Holmes_and_Watson

Get in!!!!!!

ah, blocked before it got to Armstrong. Nearly.

Oooh. Lovely pass across. Armstrong just couldn;t finish it. Some good work form KWP, Alcaraz and Smallone linking things up.

He just did well, running back and holding off their player as you typed that. 🙂

Arg. Ball played just behind Sule. Next bit of play had a silly pass across the box, when Smallbone clearly wasn;t set, and we lose possession.

We've shown a good mix of passing. Some from very deep, and a bit of shorter passing, but from further up the park. Promising.

A nice shift to MartinBall. A pass with decent length , at pace, and we were in their box for a moment.

A second hoof set KWP free! All that Martin style of play was a total ruse Commentator says that Martin said "some people want him to fail" Oh dear.

A massive hoof out in the opening seconds. It's not all passball. 🙂

Right. COYR!

I have one on my door providing reasons for the bear traps and spiked pits. I'm sure they will understand. 🙂

Seeing that team sheet. The expectation. The pre match huddle. The pre match trot over to SR's manager. The pat on his head with the reminder that they'll take it from here, thank you very much. 🙂

Exactly as I had it in my head. Sadly, it's only in our heads. 🙂

"Alongside Pahars were Matt Le Tissier, James Beattie, Franny Benali, Paul Jones, Jason Dodd and Jo Tessem, reliving their experiences in front of a sold-out lounge." Add in KWP, Bednarek, Stu and Downes and that's the lineup against Birmingham sorted. >wistful sigh<

Ale

And one day, some of us will be allowed to leave their fields and mix with normal folks. 🙂

It seems you don't have to have it for long to get points off of us. 🙂

Justice

I had read that Rooney wanted to implement a posession based philosophy. He's not had long, but hopefully enough that we'll outclass them on those points, by virtue of being further along The Process. Where they revert to the style they had, we'll have more problems with. Hopefully they will be disjointed enough, and resenting their old manager getting sacked, for this one to be comfortable win. One for Smallbone and a couple from AA.

A quick peek shows results have tanked. The last I heard was listening to a couple of fans on the radio not long after he joined. They loved him and his approach.

It has to be McCarthy in goal for the next game. But only because Baz will be up front.

Another late goal, this time for a point. Nearly another game where we'd look back at some familiar issues. We're always going to be susceptible to goals like their second. I had hoped we'd have learned to have enough cover. But if teams are direct enough, quick enough, and they are mostly stronger anyway, they get a run on goal. We're supposed to be offsetting that with possession, pinning teams back and creating chances so they can't organise and get out. But we don't. We no longer create enough useful chances to take ourselves clear either. After their lead, we struggled to break them down. They closed down the space, and we couldn't link up well enough. We saw some coordination from AA, KWP and later Stu. But just not together or far enough up. Martin is right that the final third has to develop. Che and Mara did little. But a lot of that continues to be that they are not given much to do. There were some changes tonight. There were some unforced errors first half. The opening seconds of the second gave the home fans a lift. Baz remained unruffled, having accumulated more scar tissue than most. We made decisions to not move into space instead settling for a safer sideways pass on occasion. Not for any greater advantage. That changes the dynamic of the game. We constantly allow resets. Setting ourselves up to unsettle teams would really help. Something that Tella did for us. Offering a direct outlet to compliment the passing. It changed in the period when we upped the tempo. We got a glimpse of it clicking. But it didn't last. We did keep going right to the last again though. We didn't give up. And again we got a reward for it. There were some positives. KWP is being developed even more. Good things from Stu, AA, Downes and Smallbone. The latter having to cover a lot of situations, some he needs work in as you'd expect. I don't know if he would be expected to stop their goals,but Baz got a lot of our moves started. His work in that department should be used better by the others. Just the usual frustrations, that more work and confidence will help with. RM's half time team talks need some work though.

Yaaaay! Went off someone, but Baz secures a new position!

They got their first by outmuscling us, getting it central for the shot. We get it out and central, but then look to thread a ball through. Not brave or direct enough in the final moments. Commentator said RM has got 1 point back from a losing position, and you can see why. Stu, Fraser and Alcaraz should be capable. But Preston have held us off pretty easily, apart from a couple of scrappy minutes ages ago.

The game stretches after a Preston attack. We're away...and have no idea how to get it into the box.