Not doom and gloom, just a realist.
Yes, a better performance but Blackburn set up 4 4 2, same us us so the midfield was not under so much pressure and Whitts benefited from that with his best game since......?. Also, some of them looked like they had celebrated their cup win a little too much.
Kennedy and Morrison were excellent, Malone much better going forward. Gunnar ran himself into the ground, subtlety not his strong point but full marks for effort and it is no surprise they scored after he went off. He would have been better placed to get a tackle in on the run that led to the goal. I know it's hard to enter the fray 10 minutes from the end but Adeyemi looked right off the pace despite warming up since Gunnar's first half injury.
Agreed, Marshall's distribution was poor and Manga disappointed second half after playing well in the first 45. Peltier was steady as usual and seems to have developed a good understanding with Kennedy already.
For me Noone was a big let down again. He just hasn't done it this season. Can't fault his effort but he doesn't seem to be able to beat his man as he used to. Has he lost some pace since his injury at the end of last season? Credit to him for getting back to defend but he had 2 efforts at clearing the ball that resulted in Rudy scoring and made a hash of both of them.
Doyle is a keen and willing runner but seems to have a first division touch. Deserved a goal in the first half, If he had miss hit it, it could well have gone in. Lots of effort and running but not end product yet. We need to get the ball to him early, in the channels and on the ground for him to succeed. Not much different to ALF in that respect. Pretty useless in the air as well. Interestingly, Chesterfield have lost their last 3 games since he left.
KWJ should have scored with the header from Kennedy's brilliant cross in the second half and made the usual nuisance of himself but what is it with him and passing the ball. On at least 3 occasions he had the ball at his feet with us going forward, he tried to pass to either Noone or Kennedy but only managed a soft ball straight to a defender when it was easier to reach his own player.
Huddersfield set up 3 5 2 in the draw at Bournemouth last Saturday so if they do that against us, we will need to rethink in midfield and up front. While they got the draw, they were very lucky as Bournemouth battered them but didn't have their scoring boots on. Our next 2 games will be huge in measuring where we will finish this season. 4 points from the games would be a massive success, 3 wouldn't be a failure and 2 would see us unbeaten in 5 games which can only be good for moral. One or no points will be an unmitigated disaster and once more raise Slade's vulnerability.