Interesting to read the recent controversy about Jarvis not diving in the West Ham match against Arsenal and so (according to Gary Neville) not serving the interests of his team . In comments in the paper it said that diving was not as prevalent in the lower leagues because there were fewer foreign players but I am not sure about that. I remember Judge going down like he had been shot for Brentford against us after minimal contact to get a penalty and he did exactly the same thing in another game a few weeks later to get another one. I also remember the young Notts County player on loan from Villa (cant remember his name) going down in a really exaggerated way after slight contact from Tam to get another penalty against us. Thinking back a couple of years to our promotion season I vividly remember James Collins at Macclesfield staying on his feet through two tackles in the box that were both penalties and tucking the ball into the corner for our first goal. I really admired him for that and thought he was a proper footballer. I know the main reason we have not had a penalty this season (yet! - I live in hope) is that we have not been in the opposition's penalty area very often but I just wonder whether our players are too honest by not going down enough. You only have to watch great players like Suarez and Bale who seem to be constantly on the lookout for any slight contact so they can go sprawling - if its good enough for them is it good enough for us? Your thoughts please.
You're right about penalties, none of our players often run with the ball into the box. We have relied heavily on crosses in and power shots (not many) from outside the area. Eaves has the strength to run past players but it hasn't worked out recently. Our setup and tactics need to change, and obviously injecting a few new players would help in this too.
It would be interesting to see Miller's penalty appeal again - it looked a decent shout from Block 13 where I was but all he got was a booking for his trouble. That just about sums up our season.
