Just got back from the game....

....Thought we played very well, on the whole.

First half we were all over them, sharp short passing ? la Coventry and Forest away, a few long range efforts and a goal disallowed. We deservedly took the lead through a stunning penalty and then the fog rolled in. At half time talk about "it started like this last season" and "knowing our luck it'll be abandoned" were bounded about.

2nd Half I didn't think Wednesday stepped up their game overly we gifted them a route back into the match. first goal was Marshall's fault, he rushed a catch dropping it behind and they scored from the resulting corner, OK we should have defended it better but he should have caught it. 2nd and 3rd goals were the fault of our right hand side. Semi was left both times with 3 men to mark while Croft and one of Clingan/Hooly/Patty/Rusty wandered aimlessly over allowing the Wednesday wingers all the time in the world to pick out a cross. Our 2nd well taken by Lita, surprised he wasn't flagged offside. No complaints about the sending off, from where we were the ball had gone and Kennedy just hurled himself at the striker in a egg shaped game fashion. Goal disallowed at the death Lita offside agin.

Ok pluses
The 5 man midfield worked very well, passed it about very well at times and deserved better.
Hoolahan had a good game - Hurrah!
Clingan's penalty was brilliant, he had a great game, some of his passes were inspired.
Kennedy's red card = missing next weekend!

Negatives
Marshall had a bad game, looked low on confidence, made a couple of saves, flapped a lot, punched balls he should have caught and his distribution was poor.
Lita was crap. Ok when the ball was played within 2 feet of him he muscled around but he didn't chase around like any of the midfield and was offside at least 10 times and although the Nodge fans were upset with the lino he probably was every time as the rule is any part of your body you can score with ahead of the last defender is offside.
The start of the second half, we were just slow to pick up the pace and gifted them the game.

All in all it was bad to lose but there are promising signs. The thousand or so Nodge fans easily outsung a very quiet and sparse Hillsborough crowd.

Posted By: wgf500, Nov 29, 18:19:38