In all honesty I dont think we played or tried to play that different tonight as we did on Monday. On Monday we never got out of second gear and we were lucky Palace were so poor and didnt close us down. You compare that to today where again we didnt get out of second gear, yet the only difference is Bristol City got in our faces, therefore not letting Morgan or Cork play... their CB's also either rightly or wrongly didnt let Lambert play.. On another note Guly was no different to Monday except he was in the right play at the right time for the two goals.. today the crosses just weren't dropping for him or Lambert. I also thought Martin stepped in very well for Fonte who I dont think we missed. And the debate about Harding or Fox will continue.. Lallana is not the same player without Harding as he overlaps taken one of the defenders away, but Fox is our set piece specialist. The subs tonight were questionable, why not take guly off for connolly, give him and lallana a chance to link up, the after 10 mins put holmes on?
Basically what I said they would and what they did do. Can't be arsed to repost my post of the match thread tho
I didn't think our subs bench was great at all. So I can see why Adkins left it a while to make a change. You keep Guly on because he can do something great from out of nowhere.
I think that is a fair assessment. The wind made long balls and crosses more difficult and the ref and happy-flag linesman made some bizarre decisions. However, I think the main difference was how well City pressed us and kept their shape. They defended stoutly, although how often Carey played for the ball instead of the man is debatable. Finally I think the crucial difference was Bristol C's extra man in midfield. By the end of the game we were by-passing the midfield in a vain hit and hope attempt from which we never looked like scoring.
Extra man in midfield definitely made a difference and agree about the 'hit and hope', from about 60-65 minutes, City were playing the passing game, and we were doing what we do quite a lot when things aren't going for us, become very predictable: 'hit lambert' 'hit lambert'.
We do look a bit jaded at present and its understandable its not just the great start to this season its also the great run up to promotion last. The achievements of this bunch have been fantastic and standards have been through the roof and a setback in form was probably inevitable. But i still believe we can kick on and be a threat to those auto spots for promotion maybe a fresh face or two and a couple of back to back wins and it could be onwards and upwards
Kilkenny swung that game for them when he came on, they got hold of midfield and we were overun. Hammond should have been brought on sooner as that move by City made a huge difference and ultimately won them the game, We looked alot better when Hammond was on and felt had our best spell of the game but the bal just wasnt dropping for us. How many crosses into the box and was always met with a yellow head on it! Shame but we move on to the next one, come on saints, see off brighton pls
