[madsteve]

Playoffs or Automatic?

Had a brilliant day yesterday. Wednesday treated me to a VIP day and it was fantastic. We got a quick tour of the ground, getting to sit in DC's seat in the Director's Box, CC's seat in the dugout and meet a few of the players by the changing rooms. We then had a lunch of of gammon, potatoes, root vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower & yorkshire puddding followed by bakewell tart & custard.

We met David Hirst, Lawrie Madden & John Pearson before going to our box. Couldn't sit in there to watch the match, prefer to be outside in the cold with more atmosphere although could keep up with scores elsewhere courtesy of our SKY TV.

Brentford started brightly and could have scored twice but Westwood made two smart saves to keep it level. The match moved sharply our way when Barbet was sent off after cynically bringing down Hooper as he was about to fire home from 20 yards. Having seen it again on TV, it confirmed my original opinion that it was a clear red card & full marks to the referee for seeing it.

We soon went ahead when FF reacted quickest to Pudil's deflected cross to head home & Hooper made it 2-0 when he lashed home Westwood's long kick. Despite being comfortable, there were several careless passes with FF being particularly culpable with three poor passes, one giving Brentford a chance to score.

On the stroke of half time, Lee made it 3-0 with a clever finish after a good knock down by Hooper.

The second half was a bit of of a phoney contest with Wednesday dominating possession but not really creating many good opportunities. Bannan worked tirelessly in midfield, initially just in front of the back four but moving further forward after McGugan took over the holding role in the final quarter.

McGeady got half an hour and looked a bit brighter than last week, showing that he has something to offer in the coming months. However, the most important substitution was the introduction of Joao. He had looked out of sorts recently but immediately looked much sharper and created problems for the Brentford defence and was rewarded with a brilliant goal.

Cannot complain much about a 4-0 victory although in truth we barely had to get out of second gear and several players were coasting, something that we cannot afford in the tougher matches ahead.

Westwood - 8 - a number of key saves
Hunt - 7 - easy defensively, bright going forward
Lees - 7 - back to his best
Sasso - 7 - solid
Pudil - 7 - got to show his attacking qualities
Bannan - 9 - heartbeat of the team
Wallace - 6 - quiet game
Lee - 8 - floating beautifully between the lines, good finish
Hooper - 8 - great goal, robbed of another by cynical foul
FF - 6 - good goal, worked hard but careless at times
Nuhiu - 6 - not involved much
........................................................................
McGeady - 6 - looked fitter
McGugan - 6 - lacks the tempo & intensity
Joao - 7 - back to life and what a goal

Stat Attack:

Goals: 1 - FF, Hooper, Lee, Joao

Assists: 1 - Pudil, Westwood, Hooper, Hunt

Touches: 119 - Bannan, 87 - Lees, 81 - Lee, 76 - Sasso, 71 - Pudil, 66 - Hunt, 56 - Wallace, 48 - Westwood, 47 - FF, 42 - Hooper, 32 - McGugan, 28 - McGeady, 27 - Nuhiu, 5 - Joao

Tackles: 5 - Lee, 4 - FF, 2 - Pudil, Bannan, Nuhiu, 1 - Sasso, Lees, McGeady, McGugan

Interceptions: 4 - Lees, 2 - Sasso, McGugan, 1 - Hunt, Pudil, Bannan, McGeady

Clearances: 5 - Lees, 4 - Pudil, 2 - Sasso, 1 - Westwood, Hunt, Nuhiu

Attempts: 4 - FF, 2 - Wallace, Bannan, Lee, Joao, 1 - Hooper, Nuhiu, McGeady

Attempts On Target: 3 - FF, 1 - Wallace, Bannan, Lee, Hooper, Joao

Key Passes: 3 - Hunt, 2 - Wallace, Lee, 1 - Westwood, Pudil, Bannan, Hooper, Joao

Dribbles: 1 - Hunt, Wallace, FF, McGeady, McGugan

Dispossessed: 4 - FF, 2 - Sasso, Hooper, Nuhiu, 1 - Joao, McGeady, McGugan

Bad Control: 3 - Wallace, 2 - FF, 1 - Pudil, Lee, Hooper, Joao

Crosses (Accurate in brackets): 5 - Hunt (1), Wallace (0), 3 - Pudil (0), 1 - Lee (0), McGeady (0)

Passing Accuracy (Total Passes in Brackets):

Joao - 100% (1)
Sasso - 96% (69)
Pudil - 95% (58)
Hooper - 95% (38)
Hunt - 91% (57)
McGugan - 88% (25)
Bannan - 88% (112)
Lee - 84% (69)
Lees - 83% (76)
Wallace - 81% (42)
McGeady - 81% (21)
Westwood - 73% (33)
FF - 73% (29)
Nuhiu - 58% (19)

Nuhiu hardly got involved with just 27 touches, 19 passes, no headers won and the lowest passing accuracy but he is still important to the way we play and we lost our attacking thrust in the period between Nuhiu going off & Joao coming on.

Yet again we looked great playing 4321, lost our way when we went 442 & found it again when we went back to 4321. My feeling is that CC is experimenting with other formations in case he needs them in the future and he can do that at 3-0 but he must start with the formation he started with yesterday.

Had a good chat with Washington & he was clearly impressed with the improvement since he last watched us under SG. I think we have played better but we did the job and got three points without too much fuss.

As I was about to leave, I was told that I had been invited into Kieren Westwood's box so myself and young Padawan then spent about 20 minutes with Ireland's number one and his family. What a nice guy. He signed our programmes, let us take pictures and seemed genuinely interested in my story.

Thank you SWFC, thank you Brighty, thank you Hirsty, thank you Imre, thank you Ireland's Number One & everyone who made sure that I had a special day.

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 Its like this peiowl Nuhui was shit while playing in a two man forward line   he was very shit   we was so shit even shit ran away becuase of the smell   the season before that he played most of his time on his own with hoofballers and again he was shit 

The last few games and the Birmingham game more convincingly he has played very very very good in a 3 man attack   got that 3 man attack   he is better than joao in a 3 man attack as he feeds forest and hooper and they score get that  ? joao isnt as suffiecent in a 3 man attack because he wants to score and he forgets hooper and forest get that ? joao is also a nipper and needs beefing up a bit more before he is to start everygame in a two man attack get that ? so stop being stubborn and come over to the nuhui lovers club 

Without Nuhui hooper and forest would be 4 goals or more light each i make that about 8   and Joao has scored how many in recnet weeks ? what i cant hear you ? did you say 1   well i make that 7 goals that playing Nuhui has contributed to us being in 5th place and without them it could have been 7th place or worse .

Think it is the formation that is more important than Nuhiu playing. When we play 442, we never play as well, whichever combination of two play up front. Likewise with 4321, we look better irrespective of who plays up top. At the moment Nuhiu is the better option but I expect that Joao will prove to be a better option before the season is over because of the greater threat of pace.

Yesterday, Nuhiu was hardly involved & didn't win a single ball in the air but the sheer presence of someone ahead of Hooper & FF creates greater opportunities. Despite that, I would start with the same team & formation again next Saturday with the exception of Hutch returning if he is fit.