barny bowl

I thought i would get this reaction lol. I just read back my post and i have to admit i must have had a bit of red mist because i sound incredibly displeased when in fact im extremely happy with our pre-season. The point i was trying to make was that some posts i find are very unrealistic. I understand every fan has their own opinions and i respect this, just i felt that some parts of our game yesterday were still not right considering that was our last pre-season game. To highlight the biggest point i wanted to comment on was the formation. I have to believe that due to us playing this formation in our last warm up game that gunny must have serious plans to actually use this against colchester. If he did i would still encourage the team and not slate gunny until this failed, but im sure it would be the wrong decision. Hoolihan can still have space on the left side whilst also getting enough ball to see him show some of his magic. I never mean to sound so negative, i love football and i want to see us do well, just i still see flaws in a lot of our game. And to comment on the question you asked, i believe wigan were by far the best in the first half yesterday, completely controlling the tempo and keeping the ball nicely, although not always dangerous. However the response to wigan''s second goal by us was truly amazing. Cant fault the boys effort in the second half, and a special mention has to go to otsemobor who played unbelievably well considering the terrible season he just had. I dont rate him but if he keeps this up he could be the suprise package of the season!

Im sorry to dampen everyone''s spirits but i just feel like we have to take a step back into proportion about the result yesterday. I went to the game yesterday and i have to say i cant understand why everyone is so elated about the performance. Yes wigan are a premiership side but a) they still have 2 weeks left of pre-season whereas we have finished so there is a distinct difference in fitness to our advantage b) they completely changed their team at half time whereas we kept it exactly the same meaning we could carry momentum and c) they have a brand new manager arrived in the summer who is still trying to change the way wigan play to Martinez''s ''proper'' football. This may sound like me being grumpy and defending wigan a hell of a lot but on reading the other posts on this board i just wanted to really put things into perspective as i feel everyone is getting carried away.  Yes we played ok but ok being the word. We only had 3 shots the whole game i can remember, which we scored from, but still limited amount of opportunities. Also the system really did not work. It gave hoolahan the space required to work his trickery but it also totally failed with martin and cody, and before everyone slates me, it did fail with martin with the way the system worked. Martin was playing left mid and with this role comes responsibilities of staying wide, crossing and tracking back. However i never saw martin once do any of these, which made us as a team structurally very one sided. Martin although did support Holt well in the box, but still i would prefer to see an orthodox 4-4-2 system to provide balance. Hoolihan also looked just as effective in the last 20 minutes when he went to play on the left hand side when Adeyemi and Gill came on. Lastly, i cannot understand how everyone is saying drury was back to his reliable best, was i watching the same game? He isnt a very good footballer, and i feel sorry for him because he is a fans favourite but i feel he has lost it due to the prolonged rest he had because of injury. Every single one of Wigan''s attacks came down their right hand side attacking drury, and every single time they beat him and whipped a cross in. N''Zogbia looked like Wigan''s best player by a mile and he was attacking drury. The only time drury got the better of his man was in the last 10 minutes against de ridder, but this is still not good enough. Yes they are premiership opposition but the lad cant even pass a ball. I really dont understand why he has to play it long every single time, its like he has blinkered vision which stops him from doing a 5 yard pass. This resulted in us losing the ball numerous times yesterday much to my annoyance. Anyway sorry to dampen everyones spirits because all in all it was a solid pre-season performance with highlights and lowlights, but i just feel like everyone is getting carried away. I just cant wait for the new season to start so we can see the boys play in a competitive game, then will be the test. I just hope Wiggins is fit soon...

Personally i am getting amazingly annoyed with everyone giving Docherty stick. Seriously what game does most of you watch, because it isnt the same as the one i watch. Yes Docherty has his faults, he is slow, he has the turning circle of a hummer, no intelligence and cant pass for s**t but i dont care, he has still been our most consistent defender over the past 2 seasons. The fact many of you voted for him to be player of the season 3 seasons ago shows a great lack of faith in a player which we used to call the ''Ginger Pele''. he is a big physical defender who never loses an aeriel battle, and the complete t*t who said that his headers never go to a norwich player while Dublin''s always did is a retard, its not Docherty''s job to head the ball to a Norwich player! Its his job to stop the forward getting it, which he does. Also Dublin was amuch poorer centre back than Docherty, so stop bigging up Dublin because he is a fans favourite, but only at Centre Forward. With Shackell being the only centre back in the squad, i was very very happy Docherty signed on, and see him as a better centre back at the current period than Shackell (not saying shackell cannot improve as once he was handling the best of the premiership strikers and succeding). He constantly has to cover for Shackell and i believe the stick he receives from his own fans is disgraceful, he is at our club, now bloody get behind him!

Lucky Green Trainers - I do agree that he is a creative player with great passing ability but if you had watched the reserves last year then you would see how from a team of 11 youth players he was the only 1 to really stand out, and he was playing the posistion of left back. He might become a centre mid later on in his career, but for someone of his size and physical stature, centre mid in the championship is a demanding role. The small playmakers you are tryin to compare Eagle with would be in the mould of Deco, a player with immense ability, which makes up for his size. However good Eagle is at the moment, you could never compare him to having the same level of ability as a player in this mould, so i really do see him as a real contender for Adam Drurys berth of left back next season.

Personally after watching eagle in many reserve games last season, i cannot understand why he still thinks of himself as a left mid, as he just does not have the required pace. He was the only player to actually stand out last year in our reserve squad, and i was thoroughly impressed by him, when he was playing left back. That is the posistion i can see him playing in, unless he works hard and gains a bit more pace. I can see him being Drury''s understudy next year as as much as i want us to, i seriously doubt we are going to get Bertrand back. You never know Eagle may even become our first choice left back, as he can actually pass unlike our other left back Adam ''Smack the ball up to the forwards'' Drury.