[madsteve]

A Point Gained or Two Lost?

In truth, it is both but it feels better when you come from two down to get a point. If we want to go up we need to beat the sides around us & that is where we are coming up short at the moment.

We started brightly but went behind when Westwood inexplicably dived in when the danger had already been averted & we went behind to the penalty. We nearly equalised when Joao hit the post.

The second came as we over stretched ourselves going forward. A long ball over the top which looked offside but as Westwood forced him wide, he slipped, leaving an empty net.

We didn't give up. FF equalised from nothing, firing in from 25 yards then we turned up the gas. Great play between Palmer & Wallace set up Bannan who's shot just went in off the post. Gradually Cardiff took over again & we seemed to settle for a draw at the death.

Westwood - 5
Palmer - 7
Loovens - 7
Turner - 6
Pudil - 6
Hutchinson - 6
Lee - 6
Wallace - 6
FF - 7
Bannan - 8
Joao - 6
..........................
Lopez - 6
Hooper - 6
Nuhiu

Stat Attack:

Goals: 1- FF, Bannan

Assists: 1 - Wallace, Bannan

Tackles: 3 - Loovens, Lee, FF 2 - Pudil, 1 - Turner, Bannan, Hooper, Nuhiu

Interceptions: 3 - Loovens, 2 - Palmer, Pudil, Hutchinson, 1 - Turner, Bannan, Hooper

Clearances: 5 - Loovens, 3 - Pudil, 1 - Westwood, Turner

Attempts: 4 - FF, Bannan, 2 - Loovens, Wallace, Joao

Attempts On Target: 2 - FF, Bannan, 1 - Loovens, Wallace

Key Passes: 4 - Bannan, 2 - Wallace, 1 - Palmer, Lee, Joao

Dribbles: 3 - FF, Lopez, 2 - Loovens, Bannan, 1 - Pudil

Dispossessed: 4 - Hooper, 3 - Joao, 2 - FF, 1 - Bannan, Palmer

Bad Control: 5 - Joao, 2 - FF, 1 - Palmer, Wallace, Hooper

Crosses (accurate in brackets): 7 - Palmer (2), Bannan (1), 5 - Wallace (1), 3 - FF (0), 1 - Pudil (1), Lee (0)

Passing Accuracy (total passes in brackets):

Nuhiu - 100% (1)
Turner - 94% (35)
Loovens - 92% (39)
FF - 88% (32)
Lopez - 87% (52)
Lee - 86% (36)
Wallace - 82% (61)
Bannan - 81% (74)
Palmer - 80% (50)
Hooper - 77% (13)
Joao - 75% (28)
Hutchinson - 73% (11)
Pudil - 68% (31)
Westwood - 40% (30)

It is probably no coincidence that we seem to score better when Hooper comes on. He may not be grabbing the headlines but is movement is excellent which creates space for our midfield players. Also a lot of credit to Loovens. He acted like a real captain, getting the best out of his team mates - something we have lacked for too long.

Bannan is so important to us. He gives us so much energy & is always involved. CC will need to shuffle his pack to keep players fresh but we need Bannan every match.

[peiowl]

Same old. Same old. Jaoa can't possibly start. He never performs well when he starts.  Oh yeah?  And how many starts has he had? And how many starts has the donkey had and how well has he performed?  Brilliant right? Give your heads a shake folks snd give Jaoa a chance. The donkey has had chance after chance.

Joao has played well in about half the games hes started hes started  and when hes been sub hes possibly done the same  i personally am not saying dont start him because hes no good   i think he gives us something better as a sub and he also needs time to come on and cc is looking after him very well i think  and niether am i saying start nuhui not at home anyway   i dont think maddix is either  

 you realy do get the wrong end of the stick maybe we should send you one of them horns you can put to your ear like renes motherinlaw in allo allo 

---

A British sitcom no doubt. How is Lavery doing at wherever he is? Wouldn't he be a better alternate to Joao than Nuhiu? Also, what happened to a guy called Bus? Is he too shy to play football? He seems to be hiding somewhere?

[Imre varadi]

Agreed Bus would be and why the hell isnt laverey back with us ? surely its not helping him playing in the ultimate pub league ? ok hes getting game time , but he will drop in standard if he keeps playing at this level !! nuhui does bring something though !! which is slow the game down when we are winning but the last few months weve never been in a position to play him like that !!

[St Charles Owl]

A British sitcom no doubt. How is Lavery doing at wherever he is? Wouldn't he be a better alternate to Joao than Nuhiu? Also, what happened to a guy called Bus? Is he too shy to play football? He seems to be hiding somewhere?

Lavery got his 4th goal for Portsmouth yesterday but not sure exactly how they are playing him.  Either way he is playing against League 2 oppositions which is a lot easier than going up against  a Championship defence!!

At the end of the day CC seems to have decided that Joao, Hooper and Nuhiu are his main three strikers and as a guess he is looking at the CH pairing of the opposition and making a decision whether he wants the size and awkwardness of Nuhiu or the pace and energy of Joao from the start.  Either way, the one starting has more often than not been replaced by the other at some point during the game.

[Imre varadi]

The way it looks , we will end up signing hooper !! maybe like madsteve suggests it wont be a bad thing , goals are not his thing at the moment , but he has won us some points from the bench with his outfieldplay !! i make it 3 games hes come on as sub and weve got something from nothing !!

[peiowl]

Same old. Same old. Jaoa can't possibly start. He never performs well when he starts.  Oh yeah?  And how many starts has he had? And how many starts has the donkey had and how well has he performed?  Brilliant right? Give your heads a shake folks snd give Jaoa a chance. The donkey has had chance after chance.

[St Charles Owl]

Same old. Same old. Jaoa can't possibly start. He never performs well when he starts.  Oh yeah?  And how many starts has he had? And how many starts has the donkey had and how well has he performed?  Brilliant right? Give your heads a shake folks snd give Jaoa a chance. The donkey has had chance after chance.

I posted earlier the number of starts - Nuhiu 11, Joao 9.  From what I can see (and I only skimmed the info) Joao has scored 4 of his 5 league goals as a sub.  Until we have a better option it seems CC is going to split the starts between Nuhiu and Joao.  CC has also said that the goals must come from all parts of the team, not just the strikers so I think he is less concerned with Nuhiu's weak scoring record.  My concern is that Forestieri doesn't seem to get going with Nuhiu on the pitch but until January I think we will see this trend continue.

[madsteve]

Yet again, the goals started when Hooper came on. While he isn't scoring himself, his movement is creating space for others. It allows FF to drop deeper & get more involved as well as play more like 352 at times as we did in our best spells on Saturday with Bannan & Wallace playing narrow with Palmer & Pudil providing the width.

Eventually CC is going to have to start this way.

[consilio]

Got the tickets without knowing who would be playing.  Delighted it's England, no better feeling than watching your country in a major tournament.  

So you got some tickets for a venue on a particular date and when the draw was made yesterday it just happened to end up being England??  You lucky bastard!!!!

They were completely random and yes I got England!  

Not bad hey?