[Marco4]

Sounds like Chris Powell is on the lookout for a striker too, Wakey, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it be a big man - is it not Powell who brought Yann Kermogant into Charlton?

[Terrier1987cas]

2 clean sheets in 2 games for Powell (from open play at least, a thirty yard screamer & a rush of blood to the head for Smith are hardly defensive calamities). The defence is definitely improved - whether that's down to Powell, Hudson, or more likely a combination of both I don't care, but we no longer look like gifting the opposition chances (Coady giving the ball away in a stupid position aside). Hudson and Lynch were outstanding and hopefully Lynch is okay so they can continue to build what looks like a great partnership (still early days mind). Peltier and Coady did their jobs well, but unfortunately their job is to sit so deep that it creates a monumental gap between our front line and everyone else. The plan is obviously to be compact and tough to beat, but so far it's been counter-productive in negating any threat we might have - the only good moments going forward yesterday came from a bit of direct running by Scannell who put 3 very dangerous balls into the box that couldn't be converted. The most worrying things is that our 2 most dangerous players (Wells and Butterfield) are completely redundant in the system we're playing - Wells is awful when it comes to holding the ball up and battling with defenders which is what's needed, and Butterfield isn't getting the ball to feet in the final 3rd which is what he's good at. Have a go at Stead all you want but he's more effective at the minute than Wells by a distance, he's poor yes but he put in another massive shift last night and caused their defence more problems than Wells did. Now if we had someone good enough to win more headers and physically compete with defences at this level, this direct football might work with Wells getting on the end of whatever they make happen. Unfortunately I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay to watch it given how tedious and pre-historic this Chris Powell 'style' of football is.

[JUSTASILLYOLDGIT]

Ok. Watched the live streaming of the game last night. Think the camera man had been given a new toy. Constantly zooming in and out, and testing the auto focus with poor result. Better than nawt I suppose though. So my opinion of what I saw is.........I can accept this long ball stuff to a point, but for Gods sake, give the guy a better than a 50/50 chance of getting the damn thing. Just launching it in the general direction, jeeez! Can't knock Steady for his work rate, though that's not enough in this league. I mean, a couple of seasons ago, away at Blackpool. The game plan wasn't much different, just more accurate, plus a fit Vaughan up front, and we battered 'em! I got a feeling of "deja vu". Last season I went to QPR away. And though we came away from that game with no points, I came away thinking we looked very decent going forward. But then, from others opinions, rarely replicated that performance again. And now this season, went to Watford away, and again, came away with nawt, but was impressed with much of our forward play. And now this again. It's like a different team again. Much more solid defensively, but toothless going forward. I guess the positive is, we got a point last night, as apposed to nothing from the two other examples. Dare I say it............."Work in Progress!"  

[Terrier1987cas]

[ARTERRIER]

To be honest Cas, that is a fair diagramatical assessment of last nights game, it happened like that, no two ways about it, midfield was by passed.

I'm gonna reseve judgement until Powells had 10 games to go at but at the minute, my eyebrows have been raised both last night and Saturday and as I said its hard to see where a goal is coming from let alone a win.

[WakeyTerrier]

Just incase you fell asleep here is some of the 'action' from last nights game

[in jon stead we trust]

Smithies was actually going to time waste at the end until the crowd started raging at him!

Good chant that hope it catches on.