[peiowl]

"Thud & Blunder"

We lined up 442 with two non-wingers playing in the wide roles.

We started sluggishly.

We didn't force their keeper into a save in the first half.

We missed a great chance.

We had little cohesion as we struggled to get hold of midfield.

The football was dire with neither side providing any quality.

Those six statements pretty much sum up the first half. In fact they could pretty much apply to the majority of our home matches this season.

Apart from a couple of matches, this season's home games have all been the same - little skill, few goals, no cohesion, no quality and a complete bore fest for supporters. Who knew that when we fought out a 0-0 draw with Derby in our opening home match of the season that those seven attempts on target that day were never going to be surpassed in a most dreary season for home fans. Three goals from open play in 19 matches is a pitiful record.

SG claims that we should be proud of our defence which is close to equalling the Club's record for clean sheets in a season (held by another side that could only achieve mid table) is valid but teams don't get promotion on a good defence; they get promotion by cavalier football and by scoring goals. Look at Derby (69), Bournemouth (78), Norwich (71), Watford (76) &  Brentford (59). We have scored just 34 from 37 matches. Even Rotherham have scored 43 & Fulham 45. We need a total change of philosophy if we are to achieve the new owner's ambition of promotion by 2017.

The only things to add regarding yesterday's first half was a bad miss by May, who skewed a shot from eight yards badly & it spun into the keeper's arms and injuries to Palmer & Keane, which SG blamed on the pitch.

As usual, we started a bit brighter in the second half. McGugan started pulling the strings in midfield and May was making intelligent runs in behind the Fulham defence. Inevitably (I guess), our goal came from a set piece. McGugan's corner was cleared straight back to him and his second cross was headed home by May. The header was simple; the skill was the run he made to create the space. May clearly is a natural goalscorer as this goal showed and in the second half he was a constant threat.

We should have extended the lead with Nuhui three times missing good chances. One he headed straight at the keeper, a second he made poor contact and a third flicked against the top of the bar although he was flagged (wrongly in my opinion) offside for that one. Ironically, Matt Smith had scored a few minutes earlier from an identical situation.

The Wednesday defenders all stopped as Woodrow went over in the box. It looked like a penalty from a distance but TV evidence suggests that Vermijl got the ball before catching the player. Vermijl could easily have cleared the ball but stopped to look at the referee to see his decision. While our defence stopped, the player on the ground got a cross in and Smith stabbed in in from six yards off the crossbar. Only Helan seemed to be alert but it was too little, too late.

After that there was only going to be one winner & it wasn't going to be Wednesday. We had already turned our mindset to defence after scoring so it was difficult to try to change it to attack again. Westwood made a good save at the feet of Smith, Stafyildis blazed over, McCormack was squeezed out in a goalmouth scramble and he skimmed the netting with a twenty yard free kick.

We survived that late flurry to claim our ninth home draw of the season. The final whistle was followed by a lot of booing. Although I will never boo my team, I can understand the frustration of the fans. For the first time, I heard openly hostile comments against SG.

SG summed it up as "Not one for the purists." I thought it lacked "Blood & Thunder"; it was more "Thud & Blunder"

Westwood - 6 - little to do
Palmer - 6 - injured early
Lees - 5 - never looked comfortable
Dielna - 5 - seemed to concentrate on hitting the ball either high, hard or both
Helan - 6 - good in spells but lacked positivity
Lee - 6 - brighter in second half
Hutchinson - 5 - niggly, lucky not to get carded
McGugan - 7 - our only quality creator
Maguire - 5 - apart from one 30 yard shot and one through ball, nothing
Nuhui - 5 - poor throughout, missed three decent chances
Keane - 6 - one good run, injured
................................................................
Vermijl - 6 - generally good but slow thinking cost us a goal
May - 7 - bright & lively
Maghoma - not involved

I said that the final ten matches could be a great learning opportunity that could give us a spring board start to next season. Sadly this game was wasted. No new tactics or partnerships were tried & we learned nothing new. Only that 442 doesn't work for us, we won't win playing defensively, Maguire & Lee are not wingers, Hutchinson is a hot head and Nuhui will always miss chances.

I understand why SG isn't prepared to try anything creative. He fears that a string of defeats might cost him his job. That is more a sad reflection on football than it is on him. I think that DC is savvy enough to see that SG isn't the man for us if we want PL football, not because of the poor results and mind numbing football but because he isn't being creative and trying different things to change things.

It was Albert Einstein who is credited with saying that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. That for me is SG. He uses the same tactics with the same players out of position, week in, week out but he expects things to suddenly change and our ugly duckling football will miraculously turn into swanlike football. Well this isn't Hans Christian Andersen.

Maybe May will get a run in the side now with Keane & Bus injured. Maybe SG will recall Madine or Lavery. Hopefully Tuesday night will be better; after all we are away.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if nuhiu got the start again and May was benched. So bloody frustrating. SG is an idiot.

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A few positives here today   first and most important one is that my car escaped the garage with only $100 pound to be spent on the bastard thing , and i wont have to spend another pound untill 6 months time   very good then   and another is that i didnt have to sit an listen to that WW and bang my head against a wall like everyone else   yet more then ? yes   may can score and will get better when SG gets the sack    he will get the sack wont he   and well done to statesider   i like statesider he doesnt talk utter shit like peiowl 

Another positive. I missed the second harf. I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have time to look at posts by that daft imre. Well, what would you expect from someone who's in the muppett league??

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Evening all   looks like I dodged another today  

How shit were we   and I see PEI's love child missed a sitter   Nuhiu would have put that f ucker away  

nice try. not biting maddix.