I have deliberately left it 24 hours before I made comment on the game. I was shell shocked last night on the drive home and couldn't believe we hadn't got anything out of the game.
Although reading the comments on here I was obviously at the wrong ground.
70% possession,
17 shots to 6,
7on target to 3,
611 passes to 269
We dominated the game from beginning to end, and yet, we could not score.
Once again I am reading that we were outfoxed, allowed to play in the areas in front of their defence and picked off by better tactics. Rubbish.
Their manager was going frantic on the sidelines at the amount of possession we were getting, he was the one that blinked first and made the changes, not because they wanted us to have possession, but because we were running them ragged and giving them no possession.
For all those that say we weren't creating chances, look at the shots taken stat, almost half on target. They were chances created. Our downfall is simply having no one capable of converting the chances.
At least six of those shots on target were hit straight at the keeper with little or no venom. I cant remember the last time I saw a keeper catch as many shots, modern keepers parry shots, which leads me to believe that they were not hit with enough power to trouble him.
We were dominant up until that final pass and that is where the system fails. Without a target man in the box we are relying on playing the ball in at a low trajectory, it is no use sending the ball in high because the taller defenders will eat those crosses all day long. If we continue to play with Windass up front then we have to move the ball forward faster and play it in quicker to allow him to get on the shoulder of the defender and use his pace to win the ball in a straight foot race. We also need to get players from midfield up to support Windass when he wins the ball and give him the option to pass or shoot. Yesterday he won a couple of decent through balls but then had to cut back to find support or try to make room for a shot giving the defender the opportunity to get back at him.
The partnership with Naismith and Kipre looks to be paying off, Kipre looks more solid and less prone to mistakes and shows good potential, at 23 he still has time to develop and he is now stepping forward and bringing the ball out from the back as he seems to have the confidence that Naismith will cover him. Naismith proved yesterday that he has the composure and strength to deal with a strong centre forward and put in yet another decent performance leading me to believe that by accident we may have found a potential gem.
Morsy and Evans produced a solid platform for the midfield to build on, and although some are critical of Morsy's performance I thought he broke up play effectively and did nothing to give rise to the criticism.
There are comments about Howells being played on the left wing, however from my viewpoint the three attacking midfielders were fluid and moved around throughout the game. Howells and Williams linking up well on a number of occasions. Lowe was poor, and I think should be benched.
As I said, I must have been at the wrong ground because I watched a team dominate an opponent to the point that they were chasing shadows until their manager altered his system. I saw a team that was toothless in attack but showed enough promise for me to believe that if they can get someone to stick away the chances we could lift ourselves into a safe position. I saw promise from Howells, a glimpse of class from Naismith and a team that are playing football,not hoofball and are lacking one key component.
I know that a lot of you will disagree, partly due to the fact that we all see things differently in games and partly because some don't want to see the positive at present, but apart from the result I thoroughly enjoyed the game.
Fire away!!!!!