Them 1 - 2 Us

Anything yellow and blue
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Kairdiff Exile
Mid-life Crisis
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Them 1 - 2 Us

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Really? No comment at all on here the day after we secured yet another 21st Century victory against that lot from down the A420?

Great to see Agyei score.
Great to see Young Jack Stevens™ save another peno.
Great to see it mean so much to the players.
Great to see us looking nicely-placed for a playoff run.

Just great. Let's wallow in how nice this feels for a few days - especially after the result at our place earlier in the season.
grandpont tom
Brat
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Re: Them 1 - 2 Us

Post by grandpont tom »

Yes - I agree with all that - Brannagan was good too - there will be some celebration when the ball eventually goes flying in off his todger
slappy
Grumpy old git
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Re: Them 1 - 2 Us

Post by slappy »

What an awful pitch, did they deliberately overwater it so try and get rid of any passing football?
Excellent penalty save from Jack Stevens again, and a nervy last few minutes after their late goal.

I hope Matty Taylor finds his scoring boots again. Dan Agyei the prodigal son returns with a goal inside a minute.
Also the slight lack of goals in general is disappointing my betting account. It's noticable that most of our defence come up for free kicks and corners, so I've been having a small punt on Ruffels, Moore, or Brannagan scoring (or scoring two). So Ruffels tried an overhead kick and Brannagan had a good shot too.
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Them 1 - 2 Us

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Hugely important result. But I felt more relief than exhilaration at the final whistle - twice it looked like the game might go the way of the home fixture (throwing away total first half domination), but we held on for a now customary 2-1 win at the C*unty Gr*und. Who'd have thought we'd ever say that ten years ago (or back in the 90s)?

Brilliant penalty save, but we can't keep relying on them to dig us out of holes. Also, that was the first game where Stevens showed some proper dodginess - when he came for a ball that was never there and should have been lobbed, obviously, but also their goal looked like the first ball just bounced off the front of his legs when he came for it, leading to the rebound being turned in. He also got lucky chasing a ball out of his area on Saturday - he needs to calm down his decision making a bit.

It's nice to see Us with a bit of fight about Us though. Saturday was a performance straight out of the Mickey Lewis mould, and on Tuesday we were neither dragged into nor overwhelmed by Sw*nd*n's dirty cheating tactics.

We're still lacking quality and speed of thought up front, but it was great to see Agyei have a real impact in the last two games, and I hope he can continue to play a role this season. I'm still not optimistic about Us troubling the play-off places - Hull will prove a real litmus test of our qualities.
Isaac
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Re: Them 1 - 2 Us

Post by Isaac »

Quite a few pitches have been bad recently, ours included, I don't think it's helped our style of football. Against Slumdon, who are laughably poor this season (I enjoyed the manager double substituting their 2 central defenders in a strop) it was a leveller in their favour, but in other games against teams who are better than us it might have helped us keep a clean sheet.
Goals are the problem, obviously, Taylor looks like he's lacking in confidence ever since he missed the penalty.

I'm not very optimistic about the play-offs either, I thought we'd run out steam after the 9 match winning run and, especially with injuries, lack enough quality to beat the better teams. I'm often wrong though.
Dr Bob
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Re: Them 1 - 2 Us

Post by Dr Bob »

This was all about the result. Yes the pitch was a disgrace, over-watered and so much sand, but we lacked any real tempo to make the most of our possession in the first half against a demonstrably inferior team. I agree with KY that Stevens needs to calm down and be a bit more measured when coming for balls in crowded areas - although keeping calm, cool and collected in such a match must be difficult, especially for a local lad. And of course the penalty save was again brilliant. Not for the first time recently, Ruffels was getting caught on the wrong side of attacking players. He really needs to get that sorted. Taylor was a bit unlucky, Agyei scored a great goal and looked better, so overall a mixed bag of a performance, but three points.

With several players injured, at the very least limiting the options for rotation and rest, and more games against the best sides in the division, of course our progress up the table has slowed. Our performances against Peterborough and Charlton, for me, indicated just how closely matched the teams in and around the top 6 are. Just a few days ago, people were saying how good Posh were compared with other teams, before that it was Lincoln, now it is Hull. Looking at the fixture list, the next seven games are likely to be decisive as to where we could finish. A tough challenge, but I do not think I shall write off our chances totally just yet...
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