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Boyo

The performance of Stephen Hughes. Very Important.

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I havn''t been on here since the game so I apologise if this has already been said.

We all know that yesterday the midfield weren''t in it, and that''s because we played hoofball and the ball was going over their heads, but I don''t think we should blame the manager because we THINK his tactics were hoofball, I think instead we should actually look at the midfield itself and one man in particular Stephen Hughes.

When Hughes is on song and playing well you can easily tell because he is on the ball more than anyone else putting tidy little passes through the defence.  And to get the ball to do that he dosn''t really go in with the tackles he  goes and offers himself to the other players for a short pass.  Yesterday he wasn''t looking for the ball he looked like he was having one of those days that all footballers have, a day when they can''t really get going because of what ever reason, I used to play football (sunday league) and every player at every level has those days when nothing goes.

So because of this when Nelson, Askou and the rest of the back four got the ball they didn''t have an option because Hughes wasn''t there offering himself as the short option, so the defence had no choice but to look long for Holt and, wierdly, Cureton.  You might say though shouldn''t Korey Smith have been giving them the option?  But because of how Hughes was playing it will affect Smith because he is still learning.  So if Hughes is playing well and making himself an option so will Smith, but if he is looking like he''s content just to sit there then so will Smith.  This also had an effect on the wingers, Lappin and McVeigh.  Because our best passer wasn''t getting enough possesion they had no one to give them the ball so they had to come looking for it making ourselves very narrow.  And if you watched most of there attacks started from out wide because that''s where all the space was.  Also this was having an effect on Holt and Cureton.  Obviously Cureton because he is so small but Holt because he just looked like he was fed up chasing balls and trying to win headers, and although he''s a big bloke he is better when the ball is played to his feet.

So I think we should not start blaming Lambert yet and look more closely at individuals performances.  I''m not blaming Hughes for the result and the teams poor performance but his own performance was a big factor.

Sorry for the long winded post!!!

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This is pretty much what I saw, Boyo'', except that I think that for a percentage of times there were other outlets, to Lappin or McVeigh, but Nelson and Askou didn''t look for them either with directed headers or with passes to feet. It seemed to be enough for them to get the ball outside of 10-metre circle around themselves, and they didn''t care who picked it up. But for the majority of times, you''re right, our midfield never countered the well-organised Walsall tactic of getting tight when they lost possession. And, as I''ve said before, Holt was almost marked out of the game by the big centre-half, so even if the hoofs were by some miracle in the right direction, Holt hardly ever got to them. As with Worthy, I don''t believe Lambert told the team to play like that because it just never works, I think it came from lack of ability and/or lack of experience playing together.But this is all work-in-progress, and to boo a scoreless draw under those circumstances is pathetic and sickening. Give me 20,000 supporters who support the Canaries, and let the others watch Man U or Chelsea on Sky. Morons.

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I was pleased with the passing down the wings, Lappin and Drury linked well and they werent hoofing the ball down the wings so much for Curo to chase onto, but the middle men (Hughes and Smith) weren''t seeing a lot of the action. Hughes is the main puppeteer as when on song he pulls all the strings in the middle, hardly ever gives the ball away and looks creative. Thats nothing against Smith, who has worked very well and effectively in the centre, not sure if he offers more than Adeyami or Russell though, but definitely looked more productive than OTJ and Gill.

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[quote user="Largey"]I was pleased with the passing down the wings, Lappin and Drury linked well and they werent hoofing the ball down the wings so much for Curo to chase onto, but the middle men (Hughes and Smith) weren''t seeing a lot of the action. Hughes is the main puppeteer as when on song he pulls all the strings in the middle, hardly ever gives the ball away and looks creative. Thats nothing against Smith, who has worked very well and effectively in the centre, not sure if he offers more than Adeyami or Russell though, but definitely looked more productive than OTJ and Gill.[/quote]

I think Hughes and Smith work very well because Smith has no fear and gets stuck in and Hughes pulls the strings.  I just think though that Hughes wasn''t offering himself as much as he usually does which is why we went long, and I think that had an effect on Smith because of his inexperience, he didn''t know what to do.

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I agree Hughes was not upto his usual standards yesterday, and that somewhat led to our distinct lack of creativity, and our route one football.

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Can''t comment on Hughes because I weren''t there. However, I feel that Hughes has to be our most influential player this year and when he ticks so does the team.

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I actually thought Stephen Hughes played well yesterday, especially in comparison to the others. I thought he was let down by Korey Smith being a bit lost in the middle. I like Korey but he is an inexperienced player and yesterday he was found wanting, leaving Hughes to play the middle of the park on his own.

Hughes looks to be a very neat and clever player and if we can strengthen in other areas I think it''ll show off his quality even more.

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I do think that both Hughes and Smith both performed below their recent levels, and as the OP stated ended up hiding themselves.

However from the very off we seemed to have decided on a route one approach to the game,  as a continuation of the game on Tuesday.  The back 4 turned and went upfield as soon as the keeper had the ball so rather than one or two individuals having an off day it felt like the game plan.

However I agree - if Hughes can get a  lot of the ball we will get points from the game.  And he and Smith did give us some bite and shape again in midfield, and was again the platform for the clean sheet. 

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Although Hughes and Smith both looked pretty poor Saturday they hardly stood a chance as Askou and especially Nelson insisted on lumping the ball up to Holt. After 5 minutes it was quite clear this was never the way forward. The whole of the midfield was missed out for most of the game as the ball was hoofed from one end of the pitch to the other. On the rare occasions we did get the ball down and pass it we looked like we were going to cause them problems,

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