[Thurnscoe_OWL]

100% pei

[madsteve]

Turned the Corner or Riding Our Luck?

There were some similarities with last week's win - a match that could have gone either way where we rode our luck & got a late winner. They say that winning when you are playing badly is the sign of a good side. Even the most rabid OWL will admit that we are far from being a good side but we have managed to make Wigan & Blackburn look like very ordinary sides.

One beauty of these wins is that they have been achieved with a number of players being below par but collectively we have done enough to claim the points. Also we played without Semedo yesterday & without McGugan for an hour and were barely affected.

We got off to a bright start and were quickly rewarded. May burst clear of a static defence and seemed to fluff his shot but the keeper spilled it & Lee was following in to tap home. This is the sort of goal we don't score enough of & begs the question why Nuhui never follows shots in.

We dominated the game for a while & when Blackburn equalised, it was against the run of play. Sloppy defending by Loovens cost us dear.

Overall, Blackburn dominated the second half but we also controlled spells with some neat passing. At appeared to be heading for a draw & SG showed that he was happy with a point by taking Nuhui off & bringing Dielna on. Dielna got forward & fired in speculatively but was rewarded for his adventure with a deflection that took his shot out of the keeper's reach.

It was good to see Lavery get 15 minutes to continue his return. He looks a fair way off at the moment but each run out will help him.

Westwood - 6 - a couple of good saves but not as dominant as usual
Palmer - 7 - better performance, kept wide players quiet
Lees - 7 - calm & assured, anticipated danger well
Loovens - 5 - at fault for goal, often shaky, missed good chance
Helan - 7 - moved to midfield & caused problems
Maguire - 5 - worked hard but poor free kicks
McGugan - 6 - moved the ball around nicely until injured
Lee - 6 - bright & tidy plus got in where it mattered
Drenthe - 7 - kept Blackburn on back foot at times, mixed set pieces
Nuhui - 6 - below par
May - 8 - constant threat
....................................................
Mattock - 7 - stopped supply lines
Lavery - 6 - needs more time
Dielna - 7 - great strike

This division is fine margins. After a terrible run, two wins has improved spirit massively. Should we be looking up the table rather than down? The truth is probably.....who knows! One astute signing in January (assuming we can keep McGugan & Drenthe) could leave us chasing the top six. We are now ten points clear of the bottom three as the bottom five can't buy a win while we are only nine points off a promotion spot.

In two matches, we have scored four goals; as many as we scored in the previous eleven matches. Have we suddenly solved our scoring issues or have we just got lucky? As ever, the answer is somewhere in between. During our goal drought, we were getting unlucky. May will score & score regularly given reasonable service. What was good yesterday was two unlikely scorers, which takes pressure off the strikers.

Does Nuhui need a goal or do we just accept that he will rarely score? His personal goal drought doesn't matter if others are scoring but you just wonder how far we could go with another 15 goals per season striker in the side.

Relegation is miles away now as the bottom five had stalled so no pressure now in that direction. Our December fixtures are relatively easy (two wins with Wolves, Fulham, Blackpool & Wigan again to come) so we could be within touching distance of the top six by the end of the year.

I still have reservations about our 442 which I feel limits us. We have the best squad of players that we have had since our PL days but I still feel we are under achieving a bit. Confidence is key and our match stats have been much improved over the last three matches and they are now being converted into wins.

[St Charles Owl]

MS, you are right about how a couple of wins can make not only a difference in everyone's attitude but also in the league position as well. This division is vey even, with anyone being able to beat anyone else and we ae proof of that, 11 games withou a win and after a cople of good results we are just outside the playoffs still!!!

Its going to come down to the January window for a lot of teams, I would think its fair to say that SG will still be in charge then, so lets see what he can do in the market!!

[peiowl]

I missed most of yesterday's game and we still won. Go figure. I thought I was the4 lucky mascot.

And it's ok for you lot to keep poking fun at pei. That's right. A poor defenceless old guy who likes to go to coffee with three old ladies instead of listening to the game.

[Maddix]

I missed most of yesterday's game and we still won. Go figure. I thought I was the4 lucky mascot.

And it's ok for you lot to keep poking fun at pei. That's right. A poor defenceless old guy who likes to go to coffee with three old ladies instead of listening to the game.    

That's only because you can't manage an orgy with three women these days

[St Charles Owl]

Come on Maddix, coffee with three old biddies is an orgy for Pei!!!

---

But then again coffee with three ladies is probably as good as I could do these days as well!!!

[Southeyowl]

http://bit.ly/c180QM
how about the above on the next match thread?

[BBB]

http://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/images/smilies/t7706.gif

Imre, where do you get your daddy x'mas figures from? I want them, tell me or i'll cry.

[St Charles Owl]

http://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/images/smilies/t7706.gif

Imre, where do you get your daddy x'mas figures from? I want them, tell me or i'll cry.

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[Thurnscoe_OWL]

you need to go into "new reply" or "preview post" and click on more smilies because the smilies are not next to the quick reply box despite me asking and the broken New606 having them