Today's game...

Just back in from the game, my first live of the season quite poorly. Thoughts:

First half we were ridiculously ropey at the back. We had loads of the ball and passed it around quite tidily but on the rare occasions that Crewe got hold of it they looked like scoring every time. We had a couple of good chances, one to Thorne before he went off and one for Etuhu, both of which should have been goals. Unlucky to go in one behind but couldn't complain too much. I've gotta say, Thorne and Ashton up front together isn't a good combo. They're both a similar type of player but with Ashton about 23 times as good. He needs a foil like all good strike partnerships. Someone who'll run off him and who he can feed it off to before heading for the penalty spot for the return ball.

Second half much better. The main difference was that we were snapping at their heels as soon as they got the ball, not giving them any time to play. All three of Safri, Robinson and Etuhu were great at this. Hughes going off for Huckerby was a big turning point. The Crewe team couldn't play him at all. Whilst Hughes tries hard and shouts a lot trying to motivate the other players, at the end of the day he's no Huckerby. With four central midfielders in the team we were definitely lacking the width that he gives us. It was all plain sailing second half really and we should have had more than two, with Etuhu and Robinson both missing sitters. The boy McVeigh was outstanding, as was Deano. You'd have got ridiculously long odds on him scoring two headers that's for sure! All-in-all, a good performance, dominant second half. We need to keep the tempo high and get stuck in as if we let teams play they'll expose our frailties at the back.

MOTM: Paul McVeigh - great performance from the wee man!

Posted By: JD3, Dec 10, 18:10:04