[Wereham Owl]

Consilio, be careful, try not to use words like that, the Moderator banhammer is hovering and waiting to fall on some poor Owls fans head ... you HAVE been warned, you need to find a dark corner, wear a long black overcoat, a Ferdora, talk with a hint of an Eastern European accent and arrange a drop off point for ANY post with the sort of language you used if you need to get a point across to any of the "rebel alliance"

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I just realised, even SCO is calling a few of us nasty names, although in a Sportsbabble allowed way , charming !!

[madsteve]

Interesting team selection.

At first I thought I saw Hutchinson but I guess it was a mirage because he soon disappeared.

Hope was an option on the right but for me he was the fourth option behind Drenthe, Helan & Palmer. After his performance yesterday, I guess we won't see him again.

Madine for Nuhui was interesting. Madine was by a distance our best player until Drenthe came on. He won just about everything in the air, controlled the ball well and brought others into play but had little support.

Hutchinson was clearly injured after three minutes. Why then did he hurl himself into another needless tackle that probably puts him out until next year? Brainless!!

We effectively played the first half with ten men as Hopeless contributed nothing.

Watford walked through our rigid 442 with ease. We have been fortunate until this game to have played mainly teams that also played 442. Watford's flexibility made us look poor. Semedo struggled & Lee was anonymous. Even Westwood made a howler although the kick he had taken moments earlier may have contributed to it.

Everything changed with Drenthe's introduction - Pace, Purpose & Trickery.

It was clear that a goal was coming as the game opened up but at which end. Maghoma stung the keeper's gloves from 30 yards and Drenthe twice forced diving saves. Maghoma looked to be brought down in the act of shooting.

Nuhui replaced Lee but within a minute we were three down.

Drenthe was brought down for the clearest of penalties but the ref (unsighted & not helped by the lino) yellow carded him for diving. Loovens hit a post late on and we should have had another penalty for a boot in the face if the referee had shown any consistency.

Westwood - 4 - schoolboy error for second goal
Palmer - 5 - poor distribution
Lees - 6 - solid but little protection
Loovens - 6 - a rock amidst the carnage
Mattock - 6 - tough afternoon
Hope - 1 - totally out of his depth
Hutchinson - one minute he was there, the next he was gone
Lee - 5 - went missing
Maghoma - 6 - brightest of midfield
May - 4 - just not at it
Madine - 7 - the only shining light on a dark day
......................................................................
Semedo - 5 - easily beaten by Watford midfield
Drenthe - 7 - bright & inventive
Nuhui - 6 - held ball up ok

We would have lost this anyway even without the selection of Hope because Watford were too good for us. The tactics were wrong. Watford were bright, inventive & exciting. We weren't.

Taking of Lee when Nuhui came on was interesting & at least showed some invention but I have feeling that this time next week, we will be nearer the relegation places than the promotion places.

[Thurnscoe_OWL]

Guys, I assume New606 is still broken??  Southey seemed to get it right with his "tits r us" statement!!  And Thurny, looks like we have about 5 boobs from the "rebel alliance" on here already!!

Seriously guys, I know you are having a bit of fun but I think it has probably run its course and is now boring for the rest of us.  Lets get back to the football, especially as this is a football forum!!

Come off it Charlie. You've all got what you wanted. New606 died, we came back here, none of us are swearing or posting images we're just trying to have a bit of fun.

Remember when the wednesday board used to be a fun place?

[Kimmyowl]

Well done madsteve , you pretty much saw the game as I did, I thought Madine did really well today and deserves to be in the team right now, drenthe was the best player on the pitch 2nd half and was brilliant.
They struggled massively with him, he can shoot, go left or right , cross with both feet........... But doesn't get the run of the green, he got took out 4 times yesterday plus got body checked for a clear penalty, and was booked for his efforts...... Shocking officiating

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Rub of the green...... Bloody iphone

[A57owl]

The player I'm concerned about is Stevie May. He is a striker but was often seen in midfield and on the wing. His early promise and confidence seems to have drained. He is having to find the ball, the service to the forwards hasn't been great recently but it doesn't help when May is no where near the 6 yard box!! I was hoping for more goals than he has achieved so far. Just shows the difference between the Championship and Scots Prem. We need to sort out our lack of goals otherwise, as someone pointed out, we will find ourselves nearer the drop zone rather than play offs. Our great start to the season is slowly fizzling out

[Owlkev71]

Good report MS. It was pretty obvious early on we needed to change formation. If it had been 0-0 at HT he might have done that, but when we are 0-2 down you basically have to stay 442, or possibly change to 352, though that would never happen under SG.

Im fairly certain all the away teams that have visited us have played with 3 central midfielders, we are so easy to play against at Hillsboro.

Watford are the best team I have seen at Hillsborough this season and will be in the shake up at the end of the season, we are what I said about 4 weeks ago, an average middle of the table side

Drenthe and Madine were about the only positives to take from yesterday, be interesting to see what the line up is on Tuesday, hopefully Drenthe will start possibly with McGuire on the other wing.

Based on Drenthe's performance yesterday, why haven't we seen more of him in the previous 6-7 games?????

[Wereham Owl]

Drenthe to be fair in the previous games he has come on as sub and has been DIRE, yesterday having watched the match highlights was his best game for us by far, and based on that , he needs to start the next match.
As for May, he is getting little service and is having to come deep to collect the ball, which is not his game to be fair, I'm sure he will come good, but his confidence seems a little drained.
Madine did well again yesterday in my opinion and just needs a goal or two to get him firing properly.
Westwood made an absolute howler, he knows it, and to be fair its the first thing he's done wrong while playing for us, and he will be over it already.
Lee looked calm as usual
Loovens to me , although a quality player sometimes seems a little lost every now and again, but on the whole is ok
As for SG ..well, dinosaur ...
We lost to a very good side, we are a very average side...

Onwards and upwards we go !!

[Owlkev71]

That wud mean SG switching to 3 central midfielders which he hasnt done since the Brighton game. I agree we need a playmaking midfield, but we need a striker and another winger aswell. Drenthe put some decent crosses in yesterday, if May had been in the box he might have got on the scoresheet.
Drenthe has better qualities than JJ, he had 3 shots, 2 of which required decent saves.
Im not saying he's the next Waddle, but at least give him a chance.

[Washington]

Well since I actually went to this one I guess I should voice my opinion too. Definitely a game of 2 halves.

I agree with most of what MS said except for Madine being the best player. I was surprised to see him and Hope start and whatever carpy game plan we had was scuppered by losing Hutch and having to make a forced substitution so early. Hope looked completely lost, or should that be less and had about as much positional sense as a drunken blind man. Even my daughter spotted this after the first few minutes. Like MS said I don't think he will be playing again anytime soon.
To me May doesn't have the understanding ( not surprisingly) with Madine like he does with NooHoo but also they were playing too far apart due to having to chase down a lot trying to win the ball back. Then when NooHoo came on he had to revert to more of a midfield role but he does work his socks off for the whole 90 mins.

Watfords forwards are a pacy lot and play through balls along the ground. Most of the time they were too soon and offside but the linesman on the NS side was usually about 10 yds behind the play and I don't think the official at the other side was any better.Their players went down for very little reason and generally conned the ref into free kicks. TBH I think Westwood was still recovering from being clattered by forestieri when giving up that second goal and semi should have kicked spaghetti man into row z earlier.

The introduction of Drenthe for the second half made things much better because we were attacking down both wings but as usual we can only seem to make headed clearances into the cop from crosses though some of the shots created were good and worthy of a goal.
Overall we didn't deserve to win but a 2-1 score would be a better reflection.

Personally I hope Drenthe starts the next game because we definitely looked more balanced with him on.

I can claim to have seen the mythical Hutchinson though !!!!!

Unfortunately I will be flying back during the Brentford game and then back to WW next Saturday.

Lastly I hope we can all return to being our big or should that be massive happy family and leave SCO to draw the line on how badly we can behave on here. All the other carp that's been posted over the last week is getting tedious now and I put a lot of it down to the boredom of the 2 week break in league games.

WAWAW???

[St Charles Owl]

Is there any news on what caused Hutchinson to go off?? Was it the same injury or a new one? Watford are slowly becoming a bogey team for us although they also appear to be a good team this season!! Our shit home form is a concern as well, we will go nowhere if we don't sort that!!!