cant agree - dont think ward is close to first team guarantee...he's as slow as...something especially slow...cant help but think barnett is on borrowed time...
Ratings: Steer: 4. Looked very shaky with some of those corners, but did manage a couple of decent saves. At fault for the first goal. Second goal nothing he could do about it. Martin: 5. Had a really torrid time against Dyer, but didn't get punished for it. Made a couple of mistakes, giving the ball away in dangerous areas. Barnett: 4. More mistakes from him, not great at all. Ward: 5. A couple of good tackles and positional play was good, but too many errors in dangerous places. Drury: 6. Very good with one on ones. Couple of wayward crosses and passes Bennett: 6. Solid, but quiet. Pilkington: 6. As above. Fox: 5. Gave the ball away far more often than usual. Hoolahan: 4. Shocking performance for the first 60 minutes. Improved for the last thirty but didn't really make up for it. Jackson: 5. Energetic, but seemed to find it difficult to work with Morison and passes went astray. Morison: 4. Poor defending for the first goal. Looked disinterested and could have done better with a couple of headers. Communication with Jackson was awful. Vaughan: 6. Looked lively and sharp, shame he didn't play the full ninety. Wilbraham: 6. Did his best. Johnson: 5. Not enough time to have an impact. Can't really give a MOTM for Norwich, but best performance was probably Vaughan
I know we are disappointed at losing, but let's not 'rob' Leicester of their glory. As bad as we were, Leicester, to me anyway, looked as if they wanted it more from the start. Not sure if it was complacency or something, but maybe losing to a team a division below us, will keep the players focussed. Well played Leicester. Good luck in the next round. I'll be watching your draw with interest, if only to dream of what might have been
Well, that's over. Leicester were not great today and they were still comfortably the best team on the pitch! Outside the last 20 mins we were toothless, and only appeared on the scoresheet thanks to a soft penalty. I can't help but feel we needed Holt today! Time for some ratings; Steer: 6.5 - Can't fault for either goals, distribution worthy of praise. R Martin: 3.5 - Looked out of sorts against Dyer and made a few mistakes. Barnett: 3.5 - Few mistakes, went AWOL for second Foxes goal and missed a sitter. Ward: 4.0 - Distinctly Championship standard today if that. Drury: 7.0 - (Would be our MoM but I've already given that to Mike Dean) Made a few things happen in attack and our best defender on the pitch. Bennett: 6.5 - Not involved enough, but that's not one of very few sources of creativity today. Somehow managed to con the ref for a penalty too! Fox: 5.0 - Not great at all. Just ok. Championship standard today. Pilkington - 5.5 - A passenger. Not really his fault he wasn't involved much, but didn't really do anything of note. Hoolahan - 2.5 Wholly ineffective for 70 minutes save for a penalty he was lucky to convert and should never of had anything in the first place. Missed so many passes whilst others where always 1 or 2 yards in front of where they were needed. Brilliant in all too brief flashes towards the end. Jackson: 4.5 - Missed too many passes, couldn't make anything happen. Morrison: 4.0 - Not sure if I can blame him so much or lack of service but once again Morrison had another long day chasing hoofballs and doing nothing of note. Subs: Vaughan: 5.5 - Had half chances, couldn't get us back in it. Wilbraham: 4.5 - Anonymous. Achieved absolutely nothing in 20 mins. Johnson: 5.0 - Has little time, but see pretty much all our players today! And seeing as there are a lot of Lesta fans around I'll do a half-assed job of some ratings for them too. Schmeical - 8.5, Peltier 7.0, St Ledger - 8.5, Morgan - 7.5, Kennedy - 6.5, Dyer - 9.0, Wellens - 7.0, Danns - 6.0, Beckford - 5.5, Marshall - 5.0, Nugent - 8.0. And subs: Konchesky - 6.0, Defonueso - 6.5.
May I be the first to say that was for the approx 2000 that were denied seeing a well deserved Leicester win.
Maybe if you get drawn away in the next round, the local health and safety and police force will be more friendly towards you. Please remember it wasn't our clubs decision.
Everyone, who has a heart, in the country would wish that Crawley made the final, and hopefully gained European football next season, that would be a true fairytale
I think you are being too generous. Ratings: Steer: 4. Didn't inspire confidence but neither would any keeper faced with that defence in front of him. Martin: 2. I suppose he's allowed a pretty awful game because he's been so good for us and so consistent over the last season and a half. Better at CB in my opinion. Barnett: 3. Marginally better than Ward in my opinion, but still looks championship class at best. Ward: 2. Come back Whitbread and Ayala, quick! Didn't even look championship class. If we survive, we need to replace him and Bennett in the close season. Drury: 6. Actually looked like he cared. If only everyone had his attitude. Bennett: 4. Tried hard, but it didn't come off for him today at all. Pilkington: 1. Oh, was he playing? Fox: 4. Didn't look happy in this kind of championship style game. Hope it doesn't affect his confidence because he's looked good at a higher level in my opinion. Hoolahan: 5. Yes, really bad for the first hour. But then showed some class and at least some interest. Could have scored a wonder goal if he had controlled the final shot. Jackson: 4. Tried hard, but Morrison played as if Jackson had BO and he didn't want to get too close to him. Morison: 2. Looked totally uninterested. The balloon over the bar after one minute said it all. If he really thinks he is challenging Holt for our top striker award, he's living in la-la-land. Vaughan: 6. Looked like he cared. Considering he's been out for so long, a promising first start. Wilbraham: 6. Also looked like he cared. We all joke about his limited ability but he was miles better than Morrison. Johnson: 5. Perhaps he should have started because this kind of styleless game suits him. Not our worst performer by a long way. So were some of the successes of this season just tired? Couldn't be arsed? No idea. If Ward and Barnett are our CB pairing against MU, heaven help us. I guess they've done us proud this year and deserve an awful performance but it's so disappointing.
This is what i dont get, ward and barney played bloomin well together last week against the swans and were getting praised, this week they have a blooper and get ransacked with criticism! Make your minds up... Tbh though if we had reached even 50% of our potential today we would have done a damn sight better than we did today. We played so so poor and still only lost 2-1! The only way also bennett and pilks can play in the diamond together is if ones at the tip, cause they cant play together in the middle as its been shown already. As surman was rested i would have started lappin instead of hoolahan, pilks on the right and benno behind the strikers as he seemed to do well last week against swansea in that position. At least we can get back to the league and concentrate on a reasonable mid table finish which money wise will be worth alot more than a wembley appearance!
I acknowledged that in my ratings, but today some of your players were poor, your passing in the final third, for instance was abysmal.
Just got back from the game, very very disappointed by our boys, but credit where credit is due to the Foxes, they really wanted it. I thought we were far too wasteful and lacked creativity in front of goal, largely due to a robust Leicester defence. Think promotion may be too much of an ask for them this season, but keep that defence together and add a top quality striker (Beckford doesn't cut it) and you could romp the league potentially. Onwards and upwards! OTBC PC
I think we need to calm down and keep things in perspective. We were bloody awful today. I don't blame PL for the changes he made. He and the rest of us thought we could handle Leicester. It was hard to believe there would be so many bad performances at the same time. And we all know that playing to our potential, we would have taken them apart as we did Burnley. Fair play to them, they took their opportunity to beat an off form team. Of course their fans will crow and expect to get a bit of stick and don't rise to bait of the real knobheads. Next week reality will return and we play ManU and they don't. What we have to remember is we are full of players who 2 years ago were in a lower Division than Leicester. The top players in any team are better not just because they are more skillful but also because they can hold their form for longer and can just find that extra when its needed. We move on and if you don't get excited at the thought of next week then there's something wrong with you.
Sorry but have to respond to this Steer 5 - may have been at fault (?) for the goal but when I look back was rarely troubled. R. Martin 5 - average gave ball away Drury - 4 see Bennett but worse Barnett 5 - in the air OK, passing and distribution shocking Ward - 6 average Bennet - 5 passing and distribution shocking Pilkington - 4 - awful Fox - 6 notgreat but I though our best player Hoolahoop - 3 awful ,worse than Sunderland. How on earth did he get MoM? Jackson - tried but little service Morison - 4 cannot paly a simple ball or track back. No good in a 4 4 2 line up Vaughan 5 - looked eager but liitle end product Johnson 5 barley on Wilbraham 6 - looked better than Morison (that is how bad he was!) Truly awful. They were average but we made them look worldbeaters by not competing in midfield where Danns did and giving the ball away cheaply.
I think that is a fair comment, but we did not start today. If we had put a shift in we would have won. How many shots did you actually have?
