Great result, clean sheet, better performance, lucky goal, poor opposition, worrying injuries

[No Mad 0]

I went to the game last night and came away happy. I just love it when we win - and am horribly depressed when we lose. It has been a tough couple of years in my house!

Overall, I thought the performance was slightly better than against Wednesday, especially the first 30 minutes. I thought we were by far and away the better team. Cardiff looked poor and as if they had come to defend for a draw. We missed Safri big time when he went off at half-time - and after we scored we sat very deep (as we did for almost all of the promotion season) and invited Cardiff to try to score. Fortunately, they couldn''t.

Overall, Green (6) didn''t have much to do. I feel that to be a really good goalkeeper he has to command his box more and come and get more balls. The defence looked solid. Mostly, Cardiff hit long high balls and Davenport (7) and Doherty (7) look as if they can head those away all day. Not quite so solid when the ball is on the ground with strikers with pace but fortunately (and surprisingly) Cardiff were less threatening in that department than Wednesday. Drury (6) did OK as did Colin (6) - although I am not sure there is much to choose between Colin and Fleming (6) who replaced him late on when injured.

In midfield, Brennan was rightly dropped after a poor performance against Wednesday. Huckerby started out left with Hughes replacing Marney on right. Hughes (6) did not really have time to shine as he was injured chasing in a cross from left but my initial impression was that he might be able to do a job there. However, he will have to get past McVeigh (7) who replaced him and played well. He is probably our most creative player apart from Safri and won MOM at the ground. Safri (7) had another good game. He seems to always read the second ball and tackles well - although his distribution was not as good as against Wednesday IMO. Worryingly, he did not come out after half-time - presumably injured? Jarrett (5) was along side him. He was awful first half - if Hughes'' distribution is poor, Jarrett''s was worse with the ball often bouncing off him to the opposition. He was better second half and looks as if he could be strong going forward but probably needs more matches and confidence. Brennan (6) played centre midfield when he replaced Safri and did OK.

It was good to see Henderson (7) up front and I was pleased to see the crowd getting behind him. He looks sharp and positive and I was hoping he would score. Ashton (6) looked better than against Wednesday but again should have scored at least once IMO.

Crowd was great - really got behind the team. There didn''t seem to be that many gaps to me - considering it was a night game in school time.

The goal, of course, was a complete fluke - but definitely not more so than Mulryne''s against Reading two years ago. I was worried that it was going to be disallowed because it took a few seconds for crowd and players to register that it had gone in. Hopefully, this means our luck has changed as we are going to need it looking at the next six games we have! It is hard to see where any points will come from in that block (given that we have five away games and how appalling we have been away fom home). The optimistic side of me thinks we could get 12 points between now and starting v Southampton (Wolves [D], Luton [W], Millwall [W], Coventry [D], Derby [D], and Crewe [W]) but I know that this is wildly optimistic given the way we have started this season and we could, in fact, end up with none especially if Safri''s injury is serious. Twelve points from next six games would see us back on track - none would surely see Worthington gone?

[Saint Canary 0]

Good post No Mad.  Through all the positives and negatives we have the biggest positive of all, a win.  I have advocated the bringing in of a new manager or new coach but at the end of the day I don''t really care who manages/trains the team if we get the desired results.

The performance was still not great but at this moment in time, I really don''t care.  The players look well short of confidence, in particular Ashton who is averaging a goal every 10/11 shots and winning games will build confidence.  In all honesty I really would not care if we won every game for the rest of the season 1-0 via an own goal!  A win is a win and this one will do for a start.

[breaker 0]

Two very good posts - the only way the players'' confidence will increase is with a run of consistently sound performances with results to match - we should not expect a string of stunning performances with Deano scoring a collection of hat-tricks. If No Mad''s predictions prove to be anywhere near correct (and I am optimistic enough to agree with them)then the season will be on again. Believe me every team from Sheff Utd down will have a difficult period when points are dropped and injuries/suspensions bite and I think most of those teams will also experiences loss of form/confidence. This is a very difficult league to get out of and it is a VERY long season - 90 points still up for grabs?

[rich 0]

I certainly agree, the whole thing is about confidence and
that result, whether you think we played well or not should
give us a whole load. Cardiff are a team who are pushing for
the playoffs and we certainly didn''t look overwhelmed, right
players playing right position under whatever manager will
see us being more successful.

Wolves saturday lets see us push on now I don''t think any
of us could take another false start.

[No Mad 0]

Having seen the goal replayed on Sky, I think I was probably harsh to call it a fluke. Yes, the final result was but it was a great cross and great Davenport header that complete beat their keeper and could have gone in directly. They cleared the ball wildly off the line - and frankly that could have gone anywhere including to a Norwich player. As it happens, it hit their keeper and went in but until that point it had been excellent play by us.

I agree about the confidence thing and hope that we might build that up.

Anyway, right now I am just savouring the win and hoping I can delay Saturday a bit as I am not at all confident about the trip to Molineux. However, I wasn''t when we went there for the play-off semi-final four years ago, given the season they had had and the one we had had. We all know how that worked out