[madsteve]

Moving On Up!

We did what we had to do - we picked up the three points against a pretty poor side. We rarely looked in trouble and had we taken our chances, we could have won by several goals. However, promotion can be earned in different ways. We are not winning in a canter in the style of the Wilko or Big Ron promotion teams, it is more the scruffy wins of the Big Jack, Sturrock & GM/DJ promotion sides. Either way works but hopefully we will develop as the season progresses so that we can relax more in the final minutes.

We took half an hour to get going but when we did, we created three or four passable opportunities but no goals. We won the match in the first five minutes of the second half by taking advantage of sloppiness in the Rotherham defence. Forestieri stole the ball and Camp could only palm his shot into the path of Joao, who was alert to the opportunity. Can't help but think that Nuhiu wouldn't have been there, had he been playing.

Four minutes later & it was 2-0. Pudil got a free header at the far post and Forestieri forced it in from close range.

After that, we created quite a few chances with Bannan & Hutchinson dominating CM and Forestieri being a thorn in defenders' sides up front by battling and tackling. If Bannan could finish then there are goals there because he finds some great positions in the box.

An injury time goal gave the game a scoreline that didn't reflect our superiority.

Westwood - 6
Hunt - 6
Lees - 6
Loovens - 7
Pudil - 6
Hutchinson - 7
Lee - 6
Wallace - 6
Forestieri - 8
Bannan - 7
Joao - 6
..............................
Nuhiu - 6

Stat Attack:

Goals:

Joao - 1
Forestieri - 1

Assists:

Forestieri - 1
Pudil - 1

Tackles:

Forestieri - 7
Lee - 6
Hutchinson - 4
Pudil - 2

Interceptions:

Hutchinson - 4
Bannan - 4
Lee - 4
Lees - 3
Hunt - 3
Loovens - 2
Pudil - 2
Forestieri - 2

Clearances:

Loovens - 4
Lees - 4
Pudil - 4
Hunt - 3
Hutchinson - 3
Westwood - 2
Bannan - 1
Joao - 1

Attempts:

Forestieri - 5
Bannan - 4
Wallace - 2
Joao - 2
Hunt - 1
Pudil - 1
Lee - 1

Attempts On Target:

Forestieri - 3
Joao - 1
Wallace - 1
Pudil - 1

Key Passes:

Wallace - 4
Hunt - 3
Forestieri - 2
Joao - 2
Bannan - 1

Dribbles:

Bannan - 2
Forestieri - 2

Dispossessed:

Lee - 4
Forestieri - 2
Pudil - 1
Wallace - 1
Bannan - 1
Nuhiu - 1
Joao - 1

Bad Control:

Forestieri - 3
Joao - 3
Westwood - 1
Hunt - 1
Wallace - 1
Lee - 1
Nuhiu - 1

Crosses:

Wallace - 5 (1 accurate)
Hunt - 1 (1 accurate)
Bannan - 1 (1 accurate)
Lee - 1 (1 accurate)
Pudil - 1 (0 accurate)
Forestieri - 1 (0 accurate)

Passing Accuracy (Number of Passes in Brackets)

Bus - 100% (2)
Semedo - 100% (1)
Lee - 85% (27)
Forestieri - 82% (38)
Wallace - 81% (31)
Hutchinson - 73% (41)
Loovens - 70% (30)
Bannan - 69% (49)
Joao - 67% (12)
Hunt - 64% (22)
Nuhiu - 64% (11)
Lees - 53% (32)
Pudil - 52% (31)
Westwood - 32% (31)

Total Touches:

Bannan - 63
Forestieri - 62
Hutchinson - 54
Westwood - 47
Lee - 47
Pudil - 43
Lees - 41
Wallace - 41
Hunt - 38
Loovens - 38
Joao - 23
Nuhiu - 15
Bus - 2
Semedo - 1

Quite a few interesting statistics here. Forestieri had twice as many touches as he has had in any of his previous matches at 62, which is very high for a front player. Lee's passing total is very low for a CM player at 27 and bears out my thoughts watching the match that he was far less influential than Bannan & Hutchinson.

It is job done and we move on to a bonus match against Arsenal where we have little pressure. We don't want another 7-0 beating but the result isn't really important, it is more a game for the fans to savour. I favour playing a shadow team in this one & keeping our first choice team fresh for the Forest game.

[Thurnscoe_OWL]

im happy conceding late, had wedesday win and over 2.5 goals

[consilio]

Westwood 6

Hunt 7
Lees 7
Loovens 5 - lost his man for their goal and when Collins missed from 6 yards.
Pudil 6

Bannan 7
Lee 7
Hutchinson 7
Wallace 7

FF 8
Joao 7

[Towinjustonce]

I'm not happy Wednesday conceded late. Would of been 3 weeks in a row in the BML if they hadn't, FFS !!

On the match side to fellas who get to go is it fitness that has led to these late goals conceded or just stupid decisions by players ? These late goals conceded and Bannans lack of scoring while in great positions are the only concern for me st the minute. Both can be fixed thou which is great.....

And the biggest positive is Nuhiu seems to be getting less game time which means Joao and FF can build up a relationship for the future.

[Jacko The Flopsy Piglet]

Steady performance and good result. Can't believe Semedo gave that stupid free kick away for their goal. I thought he'd been brought on to stop Hutch from getting a second yellow! Hutch can ill afford to be picking up cheap yellows for diving. We need him to pick them up for fouling!

Anyway, we won, we move on and look forward to a stress free weekend and a bonus match on Tuesday. Happy days!

[Imre varadi]

you cant blame loovens consilio im sorry that was a very very good cross from maguire ???? and if anyone was to blame it was westwood as it was so closer to him then he should have gone down and come for it !!! loovens played realy well i thought and ive had my doubts about him when the season started , but it seems that the kick up his arse has helped him and he looks solid with lees and lees looks better with loovens . and stats ms dare i say it arent the true reflection on a player as lee glided around making all the rotherham team dizzy leaving hutch free to ping it everywhere , and bannan free to run into the box on his todd .

shooting practice is neaded badly at on the training ground is my only negative from this game !!

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burnley & reading winning   borro have a tough trip to wolves though and hull & birmingham play each other , so one or both will give ground ? Brighton will bag 3pts   and derby face a tricky trip to the village ? followed by cardiff who should also bag 3pts easy   so in all we will probably draw ground back on half of these teams ? leaving us a chance to stake a claim in the top 6 when we play forest at hillsborough 

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dem blades 

[Towinjustonce]

Fulham 3-2 on Reading which is good.

[Statesideowl]

I saw that goal coming for the last 20 minutes. Despite creating numerous chances to out us 3-0 and clear. We carried on sitting too deep, giving away freekick after free kick around the 25yrd area.

Law of averages says they'll get one eventually they missed 3-4 headers and shots at that far post during the second half so of course it was going to happen.

As with Bolton, it's a game against a poor side we should have dominated and won by a score line that didn't flatter either team.
We've improved leaps and bound, the one problem for me is this negative change at the end of games, we sit back inviting teams to go at us, which is fair enough at 3-0 or 4-0 but not at 2-0 IMO.

Anyway, I think I've pointed that out enough by now

Forest are falling apart. However, with out inability to see a game out it's a tough one to call.

[Daffodils on the piano]

Fulham are 2-0 down in the 49th minute then in the 56th minute Fulham are 3-2 up.And our porcine neighbours happened to xxxx it up earlier today,Dear me looks like the shoes off again.

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Fulham 4-2 now

[St Charles Owl]

Watched the first half live and then taped the second half. Just watched it and felt we were comfortable throughout the game. Their only threat really came after Maguire came on and started putting in some excellent deliveries from set pieces. We should have defended those better, after all we know what sort of delivery he is capable of!! I am with Consilio on Loovens, overall I thought he had a good game but he lost his man a couple of times from set pieces when I would expect better from him.

I can now see why opposing fans hate Maguire though, he puts himself about, always niggling in the tackle, constantly carping at players and the ref and causes problems. His set pieces were excellent and if Rotherham have any hope of staying up they should be playing him from the start.