Today

Gallacher - 7. Difficult to rate as he had little to do. Kicked well towards Dublin and did what the Dion asked him to do. One punch with a big QPR player in front of him that I thought was the right thing to do, but others around me thought he should have caught it.

Drury - 6. OK - not much of a threat against him though. Looked injured in the first half, but carried on.

Shacks - 8 - played well. No fuss from the QPR strikers as he and Doc bottled them up well. Got a couple of headers at corners as well (our corners).

Doc - 7 - as per Shacks, without the attacking threat. Few if any free kicks given away.

Colin - 8 - played really well and started to really really go forwards. Neither Drury nor Colin have impressed me with their attacking threat, or crossing ability this season. finally, Colin is starting to look good. He has secured the right back position for now.

Hucks - 7 - usual Hucks stuff. Took on too many at times, and didn't get the final ball off, but still our biggest threat when he goes at pace at a defender.

Saf - 7 - played well seeing as he hasn't played much lately. Looked a bit further forwards than normal. Couple of misplaced passes, but the conditions weren't great. Not sure he's the master midfielder others think he is (but he is definitely the best of the three we have at the moment).

Dickson - 6 - got brushed off the ball too easily. One or two runs forwards (and covering runs backwards), but generally seems to think that once he has passed the ball, then he's done his job.

Croft - 7 - good running and crossing. Deffo penalty in the first half which for some mysterious reason was given as a free kick against him. Tired in the second half.

Earnie - 7 - lots and lots of good running pulling the QPR back 4 around. Had two excellent chances - one which Dion set up for him in the first half which fell to his left foot so he didn't quite connect and the 1 on 1 which he should have scored from (good defending though).

Dion - 8 (my MoM) - won 90% of every long ball, held things up well, flicked on to Croft and Earnie well, defended well. Also tracked back when needed (note to Hucks - see - a 37 year old can do it). Head and shoulders above the rest - can't understand why Saf got the official MoM.

Subs

Hughes - 7 - lots of energy, one good early ball down the wing. Didn't have too much to do, but we (fairly obviously) looked less of an attacking threat when he came on for Croft. Solid game. Must have the skin of a rhino to keep coming out and playing the best he can after the stick he has taken. Respect.

McVeigh - no time to do anything except lose the ball a couple of times

A few other things:

1) Blimey it rained on the way home.

2) What separates the good teams from the really really good teams is their running off the ball, particularly in mid-field. The best teams look like they have more than 11 players on the pitch. Our players need to get into space when they haven't got the ball - that's just as important as what they do when they have the ball. PLease please can we have some players who don't think they've finished the job once the pass is gone (see above)?

3) nice to see some people stay behind to clap the team during their warm down. It would be good to see more doing the same after a good game

4) That was the easiest last 5 minutes we have had for ages. QPR were s**te (and therefore we were better, but not much). Final ball let us down today.

RTP

Posted By: rippedjeansbutrich, Dec 30, 19:45:49