Today at Millwall

balltofeet · **Posted:** Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:08 pm

Competent performance, but no cutting edge. To be fair to CT he tried to change it as Boydy got little into his feet, but did occasionally look to deliver one or two clever balls for the other person subbed Larkin - although not a fan of his, he did OK. I despaired at behan coming on a sur enough he twice failed to deliver balls into the box when free down the left and a good cross from his seemed to roll agonisingly past the back stick without anyone putting it in.

Harris missed 2 second half sitters but is easily still a better player than Boydy despite having the same 'pace' because he does the simple thing.

Any way ratings are:

Flinder 6 one great save from a free kick less than commanding in the air
Austin 6 Defensively strong
Hartley 6 olid enough
Liddle 6 some vital blocks, but did get turned 3 times by their pacey runner working off Harris
Collins 7 MoM vital blocks in second half, but frankly gave away the free kick for the goal when he could of stood on his feet in my view
Jones 6 tried hard looked skillful but liitle came off
Gamble 6 industrious and some good balls
Sweeney 5 ran hard but tried too hard to get his body shape correct with his first half shot on target with a side foot instead of gambling on drilling it across the goal whe nthe keeper was in no mans land
Larkin 5 did OK with crosses but realy does lack a cutting edge
Boyd 4 in truth did little, but did put in 2 great diagonal balls. I would not have taken him off
O'Donnovan 6 tried hard not as lightning quick as I expected, but movement good - certainly looks worth developing

Subs
Behan 4 I know I am not his greatest fan but wasted 2 good crossing opportunities and a cross that was good missed everyone, but did move well into space
Humphries 5 father time has slowed him but interestingly the only time we passed it about was when Richie did what he can do best little 10 yard passes to get the ball back would have been better in the middle
Brown 6 looked the only player with real quality and the ability to feign a turn into opposite directions and wrong foot defenders but did it 40 yards form goal not in the box.

Salami chant 8 Song of the match

The Lightning Tree · **Joined:** Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:30 pm **Posts:** 5804

Turners record for signing strikers that score goals must be the worse in pools history.
Yet again he signs a striker on loan who's previous contributions on loan elsewhere have been minimal.
Thats 7 strikers.
Boyd
Behan
Bjyorrson
Larkin
Brown
O'Donovan
Mackey
Only who who looks the part.
banghead

Tax Paying Poolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:18 am **Posts:** 9053

Personally think you're quite generous with your ratings there chip.

I'd have given Jones a 6. Another whose final ball wasn't good enough.

Sweeney did the square root of bot all for the entire 90.

Humphreys was gash as always. I'd have given him 2. And that's generous. When they were attacking Hartley down the left he didn't come back and help and don't even start me when we were breaking down the left with Behan (I think) and Humphreys was walking about on the half way line watching and making no effort to go and give him some help. A lot of shyte.

Agree with O'Donovan, he was lively first half and I think if he'd had some decent service he would have caused them a lot of problems.

effionthedragon · **Joined:** Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:49 pm **Posts:** 309

chip fireball wrote:

agree with a lot of that. millwall werent much cop but you cant argue with the result.

the goal came from a fluke and although we probably had as much possession they were the only side who looked like scoring.

at the moment our strikers look like they could play till the end of the season without scoring.

flinders 7.5 no chance with the goal, but made 2 great saves. one from a free kick that was going into the top corner and another one on one with a brave dive at the feet of the millwall player.

austin 7 steady away

liddle 7 played well after a daft early booking, a couple of great tackles and some decent distribution.

collins 7.5 , very solid and a couple of superb blocks.

hartley 6. probably deserved a 4 for his first half display, and got a bit exposed with the invisible man in front of him in the second half. but redeemed himself with a couple of great passes late on, that better strikers than our wouldhave done something with.

jones 7. quiet first halfbut very good in the first part of the second with a couple of trademark runs and crosses. our only creative player on the day.

gamble 7 another impressive display but you can see he is getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of movement ahead of him.

sweeney 6 . errr industrious. rushed our best chance inthe first half, dont really remember him doing much apart from that.

boyd 4.5 the first 6 times he touched the ball he gave it away. didnt look interested and posed zero goal threat. getting a game at present because our other strikers are worse.

o donovan. 6 at least looked interested, but another that never looked like scoring.

subs : behan 4.5 see comments on boyd, another striker that poses zero goal threat.

humphreys 5 : no idea why he was brought on when we were chasing the game, and no idea where he was meant to be playing. we assumed it was left midfield in place of larkin, but god only knows.

brown... not on long enough to have any effect.

ref 7 he was actually alright and tried to let the game flow on a pitch that looked like seaton beach.

turner 4 : whats that now ? 8 away defeats on the trot. against a mediocre side i dont think we asked their keeper to make a worthwhile save. given we must have had about 50% of the possession its a pretty damning reflection on the strikers he has signed.

overall : a totally and utterly forgettable and mediocre affair. cant believe ive pished away the best part of 60 bar watching it. only real creative threat was jones , and he will probably welcome to the board in the summer. sadx

oh and how bad must freddy be to be 4th choice at left midfield behend monky, larkin and humps ?

Chip's been over generous with his ratings I think.

I thought we did far too little yesterday . Defence did ok for most of the match but stupid free kick to give away for which Harris punished us.
Midfield & attack barely worth commenting on.

All made all the worse having to endure my Millwall supporting mate talking after about how easy the victory was.
He reckoned that the Lions had to barely break sweat to beat us.

I think that's a bit over generous but we never looked like getting back into it after they scored.

Think we will beat the Shrimpers next week but if our attack is as poor again we will struggle.

parmopooly · **Posted:** Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:31 pm

as I wasn't there - but have seen enough of Turner's teams and tactics in the past - did it look like the team had no clue about what to do to get a foot hold in the game at any point?

Tax Paying Poolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:18 am **Posts:** 9053

parmopooly wrote:

as I wasn't there - but have seen enough of Turner's teams and tactics in the past - did it look like the team had no clue about what to do to get a foot hold in the game at any point?

My only problem with Turner yesterday was the subs.

Taking Larkin off was understandable as he was dog shit. Replacing him with a footballer as poor as Richie Humphreys was stupid though and the team was no better off.

Taking Adam Boyd off for Denis Behan was idiotic. I think he did it because they were quite big and physical at the back but Behan was sh*t and his attempt on goal that went about 4 miles wide from 10 yards out summed him up. I'd have quite fancied Boydy from that distance. Their defence won't enjoy as many easy halves as they did in the final 45 minutes yesterday.

It was a waste of a sub, the team was no better off. We were enjoying a lot possesion but lacked that bit of spark in the final third.

I would have personally taken Jonny Rowell who would relish having someone like O'Donovan to make runs for his balls and we'd have had more success creating openings. This is where me and CT differ though, I like winning games whilst he seems allergic to it.

Instead he took someone like Fredriksen who was a 3rd choice left winger. Under what circumstances would he have been used yesterday?

They were there for the taking, they had nothing about them yet they still beat us (and could have scored more) and kept a clean sheet.

paulus the woodgnome and a side salad · **Posted:** Sun Feb 28, 2010 1:30 pm

Fredriksen is being used in a role no more than that of an air-hostess, he travels to and from places but does nowt' when he gets there. Or he's the only one who'll adjust the overhead air-vents on the team bus.

As for Cherel he has'nt had a bad game yet, in the couple he's played that is.

Today at Millwall

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