Ok i'm back and fed and watered

Ratings
Marshall 8 great string of saves can't really fault his performance
Doherty 7 (high score some may think) he was played out of position and by the second half had adapted and made the challenge of the day in the first half
Shacks 7 solid back performance
Taylor 7 again solid but both our cbs were beaten to the ball by the stoke attackers
Camera 6 played better than blackpool but still doesn't get his foot in enough for me
Croft 8 another solid display from him, he looks great on the ball and tracks back just needs to lose a coupld of pounds
Russell 4 is out of his depth, when he got tired (roughly 50 mins) he reverted to lunging at every stoke player with the ball
Fotheringham 7 getting back to match fitness and gave the ball away far less than at pool
Pattison 8 looks quality, when he went off the midfield lacked a cutting edge
hucks 6.5 had a great first half but was marked out of the game in the second
Dublin 8 the man runs our team, he should be captain, he showed vision and creativity that the others should learn

Subs
Ched 7 runs about won some headers and had a couple of shots, he's learning and i wouldn't be surprised if he started with dion on tues
JC 6 played on the wing didnt have much of a chance to get going

Overall thoughts,
The ref had a mare for both teams
We ended up being lowered to stoke's style of play ie hoof and push which we never do well
Our support was fantastic, outsang a piss poor stoke crowd (19000 at 6 quid a ticket) and generally stayed behind the team cheering them off despite being robbed of a point!
We still lack a little something up front with any luck ched will solve that and if not maybe dave will get a go

Despite losing i especially in the manner we did, i feel optomistic about tuesday as we played some wonderful passing football at times and let our concentration to slip at a set piece at the end

OTBC

Posted By: wgf500, Dec 1, 20:16:12