Cheltenham were the sorriest excuse for opposition that I think I've ever seen at ER. Utterly without a redeeming feature. If their plan was to stick 10 men behind the ball and hope...then that failed because we should have had eight by half time. That we didn't says something about the game their keeper was having, the ability of our forwards and plain bad luck.
We started with Ankergren, Hughes, Parker, Naylor, Marques, Robinson, Delph, Douglas, Howson, Becchio and Snodgrass, in a 4-4-2 with Snodgrass partnering Becchio up front. Within two minutes Hughes was flat out by the bench with what appeared to be a head injury - I think they found something rattling - so they shook it a bit and he was OK again The centre midfield was Douglas and Howson, with Delph wide left and Robbo wide right. This always seems to be a waste of Delph but there you go, being wide on the right doesn't suit Howson any better. Delph and Robbo were at least mobile and aware enough to swap wings every now and then. At least twice in the first half Becchio was through on goal - once after a neat piece of play by him to get past his man - both times the keeper foiled him. On one of these two occasions Becchio should have given him no chance. At least twice in this half there were almighty melees in the Cheltenham penalty area, with the ball being headed against the woodwork at some point (Douglas really shoudl ahve scored with his effort). Howson had three decent pops at goal - one when he was put through after a great little move and he should have scored. Snodgrass and Naylor went close. Robinson curled a free kick just wide of the top corner with the last kick of the half...it was one-way traffic, with the exception of one effort when their big forward was put through and Caspar raced out to block him. After about 30 minutes Hughes went off injured, Douglas moved to RBack again and Kilkenny came on in the centre of midfield. This line-up wouldn't work in every match, but yesterday we had four ball-players across the park who had acres to play in. Cheltenham were eventually going to suffer for it. Not long gone in the second half and a move down the right sees Snodgrass lay the ball back to Robinson, who slings a pacey cross into the box, Howson is up, in front of the near post and flicks his header into the angle at the near post. Very cute finish. The keeper for once could do nothing but sit down. They go down the other end and score a goal, which thankfully was disallowed. 10 minutes after his first and Howson makes a great run across the face of the box 30 yards out, straight past one of their defenders, meanwhile the ball has gone from Robinson to Delph and Delph pings it 20 yards forwards straight into Johnny's path and he finishes first time from 16 yards out, left foot, across the keeper. All about passing and movement. Something we did not have at all at Huddersfield (and Hereford so I'm lead to believe). >From there on in it was a question of nothing stupid and try to pick up >another goal if we could. One more would have put us level with Stockport on >goal difference (read that sentence again and weep). Trundle, a late sub >almost did score a third with a flick header reminiscent of Howson's first, >but this time it drifted just beyond the far post with everyone watching. Grella, came on as a last minute sub (no idea why) as they were preparing to take a corner. It came over beyond the back post, where Grella executed a high and mighty clearance via a bicycle kick and the final whistle went. Well done Mike. ANKERGREN - a relatively quiet game - did what he needed to at 0-0 - seems to be a man reborn now that he has a boss who has confidence in him HUGHES - to be honest was glad to see him go off (not that I wish injury on him)- just that he's crap and the team had a much better shape with Douglas a RBack PARKER - was solid, if unspectacular - came forward a few times to decent effect MARQUES & NAYLOR - an excellent pairing - solid - one of the quietest days they'll ever get ROBINSON - my MOTM - real hard work when we didn't have the ball, always available for a pass when we did - involved in both goals - seems finally to have got into the swing of playing for us DOUGLAS - same old same old for 30 minutes - then went to RBack and did a decent job HOWSON - an all action game, marred sometimes by a lack of quality in the control or passing - 2 goals from midfield, could have had more - to criticise would be churlish DELPH - quietish - linked play well down the left, brought Parker into the attacks well - having the other 3 in midfield really played to his strengths of pass and go - nice ball for the second SNODGRASS - he tries and he tries and he tries - he is a better footballer than Becchio by miles - but he has to have the ball to feet, he is not going to win stuff in the air or outpace the defence (a very very poor man's Dalglish) BECCHIO - big workhorse type performance with no panache, style or bravado - give him a plough and he'll work your field all day - ask him eight times to control a ball and it will bounce off in eight different directions - could/should have had 2 or 3 today. Subs Kilkenny - the forgotten man comes back into an empty midfield for 60 minutes and plays well - might even have got a goal towards the end. Trundle - enough time for a flick-header wide Grella - enough time to defend a corner ------------------ 20000 there - fairly lively - some "Bates out" chanting ------------------ Grayson - fairly obvious that the post-Hereford rocket landed on its target - there was good attitude out there ------------------ _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist Sorry Macca - it's the curse of Bates old lad
