Holmes_and_Watson

KWP off for Mara - fitness... or form???

That little move there to get the corner is the most connected we've been all game. Passing across the back into Aribo in midfield. We had runners furhter forward and it goes out to Edozie. He has to chest it down, but gets a corner.

KWP was always going to get robbed there. Baz blocks the shot.

A shot! On target! Nice from Sule. Wasn;t sure about KWP's touch, but he got an effort away there.

She has my sympathy in that you clearly don't like her much with that bet. 🙂

Stephens with an auto pass back there. Had he looked, he would have seen he was in bags of space to get it moving forward. Exactly the thing he's not in the middle to do there.

Blackburn the only side here putting pressure on.

Fraser off for Sule

Edozie on for AA.

Ah, the lovely foot race we have when we lose possession from our own corner.

Looks less than impressed at the houses in Wolverhampton. 🙂

Smallbone Watch: Right flank to pass it, right flank to support, in fromt of the defence to support and in DM to provide a passing option. Now out right again, linking up. Hopefully a bit more outcome from him being on.

Close from Adams there. Joe clearly felt he'd get closed down by the time he switched it to his other foot.

A game that's about to burst into... mediocrity 🙂

Bedders not happy. Blackburn pressing us a bit more, and with some success. And they already know all about the gaps down our flanks. We have no midfiled to pass out to today. However, the more Blackburn push up, the more space we should get. Sule would be good for that, but I've not seen a pass that would unlock anyone, let amone someone getting in behind.

Noooeees!!!!! Whew! Looks as though he's okay. That really would have been the end of our seasoon with our key player missing.

Watching it? Yes! 🙂

Martin's main objective of massive possession was achieved. We kept them to minimal chances. The accepted gaps down the flank that Martin allows and a chip from distance. As expected with the line up, we lacked any kind of passing connection and fluidity from the centre. We had Fraser and Brooks out there though, as well as KWP pushing up. However, we couldn;t seem to get many passes out to them either. Brooks had the best couple of run in the half, both of which were fairly early. AA had a very good chance to put us into a lead. Apart from that, Stephens got an chip in for an Aribo header. As piinted out, noone was there to follow in. The rest of our mobile front 3 elsewhere, rather than having a standard Che player working the middle.) There's every chance we can win this today. At least we've not dominated with chances as well as possession, getting our hopes up for a standard let down. 🙂

Rothwell made a run. Did we think he was offside there. Seemed odd to not make the pass.

Our play in a nutshell. Martin is willing to offer up the spaces down the flanks. He offsets that by having numbers in the midfield who should dominate and create passes through for the attackers. Except those extra numbers result in disjointed, mostly plodding, posession that doesn't create enough, with the knowledge we're concede somewhere along the way, if not from the gaps.

Press worked on Aribo. Partly as we're not creating the passing angles in midfiled in recent games. Needs Smallbone and not Stephens in a team for that.

Oh... that wasn;t far away from them. Top of the net.

Nor did the double physical presence of the Aribo/ Adams before that... Or the Direct balls over to Sule for a while the time before that... Or.... 🙂

A different injury to a Balckburn player. Shame that Joe's effort didn;t go in or bounce back off the keeper and go in.

Possession is the first priority of MartinBall. We're trying another variation of how to make that effective today. Keeping the strength in midfield with Aribo, but not up front with Che. Having a samey, but hopefully more mobile front 3 in Brooks, AA and Fraser. Losing the crisp, short passing game but hopefully allowing more direct play through Stephens and Rothwell.