Tonight's Performance

T

Therealwaldo

Vital 1st Team Regular
There are lots more that will have seen tonight's game on ifollow so feel free to disagree with me if you like. Managers often say that, at this time of the season, performances are more important than results. If Steve Lovell takes that view, then I don't think he has anything to worry about over the sides general football health. Tonight we were undone by some naive defending and some off target striking. Otherwise we gave Sunderland a thorough run for their money.

Scores.

Holy 6 thought he could have done a bit better for their second goal. A bit of a nervy edge about his play tonight.

O'Neill 6 decent getting forward but list the ball in a dangerous position for their 4th.

Ehmer 6 didn't do much wrong but insofar as your central defenders are responsible for organising the defence, we didn't look very organised.

Zakuani 6 the comments about Max equally apply here.

Garmston 5 at least partly responsible for two of their goals. For their second, he was one of three defenders trying to prevent Gooch crossing but only succeeded in leaving a player unmarked who was found by Gooch. For their 3rd he lost the ball in the halfway line and never recovered. Having said that, his general play was good.

Bingham 5 thought Billy was a bit below par tonight. Also involved in the ineffective marking of Gooch for their 2nd goal.

Byrne 6 busy and committed all night. Wins so much in the air he has no right to.

Parker 6 good on the ball. Bit of a weak link when we were trying to play a pressing game.

Charles-Cook 7 another classy performance that caused Sunderland a lot of problems. Unlucky not to win a penalty.

Eaves 7 rightly given sponsors man of the match. Didn't give the Sunderland a minutes peace all night. Well taken goal.

Hanlan 6 showed flashes of what he's capable of. Created a couple of chances with his pace.

Subs

List 6 did well when he came on creating one great chance which again we missed.

Reilly 6 looked assured for the period he was on.

Stevenson 6 another bright cameo from the promising youngster.

All in all I came away not too disappointed. If we continue with the same attacking intent we're going to gain a lot more points at home than we lose. We already look a dramatically different team from last season. Hopefully we won't meet too many teams that are as efficient in front of goal as Sunderland. UTG
 
I`d agree with all of your marks, waldo. Our attacking play was good and had our defending been as good we`d have taken at least a point. Like you, i`m not at all discouraged by what i`ve seen so far this season and actually remain optimistic. The general consensus among Sunderland fans, btw, seems to be that we are the best attacking side that they have faced so far (in L1) and that 4-1 flattered them.
 
Fair assessment of the game and marks as usual Waldo. I would have given O'Neill a 5 as I thought he got caught out a lot positionally and was as equally lapse on the ball at times as anybody else. You could argue he was at fault for the 4th, but he obviously didn't get a shout from whoever was nearer to him to warn him of the player closing him down.
I would also have given Hanlon a 7 as I thought he was one of our liveliest players the time he was on for, and was dangerous going forward.

I agree with your general comments.. could easily have finished 4-4 if we had a little bit more quality and much needed luck in front of goal tonight.

We won't come up against too many teams as good as Sunderland this season thankfully.. I thought their high press, movement off the ball, and quality on it was superb, especially first half when they dominated us for 35 mins.. I thought their 2nd goal was a bit lucky (was going straight at Holy until it deflected off Zaks shoulder).

I'm sure SL will will be quick to point out the positives of the attacking side of our performance tonight, and rightly so. As you say, if we carry on creating the kind of chances we did tonight, we'll definitely win more points than we loose.. lets hope for more of the same attacking flair Saturday, but with a more organised defence.

UTG!
 
easonable assessment Waldo. But I would have dropped O-Neill two points and Bingham the same. We didn't get 'beaten' tonight, we gave the game away after we had equalised. Five defenders not marking anybody around our box - net result - three unchallenged goals.
If only Parker could have hit an open net, if only they hadn't been able to stop a ball on the line and the Eaves not hit the post from two foot out - if -if -if!!!
At the end of the day, if we could actually finish, we could have drawn that game 4-4, if not 5-5!
I noticed I the pre-match warm-up, we had players practising shooting. Does that mean the management recognise we ae poor at finishing? If so, they need to do something better than just taking shots from 20yds. They need to address the heading, positional play and above all the mental awareness within the squad.
We lost possession many times because our players did not know where the opposition was when they were receiving a pass.
 
Harsh maybe but - Two full backs worked hard and okish going forward but very very poor defensively. Bingham is still not fit and gives the ball away and Holy seems to be very slow for some of the recent goals. Apart from that I thought every player gave a good performance.

For the record Sunderland will falter over the season in poor weather whereas we will gain strength and be promoted, giiillllssss :)

Edit: just seen the goals again, holy looks like he could have done much better with the first three goals lol.
 
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My scores maybe a bit harsher than others, just frustrated with the result!

Holy - 4 - not sure he made a save but conceded 4 goals - I thought he should have saved the first and the second. His Kicking was good, often when under pressure.
O’Neill - 4 - I think he failed to mark Maguire for first goal, caught in possession for their 4th (was it a foul on him?) Put in a couple of good crosses on the attack.
Ehmer - 5 - Couldn’t react after Zak half cleared the ball for the 4th goal, unable to block the 2nd and 3rd goals (though others maybe should have done that), looks causal at times.
Zakuani- 5 - Ok in the air, distribution poor, half cleared the ball straight to their number 10 who then toed the ball to the scorer of their 4th. Struggles against pace.
Garmston - 3 - Poor defensively and caught in possession for one goal, Sunderland targeted his side, and he was a weak link in the torrid 20 minute spell.
Byrne and Bingham 5 each - chasing shadows when Sunderland knocked it around, probably not helped by the formation.
Parker - 4 - missed 2 or 3 chances including a header in first half that could have made it 2-3 at half time and given us more hope. Wild flying back header in 2nd half when Zak behind him was better placed.
Charles-Cook - 6 - used his pace a few times and tried hard but not to great effect
Hanlan - 6 - guilt edged miss in 2nd half, but can’t fault his effort and his pace - worried their backline a few times- needs to work on finishing, he could have several goals already.
Eaves 7.5 - man of match by a mile, early goal, led the line well, needs more support
Subs:
List - 7 - made a real immediate impact and his pace and strength (been in the gym) gave their defence a few worries
Reilly - 6 - no big mistakes or great bits of play but generally solid
Stevenson - not on long enough to rate.
 
At least we didn't fare as bad as Scunthorpe, 0-0 after 15min, then 4 down in the following 13min!
 
I thought was a cracking game personally. Yes we made a few defensive blips but so did Sunderland. The difference was the quality in finishing for me. WE huffed and puffed around their area and were ... just unlucky!
I did wonder if we should have changed our set up and possibly have reverted to a 4-2-3-1 as we seemed too narrow with the diamond and were over run in midfield and it didn't allow us to get our full backs forward as much. Although we did revert to a back 3 in the final minutes.
I also think that Zak and Ehmer tend to drop too deep at times which leaves our full backs slightly higher and creates a pocket over the backs of our full backs ? Thoughts ?
Yes I think we stood off their midfield too many times, but you know what, we will be fine if we perform like that.
CaptainBlue I think I 'l have to eat some Humble pie .. after stating that when we go one or two up in a game we will be able to see it out.
I do think we need to be more clinical in front of goal to state the obvious. I don't think anyone was bad last night, we just made a couple of errors which cost us
 
I know it could have been 4-4 and the team played well at times against a good team but our deficiencies were ruthlessly exposed last night.
When they had the ball they had at least 2 players to pass to.
Why don't we mark wide players? Why do we compress play into a quarter of the pitch? Why did the manager persist in playing 3 up when we were being torn apart in midfield.
Their first goal was schoolboy defending - O'Neil had a shocker and Garmston was not much better.
I forcast a reaction on Saturday and a win against Coventry!
 
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