Nice Birthday Present

Anything yellow and blue
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Dr Bob
Middle-Aged Spread
Posts: 1064
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:16 pm
Location: Nottingham

Nice Birthday Present

Post by Dr Bob »

I was determined to find a title for this thread that avoided reference to Shakespearean plays and small rodents.

Anyway, so we once again got three points and kept a clean sheet against a very poor side. But after the first few weeks of the season it is nice to see us putting these games to bed.

In the first half, we were again up for it, with a lot of players putting in a shift. It was interesting to hear KR emphasise before the match on RadOx that it was a 'genuine' 4-3-3, not 4-5-1. With Whyte back, Ricky on fire (if a bit greedy in the second half) and Henry getting a bit more consistency, we look more threatening going forwards than for a long time.

McMahon's crosses were excellent, Ruffels really attacked the ball well, and Whyte did excellently to get his header in from some way out. In the second half, we lost shape and momentum for some time, but Shrewsbury were so poor it had no consequence. One excellent save from Easty apart, they offered little. Even Dickie's regular heart-in-mouth moments caused less worry this time. Watching our third goal again it is funny to see how, with so much space around the ref, their player still managed to hit him with an attempted forward pass. OK so we got a lucky break, but Browne finished well.

At the start of the season, I thought that with the promotions and relegations from last season, this was going to be a really tough division this year. What seems to be happening is some very good teams up top, and a lot of mediocrity. Getting some solidity at the back, some forward momentum up front, and Mousinho anchoring an increasingly effective midfield, and we are now starting to show that we are one of the better teams in the mediocrity that makes up a lot of this division. I expect us still to struggle against the top teams, but recent results and several games to come very soon against teams down and around us makes this a critical phase of the season that could improve our fortunes considerably.

Bought my ticket for Scunny already...
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