Rage Online

Well, I enjoyed that today. Would have been less stressful if we'd got a 2nd, but we held on. Not too often do we do that!

Highlights:

Some good football. Murray. Constable. That little new left winger.

Lowlights:

Burnell. Turley's positioning on that cross in the 2nd half, wow! The ref in the first 10 mins of the 2nd half. He totally lost control of the game then.

All in summary: very encouraging.

Personally, I thought Joe Burnell did OK. A massive improvement
on Hutchinson (who would n't be ?) but either Burnell or Murray need to get into the attacking third a lot more.

Is James Clarke part of CW's plans?

I would add to that Willmott - the first time I have really been convinced by him since his return from injury.

I think one can begin to see Wilder's style, not just his influence. The only negative about that seemed to me that in the first half, we played quite a lot of neat football in their half of the pitch without looking particularly dangerous.

&quotrecordmeister&quot wrote:Lowlights:

Burnell. Turley's positioning on that cross in the 2nd half, wow! The ref in the first 10 mins of the 2nd half. He totally lost control of the game then.

Yes he did totally lose the plot for that period, but for the rest of the game he was one of the better (if not the best) refs we've had for a very long time. He played the advantage sensibly, he actually saw the same things that we all saw and was consistent in his decisions.

Being the best referee we have seen this season (and I am not convinced that he was) could still make him a very poor referee. Losing the plot for 10 minutes is rather telling. Yes he was good at playing the advantage and then pulling play back and I think it is about time that shirt pullers were punished more.
If he (or the lino) had seen the Young / Constable incident he should have sent their guy off. If he had not seen it he should have done nothing.

how did constable score that goal?

There haven't been that many times when I got home from the game and said to she who must be obeyed that &quotI enjoyed that&quot but yesterday was one of them! We seemed to play with more urgency and desire to win than on many other occasions. Leaving aside the usual lousy ref, the missed chances ( we should have scored at least four) and Turley's erratic distribution , there was much to admire. The performance of the new lads was eyecatching, the midfield post Trainer had more bite about it and Constable was MoM by a country mile. Yemi is still flatter9ing to deceive, and Sappleton is clearly not the answer to any question I can think of. All in all there were reasons to be cheerful after a lousy week. Bring on the might of Forest Green...

&quotMatt D&quot wrote:how did constable score that goal?

How did Sappleton miss that one-on-one?

&quotGottagetbetta&quot wrote:Sappleton is clearly not the answer to any question I can think of. ..

Well put. He certainly has something. What exactly is debatable.
He played some astute passes yesterday, at times looks good when he drops off, recieves the ball and lays it off to his team mates. But he can't head a ball and turned to total crap when anywhere near goal.
Another George Lawrence enigma?

&quotrecordmeister&quot wrote:

&quotMatt D&quot wrote:how did constable score that goal?

How did Sappleton miss that one-on-one?

That was even more weird. He had the keeper on his arse and then decided to turn around with his back to goal and take a touch in the opposite direction!

Sappleton still looked very sharp though, and a better option than Yemi as a super-sub from what I’ve seen of him (I didn’t see the FAT game).

Bit of a dilemma growing about Constable – the better he gets and the more goals he scores the more likely he is to leave in the summer - and then we’ll be back to square one again in August when it comes to a proper No 9.

&quotSnake&quot wrote:[a proper No 9.

When was the last time we have been able to say that?

Obviously we all watch different games: I thought Burnell had a decent first half and, if one were to criticise one of the central midfielders, I'd point at Murray, who managed to hit Alty players with a very high % of his passes. I fear that Burnell may be becoming victim of the curse of pre-judgement, where only his errors are noticed (call it the Scott Syndrome or the Bradbury Bane).

What was really refreshing was evidence of a training plan being adopted - the passing, build from the back approach, quick free kicks to keep the ball moving, a bit less hoofing (in the first half, at least) ... and, praise be, on throw ins the first person to the ball picking it up and looking to see if there was a quick option ...

Sappleton ... a legend in the making. At this level, he may be a useful impact substitution, and who knows, he may develop. Think of all the stick Jude Stirling got, to cite a recent example ...

Good performance by the team, which is starting to take on Wilder's personality.

Only weak link for me was Burnell. I hate to pick on any one player, but each week, no matter what position he plays, he gives the ball away so much and it is really frustrating.

Yemi was OK without being particularly inspiring and I'm still unconvinced that we play him as we should.

Sappleton is very very raw, but clearly has a lot of talent if it can be tapped into, and our front pairing then looks very dangerous indeed.

Murray had his best game for a long time, still not up to last season, but much improved.

The news boys all fit in well.

My main criticism is the regular shape changing each time Wilder make a substitution. This is pretty unsettling and it take the team 5 minutes or so to get back into a pattern. Against a better side that would be a problem.

Alty were much better than I expected and both sides tried to pass the ball around. A huge contrast from Tuesday night.

I thought the ref was the best I've seen this season.

&quotBaboo&quot wrote:

&quotSnake&quot wrote:[a proper No 9.

When was the last time we have been able to say that?

When we had Mr Mooney registered as an Oxford United player, I guess.

&quotAncient Colin&quot wrote:

Sappleton ... a legend in the making.

Indeed! Already a legend in my mind for missing that one-on-one. Up there with Duffy vs Exeter.