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manchesteryellow

Newbie Review Alert!

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Hello all, just back from the game. Player ratings as follows...Forster - 8 - Kicking not a problem today, despite a difficult pitch. Might have done better for their goal, but I can''t be sure because there was one of several posts in view. Fantastic save at the end that earnt us the three points.M. Russell - 5 - Solid enough in defence, but too many misplaced passes when going forward.Doherty - 8 - Several last ditch tackles and blocks, and not once did I see him hugging an opposition striker in the box. One or two slips, but a very committed performance.Nelson - 8 - Could easily copy and paste the Doherty rating here. Solid, no distribution - but everything you expected.Drury - 6 - Would earn a higher rating, did nothing wrong, but came off too early to have a real impact on the game. Hope his injury was nothing serious.Lappin - 5 - Didn''t really notice him after he got shifted to left back - I suppose that means he did a decent job, but I always feel he''s wasted in that position - Lambert didn''t have much choice but to put him there after Drury coming off though. Also conceded one too many silly fouls.Russell - 6 - Fantastic effort as you''d expect from Rusty, but gave the ball away too many times, and other than one fantastic effort on goal he was always looking sideways rather than forward.Smith - 7 - Great work-rate, always looking to do something with the ball when he had it, sadly never quite found it.Hoolahan - 8 - His usual self, always the focal point of our game. The pitch didn''t help him, but that was one hell of a ball to set up Cody for the winner.C Martin - 7 - Unlucky with a couple of speculative efforts, and was always going to be outmuscled by their defence, particularly without Holt alongside to play off. Great effort, but doesn''t quite look the real deal yet, needs a partner with more experience alongside.Johnson - 6 - Some inspired pieces of skill, and unlucky not to equalise just before half time, but his first touch let him down, and too frequently stopped a run to find himself without support. Needs time to get used to our style of play.SubsHughes - 7 - I''m still not sure where his best position is. I get the feeling he doesn''t know either. Impressed by his battling though, and has a pretty good touch on him too.McNamee - 7 - Didn''t get too much of the ball, but when he did he always looked like he was going to cause trouble. Inspired subsitution by Lambert to bring him and Cody on. Their defence had looked solid until the injection of fresh legs and pace.McDonald - 8 - I have a soft spot for Cody, despite the fact that he looks like the kind of bloke I''d go out of my way to avoid in public. Great composure to slot in the winner, and chased down every lost cause as usual. Johnson may be more technically gifted, but I''m pretty sure Cody was the first player today to win the ball from a Forster punt downfield.Thank you,Any elaborations or further opinions will be posted on request after I''ve had a few hours sleep!

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[quote user="manchesteryellow"]Hello all, just back from the game. Player ratings as follows...

Forster - 8 - Kicking not a problem today, despite a difficult pitch. Might have done better for their goal, but I can''t be sure because there was one of several posts in view. Fantastic save at the end that earnt us the three points.

M. Russell - 5 - Solid enough in defence, but too many misplaced passes when going forward.

Doherty - 8 - Several last ditch tackles and blocks, and not once did I see him hugging an opposition striker in the box. One or two slips, but a very committed performance.

Nelson - 8 - Could easily copy and paste the Doherty rating here. Solid, no distribution - but everything you expected.

Drury - 6 - Would earn a higher rating, did nothing wrong, but came off too early to have a real impact on the game. Hope his injury was nothing serious.

Lappin - 5 - Didn''t really notice him after he got shifted to left back - I suppose that means he did a decent job, but I always feel he''s wasted in that position - Lambert didn''t have much choice but to put him there after Drury coming off though. Also conceded one too many silly fouls.

Russell - 6 - Fantastic effort as you''d expect from Rusty, but gave the ball away too many times, and other than one fantastic effort on goal he was always looking sideways rather than forward.

Smith - 7 - Great work-rate, always looking to do something with the ball when he had it, sadly never quite found it.

Hoolahan - 8 - His usual self, always the focal point of our game. The pitch didn''t help him, but that was one hell of a ball to set up Cody for the winner.

C Martin - 7 - Unlucky with a couple of speculative efforts, and was always going to be outmuscled by their defence, particularly without Holt alongside to play off. Great effort, but doesn''t quite look the real deal yet, needs a partner with more experience alongside.

Johnson - 6 - Some inspired pieces of skill, and unlucky not to equalise just before half time, but his first touch let him down, and too frequently stopped a run to find himself without support. Needs time to get used to our style of play.

Subs

Hughes - 7 - I''m still not sure where his best position is. I get the feeling he doesn''t know either. Impressed by his battling though, and has a pretty good touch on him too.

McNamee - 7 - Didn''t get too much of the ball, but when he did he always looked like he was going to cause trouble. Inspired subsitution by Lambert to bring him and Cody on. Their defence had looked solid until the injection of fresh legs and pace.

McDonald - 8 - I have a soft spot for Cody, despite the fact that he looks like the kind of bloke I''d go out of my way to avoid in public. Great composure to slot in the winner, and chased down every lost cause as usual. Johnson may be more technically gifted, but I''m pretty sure Cody was the first player today to win the ball from a Forster punt downfield.

Thank you,

Any elaborations or further opinions will be posted on request after I''ve had a few hours sleep!

[/quote]

 

Were we at the same game??

Doherty looked awful from where I was sat - a 5 out of 10 at a push

"M. Russell - 5 - Solid enough in defence, but too many misplaced passes when going forward." - Firstly, it''s Russell Martin and he was much better than the Doc.

Drury wasn''t on long enough to give a real score, however, it was when he went off that we began to fall apart, which goes to show how vital he has been in our success so far this season.

Apart from Chris Martin and Cody Mac (who both get a 7 from me) everyone else worth a five or six out of ten in my eyes. It was a poor performance all round but we managed to grind out a result and that''s the sign of true champions. We''ll finish top, I reckon, but hey, I''ve not got 10,000,000 posts so you probably don''t care what I think.

The Norwich I saw today reminded me of the Norwich of last year. With the defense sitting far too deep, the constant loss of posession and Doherty providing the odd hoof, it was only slightly reminiscent of the roeder days. Having said that, the fact we grinded out a decent result just goes to show far we''ve come, admitedly aginst poorer opposition, since the dark days of last year.

Great day out (although I only live three stops from the bescot, so hardly a day out) and the atmosphere was amazing. 10 out of 10 for the fans.

OTBC.

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I also though R Martin was OK, Doherty was defensively OK but like most of the defence no idea how to distribute the ball very well. Hoolahan was our best player, he looked like a threat and always tried to offer something different to the usual hoofing of the ball into the box. The pitch was crap  mind and it didn''t help passing football. I also though that for the first half  Smith was better than Russell, who didn''t have his best game. But was did grind out a result and that''s what counts.

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Once again the Doc blinkers are on. He was the same Mister Reliable he has been nearly all season. How many times did Wallsall get a decent chance? And I saw him make several decent long passes forward, a couple straight to Wes'' feet. I guess you were queueing for a hot dog when it happened?

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Doc blinkers? I don''t think so. He lead the defence well and almost all his challenges came off (apart from the goal), however, his distribution was poor compared to his recent performances.

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Welcome Newbie.

My Scores would be more like this:

Forster: 7 - No mistakes, but I thought his kicking wasn''t all that good actually, especially in the first half.

R. Martin: 6 - Got forward a bit, put a few crosses in, but like all the defence, not entirely comfortable.

Doc: 7 - Lead the back line, some great blocks and headers. Very calm at times letting balls bounce back to Forster or heading back under pressure, but gave balls away passing out of defence and went long too may times when we had no target man.

Nelson: 6 - As Doc but not quite as calm under pressure.

Drury - n/a: Did ok in his 15mins

Hoolahan: 8 - Star man for me, ripped through them when he turned it on, but we only saw this in fits and starts. Was electric in last 15 mins.

Smith: 7 - Ran all game long, tackling, getting forwards. Sometimes undone by boggy pitch.

Russel 7: Dogged performance, struggled at time with pitch, but effort was flawless.

Lappin: 6 - Put in a shift at left back, worked hard, got crosses in, caught out of position once or twice in second half.

Martin: 7 - Wasn''t involved all that much, maybe missed Holt, but got a very important goal and whistled one past the post from edge of area.

Johnson: 6 - Tried hard, some neat touches and flicks, had a shot cleared off the line after lobbing the keeper, lost the ball once or twice too though.

Subs:

Hughes: 6 - Did quite well, but not suited to pitch, but some nice one touch pass and move stuff. Mucked in with tackles too.

McNamee: 6 - Looked a handful on the couple of occasions he got the ball and ran at them, earned the corner for our first goal. Not involved as much as I''d have liked once he came on

McDonald: 7 - Scored the winner with a nice touch, but won a surprising amount of headers against big centre halves when we went long. Good work rate too.

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Welcome newbie, thought you were over generous with your ratings but guess we all see games differently.

Most of them would have got a 5 or 6  in my view [:)]

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Not great last night - thought Russell Martin had a good game again away from home - don''t know why he looks more comfortable in away games, very weird.Generally we were pretty sloppy, poor passing, didn''t close down the opposition very well, awful pitch - but we still pulled it out of the bag and that is what top teams always do. Credit to Lambert for his inspired substiutions again, McNamee and McDonald made a real impact.Any news on Drury''s injury? Looked like he did his hamstring or something like that.

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I though Russell Martin played very well, at times he was playing like a sweeper getting the rest of the defence out of holes. Accomplished performance from him for me. In my eyes the problems started when Drury went off and the resulting reshuffle looked like a side with players playing in position and roles they were not accustomed to. But at the end of the end of the day its results like these that end up in a promotion winning season. If this had of been last season we would of lost this game without a doubt.

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