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I didn't see the team sheet until after I arrived at the ground today and my first thoughts were that it looked a bit safety first and Hughtonesque, but my spirits were raised when we won the toss and decided to kick what I always insist is the "Proper Way", ie River End second half. Historically I reckon it has always served us best. It was rather disappointing once again to see the visitors dominating the opening exchanges with City barely able to get a touch of the ball and apart from one long ball up to Sargent the ball was rarely out of the home area in the first ten minutes. Unfortunately the Brighton defence was able to snuff out the danger before he could pull the trigger. Just before the quarter hour however there was a decent spell down the left and this time Sargent did get an effort infrom the edge of the box which was deflected for a corner. The game became more even for a time with both sides trading corners which came to nothing. High balls into the box seemed a wasteful exercise with a couple of real giants in the visitors back line. After a lull Brighton again got on the front foot and a goal looked certain when City failed to clear their area and Krul had to make two exellent parries from close range before the ball was hoofed clear. Then minutes later and still under pressure, a deflected ball seemed to bouce nicely for Maupay as he got in front of Hanley. He went to take the ball wide of the advancing Krul and from my position above and to the right of goal it did look like he was clipped but he certainly dived theatrically. Now I haven't seen the VAR but I was relieved and a bit surprised that it wasn't a penalty. From here on I was just hoping we could make it to halftime without conceeding because we were definitely second best for most of the first forty five. Right on the stroke of halftime however City should have gone in front. After exerting a little bit of pressure Brighton were looking to clear but good work by Sargent caused a mistake and he emerged with the ball between the goalkeeper and a defender and simply had to stroke the ball into any empty net. It was on target but with nowhere near enough power behind it and it was easily hooked away. It was a golden chance but on balance all square was a better reflection of the play than seemed likely earier. From the whistle City began to get a bit more of the ball and a few minutes in they broke at speed down the centre. Pukki's ball inside to Sargent looked perfect and I was half out of my seat only to sit down sharply as Sargent's awful first touch ruined what should have been a great opening. From here on it was hard graft as play swung from end to end. Brighton still had plenty of the ball but City looked resolute at the back so chances were at a premium. Normann showed up with a couple of lovely long passes out to the wings but neither side could get anything clear cut on goal. Gibson banged a twenty-five yarder but Sanchez always looked favourite. Rashica came on for Sargent with fifteen minutes left and as we moved into the last ten he latched on to Normanns pass and sent Pukki away on goal only for a Brighton defender to get in a fantastic block just as the City "Main Man" went to pull the trigger. City were certainly worth a point but they nearly lost it when Maupay finally got some space but somehow scooped the ball over the top. In the end just a point and probably a fair result, however Sargent will likely be replaying that moment in his mind well into the early hours. Pukki, very sharp today, just a shame the two best chances didn't fall his way. Lees-Malou, best game so far, Normann, exellent but I'm giving my MOM to Grant Hanley. Stuck Maupay on his **** a few times and generally was a rock in the middle. Onward and upward.

A lot of negative posts on here this evening and just wanted to address that with this thread. "Step in the right direction" (as Farke has just said) sums it up for me. Disappointing to miss those two or three clear chances, but still a point and a chance to build on that in the coming weeks. OTBC

It speaks volumes for the irrationality / overblown nature of some expectations that they think despite a squad overhaul from a promotion and an opening six games where we conceded 16 goals, two 0-0 draws in a row are reason to complain. There are definitely still flaws to be ironed out, but if you're shipping close to three a game, first thing is to tighten up.

You obviously didn't watch it today.

Neither can we go another 2 months losing 2 or 3 nil every week. As I said I don't think it's a question of formation so much as attitude; previously we just looked to be waiting for the inevitable every week, against Burnley we defended like tigers, especially during the initial onslaught. All good teams defend as a team when under the cosh, & you need forwards willing (& able) to tackle back & get stuck in when the situation demands it. They then need other attributes - athleticism, skill, guile etc. - to get the attack going again. And, likewise, having a player like Kabak who can storm up the field is a huge bonus, having defenders who can attack is as beneficial to team performance as attackers who can defend. The ability to do the unexpected thing & catch the opposition unawares is priceless. But this needs time, learning how your team members work is not an instantaneous process. Give it some time.

Shocking news about the murder of David Amess. That is two MPs now who have been the murder victims of perpetrators obsessed by fundamentalist ideologies. I never agreed with Amess' Thatcherite perspective on politics but don't doubt for a minute that his views were sincerely held. There can be no doubt that as an MP he worked tirelessly to serve what he genuinely believed to be the best interests of his constituents. He also had enough independence of mind to support causes that many would consider to be a traditonally non-Tory perspective (e.g. animal rights). I began this thread as a complaint about my constituency MP treating his constituents with contempt. It is thus devastating that a back-bench Conservative MP who provided a role model for someone like Richard Bacon to follow, has had his life cut short whilst providing for his constituents in the manner essential for democracy to prevail. Similarly, Jo Cox provided precisely the same sort of role model for lazy Labour Party MPs who take their electorate for granted in certain northern sinecures. It is worth taking a look at the respective websites of Amess and Bacon just to see what a difference it makes to politics and democracy when an MP genuinely takes his/her duty to their constituents seriously: https://www.davidamess.co.uk/ http://www.richardbacon.org.uk/ A very sad loss.

Of course we won't stay up if we replicate with 2 points in 8 games. But we changed shape and now have 2 points from 2 games, as opposed to 0 in 6. Thats a significant improvement regardless how you cut it.

"I’d rather lose and feel we went for it" I wouldn't and that mentality completely baffles me. 18/19 wasn't fun was it? I'd rather see us fight and compete than meekly let the opposition play through us, constantly give away soft goals, lose every midfield battle, lose every header, get bullied and spanked off the pitch by trying to play insane, idealistic football with a team of small, slow players constantly giving the ball away with daft, lackadaisical flicks and an unnecessary amount of short sideways passes. Against the dross in the Championship it works fine, at the top level it completely falls apart at every level with the quality of player we can afford and that's not an opinion

I put that down to players struggling hugely with confidence. Im no happy clapper but don't want to make matters worse by getting on a players back.

No it isn’t. And no it isn’t.

I think we are getting there - it’s important at this level to have a decent base and when we were playing 4-3-3 that certainly wasn’t present. For me, we generally looked the more likely to score and losing would have been a bigger kick in the balls than any of the other games this season.

"Farke doesn't have a Plan B!" "Our attacking brand of football doesn't work at this level against superior teams!" "Why aren't we Sheffield United?!" *Change of tactics to stem the flood of goals conceded* "Why aren't we playing our attacking brand of football?!" "How can we expect to win games when we can't score?!" "Why aren't we Brentford?!" I don't know much about football, but I know a couple of things. One is that shipping 40 odd goals in 16 games is not a recipe for taking points, and another is that it takes a lot of time for substantial changes to tactics and personnel to translate into results and performances. The balance still isn't quite right, but had you offered me two clean sheets after the Watford game I wouldn't have said no that's for sure. We've got to be a bit more pragmatic at this level, and I do believe we are slowly making progress towards being more competitive against the very best.

They have come up and are playing with no fear. We are playing with the scars of a team that has been here and failed before

You mean like Farke changing his tried and tested system over the last two games? 100% you would be the exact character who would be bleating if Farke made attacking changes and we lost 1-0

Disclaimer: I don't have football knowledge like you guys, but am surprised by some of the brutal comments posted. I know it's not easy being a supporter, after all I am a Wyoming Cowboy supporter too and have a generous supply of disappointment from that direction. I will only say a supporter supports his team 🤨

First points at home this season which has to be a positive. Definitely more competitive. Could have won it. We go again. OTBC

That would definitely be a positive, two draws in a row and two clean sheets. A base to work from

The defence has to be tightened. A sound defence is a sine qua non in this division; without it our relegation is guaranteed. Fixing the defence is what Farke had to do in his first season. He did it, & built the platform for our subsequent success. If you think he'd be happy settling for 0-0 (at best) every week then you haven't been watching. But when you're shipping 2 goals or more every match your main priority has to be to stop conceding. I don't think the formation is really the issue anyway. It's having the attitude that we must first do everything to stop the opposition scoring before we can progress with our own attacking moves that is important, & that's what we demonstrated at Burnley. Once we've regained some confidence then I think you'll find Daniel will be more flexible in his formations. We will improve. Have patience.

Im not sure what the point of this thread is. We're all disappointed but Josh knows he should put that away. Pukki could have done better a number of times this season and after his international week his confidence should be high. Josh has made a split second decision and opted to go first time. If he'd have smashed it it could have gone wide and he was perhaps frightened to miss. He chose the wrong option and should have run in on goal but he opted to shoot and not hesitate. A confident striker with composure would have buried it. Josh is still young and finding his way in English football, we shouldnt necessarily expect him to have either when it is not based on anything, ie a good scoring run. Hopefully he will have a positive reaction and be determined not to miss a chance like that again.

I’ve seen enough middle aged men over the years trying and failing to score goals with no defenders in sight during the halftime entertainment to know that is not true 🤣

He realised he had taken too heavy a touch and dived.

Spot on lads 👍

No, we had one chance where there wasn't even a goalkeeper. Sargent had another chance which was one on one but his touch was poor and Pukki equally had a one on one which he lobbed the keeper but went wide. That we kept defensively solid as we did against Burnley but this time created 3 chances (which are generally taken at Prem level, thats our biggest concern right now) as well as 10 or so other more speculative shots suggest we are able to create with this shape, and this is against a better team than Burnley

He will have to go back to being Ronald MacDonald if he doesn't look out😃

If Sargent had have scored either of his golden chances (especially THAT one), we'd be sat here saying what a great performance it was. Fine margins and all that jazz but definitely a step in the right direction for me, much more intent today at times

Played quite well today. Defended well, created the better chances and another day its an incredibly professional, Premier League quality 2-0 win against a team whos had a really good start to the season sitting in sixth.

Hey I'm not driving the train

This pretty much sums it up. We played well today and created several chances, 2 or 3 of which were pretty criminal to have not done better. But given our position, not converting those chances was utterly devastating for our hopes of staying in this league, even though it's only October. You simply cannot pass up opportunities to score like we did today at this level and expect anything other than a place in the bottom three.

Ricardo: “as I finished the last of my strawberry preserves and adorned my bowler hat I reflected on the leaves beginning to change on this fine morrow and, twirling my cane gaily, I sauntered my way to the ground, whistling “it’s a long way to Tipperary” as I went”

Yes it could have been. And had Maupay buried that sitter at the end we’d have paid a bigger price for our wastefulness. The fact remains that we have found the net twice in eight games. That only leads one way which is relegation with a whimper

30 odd 0-0 draws and we may stay up.

That wasn’t a boring game. Go watch the binners by way of comparison.

Don't they get a bye to the 3rd round, as previous winners? 🤣

If you can't see or understand how much better this is tactically than what we saw in the first 5 games then you're kind of a lost cause in terms of understanding football. The problem is the quality of our players, if we could afford a 25m version of Sargent who could also finish and if we had some more height to compete for set pieces we probably would have won that game today despite it not being pretty. If we played 4231 or 433 and didn't have Sargent on the pitch as an out ball, an extra defender and 3 hard working midfielders we would have lost because we're not good enough to impose our game on other teams at this level, they would have pressed us to death and none of our attacking options would have been able to get into the game because we wouldn't have been able to get the ball to them outside of our own half.

The Binners visit Cambridge United today for a match to decide the 3rd best team in East Anglia. Come on Wes, time to turn on the magic!

Lol Farke is a massive joke bringing off Pukki in the 89th minute for Idah, he is clueless

Get Buendia on!! 😉

Overpriced show pony.

Messi and Ronaldo

It’s football only a mother could love watching NCFC at the minute, isn’t it? Just hoping we can dig out a couple more results and then start to branch out a little in an attacking sense.

soccer24hd dot com

Not necessarily a negative line-up. A lot depends on how the wing-backs play here. If they stay back a lot and tuck in, then it will be a stodgy mess. If they push forward more, it's more attacking. I do think some of us are forgetting that we have to fight for the right to play here, and this is how Farke's sending them out. Would like to see Sargent get one. He's been putting himself about but not to much effect. At the same time, it gives them something else to think about, and also means we can mix things up mid-game a bit more. There's no doubt in my mind Rashica and/or Tzolis will come off the bench here if it's a draw or we're behind. Keep it solid to start, then push harder in the second half.

Hmmmm. Strange selection for a home game that we really want to win

Does he mean you need to start more threads? I hope not! 😊

That is something most of us are struggling with not just members of the OSP.

3-5-2 is not a defensive formation inherently. When played well it provides width, solidity in the middle and the potential to transition quickly. Giannoulis is probably built for a wingback role, Aarons could well thrive in it. A 4-2-3-1 is not the only way to score.

I also think RvW would have scored goals if he was at a top team. A luxury player. Totally the wrong type of player to 'upgrade' Holt with.

There's been a definite improvement in the 2nd half, maybe time for Rashica or Tzolis?

We got away with one there. That was a pen

I love in the North East and the anger they have towards Bruce is ridiculous. Working for Ashley was going to be tough. Bruce, being a geordie is proud to manage Newcastle. He knows its only a matter of time before he gets the chop. A decent fella and I hope the Newcastle fans give him the salute he deserves tomorrow on his 1000th and probably last game in charge of the club. They won't though as now Ashley has gone Bruce will be the scapegoat