Cheers for the commentry Yorkshire. Enjoy your weekend too. A draw down to 10 men is a good result for us !
We actually looked more confident in defence with 10 men than all 11. As Dyche said a very flat match with niether team really did enough to warrant a win. Big Chris did well though after coming on! Shame he couldn't get on earlier...he was all ready come on before Mariappa had his red card.
The red card was typical of Phil Dowd, who is possibly the highest profile example of a referee who doesn't understand the game but does understand the assessors' scorecard. Yes, by the letter of the law there were two offences which he was entitled to give yellow cards for. But a ref who understands the game would book the first time, warn that another one like that equals a red, and then send off if there is a third offence. Nonetheless, we did well with ten men. Buaben, Doyley and Kuszczak all coped well, and what a difference Big Chris made.
I saw Yeates storming out of the ground before kick-off...dropped again. It is a worry most of Dyche's orginal signings haven't really impressed despite the improvements mates over the season... Have to get more quality in the squad if we can TBH.
I agree with that observation Mark, but I'm hesitant to criticise Dyche. Joe Garner, Mark Yeates and Chris Iwelumo are all good enough to at least be backups in this division. At least two of them will be earning average money for a Watford player (Iwelumo, who I suspect is on a bit more, has stepped up a lot in recent weeks) and all have Championship experience. Hogg, Buaben and Forsyth are all young players who have done well at times and clearly have the capacity to get better. Dickinson's strengths complement Hodson's weaknesses and vice versa, so I think he was a good signing. Tom James was worth a punt. Only Mirfin has been an unmitigated failure, but Dyche was right to sign a third centre back, and the fact that Mirfin was as poor as he was as soon as he was led directly to the signing of Nyron Nosworthy. The other thing to bear in mind is that you can't poach quantity. The right approach was to build the squad first, try and find the players who can spearhead us to something special second. If we did it the other way around, the special players would end up being sold before we had a set of players good enough to support them.
True..I am sure he hoped for more from some. Big Chris has done well in the last few weeks whilst Garner and Craig Forsyth are young so might improve. In general we just need more pace in attack I feel. Not complaining about the season in general and Dyche does impress me with the way he seems to be very honest and not afraid to criticise as well as praise when its deserved. Even today we were fancy a couple of Man U youngsters and a striker who cost over a million...
So Joe Garner, a striker with Championship experience, who has only scored 1 goal this season, is not deemed a failure then???
A failure, yes. An unmitigated failure, no. Garner was good enough to convince Dyche to play him without other people getting injured, whereas Mirfin only played in the league at all because of Dickinson's illness and Taylor's injury.
I don't see why we had to have Dowd given his performance in the Man U/Wigan game but I don't think there was any doubt about either of mapps' yellow cards. I suspect he was brought back too soon because the timing of his tackling is usually spot on but both of those were late and stopped an attacking player running into a dangerous position. If those fouls had been comitted against us we'd have been yelling for a card. Aside from that it was very much an end of season game in which Hull played the better football in the first half and we battled our way back into it in the second. As in the Blackpool game we lacked width and didn't create much. Strange how we got better with ten men...especially in defence. Maybe this is the answer. Nosworthy and Taylor looked dreadful as a partnership; Nosworthy was excellent in a makeshift defence. Perhaps we should try a 3-5-2 or 3-6-1 formation.
My point is that a good referee understands both the law and the way the game works. The law entitled Dowd to give yellows on each occasion, no question. The way the game works suggests that a player committing his second foul all game should probably be given a final warning before being sent off for a second bookable offence.
Not against Brighton though. Vicente, Noone, Lua Lua, Buckley. Thats who they have to pick from to play on the wings.
NNW - Totally with you and exactly what I argued in the Upper Rouse, Dowd was making a name for himself. Anyone with a bit of football in their lives would have pulled Aidy to one-side and had a word. How ironic all those Dull City supporters moaning about our players at the reverse fixture - I kept trying to find the sniper in the Upper Rous after there players kept getting shot... For me the turning point of the game was bringing Chris I on - we went from a team trying to hang on for a point to a team trying for 3 points and with a bit of luck we would have got them.. Poor turn out from Dull City - one of the worse away support all season..
Special mention for Jonathan Bond. A goalkeeper starting regularly in League One at 18 is impressive in itself. But by all accounts he was exceptional in Bury's 1-0 win over Bournemouth against the run of play.
We were battered in the first half to be honest...they looked hungry for the points, and a chance of the playoffs, we looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Eustace was having a passing mare...and the defense were all screaming at each other in what seemed like sheer panic! The second half didn't start much better, and how Hull hadn't scored far more in the first half is anyone's guess, but they seemed to fall away in the second half, and once we were down to ten, and crucially, once Iwelumo was on the pitch, we started playing. But playing like that for 15 minutes seemed disappointing, even with the very close chances we had at the end...it does make you wonder why we had to wait until then to get going. Strangely, the timing of Iwelumo's arrival, the match improving and the crowd suddenly finding their voice, made it a good end to the game..but really, there wasn't a great deal to shout about. I do think, if Mapps had stayed on, another subsitution might have seen Whichelow make it on, but now we can only speculate. Meanwhile, it was great to see the Academy kids getting some plaudits, though i missed the march round, and afterwards sent a text to Bernard to apologise, coz i was busy getting a coffee when he walked passed the Rookery and i missed him! Whoops! I promised to stay put next time
You mean the same one who was at the Blackpool match? Hopefully the Boro kids will be less of a target but I'm not so sure about Emnes, Jutkewics and Robson. Having not seen the home fixtures, I have no idea how the Brighton and Posh players react (or should that just be act) in those situations.
