Winning when playing poorly...

[Pinchy]

We didn't play "poorly" at all. We have set very high standards and maybe dropped below them a little in the last two victories. Nothing more nor less than that. But by Pele those crazy knees are jerking overtime just now, aren't they?

The class of Paul Coutts shone through when he calmly and cooly created the winner. No thanks to the numpties on the kop who were constantly shouting "shoot" for most of the game to players who were facing a wall of Bury shirts and had no sight of the target at all. Crass idiots.

Runaround Done influenced the game...well...not at all. Time for a change. Sharp very subdued. Coutts and Fleck (in that order) outstanding again in circumstances far more difficult than some can comprehend.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Agree Pinchy.

I was very impressed with Fleck and especially Coutts.
At times they look real class, too good for league 1 level.

 

[Grappler]

Agree Pinchy.

I was very impressed with Fleck and especially Coutts.
At times they look real class, too good for league 1 level.

Both classy footballers

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

How I saw it. I think we've been showing signs of stuttering lately. Poor in the first half v. Chezzie. Shocking in the second half v. Shrews and poor all game tonight. Why was Sharp stuck out on the wing for long periods? Our crosses are mostly hit and hope. Too many bad performances tonight, not least from the ref. who was unbelievably bad. Oh, and Clarke is a donkey. Get Ched in the JTW and we'll fly.

Is this a serious post?

 

[DaveBassettsgoneonholiday]

Thoughts on last night for what it’s worth.
Frustrating, more for us fans I’d guess than the players on the pitch. We totally dominated the game regardless of how many men we were up against. We were very patient & didn’t resort to hit & hope although the quality of the final ball wasn’t great. Plenty of chances created, hit the woodwork, disallowed goal, clearance off the line, last ditch tackles by Bury & so on. In the end it paid off, it’s been a while since we hit a last minute winner under such circumstances.
Some have alluded to it being a poor performance. For me it certainly wasn’t…… Rochdale & Southend …. now they were poor performances. I think if anyone asked the Shrewsbury & Bury players that finished each game none of them will say we gave them an easy ride.
Teams are going to come to The Lane now with the attitude of “well, it’s up to you, we can sit here for a point”. I personally think we see United at their attacking best when we move the ball quickly & hit teams on the break, but if they’re going to sit deep anyway, especially when reduced to ten & nine men the opportunities for this are a lot less.
Yes, I too have a little concern that we’ve found it difficult to break teams down in the last match and a half & I’m not sure what the answer is, but trust that Wilder & Knill are aware of this & will come up with a solution.
Chuffed to bits with the three points and happy with the current form, we’d still be bumbling about mid table at best with last years team and management.
I think Charlton will prove a very different challenge (harder to sit back at home in front of your own fans letting the opposition come on to you)….it might just suit us better.

 

[Pollingtonblade]

Don't like Sharp playing wide
Done needs replacing
Why on Earth has EEL been playing on the wing?

A win is a win though and Wilder /Knill will have learned a lot from the lass 2 games and maybe influenced the January transfer policy.

People also forget Freeman and Duffy were massive misses last night.

 

[blade too long]

complacency, hardly

21 shots at goal , and in the last 10 weve had 200 shots on goal
weve had 2 games against teams so desperate to defend they both sacrificed 2 players to red cards

didnt scunthorpe struggle to breakdown 10 man oldham on saturday, scraped a 1-0
both bolton and bradford had to battle hard last night for 1-0 wins

why oh why do we think we are worse than them
we kept going for 90 minutes and extra time again

it was not a poor display at all , just a task made difficult by a team determined to salvage some pride
heard some loon on RS last night saying 6-0 was the minimum before last nights game
never going to happen except on playstation

yes they had got done 5 twice by wimbledon , but they probably came out of their shell thinking they had a chance leaving themselves exposed , they defended during the warm up last night

 

[FlamingLip]

Don't think we were complacent or even collectively poor. Altho our crossing wasn't up to scratch and we lacked desire to run at their defence for the most part, we did consistently create - hit the wood work, a few point blank saves/misses and a ton of other chances that on other occasions may have materialised. frustration made it more difficult both as a player and a fan. but we kept making chances, stayed focused and got the reward. throw in the mix an opponent who were defending like their lives depended.

I thought taking off scougs wasn't the right call mind, he impressed me again.

 

[groveblade]

My thoughts:

First and foremost - absolutely delighted with another brilliant 3 points (winning is always brilliant!). Great spirit to keep going and good management to have EEL up front for the last 5/10 mins - very good and patient build up for the goal with a sharp ONE TWO in the box, Coutts did superbly well.

To improve further when playing against massed defences I think we need to move the ball quicker (without getting desperate) and vary our approach a bit more. I also think the crowd could help a lot in games like this by shouting encouragement and creating some semblance of atmosphere rather than sitting there like they're at the cinema/theatre/tennis.

Too many crosses were slung in from deep, having a dribbler on (Chapman) improved this a lot but the winning goal showed that we should have been trying a lot more ONE TWOs all 2nd half. For me the CFs have a big responsibility here as they should sense when a deep cross is going to be aimless and work the channels for a low ball from the full back (or whoever's in possession) instead. Also, on many occasions we had the ball about 30 yards out centrally and Sharp/Clarke/Done could have done more to get in front of their defender on the edge of the box, demand the ball into feet, be strong and then win a free kick, turn and shoot or recycle the ball and try again - the movement from these 3 was not quite good enough at times.

Must reiterate that this is within the context that we're playing fantastically and it's a joy to watch at the moment.

UTB!