The Seond Half

[Dionysus 0]

Our midfield sat back and did not support the forwards. On a number of occasions all three of them stopped dead once the ball had entered the final third. This resulted in us defending deeply and allowing Cardiff to come at us.

Was this tactics, do you think? Or maybe the players'' lack of confidence showing through? Either way, we cannot afford to do this when we are only 1 - 0 up and we have 45 minutes left to play.

[Tom NCFC 0]

There''s no way that was tactics, if it was peter grant would have been so annoyed about the second half. I think it''s just a cause of knackered midfielders?

P.S. Is Safri still on his religous festival, that might explain why he was knackered in the second half?

[Syteanric 1]

Ramadan does not affect footballers id guess..

Theres lots of Muslim players who partake in it (eg Zidane,) who can play perfectly whilst fasting.

Jas :)

[My spoon is too big! 21]

The fasting involved in Ramadan works like this:

Eating, drinking, sexual intercourse and smoking are not allowed between dawn (fajr), and sunset (maghrib).

[source: Wikipedia]

So Safri can eat and drink and whatever else after the sun goes down. I think he bends the rules a little bit and takes an occasional sip of water during matches, but I might be wrong.

As far as I understand it, observant Muslims will eat breakfast just before sunrise and then have a decent sized meal once the sun has gone down. It shouldn''t affect energy levels too much.

In Britain I think Ramadan started on 24 Sep and ends tomorrow (23rd Oct). It''s slightly different each year, like Lent and Easter.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

I don''t smoke and can''t eat, drink and shag at the same time anyway so how difficult must it be?

[The Voice of the Thorpe Area 0]

The second half was not up to standard. HOWEVER, did Ashdown have to make a save? Did Cardiff score? The history books will show a 1-0 win, not a poor second half performance.

[blacko 0]

Sadly it is a reminder for PG that this was the main cause of our problems before he came. It is all down to confidence, or lack of it. In the first half we were fantastic and then the players seem to think, what are we doing, this won''t last. Clearly they are good enough, they just need to believe it even when we come under pressure.

[Old Boy 0]

Lack of confidence? I don''t think so. I think it''s lack of stamina, probably of mental stamina more than physical. An unwillingness to push through the pain barrier. It''s always been there, except on the odd occasion. Let''s see if PG can stamp it out, match his tough words with effective action. I''m very pleased to see that, right from the start, he''s putting the pressure on the players. Even our favourites, Hux and WLY. By the time results start to go wrong, it''s too late for that to be effective.

[ed walker 0]

We did sit back in the second half but i don''t think that this was on Grants orders. Sitting in the city stand, I was able to see Grant screaming at players but also see the line our defence and midfiled held in the first half. It was so refreshing to see us play so high up the park and mean''t that Cardiff had no real rime on the ball. My only concern was that a great through ball would split our defence, however Docherty and Shackell were brilliant and Grant was constantly reminding them to keep up the pitch.

The second half though was poor, we dropped deep and allowed Cardiff time to come at us, something that really worried me. Grant was still shouting at the players to move up the pitch so either they didn''t understand or more likely they are lacking in confidence. If they can sort out the line in training and get a few more clean sheets then the confidence will come back, I just hope that Earnie starts scoring again soon, he should have had a hatrick! 

[Cluck 0]

[quote user="Rudolph Hucker"]I don''t smoke and can''t eat, drink and shag at the same time anyway so how difficult must it be?[/quote]

 

You''ve obviously not been on an 18-30''s holiday then RD................

[queen be 0]

Not tatics, possibly just not used to playing like that for 90 mins.  This will come, trust PG, I do!!

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Thanks for that Cluck. I''m actually considering going on the ''Saga Villa Viagra Bop Till You Wet Yourself Ibiza Winter party special.'' Trouble is, I''m still too young.

It seems life begins at 50.