Second point of annoyance today, the Referee. Let me just start this section off by saying I wish Stevie May the best- it was just really unfortunate for both him and Stearman, and this isn't me in an "I Told You So" sort of situation. The primary job of a Referee is to protect the Players, I'm not blaming the Ref for the Stevie May injury- but he completely lost control of the game in the 2nd Half. The first point of contention was the possible foul on Ryan Fredericks in the box, me sitting where I do I had a pretty clear view of the whole thing- it was a Penalty. Had Fredericks not have tried to stay on his feet and sort of stumble over I think the Ref would have given the Penalty. I think it's one of those weird ones where you don't want Players to dive, and go over "theatrically" but sometimes they need to- as evidenced today.
What followed wasn't pretty, I don't know if the Ref was overwhelmed by the game or whatever- but he just completely lost any sort of control. He was pulling us up for the stupidest "fouls", and then not giving us anything. Then, shockingly- our Players got frustrated and it led to some pretty dangerous tackles on both teams part. I was thinking around the time Scott Parker had clattered into (I think) Johnson someone's going to get a serious injury- and someone did. It was all nicely capped off by a good ol' fashioned ruckus after James Husband went down in the box. I thought it would have been a soft one had the Ref given it, but sometimes- and with the earlier decision in the Ref's mind they can be given.
The Ref was abysmal without a doubt, but in a weird way he also helped us out. In the First-Half we were absolutely dire, nobody looked up for it. Once Fredericks went down in the box and the Penalty wasn't given it created almost a siege mentality of "It's us against everyone" with both the Crowd and the Players. Before the Rigg Out stuff, there was a noticeable shift in atmosphere with everyone's anger being directed toward the Ref rather than the team. It reminded me a lot of the Reading game back in January, except we didn't have Bryan Ruiz to get a Winner this time around.
Third point of annoyance. HOW CAN WE NOT DEFEND A FUCKING CORNER?! We had the warning shot a few minutes before when a Preston corner went through everyone and we'd switched off at the back post- luckily that time a Preston player wasn't there. So, for nobody to be alert enough after (I think) Dembele missed the Header is just not on. I think conceding a goal from a Corner, but also only getting an Equaliser through a moment of quality sums us up today. We didn't look like a "coached" team today, especially in the First-Half the players looked either not up for it- or completely unsure of what they were actually meant to be doing. I didn't think McCormack was going to score the Free-Kick, I'll happily admit that. I thought it was too close for McCormack to get it over the Wall without putting it over. Thankfully I was wrong on that front, because we didn't look like scoring in any other way.
The Preston goal wasn't in any way Joe Lewis' fault, and apart from making one good save in the First-Half- he had quite a quiet game all in all. Preston were definitely the more "threatening" team in the First-Half, and once again when we scored- but neither team really showed any real quality in their play today. As a result neither Keeper was ever put under any significant amount of pressure.
As far as Yellow Cards go, the Ryan Fredericks one is definitely one I'm happy to accept. Was it a bit petty to sarcastically clap the Ref? Yes. Doesn't mean I didn't love it when he did. Fredericks was a weird one today, and it goes back to Players looking unsure of themselves today. Without being in Fredericks' head it's impossible to say what he was thinking, but to me- especially late on he was worried about getting another "niggle" because he slowed down a lot. It wasn't Fredericks' best game, nor was it anyone's really- but I thought Fredericks did give us a good attacking outlet in the 2nd Half which should have been more fruitful than it was. James Husband was quite frustrating today, the same can said of Fredericks- but especially in Husband's case we know they're capable of so much more. Especially going forward in the Second-Half Husband just didn't really "click" today, especially when considering he's set the benchmark for himself in-terms of Wing-Back performances against Bristol City about a Month ago.
I thought Stearman played pretty well today, as with Ream. It was nobodies best game- and as already said everyone looked quite uncertain of themselves in the First-Half. With all that said, in the Second Half I thought Stearman was great at the back. Between him and Hutchinson in particular they were mopping up everything at the back and helping to keep Preston about as pinned back as our relatively one-dimensional Midfield would allow. Tim Ream performs infinitely better when he's not "responsible" for an entire side. With Husband being as attack-minded as he is, Ream isn't really suited be the Left Centre-Back. As soon as we shifted Ream to being 1 of a 3, he looked so much more assured with the extra cover that Hutchinson provided.
Fourth point of annoyance, Sean Kavanagh's selection. There's not much to say about Peter Grant and his Coaching Ability, you can always say "he should motivate them more" or whatever- but that's not a solution to a problem. It's just empty words, one thing Grant can do is to not start Sean Kavanagh- ever again. I'm just praying for the sake of my sanity that Alex Kacaniklic is injured. He must be, I can't imagine a scenario where Peter Grant looks at Kavanagh and Kacaniklic next to each other and decides Kavanagh should be starting. Even as I'm writing this I'm not sure how harsh I'm going to be on Jamie O'Hara today. It wasn't for a lack of effort on his part, but he just didn't really get going today. Again, the reason I debating how harsh I want to be is because from what Grant said he was preparing for today in a different role to the one he ended up playing as a result of Mattila pulling out.
A definite positive of today was seeing Scott Parker back on the pitch, even if the circumstances of his return weren't ideal. Parker's return was a last minute thing, so again on this front I'm not going to get too worked up about the Selection. However, in the future it really needs to be O'Hara OR Parker as opposed to both. Both as a result of having Parker and O'Hara, and having Tunnicliffe injured there just wasn't any energy in the Midfield until Cairney came inside. Speaking of Cairney, he was so much better than anyone on the pitch today- both in White and in Yellow (and Blue). If Cairney had a proper outlet today and a team complementing him- he would have made an even bigger impact on the game. Cairney's performance in contrast to the rest of the team can be summed up when he started a Counter-Attack by doing Three Players with a Roulette, bombing forward- before passing to Husband who ran it into the Corner and killed the Counter-Attack dead.
I can't remember if I said it in my Cardiff Preview, but I definitely remember thinking to do so at the time. Before the season started I thought McCormack would score more than he did last season, but also NOT get our Player of the Season. The reason I thought that was because I thought we'd be creating a lot more chances with the Players we were bringing in. That probably is true if you looked at the Statistics, but above all else- Ross McCormack is just a quality player. I said it last week, I'm starting to question what McCormack's best is- because it's becoming repetitive to say he "wasn't at his best". Even with McCormack largely not being at his "best", he's the 2nd Top Scorer in the Division now. Moussa Dembele was isolated for a large part of the game today, the only half chance he really had all game today was a deflected shot in the First-Half. The thing with Dembele, and I don't blame him for this- he can't create his own chances or at least rarely does. That means in games where our Midfield and just team in general is as static as it was- Dembele was risking catching a cold today.
I said heading into I believe the Burnley game that I wanted to us try Ream, Stearman and Hutchinson as a Three at the Back. As far as first outings go, I thought it worked quite well today. I was saying back in August that Hutchinson was our best Centre-Back, but as demonstrated perfectly in the Brighton game we couldn't rely on him. I don't doubt Hutchinson's defensive ability, but he just has a "wild lunge" in him that can cost us a game. He's not "there" yet as a Defender- but he's definitely close, and it was funny because the Stearman tackle was timed perfectly on Stevie May for his injury- and that highlighted the quality difference with Hutchinson's Brighton tackle in mind. Also, Hutchinson's Yellow Card was ridiculous in the context of the game. He did get turned, but the Preston player turned into him as much as anything else- and given some of the fouls the Ref was letting go on our Players the Yellow was just stupid. Matt Smith didn't necessarily have a direct impact on the game when he came on, but just his presence instantly gave the Preston Defenders something to think about. Pringle came on, really too late to have any significant impact on the game- but it was needed in my opinion with Husband on a Yellow.
The result was far from ideal today, but it was definitely a fair one in my opinion. Preston DEFINITELY didn't deserve to leave with 0 Points, they came here with a Game-Plan- and almost had the perfect Away performance. At the same time, I thought our play in the Second-Half did merit us getting a Point from the game.
Thanks for reading always. November's now officially over, and it can't end soon enough with the Month we've had. Anyway, we're now heading into December and of course the Christmas Schedule- so hopefully you'll keep coming back for the Previews and Reviews throughout the Month (and beyond). With us having no Midweek game, the attentions will be back on Mike Rigg and the Managerial Hunt again this week. I'm not saying don't "get into" rumours, but always take them with a grain of salt. Until we've actually announced someone, it's all speculative at the end of the day. Thanks again for reading, as I said last week- there may be a Post coming out in the Week should we appoint a new Manager. If not I'll be back here next Friday for the Forest Preview. Thanks again and I hope you have a good week.
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