02-10-2016, 11:44
Headed off from the in laws in Staffordshire bright and early yesterday in great anticipation of the game.
Parked up at Owlerton and had a nice pint of draft Stones in the pub next door before heading to the shop. As others have commented not a great variety of stuff compared to other clubs and it really needs sorting. I mean a whole corner still trying to flog play off t shirts at 6 quid - ffs just ship them to the third world via Oxfam and take a tax write off !!
On the way into the South it was nice to see FF was busy signing autographs by the players entrance but didn't see where he had parked his bike.
So.because I am fortunate enough to afford it I did the cheapest hospitality package again but the cost has almost doubled since I went in February. The net effect of that is the club is probably losing money since there were only about 6 tables of people compared to 25-30 when I met up with MS and his son. The next table had one of the match mascots but I think his Dad was having as good a time or better than the kid was. Hirsty was doing the rounds again so had a chat with him and at HT he was back in the lounge with George and a few others from the youth team. As a comment to Imre there's no way young Hirsty would survive in the first team yet - he's far to lightweight and in comparison Joao looks like Arnold !
So to the game. I thought we did enough overall to get a draw but Brighton wanted it more. Simply put the styles were similar we were out muscled us all over the park sometimes unfairly but the ref seemed to give them more benefit of doubt while we got whistled. Also he seem to play on when he should have given us a foul or vice versa.
I had my doubts when I saw the team sheet and then when we lost the toss and were kicking towards the Kop the first half things got worse. Like a few said on praise or grumble later all this passing around at the back and side to side is getting boring and predictable. Westwood having to rush to the edge of his box to clear into touch was what led to his injury and after that he didn't want to kick long any more. We had little or no penetration with Dunk and Duffy taking no prisoners in spite of Fletcher trying his best. Their first goal came out of nothing with a quick through pass down the left. Westwood came off his line when maybe he should have stayed back and all he could do was to help the ball loop into the far corner.
Second half saw the enforced substitution of Westwood and the game continued in a similar way until around the 60th minute when we had a spell of sustained pressure with a goal line clearance and series of deflected shots. Then against the run of play we failed to clear properly the ball went out to their wide left and was played into the near post for knockaart to get in front of the defender and guide in past Dawson.
Losing Pudil to injury meant Reach going to LB and FF moving LM with hooper taking his place partnering Fletcher. If anything Reach saw more of the ball after that and should have scored but instead skyed it over the bar from a couple of yards out.
To be fair we kept going and Hooper did get the consolation but without enough time left to go for the equalizer.
Overall a bad day at the office with for me Lee being the only player worthy of more than a 5. The game yesterday followed previous patterns but without creating as many chances early on before conceding. We really need to start games being less cagey and going for more penetration and early goals. I know it is a long season but at the moment I don't think CC knows how to best use the talent at his disposal and Reach looked far too isolated most of the game.
At the moment making the play offs again is about as good as we can hope for but a lot can change yet.
Parked up at Owlerton and had a nice pint of draft Stones in the pub next door before heading to the shop. As others have commented not a great variety of stuff compared to other clubs and it really needs sorting. I mean a whole corner still trying to flog play off t shirts at 6 quid - ffs just ship them to the third world via Oxfam and take a tax write off !!
On the way into the South it was nice to see FF was busy signing autographs by the players entrance but didn't see where he had parked his bike.
So.because I am fortunate enough to afford it I did the cheapest hospitality package again but the cost has almost doubled since I went in February. The net effect of that is the club is probably losing money since there were only about 6 tables of people compared to 25-30 when I met up with MS and his son. The next table had one of the match mascots but I think his Dad was having as good a time or better than the kid was. Hirsty was doing the rounds again so had a chat with him and at HT he was back in the lounge with George and a few others from the youth team. As a comment to Imre there's no way young Hirsty would survive in the first team yet - he's far to lightweight and in comparison Joao looks like Arnold !
So to the game. I thought we did enough overall to get a draw but Brighton wanted it more. Simply put the styles were similar we were out muscled us all over the park sometimes unfairly but the ref seemed to give them more benefit of doubt while we got whistled. Also he seem to play on when he should have given us a foul or vice versa.
I had my doubts when I saw the team sheet and then when we lost the toss and were kicking towards the Kop the first half things got worse. Like a few said on praise or grumble later all this passing around at the back and side to side is getting boring and predictable. Westwood having to rush to the edge of his box to clear into touch was what led to his injury and after that he didn't want to kick long any more. We had little or no penetration with Dunk and Duffy taking no prisoners in spite of Fletcher trying his best. Their first goal came out of nothing with a quick through pass down the left. Westwood came off his line when maybe he should have stayed back and all he could do was to help the ball loop into the far corner.
Second half saw the enforced substitution of Westwood and the game continued in a similar way until around the 60th minute when we had a spell of sustained pressure with a goal line clearance and series of deflected shots. Then against the run of play we failed to clear properly the ball went out to their wide left and was played into the near post for knockaart to get in front of the defender and guide in past Dawson.
Losing Pudil to injury meant Reach going to LB and FF moving LM with hooper taking his place partnering Fletcher. If anything Reach saw more of the ball after that and should have scored but instead skyed it over the bar from a couple of yards out.
To be fair we kept going and Hooper did get the consolation but without enough time left to go for the equalizer.
Overall a bad day at the office with for me Lee being the only player worthy of more than a 5. The game yesterday followed previous patterns but without creating as many chances early on before conceding. We really need to start games being less cagey and going for more penetration and early goals. I know it is a long season but at the moment I don't think CC knows how to best use the talent at his disposal and Reach looked far too isolated most of the game.
At the moment making the play offs again is about as good as we can hope for but a lot can change yet.