Potential banana skin avoided, another clean sheet (how many does that make), top of the league and almost safe from relegation. Cracking day.
Excellent performance from us, we should definitely have made it more comfortable but I never really felt like we were tested, Matt only had one save to make all afternoon (albeit a brilliant one to tip a late header round the post!) Ingram: 7.5 - One excellent save & one good punch away from a corner, literally nothing else to do otherwise. Good concentration Sido: 7 - Did a pretty decent job defensively, linked up well with Fred on the right & the midfield trio inside him Mawson: 8 - Fantastic all afternoon, yet to see him beaten to a header this season. Couple of runs right through their defence & midfield. Pierre: 8 - Ditto Mawson, so solid defensively. Best centre defensive partnership I think I've ever seen for us in 15 years of following us. Jacobson: 7.5 - Linked up very well with Holloway up front & the midfielders. Delivery of set pieces much better this week. Had a 1st half effort that whistled just over the bar Scowen: 7.5 - Passing was good, strong in the tackle. Booking was no way justified, inch-perfect tackle. Murphy: 6.5 - Decent, but tired in the 2nd half, should've been subbed as he was getting sloppy & nearly let them in once or twice. Had the ball in the net just before H/T but was chalked off for offside. Fred: 9.5 - Absolutely fantastic, great anticipation & finish for the goal, caused them all manner of problems, whichever wing he was on. Got shoved over a few times but learnt his lesson and used his skill for the rest of the game to make sure it didn't happen again. I think we've found Paris' replacement! Wood: Played in a very unusual role as AMC, but handled it well & his passing was fantastic. Should have made it 2-0 just after the break, carbon copy of the chance Hayes missed against Luton. Hayes: 6.5 - Pretty inoccuous today, spent a lot of time on the wing or just behind Holloway, but held the ball up well & won the headers. Holloway: 7.5 - Good running, great in the air and linked up superbly with Fred all afternoon.
Thought Hartlepool were the worst team I have seen grace the hallowed turf of AP this season. Ronnie Moore has some task on his hands keeping this lot up that is for sure. The sad thing was that they came for a 0-0 and their keeper was time wasting from his first goal kick. Sadly, they dragged us down with tem to some extent and we took our foot off the gas for periods and cruised through the game. We were dominant in all areas and had several excellent chances to add to the goal tally. Our complacency almost cost in us in the last ten minutes when they hit the post from a header leaving Ingram stranded. Apart from that they didn't threaten at all. Thought Murphy had definitely scored in the 45th minute and didn't understand why it was disallowed. In summary, what a difference to last season where I don't really remember us bossing games. Also our opponents seem to have an extraordinary number of red cards when they play us. More than in any season I can recall in the last few years. Perhaps down to our dominance in games and their subsequent frustration. Good to see attendances up also as prior to xmas we were scraping 3000. 3600 today and only a handful from Pool so not too bad. We need every penny! Lastly, Fred will get the plaudits today and took his goal really well. I think we will find him frustrating at times as his first touch lacks still. His runs down the wings though are exciting and he is a great prospect if he can add to his game.
4-2-3-1 from what I could work out, Ingram, Sido, Mawson, Pierre, Jacobson; Murphy, Scowen; Fred, Wood, Hayes; Holloway. Matt actually tipped that header round the post Slasher, should've been a corner but glad it wasn't! Murphy's goal was chalked off as he was offside when the kick was taken. I thought Fred's first touch was pretty good today, the only thing was that occasionally he was muscled off the ball a bit too easily, but then he is only 18 and needs to bulk up a bit.
It's a lot Ron. Must be a dozen times this season we have ended up against 10, which is quite handy really. Maybe I exaggerate but I'm sure we will have a statto amongst us that can tell us.
Had to go back through the reports and found that, in League games, 6 teams have ended the game with 10 men against us, 4 at Adams Park and 2 away. In cup games Millwall ended with 10 men and Barnet ended with 9, both games away from home. September was the only month when we didn't end a game against 10 men. We have started off with 1 from 1 in January
sometimes its the luck that the top teams get - having said that, I honestly cant dispute any of the re cards shown against us off the top of my head, except maybe the lad for morcambe where murphy made a meal of it, more a silly red card than a malicious one incidentally, have we had a red card this season? struggling to remember one
