Can't fault the performance or effort. I'm just gutted about the fact that all the other teams around us dropped points and we missed a chance. Oh and my other half being a Norwich fan makes it even more annoying.
[cite]Posted By: Telnotinoz[/cite]The sort of commitment we have been craving for. Semedo was immense.
Seen that mentioned a lot, true but when people say commitment they mean more than just pure effort don't they? Players with confidence about them, concentrating not making stupid errors, not being scared to take a player on or have a shot.
Sam for example isn't working any harder, he's just playing with more belief, rather than taking the safe option he was trying to be one of the players that would create a chance for himself or others.
Last few games we do seem to be making sure that if we don't win the ball, we win the second ball, but just as important as that effort we looked like a team not just individuals and had the confidence and belief to really go for it, not being afraid of making mistakes or missing a chance.
What can you say? Probably haven't battered a team at The Valley like that since West Ham at home in 06/07. Couple of great saves from their keeper but a few too many shots not connected with cleanly or hit straight at him. Still the best we've played since August, if not further back than that and much to be taken from the game. If we keep that up we'll stand a great chance of winning our last 3 and, with fixtures and pressure the way they are on the 4 sides still in for automatic promotion, that could still be enough.
Semedo was immense and I think he should have stayed on because everytime we lost it Semedo was winning it straight back. It just got a little bit easier for Norwich to clear their lines once he was gone.
Dailly had a great game too and Richo and Sam were highly involved throughout. TBH, I didn't see much more from Sam today than I've been seeing for most of the season, just more was coming off for him.
Bailey, rather like at Southampton, nearly popped up with 3 goals, but was quite poor in between those moments. Pulled out of a few tackles, whcih is unlike him, so not surprised to hear he's injured. Would question the decision to start him in that case and Jonjo should definitely have been on earlier as we tried to find that killer ball.
Credit to Norwich though, they did a good job of the 9 men behind the ball tactic and their keeper bailed them out when we broke through. It was a smash and grab but it wasn't just down to luck. All the same, 99 times out of a hundred we'd have got something from that game. Real shame we didn't - a win would have put automatic promotion totally in our own hands and a draw would have greatly improved our chances. All the same, win all 3 remaining games and it's still more than possible.
a lot of huff and puff but no real threat though. i'd have fancied millwall or swindon to have scored a couple against that norwich side yesterday who clearly missed their two key players in holt and hoolihan and away from home too.good luck to them as they were successful in achieving what he had failed to do, too many times before we brought randy into our side to shore up our defence.
Jesus. Do you not for one minute consider that to be maybe juat a little bit harsh? Just because we probably all got the feeling it was going to be one of those days it doesn't mean we didn't threaten. You ask a Norwich fan if they felt threatened (in a football sense).
Sometimes I really have to shake my head and wonder if I have been watching the same game as others.
[cite]Posted By: ThreadKiller[/cite]before we brought randy into our side to shore up our defence.
It's got to be more than co-incidence. The whole defence has played much more as a tight unit since Randolph came in.
And we've not looked like conceding many goals, let alone silly ones from distance.
Yeah, Randy Rudolph has impressed me since he's been in. Not totallky confident with him on crosses yet but he had a very quiet afternoon and remained focussed to do what he had to. That save he made in the first half was not an easy one at all - he had to change direction and it bounced awkwardly in front of him but he still manged to get a strong parry on it and put round the post rather than back into danger. I think he's definitely a stronger shot stopper than Elliot and he seems very confident he always knows where his posts are (reminds me of Deano in that respect) and I'm not sure he's significantly weaker than Elliot in any other areas of his game. If only he'd been given this chance when Elliot was injured before the Carlisle game in October.
[quote][cite]Posted By: Exiled_Addick[/cite]Yeah, Randy Rudolph has impressed me since he's been in. Not totallky confident with him on crosses yet but he had a very quiet afternoon and remained focussed to do what he had to. That save he made in the first half was not an easy one at all - he had to change direction and it bounced awkwardly in front of him but he still manged to get a strong parry on it and put round the post rather than back into danger. I think he's definitely a stronger shot stopper than Elliot and he seems very confident he always knows where his posts are (reminds me of Deano in that respect) and I'm not sure he's significantly weaker than Elliot in any other areas of his game. If only he'd been given this chance when Elliot was injured before the Carlisle game in October.[/quote]
I think one area where Randy needs to work and Robbie is head and shoulders above his is distribution, both in terms of assessing the situation and releasing the ball and also finding his man, but as for keeping the ball out of the back of the net he has surpassed Robbie for the moment. Hopefully they will both keep fighting for the shirt and keep each other on their toes. Not sure though if I was randy and was offered another contract by Parkie I would accept.
[cite]Posted By: ThreadKiller[/cite]a lot of huff and puff but no real threat though. i'd have fancied millwall or swindon to have scored a couple against that norwich side yesterday who clearly missed their two key players in holt and hoolihan and away from home too.good luck to them as they were successful in achieving what he had failed to do, too many times before we brought randy into our side to shore up our defence.
Agree. A big opportunity missed. Considering they were without their two key players, we gave them far too much respect first half and should have played at a much faster tempo. The keeper made one very good save from Bailey in the first half and a brilliant save from Burton in the second, all the others saves were nothing better than you would expect of a keeper at this level. Too many efforts were directed straight at him rather than in the corner of the net.
We looked good in the second half, but that was mainly due to the fact that they were quite content to sit back and let us huff and puff in front of them.
They were there for the taking but Parky was over cautious as usual. Two wingers with Shelvey in the middle and Forster+Burton up front and I'm sure we would have made the breakthrough.
Three goals from open play in the last six games says it all. You don't score goals, you don't win games.
And yes, I did watch the game streeming on the net.
Jesus. Do you not for one minute consider that to be maybe juat a little bit harsh? Just because we probably all got the feeling it was going to be one of those days it doesn't mean we didn't threaten. You ask a Norwich fan if they felt threatened (in a football sense).
Sometimes I really have to shake my head and wonder if I have been watching the same game as others.
Completely agree off_it. I dont think we played very well against Colchester but come away with three points. We play very well yesterday and get nothing.....due to their keeper having a worldie. Thought we battered them.
That's probably fair Kap, there were a couple of times yesterday that he could have thrown it out to Richardson quickly but hesitated. Not sure why really, he bowled one out to Sam at Southampton so I can confirm he has just as long a throw as Elliot does. I do think his kicking is improving, he tends to find touch at least once a game but he's getting more distance (lots in fact) on them than I remember him doing when he first broke into the team 3 or 4 years ago. Looks very comfortable to receive back passes as well - delt well with a tricky one yesterday and did similarly at Saints.
Overall i think he's the better of the two but it's nice to have to two good young keepers that have both come through our Academy.
A game that highlighted what a difference having a proven 20+ goalscorer in this division could do.
Thought the back 4 and midfield were superb, Forster/Akpo/Burton held the ball up well but we just needed that little bit of extra class in the final 10 yards.
Tax dodge for the crowd, dont understand it at all, most away fans all season, lower North pretty full, must have been more than Gillingham?? No way were there 7000 empty seats.
Gotta hope the luck evens itself out and we get a flukey last minute winner against Leeds
Southend, there was a fella sitting in the lower north (block nearest the east side) that had something like the first 10 rows all to himself. I remember thinking how strange it was to attend a sporting event with 20,000 other people and deliberately place yourself as far away from every single one of them as possible!
ok thats plus 2 points better off than us.Let's just hope we can nick the 2 points for the play offs because saints will get the remaining 12 points on offer.
what with their inspired keeping and our weak finishing we could have played all night and not scored ... final third no 'killer' instinct there for us .....
norwich scored, sat back and said give it your best shot and we couldn't break them down ...
semedo awesome again he has improved ten fold this season imo
racon needs to grow a pair and have a shot rather than a poncey touch or three when the opportunity arises , i think he thinks he's playing for arsenal and wants to walk the ball in....
the tractor boys done the binary boys ....
with the results this weekend that was our big opportunity gone imo and we'll prolly end up helping millwall get promoted by not losing to leeds ;-(
i now see us as 2% automatics 97% playoffs and 1% out of playoffs come the end of the season
Comments
How one sided was that!
Sam for example isn't working any harder, he's just playing with more belief, rather than taking the safe option he was trying to be one of the players that would create a chance for himself or others.
Last few games we do seem to be making sure that if we don't win the ball, we win the second ball, but just as important as that effort we looked like a team not just individuals and had the confidence and belief to really go for it, not being afraid of making mistakes or missing a chance.
Semedo was immense and I think he should have stayed on because everytime we lost it Semedo was winning it straight back. It just got a little bit easier for Norwich to clear their lines once he was gone.
Dailly had a great game too and Richo and Sam were highly involved throughout. TBH, I didn't see much more from Sam today than I've been seeing for most of the season, just more was coming off for him.
Bailey, rather like at Southampton, nearly popped up with 3 goals, but was quite poor in between those moments. Pulled out of a few tackles, whcih is unlike him, so not surprised to hear he's injured. Would question the decision to start him in that case and Jonjo should definitely have been on earlier as we tried to find that killer ball.
Credit to Norwich though, they did a good job of the 9 men behind the ball tactic and their keeper bailed them out when we broke through. It was a smash and grab but it wasn't just down to luck. All the same, 99 times out of a hundred we'd have got something from that game. Real shame we didn't - a win would have put automatic promotion totally in our own hands and a draw would have greatly improved our chances. All the same, win all 3 remaining games and it's still more than possible.
Exciting isn't it?
If we keep playing like that the luck will break our way.
Jesus. Do you not for one minute consider that to be maybe juat a little bit harsh? Just because we probably all got the feeling it was going to be one of those days it doesn't mean we didn't threaten. You ask a Norwich fan if they felt threatened (in a football sense).
Sometimes I really have to shake my head and wonder if I have been watching the same game as others.
Shame we just couldn't take advantage. But by the same token, we still have a chance.
More or less status quo.
But neither Millwall or Swindon could score a couple in their last match - and weren't playing teams anywhere as good as Norwich.
It's got to be more than co-incidence. The whole defence has played much more as a tight unit since Randolph came in.
And we've not looked like conceding many goals, let alone silly ones from distance.
I think one area where Randy needs to work and Robbie is head and shoulders above his is distribution, both in terms of assessing the situation and releasing the ball and also finding his man, but as for keeping the ball out of the back of the net he has surpassed Robbie for the moment. Hopefully they will both keep fighting for the shirt and keep each other on their toes. Not sure though if I was randy and was offered another contract by Parkie I would accept.
Agree. A big opportunity missed. Considering they were without their two key players, we gave them far too much respect first half and should have played at a much faster tempo. The keeper made one very good save from Bailey in the first half and a brilliant save from Burton in the second, all the others saves were nothing better than you would expect of a keeper at this level. Too many efforts were directed straight at him rather than in the corner of the net.
We looked good in the second half, but that was mainly due to the fact that they were quite content to sit back and let us huff and puff in front of them.
They were there for the taking but Parky was over cautious as usual. Two wingers with Shelvey in the middle and Forster+Burton up front and I'm sure we would have made the breakthrough.
Three goals from open play in the last six games says it all. You don't score goals, you don't win games.
And yes, I did watch the game streeming on the net.
Completely agree off_it. I dont think we played very well against Colchester but come away with three points. We play very well yesterday and get nothing.....due to their keeper having a worldie. Thought we battered them.
Overall i think he's the better of the two but it's nice to have to two good young keepers that have both come through our Academy.
Thought the back 4 and midfield were superb, Forster/Akpo/Burton held the ball up well but we just needed that little bit of extra class in the final 10 yards.
Tax dodge for the crowd, dont understand it at all, most away fans all season, lower North pretty full, must have been more than Gillingham?? No way were there 7000 empty seats.
Gotta hope the luck evens itself out and we get a flukey last minute winner against Leeds
Playin devil's advocate LEEDS & MILLWALL BEAT NORWICH AT HOME AND SWINDON MANAGED A POINT, shame we couldn't match them.
And very happy you looked too!
norwich scored, sat back and said give it your best shot and we couldn't break them down ...
semedo awesome again he has improved ten fold this season imo
racon needs to grow a pair and have a shot rather than a poncey touch or three when the opportunity arises , i think he thinks he's playing for arsenal and wants to walk the ball in....
the tractor boys done the binary boys ....
with the results this weekend that was our big opportunity gone imo and we'll prolly end up helping millwall get promoted by not losing to leeds ;-(
i now see us as 2% automatics 97% playoffs and 1% out of playoffs come the end of the season
Nicky Forster is a 20+ a season goal scorer.
We were very unlucky IMO
Basically, match Saints result on Saturday and we secure a play-off place.