Sadders wrote:Incredible dissapointing. Taundry im afraid is not a central midfielde , nor aright back, im not sure actually if he cuts the grade anywhere on a football pitch.
Sadders wrote:Roberts, looked very shakey to me & never seems to get afoot in before the opposition attacker does.
Sadders wrote: We still have deawood, deeney, taundry, sansara simpy aren't good enough.
Nice to see that the overblown, emotional drivel spouted during the summer has carried on into the first matches :roll: And sorry Sadders, not just having a go at you, but these are fine examples. How can anyone describe Taundry and Sansara as "deawood" (sic) and "simply not good enough"?!?! These are young lads learning their trade and showing some real potential. What they are not is the finished article but for goodness sake, give them a chance!
As for all the other comments, I felt we were neither awful nor great last night but, in the circumstances (playing with 10 men for so long), gave a good account of ourselves and showed some promise for the season. Darlington are no mugs and are one of the favourites for promotion this year. It was their "big game" coming here and they raised their standard of play for it. You only have to look at some of the other results last night to know that this does happen. If it had remained 11 v 11, I am comfortable that we would have won in the end. 10 v 11 for so long, with the player sent off being your "star" striker and we'd have done well not to lose. As it was, I thought we did a superb job of closing them down with the 10 men. They didn't really create a thing apart from the goal. The unfortunate thing was neither did we until the last seconds of the game!
Our big problem last night was the full backs. I've not been convinced by Palmer or Sansara in pre-season but am giving them the benefit of the doubt after good reports at Yeovil etc. However, last night, with two decent men against them they were really shown up. Weston and Boertien, with the experience and skill they have, would have known that it was vital to put pressure on the tricky wingers as soon as they got the ball and keep them facing away from the goal. Our full backs didn't do that. Once they were turned towards our goal, they caused all sorts of problems with their pace and trickery. In Sansara's case, that'll come with experience I'm sure. In Palmer's case, I think we saw why Wycombe decided to release him.
Elsewhere, I'm afraid I have to disagree about Roberts. Both he and Gerrard had excellent games and I didn't think we were ever in any danger through the middle of the park. I'm surprised that others didn't note the fact that he did get his foot in on a lot of occasions and he put that immediate pressure on his man so that they never did get to turn towards goal. My only doubt is whether he and Gerrard are too similar to form a really good partnership. We shall see. Oh, and I thought Smith did well when he came on, there was some real promise there.
Hughes - not as imposing as I;d like him to be yet but he did the simple things well and did get stuck in. Also struck one exquisite pass from a free-kick near the end. Real quality.
Zaboob - again, I disagree with most here. It all depends what you want him to do. I thought he had an excellent disciplined game, tracking back whenever he was needed to and getting through heaps of work. Going forward, he played simple passes and didn't look to take on his man but I get the impression that's not his game. Perhaps we should have brought Demontagnac on (I would have done so) to have a real go, but I was surprised that it was Zaboub and not Nicholls who was taken off.
Ricketts - I was watching the incident. For some reason, I tend to see these things when others don't. The referee was looking right at it from only 10 yards away or so. What he failed to do was take any action against the midfielder and the defender who, whilst the ball was still with Ince, both had handfuls of Rickett's shirt and one may have stepped on his foot, accidentally or otherwise. Initially, Ricketts shrugged them both off but then for some reason, he flicked out a hand at the midfielder and caught him in the head. It was NOT a punch and it was NOT an elbow. There was hardly any contact but of course the midfielder collapsed like a sack of spuds and needed treatment :roll: Unfortunately, the ref had no option but to send Ricketts off. It was a stupid petulant act. However, it does annoy me that the ref failed to take any action against their players for either holding Ricketts or play-acting, which the ref clearly saw.
Reich - his touch on the ball looks excellent and I can see games this season where he could make a real impression. However, for those who don't understand that football is a team game and wanted him on at half-time, Reich is NOT a worker it would seem and therefore to bring him on when we were down to 10 men would have been totally wrong. For all the skill he showed when on the pitch, there was an incident less than 5 mins from the end where he stood hands on hips (uh oh, where have I seen that before?!?) and let Jabo run further to chase a defender who had the ball despite the fact that Jabo must have been knackered. He'll have an impact this season though, I've no doubt.