Player ratings and Man of the match

[Sir Quinny 0]

Wow what a second half - living in Winchester I have only had a quick journey home and thought I would share my feelings.

Players

Gallacher, Did nothing wrong - let down by defence for both goals - 6

Colin, I thought that he had a solid game - shame he had to go off - a good championship player - 6

Dublin, Do not belive him and Doherty make a good team in defence - made two many mistakes - and air shots - brave as a lion in blocking - marshalled team well and played some creative (ish) long balls from defence - really made a difference when he went up front - 6 for defence 6.5 for when up front.

Doherty, Clumsy - slow - he tries hard is the best I can say - needs to find some form - 5

Drury, Given the run around today by an excellent saints attacking display - still not on top form - 6

Hughes, Passion - running and guts - poor on the right of midfield- solid at right back - if we could take his enthusiasm and transfer it to some of the other players we would really go somewhere - I still like him and am often upset at the criticism he gets - 6

Robinson, again a solid and unspectacuolr game - squad player at best - 6

Etuhu, broke up some attacks - looked good coming forward twice and should have scored- annonymus for the rest of the game - so much natural talent - but not enough enthusiasm - 5

Huckerby, fell over far to easily - could have been wearing plimsols in the first half - still a huge threat going forwards and looked creative - weirdly taken off to allow dubline to go up front whilst worse playes stayed on - 6.5

Earnshaw, Ran and Ran and scored from nothing - shocked the place - never stoped running - on occasion he should have passed but never gave up and by far and away our best player - 8

Thorne. I am sorry but we may as well have played with 10 men - 2 (he turned up)

Subs

Fleming - he came on and did a job - 6

Croft - woho how we have missed this man - he cam on and he ran at the defence - he nevergave up and was a contstant theat - a huge positive to have him back. 7

 

All in all this was a very poor performance by Norwich - the central two in midfield did not dominate - which was a major let down and exposed our inadequate centl defensie paring - the Doc should not play - Dublin did not look confident  alongside him - I cannot rember who made the challenge that led to there goal from free kick - but it was a suicidal thing to do with Bale playing.  Dublin did more up front in a quarter of the game than thorne did all game.  Grant was very passionate and clearly frustrated at the inadequacy of some of th eplayers today.

I feel that we need to

1) Buy a top quality deender to play alongside shackell

2) Buy a quality midfielder to pull the strings

3) Go back to the holy trnity of coft/hucks/earnshaw up front - with dublin in reserve if we need to change the pattern - at various stages all these three terrarised the saints back line - with a decent defense and a midfielder capable of feedingthe front two with passes I feel we could finnish strongly in this division.

Not as bad as it could have been with some positives!!  Decent shopping needed.

[Hooleyfan 0]

I agree with most Quinny.

I was dreading the prospect of a mauling at St Mary''s based on recent form and although disappointed overall, particularly with the first half performance, I felt that I had been entertained, end to end stuff and in the last quarter realised that we can still play a passing game and keep possession.

Great to see Crofty back, shame Hucks had to go off. In the second half of the second half, we played some good, pacey passing football . If the substitutions that brought Dublin forward had been made 10 minutes earlier, we may have had something from this game.

I''m not been a Hughes fan, but I thought he was really good today, ran his heart out, showed some good control and getting some good crosses in. Again, not generally fond of Robinson, but I thought he was the best of the midfield, moving the ball across the park regularly.

I agree, Thorne may as well not have been on the pitch, ineffective in the air, didn''t get to the ball and certainly didn''t hold it up for Earnie and was found to be ball watching on too many occasions.

It is time for the Doc to go as the best he gives us are desperate clearances and today he looked slow and about to get caught out at any time. Like Drury, does nothing to steady the ship at the back and the main culprit of the ''Hoof'' mentality.