My Ratings....

Marshall - 4. Didn't have much to do, couldn't really see his part in the first goal. Fuck knows what he was thinking for their second... maybe the angle made it seem off but i thought he had every chance of diving to get the ball cleanly. Instead he bottled it (didn't want to get muddy?), stood up and promptly opened his legs nice and wide for their player to slot it through.

Bertrand - 6. Looks much better on the wing, pretty good, nice and involved though not really helped with a stupid formation to start.

Shackell - 4. Crap. Poor control, just looked shabby tonight.

Doherty - 4. Crap. Grabbing onto his man ALL match. If i can see it from the far end of the ground i'm sure the ref can. God knows what he was doing for their first goal. Kind of landed in a heap, blocking Spillane from recovering the ball, and one of their men popped it in. He stayed down for a long time but clearly wasn't injured for the rest of the match. Crap control, lots of last ditch swinging of the boot to clear danger but needless grabbing all the time. Nearly equalised at the death.

Spillane - 6. Pretty good. Can't see how Cave-Brown gets talked up for a few days and then Spillane get put in a non-choice role ahead of him. Poor decision making in the first half but i'm guess crossing isn't supposed to be his strength! Some really good penetrating runs second half.

Huckerby - 4. Poor. One good run in the first half, got into the box and as usual not enough tricks to get any further so wait for a foul that didn't get given. Not helped with being given a stupid role to play.

Pattison - 5. Very average as were all three centre mids used tonight. Loads of sideways passings. Bottled a few chances to test the keeper from 20yards.

Russell - 4. Clumsy challenges as always. Lucky in my opinion as i thought he should have got a yellow for going through the back of someone 5 mins earlier than his actual yellow. Other than that wasn't much help to Spillane.

Fozzy - 4. Disappointed with his sportsmanship at one point in the first half, threw ball away instead of giving to their player. Lots of sideways passing, no through balls at all.

Jarvis - 5. Fairly non-existant but not actually all that bad, there was just no service.

Cureton - 4. Non existant first half but missed 2 pretty good opportunites second half.

Subs
Dublin - 7. Excellent boost for the team, telling everyone what to do and getting involved with play-making but was mostly playing too deep so not there to be on the end of things (not that much ever came over!).

Croft - 6. All huff and no puff? Made some good runs but the end-product can be way short. Good crosses at the death and for the goal but that was 2/6 or more. Much more effective than huckerby though and should have started.

Mo Camara - 4. I like Mo but he was crap. Stupid barney with the lineman. Screamed at him for a foul throw decision then 2 mins later Doherty's their guy under the lino's nose and gets in a huff about it. Fozzy got involved and looked a prick for it. Also caught badly in two minds a number of times. Ball was their to be pinged back in first time but he took a bad touch and was charged down.

Overall.

Stupid starting line-up and formation. I'm no manager but from what i can tell we did well second half Barnsley so start as you left off! No Ched? Fine put Curo in for him! No Semi? Fine put Cave-Brown (a right back) in for him. That's all that needed to change. If we build a lead then start looking at bringing someone in to see how they do.

Thinking time. It seemed every time one of our players' got the ball, they stopped, thought, then passed. I know we're not Arsenal but that second (or 2 or 3 in some cases) cuts out options to actually pass to and suddenly we're going backwards. Attacking throw-in in line with their 6-yard box in the first half got passed all the way back to our 18-yard box.

Posted By: sheffieldcanary, Jan 15, 23:33:24