Bit disappointed there really

Good experience for the young players, another win which breeds confidence and through to the next round of the cup.

I'm loathe to be too critical.

We were comfortable apart from a 5 min spell at the end of the 90. The worrying aspect was the nature of the goals conceded. All came from silly mistakes.

 

I'm not disappointed. Nine changes, Elliot, Perch, Gosling, Guthrie, Lovenkrands, Abeid, Ben Arfa and Ferguson probably didn't have more than 10 mins first team action between them this season before the match so a win is very good. Lots of match practice for those returning from injury getting match practice and lots of key players rested for Saturday. Good times.

 

Should have a Smith, a Carroll, a Nolan somewhere in there..
No Barton though if i remember correctly..he was injured for much of the season..

 

But taking risks is important for a team like us if we are to do well in the cups AND the league - we're not a Man U or City, we don't have a backup team that is as good as our first team so we have to make a gamble with younguns and fringe players in games like this. IMO Pardew got it spot on - he made 9 (!) changes, we blooded some youngsters, got some recovering players a run out and gave a lot of first teamers a rest. And won. Great result for us.

If we had of played a full strength squad and destroyed them, what would we have gained over what we have right now? I would say less... Because our first team would have played an extra game (less recovery for the important league matches). And we wouldn't have got the younguns and fringe players out.

The OP is possibly one of the most pessimistic takes on the match that I think anyone could have...

 

This

Last night gave players like Ferguson, Guthrie, Gosling etc a much-needed game. The fact is that we are through to the 4th round and who knows what team Pardew will put out in the next round. Probably depends on the opposition, and I would imagine that the further we go in this cup the stronger the team that he will select.

 

If we were playing with our first teamers and pushed into extratime yeah I'd be disappointed but Abeid was still untested before the match, Ben Arfa was playing his first competitive match since City and Guthrie and Marveaux were making their first season appearances too. What I'm disappointed about is the defence, which we can say was a man short of our first choice but still shipped in 3 goals. Was it because of the unexperienced midfield or maybe even tiredness? I don't know cos I was only listening and I don't even care cos we won again in extra time but as Pardew said in the post match interview, every Cup match from now on must be played with our best players....

 

Super fluky win but hey, we will take it...............Simmo scoring from a cross and Obertan crossing with outside of right boot down the left for Colo goal!!!!!!

 

Two short, Perch and Fergie were on. Leaves 2 starters, one of which was Danny 'Weak Link' Simpson.

 

As for weeding out- Shola

Ba looks better and should be starting with Best. Based on last night Lovenkrands looks sharp so i would be putting him in ahead of Shola.

Cant believe they gave him a new deal start of the season, why not wait until the end and give the lazy ****er something to play for? Its not like anyones going to come in for him is it???

I would take last night as a positive, the lads kept going for them and didnt let their heads drop. We have alot of players bedding in, Abeid, Marveux, Cabaye, Obertan, Santon, Ba.... losing some big first team players didnt help. We also have Gosling and Ben Arfa effectively being new signings too seeing as they got next to no game time last season. Thats over half a team there.

I am still not convinced on Simpson and Guthrie played last night too and i always think we play pony when he is in, contracts up end of the season though so hopefully he goes..... oh and then theres Perch who was also playing!!!

 

Think all last night showed how close the gap is between mid-lower half of Prem and top few Champ sides is, we rested 9 players (good thing considering our run of games coming up) and still qualified for the 4th round. All good as far as I'm concerned. Top 4 in the league, still in the League cup, unbeaten and only conceded 2 in the league, if I'd been offered that at the start of the season at this stage I'd have had your arm off.

 

My bad, forgot about Fergie

 

It's always fixed. We'll get Arsenal away.

 

I believe the difference is, last season we may not have found a way to win. So tbh I'll take the victory, plus getting through was always the aim, doesn't really matter how you do it

 

Remember we made 9 changes to the team.

Elliot - Debut
Perch - We know hes ****
Ferguson - Coming back from injury.
Abeid - Coming back from injury.
Guthrie - Injury.. Again.
Ben Arfa - Same.. Coming back from injury.
Marv - our best player, but again, how long did he go without football.. hes still slowly building on his fitness.
Lover - Scored but is still ****
Gosling - I dont know whats going on with him at the moment. hoping he will get better.

Anyways these have hardly played matches.. let alone competitive games together.. its harsh to expect them to go all out to rape the opposition. im amazed we made it through the 120 minutes. the lads did well.. we got the win.. we have opened up new options. we know Benny and Marv will suit each other judging on some of the play between them. things are looking bright...lets not get too greedy with expecting great results

 

Considering all the changes to the standard starting XI and the fact that most of the squad last night has come back from injuries; it's a good result.

Still in the cup and riding high in the league.

It's nice.

 

You missed and is **** off Guthrie

 

Goes without saying really, it'd be like saying Shola is slow or that Cabaye is a handsome devil.

 

Look. I'm certainly taking the result and I'm very happy about it. Don't get me wrong. I'm just not letting the win overlook the fact that there are some criticisms we need to take into account and work on. That's if we want any chance of progressing.

The defensive unit especially is what I was mostly disappointed with. It had essentially four senior players who have all had a chunk of first team action (Simpson, Perch, Colo, Ferguson) but we were incapable of locking out a Forest side who have struggled this season so far. I suspect our attack force was a little miffed that their efforts kept continually being wasted as Forest kept equalising. All I'm saying is that for the next match, we need to either choose a different defensive line-up, or the players need to pull their fingers out, because if they had really put 100%, in I find it hard to see how we could have conceded three, and VERY nearly a fourth if it wasn't for the crossbar.

For some reason my attention is drawn towards Perch and Gosling in particular, as Perch was the CB and I'd imagine that Gosling was a little deeper in a defensive midfielder type role. In all of the goals I watched in the highlights, they were nowhere to be seen from what I can recall.

And "we made 9 changes" is a bit of a meaningless statement really. The only important thing is who those changes were, and I reckon with the likes of Ferguson, Gosling, Guthrie, Marveaux, Ben Arfa and Lovenkrands, we put a strong team out. I hope all of those players can work comfortably at a level above Forest, because as soon as we get injuries, some of those players are going to be in our first team.

Anyway, like I said, I'm chuffed, there were just some concerns. But I wanna get as far as possible in this cup, so the players will have to step up in the next game - whoever they are.

No greed here. Just expected it to be a little more comfortable than that. **** me it was close.