Yet again, a game I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Two sides hell bent on playing football and doing just that. The stats appear to show that a draw was the right result and that is also my opinion.
14 shots each, shots on 6-5, corners 7-8.
We started brightly, they then took over for 20 minutes and we got back into it. A draw at HT was about right. They edged the first 30 of the 2nd half and took the lead from a corner. We did our subbing and got a deserved, if somewhat fortuitous, equaliser.
Carson - Good game, distribution has greatly improved
Bogle - Not his best game defensively but was decent going forward. He should buy Bennett a beer or three for all the times the lad was back defending with Bogle well up the field.
Keogh - A couple of loose balls between 70 and 80 minutes but an excellent performance all the same
Tomori - Good but his one lapse saw him lose Klose.......
Malone - Good game after a quiet opening 20
Mount - Good but not his usual level. Down, IMO, to them double and triple teaming him........
Johnson - Very good game
Bryson - almost MOTM IMO
Wilson - ATLMS? He was brilliant at Old Trafford. This performance was back to the poor level of his opening 2 games. Still way too one footed. Still way too easily kocked off the ball but, in his defence, I will add that there were at least 6 fouls on him the ref didn't give
Nugent - Great start and a good rest of his game
Bennett - Worst display from him in an attacking sense this season but the defensive part of his game was immense. Is the attacking display down to the clogging he has received in recent games? If so, it might be rotation time for him but we don't have another wide man who will do his defensive work covering Bogle. That is a quandery for FL.
Of the subs I though Waghorn's cameo was excellent. Marriott was good. Lawrence? Floated like a bee and stung like a butterfly.
The ref? Mixed bag of emotions for me. He did try to let the game flow but on several occasions blew late when we would have had a genuine advantage. Why did he let them block the quick taking of free kicks time after time. The Laws state that players should retire immediately 10 yards from the free kick. Purposely not doing so is Unsporting Behaviour and a yellow card offence. He spoke to 4 of their players about it without producing a card. Next free kick a different player took up position 6 inches from the ball. A weak referee who IMO should not have yellow carded Lewis (?) for that forearm smash into Wilson'd neck. It should have been red. Worst ref of the season so far in aseason of refereeing surprises where, IMO, the best we have had so far was Madley.