I thought we were a little unlucky, thier goal did appear to be offside, but thats the way it goes i guess, we are still not getting the ball in the box, and Miller was completely ignoring Earnie..Why ? Onwards to Barnsley and lets hope Reading can do us a favour tonight.
Saw the Watford goal on tv this morning and the scorer Nosworthy was onside. Why did taylor call the back line out to the edge of the box? First time I have seen us use that tactic and obviously get it wrong. Nosworthy wasn't going up for the free kick originally and was called forward late. Could be why no one picked him up and also why he ran in late and was onside.
Blue! He did leave it right till the last second didn't he.I think Dyche told him to get his arse up there and hope for something.Nosworthy is about as prolific a goalscorer as McNaughton so it was worth the gamble throwing everyone forward. Anyone else think that no team except our own,now fears playing at CCS? Gone are the days when the crowd played it's part down the City.I swear most of our fans suffer from year long laryngitis and have bone china hands.
I think with the way we attacked and Cardiff sat back, it would've been lucky for us not to score. You just can't do that and get away with it. Last season with Malky we dropped something like 35+ points due to the inability to hold out wins/draws.
we're top of the league for points dropped from winning / drawing positions, its happened several times at home, we get in front then sit back and defend a 1 goal lead then the inevitable spell off pressure from the opposition comes and they often score, we then suddenly spring into life going for the next goal, its not rocket science whats happening...
If we didn't know before, that game showed just what you have to do to get out of this division, and that's compete at all levels. Watford are a physical force to be reckoned with. They played their own game, and in my opinion deserved a point, and could easily have taken all three - I'd have been inclined to think so if I was a visiting supporter. I take nothing away from Watford and wont drone on about another woeful referee performance, but we lack the ability to adapt to the various styles of football that makes the Championship such a competitive league. In other words, the much talked about Plan B. After a scrappy first 50 minutes in which we could have easily have been 3-0 up by the time Miller hit the post, we then seem to get uncomfortable when the opposition ups the pace. Other than to drop deep and man the barricades, we lack the option to turn them and undermine their confidence. Back again to the pace question. We're desperately missing the flair of a Bellers type player to "scare" the opposition - they've sussed us and they can go for it. Mason is the only wild card and he was sorely missed last night.
Hi Moose We're pushing that close - about 27 points dropped from winning positions. Mind you your guys caused us problems from set pieces the whole game. Why we changed to a high line for that free kick I don't know. I think it was Millwall that did it successfully against us so they must have been practising in training - more practice needed. We seem to freeze every second half at home. Both you and Cov attacked us from the start of the second half, upset our rhythm and in both cases we surrendered our lead by sitting back and letting the away side come at us. It wouldn't surprise me if Dyche and Andy Thorn at Cov had a chat before yesterday's game. Mind you, crap referee apart (Deadman, more like Deadhead - was it 8 bookings in total), your guys don't take any prisoners do they. A team crafted from Dyche's style of football methinks. Not a criticism, just a comment. Wish we were more like that sometimes as physical sides can boss us around.
It's something we carried over from last season at first, but now that Dyche has stamped his authority on the team and rid us of any leftover Malky it has started to stop Might just be his tactical Achilles heel. I wasn't there, was only listening, but it was definitely a game of two halves. You had more possession than us first half...we are used to a rubbish pitch and do struggle to adapt to the passing game. But from what I heard...we did have some attacking moments, but not really opportunities. I think the second half sounded like a reverse....we took the game to you and for what we lacked in quality and technique, we made up for in attack after attack and high work rate. Personally, I do not think we are a dirty team. When you look at the amount of red cards we have picked up...it's not a high amount. If I recall...we have had one straight red all season, and that was a poor decision with our goalie being sent off when a player fouled him 30 yards out by the sideline. The only other red we have had came from 2 yellows....and that's it. I guess you are referring to Hogg's tackle on Conway. I think it was a highlight on FLS right? If I remember correctly I think a yellow was fair...it was a bad challenge but a red would maybe be harsh? Conway was injured, which is obviously not what anyone wants to see...but unfortunate rather than malicious. That is not the player that Hogg is. His job is to shield the defence and put in tackles...usually he is very good at that and does it cleanly. But when you're making so many in a game...one or two are going to be badly timed. I wouldn't say any other player could even be remotely labelled as "taking no prisoners". Eustace, Nosworthy and Taylor are strong...but that doesn't automatically mean that they go too far with tackles. Personally from what I heard from the commentators, it sounded like Deadman was way too card happy, bar that fighting incident which he ignored. "Not played the game" is how our commentator summed him up.
We certainly are not a dirty team. The two red cards we received (Loach against Pompey and Doyley against Leicester) were both wrong decisions. Loach was in fact fouled and his hand ended up hitting the ball as he was falling from about 6 feet in the air. Then it was Mariappa, not Doyley, who challenged Beckford who then went down like he had been shot, but he was not the last man as the ref thought. So 2 red cards, 2 mistakes.
Like I said, not a criticism just a comment compared to the way we play. I wasn't refering directly to Hogg's tackle and not saying Watford are a dirty side but Watford's physicality in general was much stronger than our's. However, Hogg's tackle was right in front of me and I'm only 8 rows from the front. He was late and tried to make up for that by going in harder. I don't believe he went in to hurt Conway but the tackle was reckless and dangerous and I have seen reds given for much less this season. Conway might have a broken ankle so that's his season over and whatever plan B we had goes down the drain unless Malky uses the young winger signed from Wycombe. You could easily have nicked it at the end with a 3 on 2 break. Thankfully the ball went to Iwelumo's feet and the move came to nothing.
Yup..there are not too many occasions where the ball ends up at Iwelumo's feet and anything but possession for the other team occurs A shame as it is now about rebuilding for next season, 7 points + bad GD is too much now. I hope Conway recovers quickly
This is a picture of Hogg's challenge on Conway. By the letter of the law a yellow card is the correct punishment. The challenge is not enough to amount to serious foul play as there is a foot on the ball and it certainly is not violent. He has eyes only for the ball, gets it but gets a lot of Conway too. Therefore i would amount it to unsportsmanlike conduct and brandish a yellow card. *All insight gained from "laws of the game" http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2011_12_en.pdf
Dan You would say that wouldn't you as we say it was a bad tackle. However, that is a still shot. What it does not show is the pace of the incident and that Hogg got there late and went in recklessly to make up for his late arrival. Recall some other high profile reds from earlier in the season when the tackler also got the ball but was shown red. As I said earlier, it took place some in front of me, max 15 yards away, so give me credit for what I saw. However, it is all irrelevant as Deadhead gave a yellow so incident over and all we can do is argue about it - it doesn't matter anymore although Conway might not think so if he is in plaster and on crutches for 3/4 weeks. Time to move on.
I am saying this just looking at the pic and based on the laws of the game. I am not doing it for agrument sake, but as per usual MM is trying to blame the ref when actually he was right to do as he did. You can see that Hogg gets the ball but takes some of Conway too. Its not late, its not malicious. It was just unlucky. These type of challenges happen every week but go unpunished, yet occasionally there is a big to do about them.
***honest question to watford fans*** why do you dislike MM so much when apparently his teams form always collapses at the end of the season, he always blames refs, is inept tactically and isnt a very good manager? logic would suggest you'd have been glad to see the back of him, not constanstly moaning about him? we all wanted jones to go last season, if we got compensation for him walking out on us for another higher club i'd say happy days...thanks jones for your efforts but lets move on...
There lies the problem. We dont have a problem with him leaving. We have a problem with him being an ungrateful ****. As i explained before we gave him his last playing contract and first manager contracts. Then he just walked out without even thanking the club. If he had been grateful and acknowledged how much Watford Fc gave him then there would be no issue.
As I said on the "real" match thread, I don't see what Hogg is alleged to have done so terribly wrong there. He clearly went in with one foot, the foot he went with clearly got the ball, and it was a very delicate part of Hogg's anatomy that took the brunt of the impact. If that's worthy of a red then Malky should have been sent off a good 400 times in his playing days. The injury to Conway was unfortunate (unfortunate isn't a strong enough word but I can't think of a better one), but if referees handed out cards based on how badly hurt the player claims he is at the time, players would be going down as if they had been shot or amputated even more regularly than they already do.
