[St Charles Owl]

And I've been to see the 'Monster Trucks' tonight  

You traitor!!  I thought all Wednesday fans pledged never to watch 'Monster Trucks' again after that incident in 1991??  

[consilio]

Just watched the highlight on the Football League Show. A fair reflection, I'd forgotten how many chances we wasted. Could have easily been 4-0.

[OvalOwl]

and i noticed that Nuhui got clapped off ?

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was you pissed consilio or did you sneak out ? hooper looked like the bollocks !!!

I'd like to think it was Hooper getting a round of applause on his debut. That's who I was applauding anyroad!

[madsteve]

Three more points without really getting out of second gear. We often hear of games that need a goal, well this was a goal that needed a game.

CC brought back Westwood & FF as expected but also recalled Nuhiu & Semedo at the expense of Joao & Hutchinson.

It clearly didn't work as far as this match was concerned. We missed Hutchinson's intensity and several other players were also below the levels of recent games. Nuhiu posed no goal threat and our lack of pace allowed Forest to hold a high line and squeezed us in CM. However, it may have worked for us in the longer term as we got the three points plus we kept two key players fresh for the bigger battles ahead.

The first half was a non-event with just a solitary chance for Lee, which was well worked but he got squeezed out as he attempted to shoot while Forest had a header against the outside of the post.

I was expecting a step up in the second half but it didn't really happen until Joao replaced Semedo. The threat of Joao's pace forced Forest to defend deeper & it gave us much more area to play in in the Forest half. Initially FF moved to the left side but he was soon running all across the line, leaving space for Pudil to race into down the left side.

The game was won by a moment of individual brilliance by FF. He found a little space and blasted it from 30 yards. The speed of the shot was too much for the keeper. This is what you get when you spend big on a striker - a player that wins you matches.

Helan & Hooper came on and both looked impressive as we held on comfortably to our 1-0 lead.

Defensively, we looked secure and the fact that Westwood never had a shot to save is testament to the job done in front of him. Semedo struggles at this level. His positioning is nowhere near as good as Hutchinson's and he looks uncomfortable in possession but until Melo is fit, he will play when Hutchinson is injured, rested or suspended.

Hunt is a great asset going forward but is still a liability defensively. He was repeatedly caught out of position or was ball watching and relied on his pace or others to bail him out. Bannan has been great so far but although he worked hard yesterday, he looked jaded and needs the International break to recharge his batteries.

Up front, the ball never stuck. Nuhiu won a few flicks but invariably, he just flicked it on to a Forest player. Nuhiu & FF seemed to lose the ball easily. When Joao came on, it gave us an option of playing it more to feet and suddenly we were a different side. In the closing ten minutes, with Helan running at the defence and Hooper finding intelligent positions, we were cutting Forest open at will and but for some wayward finishing, we would have added to our lead.

Probably more satisfying is that we never allowed Forest a sniff of a chance for a late equaliser.

Westwood - 6 - apart from one rush out to clear, an easy day
Hunt - 6 - 9 for attacking, 4 for defending
Lees - 7 - solid against tough opponent
Loovens - 7 - back to his best
Pudil - 7 - solid defensively and threatening going forward
Semedo - 5 - looked a touch out of his depth
Lee - 8 - covered every inch & was still going at the death
Wallace - 7 - more involved, missed a couple of chances
Forestieri - 7 - mixed but moment of quality won the match
Bannan - 6 - worked hard but a few mistakes crept in
Nuhiu - 5 - can't fault his effort but poses little threat
............................................................................
Joao - 7 - we picked up the moment he came on
Helan - 7 - ran at defenders, looked a threat
Hooper - 6 - only on for ten minutes but moved intelligently & created two chances

Stat Attack:

Goals:

FF - 1

Tackles:

Lee - 6
Loovens - 4
Bannan - 2
FF - 2
Hunt - 1
Semedo -1
Helan - 1
Joao - 1

Interceptions:

Loovens - 3
Pudil - 2
Lees - 2
Hunt - 2
Lee - 2
Bannan - 2
Semedo - 1
FF - 1
Joao - 1

Clearances:

Loovens - 3
Pudil - 3
Westwood - 2
Hunt - 2
Joao - 2
Lees - 1
Wallace - 1
Helan - 1

Attempts:

FF - 6
Joao - 4
Wallace - 3
Hunt - 2
Bannan - 2
Nuhiu - 2
Pudil - 1
Lee - 1

Attempts On Target:

FF - 2
Hunt - 2
Pudil - 1

Key Passes:

Wallace - 4
Lee - 4
Bannan - 4
Nuhiu - 2
Helan - 2
Hunt - 1

Dribbles:

Hunt - 4
FF - 2
Joao - 2
Helan - 2
Wallace - 1
Bannan - 1
Nuhiu -1
Hooper - 1

Dispossessed:

Bannan - 3
Hunt - 2
Lee - 2
Joao - 2
FF - 1

Bad Control:

Nuhiu - 4
FF - 3
Hunt - 1
Wallace - 1
Semedo - 1
Bannan -1
Joao - 1
Hooper - 1

Crosses:

Wallace - 7 (1 accurate)
Hunt - 4 (1 accurate)
Bannan - 4 (2 accurate)
Pudil - 4 (0 accurate)
Lee - 2 (1 accurate)
FF - 1 (0 accurate)

Passing Accuracy (number of passes in brackets):

Joao - 100% (3)
FF - 93% (14)
Helan - 89% (9)
Lee - 82% (39)
Wallace - 82% (28)
Loovens - 82% (33)
Bannan - 78% (60)
Semedo - 75% (28)
Hooper - 75% (4)
Pudil - 74% (49)
Hunt - 62% (37)
Nuhiu - 62% (37)
Lees - 55% (33)
Westwood - 55% (33)

Total Touches:

Bannan - 75
Pudil - 60
Hunt - 59
Lee - 53
Westwood - 46
Nuhiu - 45
Loovens - 44
Wallace - 43
Lees - 38
FF - 32
Semedo - 31
Joao - 16
Helan - 14
Hooper - 6

Brighton will be a tougher proposition and maybe CC has held back Hutchinson & Joao for this one and if it works then he should be hailed as a tactical genius again. We will get far less chances against Brighton so need to be more clinical when they occur, which suggests that he will go for Joao with Hooper likely to see the final 20 minutes. Think he will go with his strongest team and hope they can keep going for another two matches.

Our crossing accuracy was terrible, just 5 accurate out of 22. We need to do better and we need better movement in the box like we did against Arsenal rather than being static. One big plus is the depth of our squad. Helan backed up his performance against Arsenal with a good showing as a sub yesterday & he should be a good impact player in the coming months.

Another good day at the office. Will need to do better on Tuesday but a when then and we are right in the promotion race.

[Imre varadi]

i know i shouldnt say this but if we win the next 2 games we could be going into the Huddersfield game with a chance of going top !! wouldnt that be nice !!

[Statesideowl]

We saw the game similarly, MS.

It's definitely a different game watching it and listening to a radio feed. I think Imre and myself were saying Nuhiu upfront wasn't working after the first 30 mins.
We blasted shot after shot in to a wall of red shirts. And to be fair to Forest they were missing a lot of first team regulars and still didn't look like a 'Poor' side

Brighton game is a big one, they're unbeatable and we're unbeaten in eight (league) I wouldn't expect a smash and grab but we might catch them a little tired, maybe nick a point and keep our car on the rails.

The crossing I agree was inaccurate on the whole. I'm just thankful we have players either side of the pitch whom can whip a beautiful ball in, it's no coincidence that we're now the highest scoring team with headers. This is what we cried out for throughout last season but SG insisted on trying to walk it in to the net

I'll take a point from Brighton.

[Imre varadi]

id rest wallace has he looks knackered , but who will cross the ball in ? id be tempted to play a 5 man midfield barry lee bannan hutch if fit foresteri acting as the 5th anyone of these players are a threat on goal !!! it would also overwork brighton in the middle of the park id do this for the firt 60 minutes and then bring on joao and hooper to give them something else to think about !!!

[consilio]

Out of interest, what is classed as an accurate cross?

[Statesideowl]

I'd say it's a ball that is delivered closer to our player(s) rather than the oppositions. You could argue it's also one put into a dangerous area ahead of time for a player to run on to.

Balls hoofed from one touch line to the other, or are met by opposition players. and kicked out of bounds clearly aren't accurate enough.

Just my thought on it..

[madsteve]

Out of interest, what is classed as an accurate cross?

I take it from a stats website so not certain but I presume that it is one where a team mate gets the next touch. So I would think that 50% accuracy is probably a decent figure.

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We saw the game similarly, MS.

It's definitely a different game watching it and listening to a radio feed. I think Imre and myself were saying Nuhiu upfront wasn't working after the first 30 mins.
We blasted shot after shot in to a wall of red shirts. And to be fair to Forest they were missing a lot of first team regulars and still didn't look like a 'Poor' side

Brighton game is a big one, they're unbeatable and we're unbeaten in eight (league) I wouldn't expect a smash and grab but we might catch them a little tired, maybe nick a point and keep our car on the rails.

The crossing I agree was inaccurate on the whole. I'm just thankful we have players either side of the pitch whom can whip a beautiful ball in, it's no coincidence that we're now the highest scoring team with headers.  This is what we cried out for throughout last season but SG insisted on trying to walk it in to the net

I'll take a point from Brighton.

We have to beat Brighton. The top eight & particularly the top five are pulling away from the rest so we have to beat these sides or else we won't get ahead of them.

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id rest wallace has he looks knackered , but who will cross the ball in ? id be tempted to play a 5 man midfield barry lee bannan  hutch if fit  foresteri acting as the 5th anyone of these players are a threat on goal !!! it would also overwork brighton in the middle of the park id do this for the firt 60 minutes and then bring on joao and hooper to give them something else to think about !!!

We will play five in midfield but I doubt that he will rest Wallace. It will probably be Hutchinson, Lee, wallace, Forestieri & Bannan. I think Joao will play as we need to win this one.