I think the ref bottled it as he did any possible decisions in our favour. If its contact and the attacker goes down then its a pen and he had given a pen then Bikey would have had to be sent off as Mason would have been clear on goal, even if at an obtuse angle. he was afraid to make the 2 vital decisions. As for lino, with ears like his he should have heard it even if he didn't see it!!!
Correct Stevo - along with the casual chit chat on here, this can be a really good football discussion forum. Varied opinions and not just oppinionated dogma you see on other forums makes it so. Now as far as penalties goes, how does Ngog's Triple Salco after falling over Kimbo's big toe nail compare?
When I saw the replay of the Mason incident, it looked more like he took a little nick on his heel/ankle. Not that I actually saw the contact, but I thought it was a bit odd that the defender went stumbling over at the same time.
Haha, Ngog dived and was diving before he got to Kimbo. I just hope we can produce that sort of resolute display in the next 2 aways. We need to be that solid but retain the pace and threat on the break.
I thought Hudson was phenomanal - the way he marshalled what was a makeshift defence was awesome - when he went off for five minutes to have stitches to a head wound our 'back four' consisted of two central defenders (one aged 18 making his debut) and a 19 year old midfielder with only a handful of appearences to his name. No wonder it was back to the wall stuff.
2 seasons back we'd have shipped a few goals in that situation. A number of things encourage me with this management team and this squad, one being the confidence in the players and the willingness of the players to adapt. It would be easy to stick in the more experienced player out of position but MM went with Nugent who seemed to step up to the mark. Similarly, you could have played Ralls in his more natural position in the centre of midfield and put another midfielder in at left back. MM has confidence in the players who have confidence in each other and their own abilty. This isn't down to luck, it's down to planning and hard work. We are seeing the benefits of a bit more quality in the squad (not just numbers), some capable youngsters coming through the ranks and the squad working as a unit. I'd still be happier with TWO MORE FULL BACKS PLEASE, and MM has said he will look at the loan market before Thursday but will only bring players in if they are the right players at the right price. Whatever happens in that regard we need to get the 'away game monkey' off our backs. 4 points from the next 2 away games would be a good return given our recent performances and keep us in the hunt. There are a few teams on a charge but they will have their difficult spells (hopefully we've just started Middlesbrough's blip) with injuries and suspensions causing THEM problems. Will they deal with those problems as well as we seem to be. We've lost a couple more to injury, but have a few returning. We're still thin at the back but on the whole, there are more positives than negatives.
Dont know if we'll have started a Mbro blip. I thought Ledesma was outstanding for them, there's a lot of quality in their side. If we finish above thm we'll be promoted imo. We need to loan at least one full back unless Taylor is going to be pretty much straight back and Kev is fit.
It's why I said hopefully. Funny things happen when a run ends. Fingers crossed nothing catastrophic happens when we drop our first points at the CCS.
Admit to not knowing a lot about the Palace squad. They seem to have ridden their change of management well and are looking strong. I can imagine a lot of teams being in the position of having a good first team but little else beyond. The next month or two will see the stength of a team's squad as in all seasons.
as an out and out defender he is probably in a class of his own for this league, as well as a leader. thought kim was class on sat and has grown into the team - imagine the competition of bellamy, smith, noone and kim for 2-3 positions in the team, thats premiership quality there. as for opinions, have to agree this forum is better than others, i used to mainly browse cardiff city forum but got banned as they didnt agree with one comment i made, plus you cant debate as your posts tend to get swamped.....
Kim was classy on Saturday, especially 1st half - one thing I would say about him though (and its only a minor quibble) is that he seems to lose his composure and/or confidence in front of goal - a couple of times in the 1st half he worked his way into the box, but when he could have 'pulled' the trigger himself he passed the ball on to others who weren't in as good a position as he was himself. Still a class act though.
I didn't think there was any risk in playing youngsters out of position. When I was young I took notice of everything the older more experienced players did and tried to keep it in the back of my mind - just in case. The likes of nugent and Ralls would have bitten MM's hand off just to get on the pitch and when they had the chance do you think they cared if it was centre forward or left back?? I never did. Sometimes moving the more set in his ways more experienced player can be counter productive. Good luck to both of them.
Very impressed with young Nugent. The lad was guided throughout by Huds and you could see he was keen to impress his captain. Great to see what is there as back up when called upon. Craig Noone - what a buy. Reminds me so much of a young Bellars.
Palace have to keep Zaha and Murray fit. May seem like a no brainer statement but whereas we can lose Bellers and Maynard and still field quality they really will notice a huge drop without those 2. My Father in law is a big Palace fan and thinks they can manage around most of the others but to stay in the auto hunt those 2 have to stay fit and on form. Never mind starting a Palace blip, weren't we responsible for starting the run they're on.........!
Or the set of golf clubs... But yeah, pressure on some crap side to take Zaha out for a couple of weeks and the wind of Palace's sails.
Just reading the latest WoL report and it looks like both Turner and Taylor will be out for 10 days or so and with Kev looking unlikely to be ready until Derby at the earliest, Saturday will be an interesting selection
