Bristol Fan wrote:Merson's gone, but I can't honestly say we saw an improved performance. Thought we were rather fortunate to scrape a point and Scunthorpe were the better team.
Same old story at the back, two very sloppy goals to concede. The ref had a poor game but you can't blame him or their players for carrying on after Timm pulled up, it would be rare to see anything else given the position they found themselves in. If it had been the other way round and one of our players had kicked the ball into touch, I'd have been very disappointing.
Couldn't see what Devlin did, but given the way their player looked as he came off, he clearly did elbow him, so the only question is intent. Very stupid thing to do if he did it deliberately. (He didn't admit doing it as he came off, by the way, he was saying that their player had elbowed him as well.) However, we played our best stuff after going down to ten men.
Merson's legacy meant that Wright had to play at left back, which caused us problems. I'd have swapped him and Smith round, since Smith did nothing of interest on the wing and Wright's pace would have been more effective. Really hope that Fox returns on Tuesday - anyone know the extent of his injury?
Both goals were excellent (Merson would have called them "worldys"), was frankly amazed to see Barrowman take his so well, given that he offered nothing beforehand. What's happened to Constable?
Playing Keates and Osborn together in the middle didn't work, which is a pity since Osborn's probably been my player of the season and Keates seems to be a must-pick, so one of them will have to miss out.
Mills played well at the back. Seems to combine the good points of Westwood (ie control of the ball and distribution) without the bad (ie he can head the ball and win tackles). Will be difficult to know what to do on Tuesday with Gerrard available again. It would be a brave decision to leave him out, but equally brave to drop either Roper (who admittedly wasn't at his best) or Mills.
A valuable point, but I can't help but wonder where the six wins we probably need to stay up are going to come from. Bristol and Swindon are both in the relegation zone but only one point behind us and I can't see either of them going down - so there's a hell of a lot for the new manager to do.
Tend to agree, except I thought there was an improvement, in that we were working harder, especially when not in possession and defedning from the front again. Both goals, however, were sloppy, as you say, and came from central midfield not givig the cover it should.
As for Tuesday, for me, the back four, assuming Fox fit, would be Mills, Gerrard, Roper, Fox, as Mills can play right back too. Midfield would then be Wright, Keates, Smith, Demontagnac and whoever you like up front, as they are all much of a muchness. The only problem would be the lack of right footed players in midfield (oh the irony!)
