Fitness ?

[pete again 0]

2nd Half Saturday the boys could hardly put a move together, looked like they were completely knackered,  I presume 120 minutes last night will not do a great deal for their fitness or energy levels, perhaps they are not as fit as someone would have had us believe.  Or do they leave it behind on the training ground.

[mbncfc 1]

Although I wasn''t there, I feel I have to disagree with this.

Fomr most of the reports, it sounded like once extra-time kicked in, we started to apply some pressure and, in fact, our fitness started to tell.

It was the quality on the night that we lacked! Still... roll on Saturday and keep those fingers crossed.

[Marty 0]

it depends on the football you play, even the fitest teams will struggle if they are chasing the game for long periods, and it sounded like we were. Also, we seemed strong in the extra time. I actually think this is a good stamina building session for the players, they have time to rest until the weekend.

[nutty nigel 7,535]

Both teams got very tired and I thought we would win it in extra time, we probably were a little fitter than them as our relative league positions suggest we should be. It didn''t work out that way and Port Vale deserve plenty of credit for the way they hung on at times. We didn''t have the quality in their box to get the goal our pressure looked likely to bring.

The penalties were a disappointment. Penalty shoot outs are a great leveller between two sides whatever their league positions, it''s a lottery in as much as how many times the keeper guesses right. However, all Port Vales penalties were on target.