21-12-2014, 18:38
Our biggest defeat of the season but despite that I give my first rating of TEN for this season.
Went in two pubs near the ground before kick off and both were bursting with OWLS fans getting into the spirit early.
SG decided to go with 451, leaving out Nuhui & Drenthe. Both these changes were to have a key factor on the game & our pre match thoughts were that Drenthe usually give defences plenty to think about so we would miss that and while Nuhui was hopeless from an attacking perspective but we miss his height defending set pieces when we don't have a big striker.
We started slowly but gradually got a foothold with May having a shot cleared off the line & Lees missing a chance. Generally we were passing the ball nicely but not working their keeper. Helan was our main attacking threat first half but with only May as a target, they snuffed us out comfortably. McGugan worked the ball cleverly as we dominated CM with our extra man.
Unfortunately we were let down by Maguire, who just didn't track back & left Palmer regularly facing two on one situations on his flank and Lee, who was light weight and didn't contribute anything. Lees & Loovens never looked comfortable and Lees made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes.
McGugan bent a free kick about a foot wide then two minutes later McCormack bent a shot into the top corner. We looked vulnerable at every free kick & corner as Fulham had four giants to our two and inevitably they scored with a free header from six yards just before half time.
Nuhui & Drenthe came on for Lee & Mattock at half time. No-one would argue with that although Maguire was lucky to stay on & Mattock unlucky to go off. Our disorganisation off the pitch showed as we failed to get Drenthe on until the game had been in progress for over a minute so we kicked off the second half with ten men.
The changes had several effects, some positive & some negative. Helan was moved to LB & was less effective and with only two in CM, we lost control of the game. On the plus side, Drenthe terrorised their defence and Nuhui made us better at defending set pieces.
Initially we played with May on the left wing & Nuhui as a sole striker. This gave us plenty of possession and got us into good positions but we had no-one to finish off the moves. Then SG moved May back up front. Unfortunately this mean that we surrendered control of CM.
We tried pushing forward more but this backfired on us with Fulham scoring on the break. Westwood was lucky not to concede a penalty before Dielna did concede one in stoppage time to make it 4-0
Westwood - 6 - no real saves to make except the goals
Palmer - 6 - left exposed but did a reasonable job
Lees - 5 - below par, missed chance, couple of mistakes
Loovens - 5 - another yellow card
Mattock - 6 - tidy job
Maguire - 5 - generally poor but was more lively in final 15 minutes
Lee - 3 - really poor, added nothing
Semedo - 6 - tidy & effective
McGugan - 7 - quality passing & movement
Helan - 7 - excellent runs first half, made less effective by tactical switch
May - 6 - worked hard, good runs but not helped by being shoved on wing
....................................................
Nuhui - 4 - slightly better than last week but still way off this standard
Drenthe - 7 - unplayable on the wing but no targets in the centre
SG - 4 - poor team selection cost us this match. Fulham were a poor side but we needed Drenthe from the start and the lack of a big striker cost us dear as well. The fact that Fulham only had five shots on target & scored four times shows how clinical they were. We had 17 attempts, only two on target. That is the difference. We were not four goals worse than Fulham.
OWLS Fans - 10 - we are good at most away matches but yesterday was probably the best I can remember. The spontaneous bouncing when we went 3-0 down was magnificent. Well done guys!
Where do we go next? We have Blackpool on Boxing Day, who are hopeless beyond belief. We need two strikers but we also need five in midfield so the solution is pretty obvious......3-5-2!!!
We have five days to work on it so let's do it.
Our other problem is that we need a big striker but Nuhui has lost it or just isn't good enough. Unfortunately we are outside the loan window so cannot bring anyone in until next year & even then finding someone that other clubs will let you have that knows where the net is, is going to be difficult.
We desperately need to win against Blackpool because if we don't, we will be looking very nervously at the bottom three. Bournemouth have scored 14 goals in two away matches, which is only two less than we have scored all season in 22 matches.
We have now won 7 matches out of the last 30 in the league. Stretch that over a full season & it is relegation form. Coincidentally that is identical to DJ's record when MM brought down the axe on his reign. SG still has some goodwill with the fans but failure to beat Blackpool could see the end of his time in charge.
Went in two pubs near the ground before kick off and both were bursting with OWLS fans getting into the spirit early.
SG decided to go with 451, leaving out Nuhui & Drenthe. Both these changes were to have a key factor on the game & our pre match thoughts were that Drenthe usually give defences plenty to think about so we would miss that and while Nuhui was hopeless from an attacking perspective but we miss his height defending set pieces when we don't have a big striker.
We started slowly but gradually got a foothold with May having a shot cleared off the line & Lees missing a chance. Generally we were passing the ball nicely but not working their keeper. Helan was our main attacking threat first half but with only May as a target, they snuffed us out comfortably. McGugan worked the ball cleverly as we dominated CM with our extra man.
Unfortunately we were let down by Maguire, who just didn't track back & left Palmer regularly facing two on one situations on his flank and Lee, who was light weight and didn't contribute anything. Lees & Loovens never looked comfortable and Lees made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes.
McGugan bent a free kick about a foot wide then two minutes later McCormack bent a shot into the top corner. We looked vulnerable at every free kick & corner as Fulham had four giants to our two and inevitably they scored with a free header from six yards just before half time.
Nuhui & Drenthe came on for Lee & Mattock at half time. No-one would argue with that although Maguire was lucky to stay on & Mattock unlucky to go off. Our disorganisation off the pitch showed as we failed to get Drenthe on until the game had been in progress for over a minute so we kicked off the second half with ten men.
The changes had several effects, some positive & some negative. Helan was moved to LB & was less effective and with only two in CM, we lost control of the game. On the plus side, Drenthe terrorised their defence and Nuhui made us better at defending set pieces.
Initially we played with May on the left wing & Nuhui as a sole striker. This gave us plenty of possession and got us into good positions but we had no-one to finish off the moves. Then SG moved May back up front. Unfortunately this mean that we surrendered control of CM.
We tried pushing forward more but this backfired on us with Fulham scoring on the break. Westwood was lucky not to concede a penalty before Dielna did concede one in stoppage time to make it 4-0
Westwood - 6 - no real saves to make except the goals
Palmer - 6 - left exposed but did a reasonable job
Lees - 5 - below par, missed chance, couple of mistakes
Loovens - 5 - another yellow card
Mattock - 6 - tidy job
Maguire - 5 - generally poor but was more lively in final 15 minutes
Lee - 3 - really poor, added nothing
Semedo - 6 - tidy & effective
McGugan - 7 - quality passing & movement
Helan - 7 - excellent runs first half, made less effective by tactical switch
May - 6 - worked hard, good runs but not helped by being shoved on wing
....................................................
Nuhui - 4 - slightly better than last week but still way off this standard
Drenthe - 7 - unplayable on the wing but no targets in the centre
SG - 4 - poor team selection cost us this match. Fulham were a poor side but we needed Drenthe from the start and the lack of a big striker cost us dear as well. The fact that Fulham only had five shots on target & scored four times shows how clinical they were. We had 17 attempts, only two on target. That is the difference. We were not four goals worse than Fulham.
OWLS Fans - 10 - we are good at most away matches but yesterday was probably the best I can remember. The spontaneous bouncing when we went 3-0 down was magnificent. Well done guys!
Where do we go next? We have Blackpool on Boxing Day, who are hopeless beyond belief. We need two strikers but we also need five in midfield so the solution is pretty obvious......3-5-2!!!
We have five days to work on it so let's do it.
Our other problem is that we need a big striker but Nuhui has lost it or just isn't good enough. Unfortunately we are outside the loan window so cannot bring anyone in until next year & even then finding someone that other clubs will let you have that knows where the net is, is going to be difficult.
We desperately need to win against Blackpool because if we don't, we will be looking very nervously at the bottom three. Bournemouth have scored 14 goals in two away matches, which is only two less than we have scored all season in 22 matches.
We have now won 7 matches out of the last 30 in the league. Stretch that over a full season & it is relegation form. Coincidentally that is identical to DJ's record when MM brought down the axe on his reign. SG still has some goodwill with the fans but failure to beat Blackpool could see the end of his time in charge.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.