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Post by Olgrligm on Mar 8, 2008 18:42:50 GMT
Later than usual, apparently the road was closed while the Burnley fans were whisked away.
Anyway, ratings first:
Nash - 7 - More dominant, but a poor goal to give away Griffin - 7 Cort - 6 Riggott - 7.5 Pugh - 6.5 Lawrence - 8 MOTM, always looked a threat, beat his man a lot. Delap - 7 Diao - 5 I think the reserves is where Salif should reside until the end of the season. Cresswell - 7 Fuller - 7.4 Got a really hard deal off the referee Sidibe - 6 I really don't know what to think. Poor individual game, but we were lost without him.
Parkin 6 Gallagher 6
First thing is that I thought we got our line-up wrong. I'd have dropped Cort, put Griffin on the left, Wilko on the right and Pugh in the middle. I think I might've tried Gallagher on the left, too, but oh well.
Poor goal to concede, we let Ade run across us with no challenge and while I await confirmation from the TV replay in the morning (are we the featured match?), I felt that Griffin and Cort went missing. Poor goalkeeping, too, to allow the ball to sneak in at the near post.
Anyway, we put some pressure on and were the better team for the rest of the half. Apart from one break, they didn't look like doing anything. The problem is that we didn't even get a shot on target. Fuller got a harsh deal off the referee, in my opinion. Burnley players threw themselves at him and did their best to kick him to pieces. He sometimes gave the free kick, but more often than not left it. He booked our players gladly and was happy to get Lawrence suspended, but when it came to players trying to annihilate Fuller, he didn't want to know. Morris managed to escape any kind of punishment for his disgraceful actions when Fuller went on a first half run. He threw himself at Fuller and kicked at him, but Fuller beat him. He'd knocked Fuller off his feet and it would have been a foul to Stoke and surely at least a yellow, but Morris writhed on the floor clutching his face, like most filthy dirty cockneys do. Net result? Advantage played, freekick then given, Morris escaped.
Their time wasting was pretty bad too. Kiraly should have been another player on the receiving end of a yellow card, as he took time deciding which side he'd rather take his goal kicks from.
Furthermore, what the bloody hell was going on with our boots? We've had this all season - our studs are wrong. No other team has the same problems standing up and staying up as our players do. It was like watching an amateur ice show performed by giraffes.
Second half and we took off Sidibe. We'd been applying pressure again and still looked the better team, but we immediately dropped off. The candidate to go off for me was Diao, who was having another shocker (despite a modicum of improvement), but instead we took off Sidibe. I'll be the first one to admit that he was having a poor game and that he hasn't looked even a quarter of the player he was before his experience with the animals in Togo and the Jokey Cup in Africa. He won nowhere near as much of the ball as he should have done and he looked poor on the ball. Add to this two scuffed shots and you've got a bad performance. But the immediate effect of his substitution was that we looked a bit lost going forward. Nobody really knew what to do. Fuller tried to play as a target man and just wasn't seen again. We took a few minutes to gel but we didn't look a same. Now begins the timeless conundrum and the endless argument...
I can't remember if it was before or after the substitution, but we had a nailed-on penalty from a corner turned down. The ball came across to Fuller on the far post and he was torn to the ground by the defender. Somehow, it wasn't given.
As for our goal, we'd done everything except score by this point and deserved at least a draw. We surged forward and I reckoned that Cresswell had taken one touch too many when the defender foolishly challenged him from behind. I wasn't too sure about contact, but it clearly demonstrates the difference between when a 'notorious' player like Fuller goes down and someone unknown like Cresswell goes down. Referees continue to work off reputation, but how the hell do they let that Ronaldo at ManUre keep getting away with it?
Anyway, we scored the penalty and were on top right up until the final whistle. More time wasting from Kiraly reduced our possible chances and there wasn't enough injury time. There are lessons to be learned from today, let's hope TP learns them.
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Post by Premiership for hutchstokie on Mar 8, 2008 18:49:16 GMT
fuller to greedy and i thought lawrence was poor!!but then again most were off par today
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Post by Goarn ROORRRRYYYY! on Mar 8, 2008 18:56:56 GMT
Nash - 7, more dominant than simonsen Griffin - 5.5, a mare by his standards Cort - 6, an OK performance Riggott - 7.5 MOM, looks a quality centre half Pugh - 6, not brilliant Lawrence - 7, one of our better players but poor by his standards Delap - 7, good distribution Diao - 4.5, passing was shite, and a yard off the pace Cresswell - 5, not a winger Fuller - 6, nowhere near his best Sidibe - 5, gives nothing when he's not winning flick ons Parkin - too fat to have a rating Gallagher - 6.5, a couple of good shots but not used enough
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Post by jaybee on Mar 8, 2008 22:23:35 GMT
Nash = 6 - should he have saved their goal? Griff = 6.5 - got forward well Riggot = 7 - good commanding performance Court = 5.5 - fairly anonomous, but scared me when he had the ball at his feet on the edge of his own box Pugh = 6.5 - steadily reliable Lawro = 7 - not quite as good as usual and another stupid booking Diao = 5 - very poor first half, slight improvement 2nd Delap = 7 - MOM Cressie = 6.5 - worked arrd, and won the penalty Sidibe = 5 - even worse than usual Fuller = 6.5 - too greedy - but two men on him every time he gets the ball. Gally = 6.5 - you can see he's quality Parkin = 6 - changed the game ;-)
Altogether a poor performance - another defensive balls up (for their goal) and a lucky (?) 'get out of jail' at the end.
If Fuller had two men on him all the time, why did it seem we still were outnumbered?
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