Posted this on another forum website, so apologies for the duplication for anyone who reads both... I thought I would give some details, for those interested, on the Kettering game. Weale - The goal against him was powerful, but it seemed to be one of those shots, that a very good keeper may have had a chance at. Not commanding enough/didn't communicate enough. Moore - Okay, caught ball watching a couple of times in first half. Endeavoured to get forward but crossing was generally awful Tunchev - Pretty solid game. A little rusty (as expected), but tried to push up to get some more of the ball and force an impression on the game. St Ledger - Some very good tackles, like Tunchev pushed up to try and get as much of the ball as possible. Has the basics of a good defender and would reap the benefits of playing next to a player like Mills. Berner - Pretty decent game, usual Berner really. Lack of pace can be an issue at times. Moussa - Hit and miss. Sometimes he could produce King-like runs in to the box (i.e. on his headed goal), but also went missing a little (like King as well!) Oakley - Usual 100% effort, didn't really do much wrong and experience showed, really started to tire though which is understandable and to be expected. Ball - Good game, got involved and like Oakley, experience shone through at times. Although seemed to wander out of position in the first half. MOTM; possibly, but he wasn't excellent like Stringer may have suggested. Howard - a la Yakubu in the first half. Ambled around and at times really looked like he couldn't be bothered. Hit the bar (with a shot I think he sliced), entertained by leading a second half mass brawl, but heading, hold up play, lay offs were all very average. Waghorn - Great hold play for the goal, road a challenge in to the box and played a superbly timed chip for Moussa. Corners still generally awful, isn't cut out to be a wide forward IMO and he struggles to dribble past players. If Sven has no inclination to play him in the middle at all, we are just holding him back by keeping him at the club. Dyer - Frustrating game for me. He clearly had the pace to knock the ball past the full backs, but always turned back to try and cut inside, meaning he got knocked off the ball alot. Norburn - Can't really remember him doing much Schlupp - few nice touches and lots of effort to get involved. Still very raw talent. Kermorgant - First touch was a great knock on (his best asset IMO, I think his flicks ons a generally really accurate), did okay, thought he may have aimed to bust a gut to show the fans he cared, but this wasn't to be the case. N'Guessan - Did well actually. Took on the defenders combining some close skill and pace. But I think they were on their last legs by this point to be fair, and we know how hit and miss he can be. Make no mistake about it, irrelevant of what the LCFC website and Mercury say, there were spells when we did not dominate this game. Overall, yes we should have won by a couple of goals, but considering it is possible that none of these players will start on Saturday (or even make the bench in some cases), I thought all of them would adopt an urgent manner to put forward their causes; this was in general not the case and in large spells the game was quite dull. Kettering actually passed the ball around well at the times, and you could see, through lack of communication, particularly at the back, that this LCFC side did not play together on a regular basis. The tactics of Kettering in the second half, to persistently, obviously and sometimes dangerously foul the City players, were nothing short of bizarre, particularly as they were still in the game and playing reasonably well . Maybe they just lacked discipline, but it was a little like watching drunk blokes on a Saturday night in town; flaring up every now and then, quite cringe-worthy at times. Eventually Leicester reacted and a mass brawl ensued. This all could have been pre-empted, but unfortunately the referee was appalling with regard to his control over the match. Ps - Not sure if Verma was their number 10, but if so, he played very well.
