Not to sure what to make of that to be honest.
We started well, first ten to fifteen we looked lively, had a good pace to our attack and used it wide well. And then we seemed to completely dry up and let Sheff U work their way into it. By half time they looked the more comfortable team. Definately pen, Thomas got on the wrong side (though i'm not sure what he was doing on the right), and a deep cross from the left was going to a player on the far post and Thomas went through the back of him.
We raised it a bit 2nd half, had 2 or 3 very good opportunities to score, most notably ZZ from five yards who sadly put it onto the bar when it was easier to score. Would of been the one player i wanted it going to as well.
Midfield was completely out of sorts tonight. Sam had a poor first half, Reid was completely missing and looked well below par both fitness and touch wise. They got tight to him, and he didn't have enough to be an influence on the game. ZZ was also well below his best.
If we had equalized, we would of won, no doubt about that. But we just weren't good enough all over the park tonight.
Though Thomas was our only real create outlet, and was impressed with all three subs when they come on, but it still wasn't enough.
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Thomas is shit, sorry an all that, not my most costructive sentence but hey, cant stand him, pussy.
still enjoyed the game though funny enough, would rather watch us attack for 70 minuted than defend for 90.
I put the Plymouth game down as 'one of those nights', but they can't keep repeating themselves time and again. We completely lacked a cutting edge tonight, both from supply and ahead of that.
Just cant put my finger on what we need, we seem to have it all but dont know how to use it? does that make sense?
It may be that one or two players need a chance to rest. We have a big squad, time is perhaps upon us to use some of our fringe players like Racon, and maybe Moo2 as a wing back/winger.
I felt the crowd turn after 12 minutes, which was sad. Too many balls were just lumped route 1 towards Big Chris. We basically ran out of ideas pretty early on.
We now have to make sure that we don't repeat what happened after we lost to Plymouth in a similar game, & lost to QPR. Burnley will be flying on Saturday & I can easily see us slipping to another defeat. Reid looks like he badly needs a rest. Give Ambrose a chance to prove himself.
Beattie for Ilwelumo for starters. When will we get a striker who can rough 'em up a bit? When we will get a striker who will shoot from outside the box?
same old same old.
as i keep saying.......if you don't score , you wont win. No good playing pretty football for the first 20 mins - need to get a goal, then you can play.
I'd like to see Moo2 in midfield/wide right. I don't see why not. Give Sam a breather as well.
In my view Pards was once again mistaken in replacing Semedo with Holland. He should have replaced Reid with Ambrose. ZZ was unable to get forward to support Big Chris and Luke beause with Reidy AWOL he had to cover for Matty's lack of mobility. When that fat lump Beattie outpaces you then you have a problem!
The crowd was disappointing although with the A2 hassle I can sympathise having got in about 15 minutes ago or so. What is annoying is the way so many turn on the team. Yes I know they pay their money blah, blah, blah but so do I and I'm allowed an opinion too!
Burnley are on the up after winning at Watford so not the best time to play them.
Am I Golfie in disguise?:-)
Golfie - bet you couldn't wait to get home and start typing away, eh. I can see the steam coming off your keyboard from here.
A few of us commented because in earlier games he hadn't won as much.
Were you watching through a Youngs glass Offy?:-) I had a nice pint of Youngs in The Bugle tonight as an aside.
Come to think of it, wasn't that a favourite saying of someone we used to know? Can't remember his name now ...... but didn't he say "praps" a lot?!
I thought Iwelumo had a shocker, barely won anything in the air all night. Varney looked more dangerous when he came on.
Holland played well when he came on. I would have taken Reid off at half time though. Quite simply, Andy Reid cannot play in a 4-4-2 system.
Credit to Sheff Utd, got their lead and defended well and hit us on the break, just like we have done lately.
Still think we will finish above them but they had a good night and we had a bad one.
Reid by the sound of it needs a break - he hardly played in the six months or so prior to the season after the hamstring operation and since August hasn't had a week off if you include the games he's had for Ireland and all the travelling in between. He doesn't strike me as being a naturally fit athlete type in the first place. We have a big squad and there's no point in having players like Racon, Mou2, Ambrose, Holland etc in the squad if they aren't going to play, I know the latter has been injured but Pards has got to rest some of the starters occasionally.
Definitely one of those nights, but we still haven't got to grips with aggressive teams. A night that called for leadership and it wasn't there for me.
It became so predictable. At one point Fortune had the ball in our half and Sheff Utd lined up as two banks of four about two yards apart from each other near the edge of their own area. What did Fortune do? Fire the ball straight at them. There wasn't one person in the ground who didn't know where that ball was going and what the end result would be. That said I don't blame Fortune as last night there was very little between him and Iwelumo, there was no shape and no-one really looking like they wanted the ball, he just didn't have the option to do much else.
Finally we switched and started playing it around a little bit, I thought both Holland and Varney did really well when they came on, we were unlucky with a few chances and I kind of struggled to see what happened with their second to be honest.
The third was irrelevant, we were chasing the game, it was a calculated risk.
Overall, I think key moments ruined us, not panic stations but I do think we need to get out of the habit of lumping the ball to Big Chris's head, we become way too predictable and it's ridiculous excluding the midfield from the game when we have such quality there.
I may be wrong Golfie but I am sure you were one of the "beattie is shit brigade" when he was being linked with us. Apologies if I am wrong.
There were quite a lot of you that did and few that didn't - i said i thought he'd get at least 15 goals in this league and he will sail past that. He's ideal player for this division and I thought we should have signed him.
Pardew went the cheap route with the free transfers AND now we are being linked with £2 bid for Zamora.
***edit*** just checked past posts and Golfie i apologise you wasn't on there so please accept mu humblest apologies LOL
it wasn't so bad, 3 goals flattered them as we weren't that bad, boo'ing the team after 4 straight wins and 1 lost, is a bit ridiculous.
Bring on Saturday!
If ZZ scores, we go on and win that game, he misses, and they go up the other end and get the goal.
Does anyone actually know what Halsey was doing for the second? He disallowed it, gave, disallowed it again, and then finally pointed to the centre spot
Personally I think we were just outworked all over the pitch last night. Also think we should consider leaving the 4-5-1 to away games where it clearly works & switching to a different system at home ones where it clearly does not.
me!
we saw a replay when we got in, mills stormed in to get the ball as the sheff u player had it and was trying to keep hold of it, so it looked like a bit of a ruck, he managed to get the ball away and get it to weaver, who kicked it out, which made it look like he hadn't scored.
Halsey spent quite a lot of the night looking like he was directing traffic!
At one stage, parking planes would of been more accurate