[theo_luddite]

Wendies frustrated us when we went into their half, not ours. They ran back en-masse when they lost the ball to ensure 8 or 9 outfield players were behind the ball and stop us playing it between them or round them. They did that very effectively and were not drawn out by us playing it along the back four for us to use our speed up front. It's a tactic that is very difficult to play against. Passes that Town have played before and split lesser sides wide open were stopped by Wednesday defenders who did their job well and were well drilled. Their out ball was more or less always a long one for Forestieri to chase and try beat us at the back for speed. It worked once in the first half when he then played a ball back across the pitch that should have been buried by the Wednesday player (Jones?) and again in the second when he hit the post. Shortly after the ref gave the penalty that settled the game that otherwise had 0-0 written all over it. With Town chasing the game with 3 at the back it worked one more time with the 1 on 1 for their Palmer that Ward stopped brilliantly, when it really should have been 0-2 and good night Vienna. Their keeper made 2 good saves from Kachunga off a deflection that others might not have got to and Palmer and we had another goal bound effort from Kachunga cleared off the line in the second half.

All-in-all there wasn't much between the teams in my opinion and nobody would have complained at a point-a-piece. It was a decent tactical game but not a TV spectacular by any means. I'd sooner watch Town trying to attack a parked bus than watch a parked bus trying to snatch a goal on the break but sometimes you've got to give the parked bus credit for doing the job it was put on the pitch to do. If the bus won't move even the best managers and players can't always beat them - see Chelski v Barcelona from a couple of years back if you want more evidence.