I wrote a short piece on the game for the Mail last night, but I was a bit late back and missed the copy deadline by half an hour. I thought I might as well bung it up on here anyway... The first thing that strikes you upon entry to the newly built Amex stadium, is the strange decision to put 50% of the crowd in one stand and to spread the other 50% round the other three sides, with all the corners left empty. It's a very odd lay-out and one that I doubt we'll see adopted by many other clubs, let's hope not, it really doesn't work very well at all. There is though, much we could learn from Brighton with regard to what should happen on a concourse, showing images of the away team on their own concourse is a nice touch(as was serving Everards Tiger beer), not to mention the fact that their meat pies are sourced locally and actually have meat in them(take note Adam). As for the performance, it was good, in fact, it was very good. So much for the 'negative Nigel' tag that far too many of our fans tried to hang on our manager after last season. Having had another window to develop the squad further, we now have a more balanced team, a team playing attractive attacking football and having such a young squad that will continue to improve, there is much reason for optimism at City at the moment. That attacking football has been helped, in no small part, by Robert Koren being moved to his preferred central midfield position and the growing partnership he's developing with Corry Evans, a partnership that needed to be on their game against a good passing side like Brighton and they were. The back four continue to grow in confidence and were fully deserving of their clean sheet, confidence that can only be helped by knowing that they have the quite outstanding Adriano Basso behind them. It's hard to believe that we managed to pick him up for nothing, even more impressive when you consider he was just one of three players in the starting eleven yesterday that didn't command a fee. With a great keeper, a solid back four, two quality central midfield players and two proper wingers, the only issue that could hold us back, is the inability of our strikers to score goals. Waghorn will hopefully be back soon, with Stewart not long after, hopefully that will give us the fire-power that we need, if not(or if we lose Waggy at the end of his loan), then we may need to dip into the transfer market if we are to make a serious push for promotion this season. Another ground tick gained, another away point gained and a very entertaining game to boot. All in all, a very enjoyable weekend.
thanks ... I agree pretty much with what you have said. the Everards Tiger was a good touch (instead of the usual keg/bottle crap). The only downside was the transport which left a bit to be desired. This would be a major issue if heaven forbid the Melton scheme ever saw the light of day. getting 20000 people too/from (particularly from when everyone want to leave at the same time) a remote stadium is a logistical nightmare.
Although I've not been to any games this season (worse luck!), what you've written is pretty much in line with my feelings - arrived at from following (RH) and reading about the team (and club), both on this forum and its links and in the press in general. Good stuff, Boss! Probs better than the Fail is accustomed to...(P.S. Did you run it thru a spell-checker? )
A good read, it might have been a 0-0 but everyone keeps saying how it was an enteraining 0-0 from both sides. Keep it up city!
I've just noticed(thanks to ToP on CI), that the last time Brighton didn't score at home in a league game, was 13th March 2010.
The same date we last scored! Only messing, the clean sheets just show we have the foundations for a successful team. Add Waggy & Stewart and things look a lot rosier
surprised nobody is asking the key question, why the f-c-uk did it take 18 months to play the best central midfielder in the league in his preferred position, when many like myself have banged on about , almost to the point of boring ourselves about it.. whatever pearson says today, until a few games we where dour at times, even his biggest supporters admitted that...its changing now, and last few games weve played some great football, coincidentally after the much talked about team selection change?..lets just hope it doesnt take 18 months for him to realise about mclean
