tonights game

[cooperblade]

Cracking game tonight, proper football match for me. Quality not always there but high tempo, exciting stuff.

Leicester managed to some how totally outplay us whilst having fewer chances than us up to the equaliser. The wind went out of their sails big time when we equalised and we really got at them after that.

Ratings and brief comments

Bunn 7 - made a good save in the first half. Couldn't do anything about the deflected goal.

Walker 9 - This kid is absolutely different class. For the 2nd game running he was our best defender and our best attacker. We look a real threat when he's overlapping. We've been robbed at £3m.

Taylor 5 - Really struggled with N'Guessan. Decent left peg but doesn't look strong enough or quick enough (could say similar about Naysmith although he has the experience)

Kilgallon 6 - OK

Morgan 7 - Got more and more fired up as the game went on

Treacy 7 - Was just about to be dragged off before the goal, the board was ready. Got ability but looks horribly unfit. Has faded in all 3 league games. Get him in the gym and we might have a player. Cracking goal

Montgomery 7 - Typical Monty. Won the ball, passed it reasonably well and tried to drive us forward

Howard 4 - Passing was completely off tonight and when you're not much of tackler or a runner, that's unacceptable. If he has got tonsilitis, he shouldn't have started

Ward 6 - Definitely gives us a threat although, for me, we'd be much better with Cotts on the right and Wardy up front.

Henderson 5.5 - Movement non-existent, very often he's just stood on the edge of the box with his arm in the air. A long way short of his performance v Boro

Evans 5.5 - Looked tired and lacking in games tonight.


Subs

Quinn 7 - Passed it well, harried Leicester and nearly scored the best goal of all time

Cotterill 7 - We look much better when he comes on. Troubled the full back and nearly created the winner. Should start

Reid 6 - Didn't have much chance to impress.


Leicester - can't quite work out how they played so well but created so little. Think they'll do well for a couple of months and then fade badly

Officials - Incredibly bad. Letting a player re-enter the pitch to make a tackle a yard from the touchline was probably the highlight

 

[Sensiblade]

Tonight's Game.

I've seen worse, I've seen a darn sight better.

1st half
Shocking officials
We didn't get the run of the ball at all
They harassed us and we let them
They were better

2nd half
started as the 1st had finished until they scored
we then proceeded to batter then out play them and if it wasn't for their keeper would have beat them

Quinn was far better, Howard wasn't (tonsillitis or not).
Monty was awesome and proved he can pass
Ward was busy and played well
Evans was quiet but I wouldn't say he had a bad game
Relish benefited from the Ref not giving fouls against him every 5 seconds
Taylor looked hit and miss, bit more hit than miss though

 

[Houso]

Can't disagree with much of that Coops, but VERY harsh on Ward... especially since you give Cotts a higher score and Reid the same?

 

[Foxy]

And we unfortunately exactly are a team that scrapes around and smashes it forward, it's what we see week in, week out.

Well so far, we've played 3 Championship games and I'd say we've actually mixed it up quite a bit rather than smashed it forward.

The first half today and at times at Boro, we did play long, but around that we've used the wings a lot more and kept the ball on the deck.

We still rely too much on playing the ball long at Henderson, but it's mainly when we panic and are under pressure. What it needed today was for someone to calm it down a little rather than trying to match Leicester's 100 mile an hour style.

To say they supposedly have the better ball players, they did rely heavily on either head tennis into certain areas and more so the long ball to N'Gessan.

We needed someone in the middle (step forward Brian Howard) to put their foot on the ball and bring people into play. Instead, we got crowded out and made rushed back passes to the defence/Bunn who then had to play it long. Sadly, Mr Howard does a great job of marking himself, rather than making space.

The refreshing thing about Treacy, is that he wasn't afraid to keep hold of the ball a little, look for a pass or take a man on. The others merely kept coming back to the centre backs/keeper.

Once we upped a gear (after Treacy's goal) we started being more intelligent again, picking out passes and using the wings.

It isn't neccessarily the tactics, you regularly see Blackwell telling them to do the same as the fans call far, I think it's more lacking confidence and someone with intelligence besides Monty.

With someone like Little or Hendrie alongside Monty today, we'd have been paniced less into having to go long and we'd have seen a lot more of the pressure we enjoyed towards the end of the match.

They struggled to cope with us at the end, so did Watford, we just need to reach that gear earlier on.

We are three games in with a number of new players to bed in, a few who didn't have a pre-season, things might take time, but there are positives there.

 

[cooperblade]

Can't disagree with much of that Coops, but VERY harsh on Ward... especially since you give Cotts a higher score and Reid the same?

Fair point - I thought his touch let him down once or twice but on the whole he played well (although not as well as Saturday). I'll give him a 7 on appeal

 

[beechblade]

Poor first half and it shouldn't take a pot of bad luck to wake us up in the second either. They couldn't score with their shooting for adam today and we also need to stop this 5 or 10 min getting into the game at the begining before we even start to knock the ball around, it happened saturday too and Leciester got the ball in some very dangerous area's tonight, better teams will punish us.

Quinny livened us up and I think it was the kind of battling player that would get the game going for us, the ball just wouldn't drop right for Evans when it did reach him and they were certainly not going to let him turn and shoot, as we saw when they were all over him in the box.

Which gets me to the ref and that fat linesman? Shocking, both were a complete and utter disgrace today. When Howard was tonked on the back of the head and he just looked away? :s

When we start to play it around we look threatening and sometimes mix long ball and passin together well, I'd rather see it on the deck a bit more, I feel once we get the balance better we will be alot more dangerous and hopefully we'll see better performances all round.

Teacy, wow what a goal, I'd like to see a few more like this.

 

[Deleted member 1486]

Regarding the Taylor incident: to be fair to him, he turned him once and looked up to check Bunn's position for a backpass and Bunn clearly held his hand out in a "don't pass it to me" gesture when the backpass would have been the safest option and Taylor got done then. I'm not arguing he had a cracking game or anything but that's how I saw that one incident.

Howard was awful and deserved to go off at least 20 minutes before he was taken off. Quinn looked like a man with something to prove, but we desperately need someone else in midfield.

Again, terrible performance from the ref.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

Officials - Incredibly bad. Letting a player re-enter the pitch to make a tackle a yard from the touchline was probably the highlight

Oh, I don't know. The one where Taylor, I think, got in front of N'Gussian and was in possession of the ball, got shoved over, and the foul given against him wasn't bad! I notice the ref blew for a mystery infringement as the ball was crossed from the free kick, so maybe he realised his mistake. And when did the FL pass the rule about not being able to give fouls to us within 5 yards of Henderson?

Anyway, my thoughts. We got out of jail a bit in the first half. Poor in the middle, looked uncomfortable and didn't seem to either pick up a second ball, or find a pass at all. Leicester should have been one up at the break. Second half, broadly more of the same, but with an improvement from Quinny being on the pitch. Centre mid suits him much better. Glad to hear the cheers for him as he came on btw.

Then they scored a bit of a lucky goal really and we got going at last but still not fluent. Probably expecting too much after an hour of not really being at the races. Treacy, what a goal! After that I thought we'd get the winner, but not to be and in the end 1-1 was just about fair, although Leicester will be the happier with their performance.

Duncs final word. A bit of a sloppy and disjointed performance, and the sort of game we could have easily lost. Happy with the salvaged point in the end.