I enjoyed that!

Beautiful sunny day at the Carra, fairly full and a decent atmosphere, but then I guess not many teams have a chance to start a season three times, so maybe to be expected. Get a text with the starting line-up en route to the ground which sprung a few surprises to say the least.

The main differences for me today were the facts that the midfield didn't give the ball away repeatedly, and the defence looked sharp and awake. That's why Culverhouse played sweeper for us in Europe: he can organise a defence. Hughes is good on the ball, and Korey Smith is a good tenacious ball winner with a little bit of attitude. McVeigh had some class on the ball, and unlike Hoolahan didn't hang on to it for too long. Holt was good up front (and I haven't rated him so far) and as someone below mentioned was reminiscent of Ashley Ward. Not a bad comparison. Cureton looked a new player, maybe there's something left in the tank. Even Jon O looked a good deal better.

I've felt sad and demoralised over the last couple of weeks as pre-season optimism was replaced by misery and embarrassment. My son is 9, about the same age I started going to games on a fairly regular basis, but he doesn't feel interested in the game at all, and I can't blame him at all. I was feeling the same way. Not that everything is now rosy, but maybe, after spending the last 4 years thinking "it can't get any worse", it has started to stop doing so.

Posted By: APB, Aug 22, 19:20:41