Last night

[Jim Smith 2,314]

Depressing result and second half performance against a c**t of a club which i hope never wins or achieves anything.

Thought we started quite well but lost it after the injuries - they basically kicked us out of the game. The two youngsters in the middle never really got a grip of the game after that, we backed off and it wasn''t a great surprise to see us concede the two goals in the second half. Thought Puncheon was outstanding in the free role he seemed to take up but since he''s never looked anything special when i''ve seen him play previously its hard to tell if thats down to him being good or us making him look good.

Really wasn''t our night with the officials who failed to clamp down on the most dirty, cynical team i''ve seen for a while (built in the model of their new manager), failed to give us a blatant penalty and then gave a pen against us that quite obviously wasn''t. We, however, have not helped ourselves through (i) our board once again failing to give the manager a squad of the stature that our fanbase deserves to make us properly competitive in this league and (ii) the apparent stubborness of our manager in continuing to leave out 2 or 3 of our best players from both the starting line-up and the squad. We should not be relying on having two 17 year olds in central midfield. We should have both the Doc and Hoolahan on the bench at least. We are, at the moment, giving ourselves an unecessary handicap by not playing our best team out of choice rather than out of necessity and i''m getting fed up with it.

I am not confident at all about Charlton on Saturday but if Russell, Hoolahan and Macdonald faeture then maybe we will at least give ourselves a chance.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

Good post Jim. The referee allowed them to cynically re-arrange our team into one they could beat. I''m not sure if this was so obvious on the TV or the wireless from what I have read on here. For me there are more positives than negatives from last night and I left the game frustrated, disappointed and hopeful rather than the frustrated, disillusioned and hopeless way I felt after Walsall.

 

[canary cherub 1]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Good post Jim. The referee allowed them to cynically re-arrange our team into one they could beat. I''m not sure if this was so obvious on the TV or the wireless from what I have read on here. [/quote]

Yes it was, to me anyway.  They targeted our key players and if Holt wasn''t built like a rhinoceros they''d have taken him out too. 

 

[Rustys 1st Touch 0]

This rubbish about MK Dons targetting us is nonsense, its just that in League One referee''s will allow alot more to go then in the Championship or the Premiership. Two of the injuries were not even caused by any opposition player (Drury and Nelson).Injuries are part and parcel of football. We lost the game because after the first 20 minutes we attempted to sit back on a one goal lead and try to hold out for a one-nil win, instead of being more positive and trying to get a second.If Lambert wasn''t so stubborn we could of had Hoolahan on the bench to replace Hughes instead of the hapless McVeigh. This would of meant we had a player who could actually pass a football rather than hoofing it up to Holt.

[Boyo 0]

I too think there is more positives to take from the game than negatives.  First 20 minutes we teared them apart, then unfortunately there was two injuries which halted us.  We should have been two up within 15 minutes after Martin missed his header,and we should of had a penalty.  I think the ref was awful, everything seemed to go their way, Holt even got elbowed in the back of the head and the free kick was given agaisnt him.  It should never, in a million years, have been a penalty, no matter how hard you tackle if you get the ball before the man it is not a foul, and you could clearly see from the roll of the ball Martin won it.  Speaking of Martin I thought he looked good and showed potential, and Askou had another brilliant game.

However I think Lamberts sub''s could have been better.  He should have brought on McDonald for Hughes and gone 442 with Holt and Cody upfront and Daley on the right.  He should have brought Russel on instead of Adeyemi, because you can''t have two teenagers running the midfield.  Also Daley should never had started, the only thing he has got is pace, if we play that formation on Saturday McDonald should take his place.