Sat Jan 28, 2006 6:54 pm
Just got back from the game. Im well pround of our fans. We made all the noise. Great show from our fans.
The match...
Firstly, i wasnt quite sure what merson was thinking dropping nicholls, and putting mcdermot on the left wing. Poor mcdermot looked out of his depth and out of position. Bad decision merson.
Secondly, I thought Mark Wright, was, as usual, completely inaffective throughout the first half- he barely touched the ball, and added no physical presence whatsoever. However, he did what he usually does, two touches, and a great cross. But he really must start adding to the team for the rest of the game. So what he put a decent cross in. The ball he got from Timm was excellent, and he had so much space even I could have put a decent ball in.
To be honest I would have started with Nicholls, who looks a much more accomplished player than Mcdermot [not being derogatory to McD, but he's younger]. With James on the right, and nicholls upfront, I think we'd have been a better side.
Merson on the radio afterwards said something that I absolutely had to disagree with. When he said "we try and get the ball down and play". B0ll0cks. 90% of the time we just miss out the midfield by booting it up the field, and the other 10%, we cant string 2 passes together because our midfield are so unfit, and are second to everything.
Further to that point, on another thread, I said that I thought we'd start to see Leary and Smith deteriorate as they become unfit due to our training methods, or lack of. And I think this was evident today. We were over run in midfield by a poor championship side. Wright wasn't at the races, McD on the left was lost, but Smith and Leary in the middle simply weren't sharp enough. I think you can already see a difference in their sharpness and fitness from when they first signed for us.
I thought Nicholls when he came on was superb. He brought two good saves out of De Goey, and hit the post - terribly unlucky not to score. I'd have him starting upfront in place of james, but with james on the right wing in place of wright, who needs to learn what a footballer is.
It's disappointing to go out, but I wasn't expecting anything from the game. Merson's figure for this season is 41, and still people on the radio say he hasn't had any support from the board, and still hasn't got us to a situation with an experienced striker in the squad.
I'd be interested to know what went on with the stewards at the end. I saw a couple of our fans being led away by the police, then after a lot of remonstrating from our fans down there, a couple of cops came back and led a steward away.
Terrible support from Stoke. They had hardly any fans, and no atmosphere was created by them whatsoever - they should be ashamed for a club of their size.
Swindon and Brentford away are two very difficult away games, we need at least 4 points from them.
EDIT:
forget to mention westwood.
IMHO a poor showing from the 'captain' today, with Gerrard tidying his mistakes. He seems to get caught out of position a lot of the time,and tries to play around 10 yards in front of gerrard. Ian Roper, Ian Ian Roper
Last edited by Valence Finstorr on Sat Jan 28, 2006 7:51 pm, edited 3 times in total.