GoalWatch - our defending vs Newcastle

[Bergen Blade]

This goal has already been much debated on here, so won't go into too much detail.

It happened during a period when Newcastle were starting to put the pressure on. One of their attacks breaks down and Walker brings the ball out of defence. He skips past the first challenge, but is then tackled by Nolan. Taylor get the ball, runs with it and shoots from long range. Morgan deflects the shot past Bennett.

• Walker should have made a pass (Quinn was free in some space centrally) after the first dribble.
• Walker was fouled and should have had a free kick.

Now could we still have done anything to prevent the goal? Looking at the phot below, Harper seems to be in a perfect position to cut off Taylor's run. Instead he drifts to the right, maybe focusing on the off the ball run down that side. This is a mistake.

His main focus here, has to be the man on the ball. Harper's got three defenders covering behind him to deal with any runs, and his task must be to close down/hold up Taylor. When he realises this, he's too late, and in fact it is a despairing Morgan who gets a touch.

 

[Ollessendro]

Thanks again Bergen.

You are right to point out that Walker made a mistake in trying to bring the ball out. It was ludicrous for him to have ran from that position with 4 yellow shirts around him. You are alos right to say that harper was slow to react. He should have gone to the ball. However, he had the left winger to think about (as Walker was on the deck) and he probably thought that there was very little chance of a 35 yard shot going in.

But what about the ref? Shocking, shocking decision. It's a rash, dangerous tackle from behind and it's right in front of the ref's nose!!?? You can say, oh it looked like a good tackle and he seemed like he got the ball, but the ref is less than 5 yards away. It's nothing short of dire offciating. I'm not making excuses. We made msiatkes, we didn't take our chances and we payed for it. However, when the ref doers the hard work and gets himself in a great position only to arrogantly wave played on, this kind of shit enfuriates me!?