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ron obvious

Having just watched the 'Highlights'

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I don''t feel quite so bad. Looks like we had a goal disallowed, & (yet another) nailed on penalty not given.Looked much better than QPR, who were a total shambles. Let''s hope it continues. I reckon Luton were as good as Milton Keynes today, possibly better; very impressed with their discipline & fitness.As Strachan pointed out, we just didn''t want it enough.We have too many players who aren''t up to it, or not up for it; do they know they''re time''s running out, so can''t be asked?The next few days will tell us a lot.

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[quote user="ron obvious"]I don''t feel quite so bad. Looks like we had a goal disallowed, & (yet another) nailed on penalty not given.

[/quote]The penalty was blatant the "goal" I can only speculate on. Tellingly this seems to be the first time they''ve been mentioned on here tonight as we''re too busy criticising our own to criticise the fundamental but costly errors from the officials. Not the first time Marriner has turned us over.....

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I suspected at the time that that Barnett chance wasover the line but through the lack of appeals from our players assumed it couldnt have done. Of course a linesman giving us something like that doesn''t create an FA Cup "story"

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The highlights can''t hide the lack of cohesion and the lack of drive in the team.    Only after half time did we look a force - but the only real damage done today was to our pride.   A good performance against Spurs can re-ignite the season.

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Yeah we should have won the game, despite a poor performance.

I personally thought Jackson should have scored. Surman could have taken touch and maybe done better with re-bound. Barnett chance/goal/whatever. Holt header.

We didn''t turn up the pressure/quality on really when we could have done. Shame, but its all done and dusted now and we can only look forwards.

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Let''s face it, a Prem side that beat Man U & Arsenal at CR should have been able to turn over a Conferance side at CR by about 6-0 without breaking into much of a sweat and having 2-3 team regulars on the bench. That''s where the problem partly was, perhaps. That''s what the players thought too.

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Yes, Ginge, we could quite possibly have won , say, 2-1 & people would have been fairly happy.But it would still have been a shite performance by too many players, & that is far more important.

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If you look at recent games some players have looked knackered towards the end.

The one real difference between this season and last season is that the squad was all pretty even and we saw a lot of rotation.

This season you have players leaps and bounds ahead of the others in the likes of Snodgrass and Bassong. You can''t really afford not to play them in league games and you can''t really afford to play them in cup games - although obviously Snoddy did against P''boroough.

In a way this was always going to be a weakened line up but when you look at it it still should have been capable enough to be more comfortable than we were. At the very least it was a very proven Championship side out there.

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The facts are the players got what they deserved.

You don''t have a status, you have to earn it - and the beauty of the F.A. Cup is that you forget the distance between teams - they get a chance to prove something.

Today Luton proved they''re fighting to get back in the football league. They wanted it so much more than we did, and they won because of it. We look like overachieving money grabbers. Nobody wearing yellow on that pitch today can walk off holding their head high, they were a disgrace if they want to be called Premier League players. I just hope Hughton makes them work their socks off, and that the desire is there against Spurs, otherwise we''re going to be in for a long evening...

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RO states:

We have too many players who aren''t up to it, or not up for it; do they know they''re time''s running out, so can''t be asked?

And who is responsible for motivating those players! If he cannot do that, then there is something very wrong and they are not buying into his tactical ethos at all, and one can hardly blame them - they were once an attacking, high tempo footballing unit who gave everybody a good game, and scare last season, with strikers who regularly found the net.

This season we have purchased defenders, and cannot defend at all, have taken several thumpings as a result, we have a striker who has scored 4 (FOUR) goals, and a midfield that is powder puff apart maybe from Johnson. Surely to God that says something regarding the coaching skills of CH and his staff (especially Calderwood who is defensive coach). It is all too easy to blame the players, but they form up and play to the game plan and tactics of the coaching staff, that''s what Thursday and Friday is spent doing in training. It is no secret that Hughton himself occasionally, sometimes his coaches, and sometimes his scouts travel to watch our forthcoming opposition, and from the report compiled the team, game plan and tactics are decided. Whilst I have no desire to see CH sacked, supporters are right to query what has been occurring over the last several games, and it has to be said particularly the last 3 which have been absolutely appalling to say the least. Is he as good a manager as being touted, Newcastle got rid for some reason, and he didn''t successfully complete the mandate at Birmingham, along with the same coaching team and scouting unit he has here. Admittedly, he was under a restricted budget just as he is here, but everyone connected with this club could see the weakest areas plainly in pre season. To attempt to address the biggest on the last day of the last transfer window we went for KANE on loan. What a complete waste of finances if we are having to pay this guy''s wages, and I would suggest a panic buy by he manager on a restricted budget. We cannot persist with 451, I suggest it will not bring us enough points from our remaining 15 matches, on current form, to stay up. If we are to play 442 then we have to have at least 2 new strikers brought in who will give tactical options with those strikers currently already here. I would also prefer to see the wider midfield players playing on their correct side in an attempt to improve the quality of cross into the penalty area, all too often we cannot get the ball over the first defender. And we have to defend much much better which prompts me to suggest we need another quality defender like Bassong or Whittaker. Bennett and Barnett are quite simply not good enough, and Turner, though improved, is not the complete answer. Again lack of quality in a critical area of the pitch. The board appointed CH, and they have to give him the scope, and back him and his decision making to the hilt - alas I fear this will not be done, as it is fact that we have NO option but to settle our bank creditors debt this year, that was part of our refinancing agreement when matters were critical. We are now at the nemesis I fear, and the next two games and the days prior to the closing of this transfer window are critical - to the board I say CH has identified the two strikers he wants - go and get them for him, he and his coaches and scouts obviously feel they are tactically what we need. You want us to get behind CH and back him 100% (as McNally states he and the board are last night) so give him the tools to do the job and you will find a very happy band of supporters only to willing to dig deeper into their pockets to renew season tickets and by match day tickets.

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The problem with highlights are that they do not show how poor we were over the 90+ mins. Yes we had a few chances - but surely against a lower league team we should be creating a bucket load of goalscoring opportunities.

Luton defended well but we were beyond slow, for the first 30 mins the game was pretty dire - there was no leadership, no drive, no real ideas, sloppy passing and I am starting to believe we did not have a game plan!!

It would be wrong to single out players as it was collectively bad - but Howson and Kane - were next to useless - again something they tend to miss out in highlights! All season we have struggled to score and this game showed how bad we have become in front of goal.

If, Luton get another PL team in the draw I suspect they will be ripped apart in a clinical fashion - and not make the mistake we made by putting out a "weak" not a "strong" team (as CH promised!).

My highlight was watching CH stand on the touchline with not a clue what to do....

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We could have had two goals disallowed and should still have run out 2-0 winners. Yesterday was absolutely shocking and I don''t think it''s arrogant to assume that a reverse side on roughly 15k pounds a week each should have had a larger class divide than a non-league side.For the entire duration of the game there was no real quality from Norwich and the difference between the style of play and application was marginal at best.I was thinking that maybe as time wore on, Luton''s fitness levels might drop but it actually reversed and we got sloppier and sloppier - Luton gave us about three wake-up calls before they finally scored. And then after they scored I can''t remember a single shot from one of our players in the remaining ten minutes.

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City 2nd:

To say we cannot defend at all is simply untrue.Our defending has been occasionally superb - that''s how we beat MUtd & Arsenal. However, if Bassong is missing we fall apart. He was a Hughton purchase, as were Whittaker, Garrido (loan) & Turner, who have all put in excellent performances - with Bassong there.

Kane is obviously a huge disappointment.

You cannot simply ignore our ten game unbeaten run. Far too long for a ''fluke''. To me it demonstrates just how thin our squad is, & how much we were running on momentum last year.

If this is true, i.e. many of the squad personnel are surplus to requirements, then those members, unless they are extremely dense, must be aware of their precarious situation. Hence my comment about not being up to it, or up for it. Hughton strikes me as a fair man, I can''t imagine him not trying to motivate all his players, but the truth will out.

So I think we''re all agreed, the squad needs strengthening. Let''s hope something happens in the next three days.

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RO, I am not ignoring our ten match unbeaten run at all, but you simply cannot ignore that we have now not won for several games, the last three prem games, w ham, Newcastle and Liverpool were appalling displays of ineptitude from ALL city players, and yesterday we are humiliated by a team 80+ places below us in the football structure. Now if some city supporters find that acceptable, so be it, I don''t, and I would say, hand on heart, if what I am hearing is correct, and i will keep that to myself, the board of NCFC don''t either. The one thing I will say is that I do not believe we will see history repeating itself over necessary decisions being made sooner rather than later in respect of a manager at this club. it has happened before, and financially it brought the club to it''s knees and very near non existence. We are no different now to ALL other premier league clubs, it is a winner takes all environment, totally results and financially driven, and to remain where the money is, ruthless decisions have to be made and should CH fail in his next two, what are now critical matches for him, then I fully expect him to go the same way as some other already fallen premiership managers. The ten match unbeaten run is history, and so now is the cup defeat, the future is what counts. Hopefully big news regarding signings is imminent which will hopefully give us all a lift, lead to not only a plan B but C as well, and giving CH having the ability to change tactics and game plans during the course of a match for furtherance of obtaining a result. We need stability, yes, but there is a cost too everything.

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