A foo belated thoughts on yesterday

Obviously gutting to lose in the way we did having got the goal and being so close to an excellent point. However, i for one am not downbeat at all. We played well, gave them a run for their money and once again showed why we belong at this level and will stay here. We increasingly look like what we are which is a mid table premiership team. I think most of us would have taken that pre-season. A few thoughts:

1. I don't buy the notion they were playing within themselves before we scored. Yes they poured forward in the last 5 minutes but that was to be expected as they had to win the game. I just think our defence were knackered and in the end it was one decent cross too many. Perhaps not surprising with Drury playing, it being Whitbread's first game back and Ward still not fully match fit.

2. Sloppy goal to give away. When you play teams of that class the last thing you need to do is give them an easy goal like that in the first 10 minutes. Credit to the boys for the way we responded though.

3. I thought defensively Drury, Whitbread and Naughton were immense. For me the latter was man of the match.

4. Ward generally did well and most weeks will be fine but i do feel against quick, nippy strikers he will struggle from time to time.

5. Need to work on defending/preventing crosses being bent in behind the back four.

6. We were lucky some of our defenders did not make contact with a few tired lunges in the second half!

7. Taking Jackson off didn't work. Although pre-match I was advoctaing Wes starting in his place thats why lambert is a manager and i'm not. For the first 15-20 minutes of the second half we struggled a bit as without Jackson we lost our outball into the channels/corners which we used so effectively in the first half to put them on the back foot. Its not always pretty but it enabled us to turn them round and pin them back in their own half for much of the first half. Credit to Lambo for changing it again though and once Bennett and Wilbraham came on we looked better again.

8. Unconvinced by Johnson again. Hope Bennett starts at Stoke.

9. Jonny Evans - dear oh dear what a dreadful player. Also if Jones is the future for england then god help us. In the latter's defence, however, maybe right back is not his best position.

10. On the evidence of what i have seen today and earlier in the season i would say Man City will win the league. They look a much more solid outfit than United. I also thought Spurs looked much better. Giggs and Scholes are their best players and very few of the others look remotely in the same class.

Posted By: Jim, Feb 27, 10:07:26