My view.....brief summary Started really well and thought Blackburn found it hard to play when being closed down all of the time. Good passing moves and a bit of a cutting edge. Looked the better team for a while. First corner for Blackburn and I predicted they would score (sorry) and they did. The scorer was certainly unmarked but, then again, would you expect a header to fly back in from 20 yards? From that point to half time we looked pretty average I thought. Started sitting back and letting Blackburn play - though neither team really looked like scoring. Chopra was very much isolated and, at 4' 3" he is not going to win the ball in the air against a defender of 6' 13". Service to him was poor. Second half we started to close down again but our passing was pretty negative eg Smith to Cresswell to Smith to Cresswell to Smith (repeat as required) and the lack of movement was frustrating. JET had one of his 'out of the game' games but we picked up with the introduction of Scotland (welcomed by everyone around me) and Drury who added a little more pace and bite into midfield. Hyam was exceptional but, in the same way that JET was poor today, I don't think we can get too carried away after one game. When we pushed a little harder the goal came and, from that point, the only likely winner in the last 10 minutes was likely to come from the Town. Overall, taking the performances of Jet and Hyam out of the equation, no players played particularly well or particularly badly in my view. The missing element seemed to be that of ideas and the absence of a Plan B. In the end, I think a draw was probably a fair reflection on the game and I would probably have taken that at half time. Onwards and upwards and, hopefully, with a few good players to be brought in to support our rather skeletal squad. (big strong striker and big strong centre half would be my first choice) Two asides.... Drummers drove me bloody mad - please don't have them again and with a full SBR stand on a baking hot day why were there only two people serving the beer at half time ????
rushmere good report and luckily for me i was the other end of the Sir Bobby Robson stand so they didn't annoy me too much! As for the game i thought we were pretty good, didn't work robinson enough but then again there wasn't too much danger at our end. I have to say that I thought Luke Hyam was exceptional. I've seen him quite a few times but for me he was our MOM (Martin was also good), he looks such a natural in that position. As you say rushmere not many players stood out and JET was awful (he'll probs be MOM against Watford). I think the most obvious thing to come out of that game is we still need reinforcements urgently if we are going to push on this season. I think we need another genuine winger, Carson won't be good enough every game and we shouldn't want to stick martin out there when one of the wingers go off. Chambers and Smith were decent but Chambers and someone else with Smith on the bench sounds much better. Overall a good performance, we deserved the point but without a few more signings we will me mid table!
Hyam was incredible today, no doubt about being my MOM. I agree with your report, the majority of the game both teams were very average but I guess with the heat a bit of a slower paced game is to be expected. A draw is probably right, but a win for us wouldn't have been unfair (especially as they only had 2 shots on target!).
Like last season, we conceded from an position that shouldnt have caused us any problems. Other than that it was a decent enough start to the season with JETs non appearance being the only other negative. As Rushmere has stated there was plenty of passing around at the back but I have no problem with that as long as we retain possession. I dont think we can do much other than keep the ball and wait for an opening as our team is so short that knocking a high ball forward will fail everytime and for me until we bring a different type of player in we can have no plan b to move on to. There are little things we can tweak with plan a but the general style of play will be dictated by the players currently here. The heat didnt help but against a team that kept most of their premier league squad from last year and have added some (for this level anyway) class players I think he looked comfortable enough but that 5 second blip that haunted us last season needs addressing if we are go to do anymore than upper mid table this time round.
My view (based on SSN reports) Can be looked at both ways, many will be unsurprised to know i lean towards the postive The result Positive - we didn't lose, not a bad way to start the season against tough opposition Negative - we were losing most of the game against a team who are more than likely to be top 10. in addition to that, something that can be viewed both ways on its own - we had the opportunities to win (or at least score again) and let them slip Blackburns goal Positive - They only scored once. this suggests to me either Blackburn didn't learn that we're likely to concede from crosses into the box, or we defended better the rest of the game. Negative - conceeded from a header again... Our Goal Positive - we forced them into a mistake and, more importantly, it shows we didn't collapse and fought back to equalise. From reports I've managed to read it's also pleasing to learn that it can be attributed to an effective substitution. Negative - we didn't actually score, and it suggests that our attack maybe isnt as incisive as we thought it might be
