given those, the fact that MB made the right calls on subs and the team had the desire it showed late in the second half to score two goals and get an away point are definite grounds for optimism. So keep up the perceptive comments and criticisms, don't hold back but if possible, keep some sense of positivity too, and give credit where manager and team merit it.
Obviously we're not relying on the tactic of sending the keeper up for a last minute corner. It's just something everyone does. I don't think we were as bad overall as you yesterday, but as you say, it's all opinions.
Well, Stick, know very little about skunks (the animal kind, of course), but maybe the one in question was happy and content to be stroked, and did not set-off his defensive mechanism with a few fierce stink bombs? Just a thought. One needs to read-up from experts on the species. I won't bother, thank you.
Well having been sprayed by a skunk I didn't know was there, I can say that if it permitted stroking, it must have been de scented or very young. That was a thoroughly unpleasant experience - one I am not anxious to repeat