A case for the defence...........

[lake district canary 0]

With Whitbread back in the team, the passing out from defence seemed a bit more assured today.  With him and Fox passing well  I think it helped the attacks build better than in previous matches.  Better distribution from defence makes for an easier time for the midfield and an improved performance all round.All the defence needs now to really boost their confidence is a clean sheet, but today they showed they are improving!

[BW 0]

I think Whitbread looked rusty today but he had the right ideas certainly and we looked much more assured at the back. Lets hope he gets match and mentally fit for the coming games.

[BarclayCanary (Former HDDH) 0]

I thought Whitbread was very good the whole game apart from his mistake, god knows what happened to the defence for the first goal, they all seemed to switch off.

Personally i thought Naughton was solid at the back.

My one criticism is to Tierny though and i think sometimes he stands off the attacker too much instead of going in for a tackle.

Other than that i thought the whole team was excellent.

[Herman 9,692]

Best game Naughton has had for us i think.Lets hope he keeps it up.

[Howson is now! 0]

Agree with everything said in this thread so far. Naughton was fantastic. Easily his best performance and let''s hope he keeps it up. Would love to make him permanent.

I thought Whitbread looked fantastic other than his mistake. Almost a carbon copy of when he did it last time so hopefully he won''t do it again.

Tierney does seem to back off quite a bit but I don''t recall us conceding too often as a result of this so maybe he''s wise to do this rather than step in and concede a free kick.

[sgncfc 1,221]

Naughton was excellent - I have been a big critic of him but comfortable yesterday against a very good player in Guitierez. Whitbread and Martin also very assured other than the two goals - yes, Whitbread was caught in possession but the response to that was dreadful; and Ruddy should have been off his line for the first but the whole defence was caught by the pass.

Crofts had his best game for ages; Fox was excellent and the three of Holt, Morison and Hoolahan all played well.

Which leaves Surman......he takes tremendous flak from the fans around me because he looks lazy and off the pace but when he plays Tierney is much more comfortable because he closes space which Pilkington doesn''t. A more functional player, Lambert clearly likes Surmans style but he is never going to be a fans favourite because he looks like he isn''t contributing.

[ZLF 271]

Naughton solid I thought, Martin & Whitbread OK but Newcastle had a lot of chances where and the first goal whitbread had ba, and left Ba''s run to martin who failed to respond - good movement but hardly original or hard to defend against - its that sort of soft goal our defence should be able to cope with.

Whitbread solely culpable for their second goal as not for the first time he was caught dallying on the ball for too long, as indefensible as MArton, de laet & hoolahan earlier in the season (people saying surman should share the blame, surmans pass was less dead end than whitbreadfs to start with)

That is what is so frustrating - we had this game in control but contrived 2 soft defender error lead goals that put pressure on the whole team; its not the system - its the players making simple mistakes.

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]people saying surman should share the blame, surmans pass was less dead end than whitbreadfs to start with[/quote]

Surman should share the responsibility.