[madsteve]

Everything But The Goal

Actually that's not strictly true but pretty much true. We were unlucky when May had a goal disallowed (give the guy who went 1-0 May a ) but generally we were wasteful with our chances. The creation wasn't brilliant but we must have had upward of 20 attempts at goal. May was unlucky, Maguire & Lees had efforts cleared off the line but Nuhui wouldn't have scored if he played all night & everyone else had gone home.

There are still plenty of positives. The defence looked as solid as a rock, restricting Bolton to one effort on target & that was straight down Westwoods's throat. We passed the ball sweetly & crisply & movement was good. Just when it looked like we might be running out of ideas, Drenthe came on & caused panic in the Bolton defence. He might have been guilty of a poor miss but there are signs that he can add something in creativity.

Westwood - 6 - just a few catches
Palmer - 7 - solid if unspectacular
Zayatte - 8 - great comeback
Lees - 8 - so assured & nearly scored
Mattock - 7 - another good performance, missed a chance in first half
Maguire - 6 - should have scored when shot cleared off line
Semedo - 7 - did the dirty work well
Coke - 6 - hardly noticed, one good shot
Maghoma - 7 - lively, always found space
Nuhui - 5 - movement poor today but game not suited to him today
May - 6 - lively, goal disallowed, but missed a couple of half chances
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Drenthe - 6 - missed best chance at death but the threat is there

The shallowness of our squad was exposed as we only really had Drenthe to bring on to get a goal. As his fitness improves, we could have a player to strike fear into defenders hearts. He made a few poor choices today & should have buried the chance that fell perfectly for him.

I feel that is two points thrown away but if we win against Brum & Reading we will be firmly placed in the to half by the end of the month.