Millwall (A) F A Cup 3rd Round Replay Tuesday 15/1/08

[tinned]

Personally I won't be bothered if Saturday's game is off. I think we need a week off to recouperate and get everyone fit and fresh.

[Duke]

Disappointed but not disheartened , was looking forward to a day out in Covenrtry maybe next season for a league game .
Could turn out to be a blessing in disguise we can now concentrate on the league.

onwards and upwards up the saddlers

[Registered Saddler]

Well, we probably have an 11-day break now if the weather forecast is correct and Saturday's game is off. That gives us time to sort out the Foxy deal, decide how to spend that money and - most importantly - get Mooney and Ricketts fit. You can get away with having young players in almost every position, bar goalkeeper and up front. It is too much pressure on the kids for them to carry the weight of the goalscoring burden week-in, week-out. Both Deeney and Nicholls have stepped up to the plate manfully but they can be our front pairing in 2010, not 2008!

[jacko9867]

and here comes our massive slump of form :(

Yup typical isn't it. We lose a game and now we are probly going to lose on Saturday :(

What makes you say that ?

We did it last season but then we pulled it back so yeah i still think we are going to get into the play-offs but if we start to lose games now we have been beaten its going to be much more difficult

[deanonev69]

Oh well-its only a mickey mouse cup!!! Unlucky lads!

Lets concentrate on the league!! Any more cliches??

[loop]

I don't think we will lose confidence because of that result.

[matt3454]

We need strikers and still another midfielder if we are going to get play offs.

Ild love us to get there but realisticly we are too shallow in squad depth.

[jacko9867]

I don't think we will lose confidence because of that result.

No hopefully not and i really hope that the game is called off on Saturday. The players need rest and some need to get fit. Hope the weather forecast goes our way

[Sadders]

Mmm i hope the game is off too, its just makes for a very boring saturday afternoon, hopefully if we can get fit and make sure confidence is still exactly the same, we can beat gillingham with a fully fit squad on the 26th, i ve got a funny feeling that if we do play saturday we might just get beat, rovers beat carlisle last time out a home, went to ulham and drew 2-2 , before going away to tranmere and winning 2-0, so there building form of they're own. We need a break, 3 or 4 games on heavy pitches nackers you out.

Unlucky tonight, lets just hope DD gets another midfielder in, maybe we can have , sonko bradley dobbo holmes, with the optino of someone else, ishy after an hour to the left, and maybe someone for the right wing as i dont think brittain is good enough, wrack is past it for me . I think maybe a back up Centre back is needed also.

[WFC_Rob]

The defeat was always going to come and it was always going to be a showing of how far we can go if we can bounce back immediately. Obviously, an away game at Coventry would have been nice, but I'd rather lose now in the cup than have lost last week at Yeovil I think.

I agree with those who say that a postponement at the weekend would be handy. It most certainly would. Give Boertein and Dobson an extra week to get a bit fitter along with Ricketts and Mooney, give the Fox fiasco time to sort itself out and potentially the time to bring in a player or two. I really think our squad could do with a rest.

[SWS1]

Boo hoo!
:cry:
I'm sorry in a way we lost to a fairly crud team but it had to happen sometime and I'm glad it's not in the league.
EXCELSIOR!

[geoff skillet]

a shame, but now we concentrate on promotion.

[Magic Man Fan]

We need strikers and still another midfielder if we are going to get play offs.

Ild love us to get there but realisticly we are too shallow in squad depth.

Cheery old soul tonight aren't you?

If you hadn't noticed Mooney and Ricketts were missing. It's unfortunate but we only need one of those fit to play alongside Deeney or Nicholls to give us that extra edge.

Why do we need a midfielder? Wrack and Bradley have been playing well, we created several chances again tonight and Dobson is now fit again, Boertien is fit allowing Taundry to play in midfield also.

Anyone who says the squad lacks depth are the same people saying it lacked depth in August/September before the kids started proving themselves.

Whilst another striker, midfielder etc would be welcome they are not crucial. If someone gets injured then we can get someone on loan when needed like we did when we strengthened with Harper and Benjamin.

[merse-iah's disciple]

Haven't read anything above so apologies for any repetition. We didn't deserve to get anything out of the game - we were terrible in the first half, really struggling to remember any other time this season when we have played less like a team.

The midfield didn't function, sonko in particular got my goat, both full backs had off days. Deeney and Nicholls were living off scraps.

1-0 to Millwall at half time and a deserved lead to be honest.

Second half we improved alot, had much more fight about us, when we went down to 2-0 DD gave Dobbo and then Bortien some match practise, we got a deflected goal and that set up a frantic last quarter of an hour. We could have equalised in injury time, but to be honest we wouldn't have deserved it.

Second half performance was the least the travelling fans deserved, if we had played like that from the start we could have got a positive result tonight.

[Ian Gittins]

That's basically right if slightly harsh, I think. We never got going in the first half and 1-0 to Millwall at half-time was fair. Second half started the same and we weren't in it after their second until we got a very lucky goal, Nicholls' shot taking a massive deflection. After that, though, we absolutely hammered them, they were booting it everywhere, and just lacked a cutting edge: Nicholls and Deeney did their best but I think if we'd had Ricketts and/or Mooney, we'd have got a draw at least. Unfair to pick on Sonko, he was always game and had our best effort. Dobson looked good when he came on for Wrack, who was pretty ineffective. Ishy was awful in the first half but picked up when we rallied, Bradley looked tired and like he maybe needs a break, Taundry was caught out once or twice - including for the first goal - but made some good saving tackles. Overall, not too bad: the team got rousing applause from our fans at the end, and deserved it for the last 30 minutes at least. Good to see Boertin and Dobson both back and looking very useful team members.

[Surrey Saddler]

Good summaries from Mers- Iah Disciple and Ian. Why did we only get into top gear when two down though? Glad the unbeaten run is over in the cup rather than league - it was probably putting us under too much pressure. But....say what....let's get another run going, starting on Saturday

[Magic Man Fan]

A good effort from an understrength team.

Get the big boys back for the League and we can continue that unbeaten run in the league.

[booster cogburn]

Haven't read anything above so apologies for any repetition. We didn't deserve to get anything out of the game - we were terrible in the first half, really struggling to remember any other time this season when we have played less like a team.

The midfield didn't function, sonko in particular got my goat, both full backs had off days. Deeney and Nicholls were living off scraps.

1-0 to Millwall at half time and a deserved lead to be honest.

Second half we improved alot, had much more fight about us, when we went down to 2-0 DD gave Dobbo and then Bortien some match practise, we got a deflected goal and that set up a frantic last quarter of an hour. We could have equalised in injury time, but to be honest we wouldn't have deserved it.

Grrr! Facile and vacuous over-use of the D-word! :evil:

[moaning saddler]

We were very poor in the 1st half but still seemed to cause havoc in the Millwall defence from 3 or 4 corners.

Millwall didn't really show much, except down their right where Taundry had an evening to forget, and once when Weston was totally outpaced and allowed their player a shot across the face of the goal.

Their second looked a very well-taken goal.

After that, we started to battle a lot more in midfield and got a reward when Nicholls tried his luck and got lucky.

However, to be honest, we didn't really create an awful lot with the possession that we had in the last 20 minutes. We were far too frantic in attack, and Millwall did what they had to do - mainly put lots of bodies in the way, much as they did in the first game. And when Millwall were not blocking the way, we often seemed to have too many players fighting for the same space.

The only substitution that had a positive effect was Dobson - although he really needs to practice his shooting. Boertin and McDermott didn't really impress.

It was odd that Ishy was taken off just as he was starting to have some impact, after a shocking first half. Replacing Bradley with Boertin just didn't seem to make sense.

Thought Nicholls had an excellent game. His running with the ball caused Millwall all sorts of problems. Deeney battled well - I just wish he had a burst of pace to enable him to get clear of defenders.

Some similarities to the FA Cup game at The Den 4 years ago - however, this time our frantic late onslaught didn't result in an incident which turned out to ruin our season. Hopefully, that's the good news.

[Ian Gittins]

McDermott didn't come on. It was Brittain.

[philthesaddler]

Serves us right really, we should have won the game when we had the chance at home, with an even more understrength team we were never going to win. From the highlights I saw we're starting to look tired, I think now we need to move forward with some good signings, our squad is tiny and we need reinforcements if we're going to mount a serious push for the playoffs at least.

We're in a great position league wise, with 4 months to go, but we have problem positions - up front, right wing [and possibly central midfield]. Without reinforcements in those areas I hate to say it but I think we'll faulter.

[philthesaddler]

The only substitution that had a positive effect was Dobson - although he really needs to practice his shooting. Boertin and McDermott didn't really impress.

In the highlights I saw, I think a corner came in, straight to dobson, who just passed it straight back to the corner taker... :lol: :roll:

[Dynamo Zuffle]

The only substitution that had a positive effect was Dobson - although he really needs to practice his shooting. Boertin and McDermott didn't really impress.

In the highlights I saw, I think a corner came in, straight to dobson, who just passed it straight back to the corner taker... :lol: :roll:

They have been working on that in training for weeks!!!!!!!!!!!

[belgiansaddler]

Fair summaries above, we were poor first half, never got going. Second half loads better, lots of possession but didn't really create that many chances and never really had the feeling that we were going to equalise. They were poor and had to resort to hoofing it anywhere when we were pressing towards the end. The kids have been great but this appeared to be a bridge too far. We really really really need Ricketts signed up and either him or Mooney or preferably both on the pitch

Pretty impressive atmosphere generated by the Wall fans considering it was a low crowd. Oh well have to wait till next season to stuff Cov in the league

[merse-iah's disciple]

Haven't read anything above so apologies for any repetition. We didn't deserve to get anything out of the game - we were terrible in the first half, really struggling to remember any other time this season when we have played less like a team.

The midfield didn't function, sonko in particular got my goat, both full backs had off days. Deeney and Nicholls were living off scraps.

1-0 to Millwall at half time and a deserved lead to be honest.

Second half we improved alot, had much more fight about us, when we went down to 2-0 DD gave Dobbo and then Bortien some match practise, we got a deflected goal and that set up a frantic last quarter of an hour. We could have equalised in injury time, but to be honest we wouldn't have deserved it.

Grrr! Facile and vacuous over-use of the D-word! :evil:

Duly noted..i DESERVED to be cut down to size for the above post :D

[SheffieldSaddler]

We need strikers and still another midfielder if we are going to get play offs.

Ild love us to get there but realisticly we are too shallow in squad depth.

Cheery old soul tonight aren't you?

If you hadn't noticed Mooney and Ricketts were missing. It's unfortunate but we only need one of those fit to play alongside Deeney or Nicholls to give us that extra edge.

Why do we need a midfielder? Wrack and Bradley have been playing well, we created several chances again tonight and Dobson is now fit again, Boertien is fit allowing Taundry to play in midfield also.

Anyone who says the squad lacks depth are the same people saying it lacked depth in August/September before the kids started proving themselves.

Whilst another striker, midfielder etc would be welcome they are not crucial. If someone gets injured then we can get someone on loan when needed like we did when we strengthened with Harper and Benjamin.

Of course we need another experienced striker.
You cant expect someone of Mooneys age to stay injury free and sharp all season.

[belgiansaddler]

Thought it was quite amusing that the Millwall fans sung "is that all you take away" to us last night, considering you could have fitted their following at Walsall in December into a telephone box :D

[Magic Man Fan]

We need strikers and still another midfielder if we are going to get play offs.

Ild love us to get there but realisticly we are too shallow in squad depth.

Cheery old soul tonight aren't you?

If you hadn't noticed Mooney and Ricketts were missing. It's unfortunate but we only need one of those fit to play alongside Deeney or Nicholls to give us that extra edge.

Why do we need a midfielder? Wrack and Bradley have been playing well, we created several chances again tonight and Dobson is now fit again, Boertien is fit allowing Taundry to play in midfield also.

Anyone who says the squad lacks depth are the same people saying it lacked depth in August/September before the kids started proving themselves.

Whilst another striker, midfielder etc would be welcome they are not crucial. If someone gets injured then we can get someone on loan when needed like we did when we strengthened with Harper and Benjamin.

Of course we need another experienced striker.
You cant expect someone of Mooneys age to stay injury free and sharp all season.

That's why we're trying to sign Ricketts.

Matt was talking about "strikers" meaning above Ricketts, Mooney, Nicholls and Deeney. Whilst it would be nice it's not essential.

[dinkydotsaddler]

We need strikers and still another midfielder if we are going to get play offs.

Ild love us to get there but realisticly we are too shallow in squad depth.

Cheery old soul tonight aren't you?

If you hadn't noticed Mooney and Ricketts WERE missing. It's unfortunate but we only need one of those fit to play alongside Deeney or Nicholls to give us that extra edge.

Why do we need a midfielder? Wrack and Bradley have been playing well, we created several chances again tonight and Dobson is now fit again, Boertien is fit allowing Taundry to play in midfield also.

Anyone who says the squad lacks depth are the same people saying it lacked depth in August/September before the kids started proving themselves.

Whilst another striker, midfielder etc would be welcome they are not crucial. If someone gets injured then we can get someone on loan when needed like we did when we strengthened with Harper and Benjamin.

They still are. As someone else has pointed out Mooney at his age could easily be in and out of the team now with injuries. Ricketts and Mooney - great when they are on the pitch - however they aren't on the pitch now and we don't actually know when they might be back. When Mooney first got injured there was talk that he wouldn't even miss a game and now it's been 6 (is that right?). We need more depth in the squad and the first thing we need is surely another striker. It's not fair to expect Deeney and Nicholls to do it every game, they need to be playing with one of Mooney or Ricketts not each other.

[tinned]

I think it's essential we strengthen in midfield and possibly up front (assuming Ricketts is here for the season).

I'm not being negative I just think the squad is starting to creak a bit with tiredness. Also we're asking a lot of youngsters to play a lot of games. They look the business, they really do, but to ask them to play 3 parts of a season AND get us into a play-off berth is asking a little bit too much this season.

AS I say, I'm not being negative, I just believe in putting right problems before they get too much of an issue.