A tougher game than it should have been tonight and a 3 points that I'm very happy with. The weather was grim and our performance wasn't great but we did what mattered. I thought Mowbray got his midfield selection wrong and that hurt us. The balance was off with Evans being the only defensive player. Alongside him we should always have one of Neil/Matete/Ba in my opinion. I thought all 3 of them were reasonably effective when they came on but Ba just seems to stand out above the rest of those late summer window signings. O'Nien worked tirelessly all night. He was my MOTM. A close call though, as Amad was standout as well. He linked up well with Roberts and their little give and go's seemed to be much more effective than the mazy isolated dribbles that we often get from Roberts. Simms frustrates me immensely. His presence is undoubtedly an asset to us, it improves the team as a whole and gives the defenders something to occupy them. But he's very one dimensional at times and he'll shoot regardless of how good the opportunity is. Tonight it didn't cost us, but if he plays Roberts in when it was obvious to everyone, the game is dead 20 minutes earlier. The teams at the top end of the Championship all seem to have found a bit of consistency that has seen us cut adrift. The next 2 games are both very winnable and going into the world cup break with an extra 6 points on the board and solidly in the top half would be an excellent position to find ourselves in.
Wetherby services now charging my car!! Absolutely loved it. The game was crap but the atmosphere was great. Somehow the drum went quiet!!! And if I ever get close to him with it, I’ll shove it up his arse!!
And a massive shout out to @Smug in Boots with help for the tickets. I owe you a pint mate. (Would’ve got you one if I’d managed to get to the pub in time!!)
Yeah I agree that Embleton and Evans wasn't a good choice for CM given our options. Fair enough give Neil a break but we've got Ba and Matete. Embleton isn't a well rounded CM and never will be, he's more of an attacker. Agreed about O'Nien having a great game ditto Amad.
dodgy performance but a 2-0 win ! and pissed down thought we would struggle in the championship now for the play offs !
Seeing the difference Simms made when he came on was there to be seen and having that physical presence makes you wonder where we could have been if him or Stewart had stayed fit, or even better neither got injured. I expect us to go into the second half of the season a completely different animal with them 2 back along with Alese and Ballard. Our physical presence suddenly increases massively. On the downside is there anyway we can send Lincoln Dajaku and bring Diamond back? He spends more time posting on Instagram as if hes some kind of superstar but in reality he looks a bang average League 1 player. The lad needs sending out on loan in Jan, and he needs to get his head down and start grafting to become the player he thinks he is in his own mind, because right now I dont see anything in him to explain why we signed him. Diamond has alot to learn but even he looks better imo.
In the cold light of day, it was a good victory in awful weather conditions (perhaps we are not so weak as I thought?). Iirc one great save by Patterson, a well worked goal that Pritchard got on the end of (so much for the boo boys). A last minute second goal (their keeper was poor). Started badly and finished strong...Simms made a difference... so anybody who has stated we could play without Stewart/Simms, sorry you were wrong.
